masterpieces of painting, though there have been instances where a Strad
or a Guarnerius has been picked up by some strange accident for a mere
trifle at an auction. There have been many imitations of the genuine
Cremonas palmed off, too, on the unwary at a high price, but the
connoisseur rarely fails to identify the great violins almost instantly.
For, aside from their magical beauty of tone, they are made with the
greatest beauty of form, color, and general detail. So much has been
said concerning the greatest violin-makers, in view of the fact that
coincident with the growth of a great school of art-manufacture in
violins there also sprang up a grand school of violin-playing; for,
indeed, the one could hardly have existed without the other.


III.

The first great performer on the violin whose career had any special
significance, in its connection with the modern world of musical art,
was Archangelo Corelli, who was born at Fusignano, in the territory of
Bologna, in the year 1653. Corelli's compositions are recognized to-day
as types of musical purity and freshness, and the great number of
distinguished pupils who graduated from his teaching relate him closely
with all the distinguished violinists even down to the present day. In
Corelli's younger days the church had a stronger claim on musicians
than the theatre or concert-room. So we find him getting his earliest
instruction from the Capuchin Simonelli, who devoted himself to the
ecclesiastical style. The pupil, however, yielded to an irresistible
instinct, and soon put himself under the care of a clever and skillful
teacher, the well-known Bassani. Under this tuition the young musician
made rapid advancement, for he labored incessantly in the practice of
his instrument. At the age of twenty Corelli followed that natural bent