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divefted of rapid and frivolous divifions which difgrace 
that mod: noble and compreheniive of all inftruments. 
Indeed the fugues of Freicobaldi are worked with fuch 
geniuS and learning as have never been furpafled, unlefs 
by thofe of Sebaftian Each, and Handel, which feem to 
include every perfection of which this ingenious and ela¬ 
borate fpecies of compofition is capable. And, if we ex¬ 
cept thefe fugues, all inftrumental mufic, particularly 
that for keyed inftruments, feems to have been in a very 
rude date at this time throughout Europe. It was dry, 
difficult, unaccented, and infipid. 
The mu deal writers and compofers who acquired fame 
in England during the feventeenth century, were, Dr. 
Nathanael Giles, Thomas Tomkins, and his fon of the 
fame name ; Elway Bevin, Orlando Gibbons, Dr. Wil¬ 
liam Child, Adrian Batten, Martin Pierfon, William 
Lawes, Henry Lawes, Dr. John Wilfon, John Hilton, 
John Playford, Capt. Henry Cook, Pelham Humphrey, 
John Blow, William Turner, Dr. Chridopher Gibbons, 
Benjamin Rogers, and Henry Purcell. Of thefe, Orlando 
Gibbons, Pelham Humphrey, and Kenry Purcell, far ex¬ 
celled the red. 
About the end of the reign of James I. a mufic-leCture 
or profefforfhip was founded in the univerfity of Oxford 
by Dr. William Hychin. 
In the reign of Charles I. a charter was granted to the 
muficians of Weftminder, incorporating them, as the 
king’s muficians, into a body politic, with powers to pro- 
l'ecute and fine all who, except themfelves, Ihould “ at¬ 
tempt to make any benefit or advantage of mufic in Eng¬ 
land or Wales;” powers which in the fubfequent reign 
were put in execution. 
About the end of the reign of Charles II. a padion 
feems to have been excited in England for the violin, and 
for pieces exprefsly compofed for it in the Italian manner. 
This may be pronounced the mod powerful, the mod per¬ 
fect, and the moll ufeful, indrument that has ever been 
invented. It is in the power of the performer on this fo- 
vereign of the orcheftra, to make the intonation of all 
keys equally perfect. We have not been able to trace its 
antiquity higher than tire fixteenth century. In the be¬ 
ginning of the feventeenth century it was hardly known 
to the Englidi in diape or name ; and, therefore, that lupe- 
rior power of exprelfing almod all that a human voice 
can produce, except the articulation of words, leemed at 
this time fo utterly impoflible, that it was not thought a 
gentleman’s indrument, or one that Ihould be admitted 
into good company. Viols of various fizes, with fix firings, 
and fretted like the guitar, began indeed to be admitted 
Into chamber-concerts ; for, when the performance was 
public, thefe inftruments were too feeble for the obtufe 
organs of our Gothic anceftors ; and the low Hate of our 
regal mufic in the timeTif Henry VIII. 1530, maybe 
gathered from the accounts given in Hall’s and Hol- 
lingdiead’s Chronicles of a mafque at cardinal Wolfey’s 
palace, Whitehall, where the king was entertained with 
“ a concert of drums and fifes.” But this was foft mufic 
compared with that of his heroic daughter Elizabeth, 
who, according to Henxner, ufed to be regaled during 
dinner “ with twelve trumpets and two kettle-drums; 
which, together with fifes, cornets, and fide-drums, made 
the hall ring for half an hour together.” Itinerarium , edit. 
1757, Strawberry-Hill. 
