Violin Methods Old and New

Extract

If we were to judge of the state of violin-playing and technics during the second half of the sixteenth and the whole of the seventeenth century from the didactic works published before 1700, we should be forced to the conclusion that the standard must have been very low indeed. The documentary evidence which we possess concerning the achievements of such virtuosi as Heinrich Johann Franz von Biber, Thomas Baltzar, Nicola Matteis, Davis Mell, etc., does not agree with that relating to the tutors printed during the period at which these players were active. We cannot imagine that the results obtained by the performers just enumerated were derived from the works published contemporaneously.