It has long been a difpute among the learned, whether 
the violin, or any inftrument of that kind, as now played 
with a bow, was known to the ancients. The little figure 
of Apollo, playing on a kind of violin, with fomething 
like a bow, in the grand duke’s tribuna at Florence, which 
Mr. Addifon and others fuppofed to be antique, has been 
proved to he modern by the abbe Winckelmann and 
Mr. Mings. So that, as this was the only piece of fculp- 
ture reputed ancient, in which any thing like a bow could 
be found, nothing more remains to be difeufi'ed relative 
to that point. With refpe£t to an inftrument with a dou¬ 
ble neck, befides that on the broken obelilk at Rome, and 
one from a fepulchral grotto in the ancient city of Tar- 
quinia, there is an antique painting in the collection of 
William Locke, efq. which confifts of a fingle figure, fup¬ 
pofed to be a mufe, with an inftrument nearly in the form 
of a modern violin, but the neck is rnych longer, and nei¬ 
ther bow nor pleCtrum are difcoverable near it. This, as 
Dr. Burney apprehends, may have been a chehjs, which 
was a fpecies of guitar, either thrummed by the fingers 
or twanged with a quill. The ancients had, indeed, in- 
llead of a bow, the pledrum; but, in ail the reprefentations 
which painting and Iculpture have preferved of this im¬ 
plement, it appears too clumfy to produce from the firings 
tones that had either the fvveetnel's or brilliancy of fuch 
as are drawn from them by means of the bow or quill. 
Dr. Burney fuppofes, though it is reprefented fo maflive, 
that it was a quill, or piece of ivory in imitation of one, 
rather than a ftick or blunt piece of wood or ivory; and, 
indeed, Virgil tells us, ^in. vi. 6+7, that it was made of 
ivory. 
The violin feems to have been brought into favour at 
the court of France before any honourable mention is 
made of it elfewhere, by the arrival of Baltazarini, a great 
performer on that inftrument; who, at the head of a band 
of violin-players, was fent from Piedmont by marlhal 
Briflac to Catharine de Medicis, and appointed by that 
princefs her firft valet de chambre and fuperintendant of 
her mufic. Galilei (Dial. p. 147.) fays, that “ both the 
violin and bafs, or violoncello, were invented by the Ita¬ 
lians, perhaps by the Neapolitans';” and we are unable to 
confute that opinion. Qorelli’s violin, long in the pof- 
fefilon of Giardini, was made in 1578, and the cafe painted 
by Annibal Caracci, probably leveral years after the 
violin was finifhed, at which time that painter was but 
eight years old. Montaigne, who was at Verona in 1580, 
fays that “ there were organs and violins to accompany 
the mafs in the great church.” 
The reftoration of monarchy and epifcopacy in England 
feems to have been not only favourable to facred mufic, 
but fecular ; for it may be afcribed to the particular plea- 
lure which king Charles II. received from the gay and 
fprightly found of the violin, that this inftrument was 
introduced at court, and the lioufes of the nobility and 
gentry for any other purpofe than country-dances, and 
feftive mirth. Hitherto there feem to havqheen no public 
concerts; and in the mufic of the chamber, in the per¬ 
formance of fancies on inftruments, which had taken 
place of vocal madrigals and motets, the violin had no 
admifiion, the whole bufinefs having been done by viols. 
After Charles had, in imitation of Louis XIV. eftabliflied 
a band of twenty-four violins, tenors, and bafies, inftead 
of the viols, lutes, and comets, of which the court-band 
ufed to conlift, the violin-family began to rife in reputa¬ 
tion, and had an honourable place affigned it in the mufic 
of the court, the theatres, and the chamber; and the fuc- 
ceflion of performers and compofitions with which the 
nation was afterwards fupplied from Italy and elfewhere, 
ftimulated the practice and eftablilhed the character of that 
clafs of inftruments, which have ever fince been univer- 
fally acknowledged to be the pillars of a well-ordered 
orcheftra. 
Prior to the year 1600, there was little other mufic ex¬ 
cept mafles and madrigals, the two principal divifions of 
facred and fecular mufic ; but from that time to the pre- 
fent dramatic mufic becomes the chief objeCl of attention. 
The mufic of the church and of the chamber continued 
indeed to he cultivated in Italy with diligence, and in a 
learned and elaborate ftyle, till near the middle of the cen¬ 
tury ; yet a revolution in favour of melody and exprefiton 
was preparing, even in facred mufic, by the fuccefs of 
dramatic compofition, confiding of recitation and melo¬ 
dies for a fingle voice. Such melodies began now to 
be preferred to mufic of many parts; in which canons, 
fugues, and full harmony, had been the productions 
which chiefly employed the mailer's ftudy and the hearer’s 
attention, 
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