.

While Ole Bull will not be known in the history of art as a great
scientific musician, there can be no doubt that his place as a brilliant
and gifted solo player will stand among the very foremost. As a composer
he will probably be forgotten, for his compositions, which made up the
most of his concert programmes, were so radically interwoven with his
executive art as a virtuoso that the two can not be dissevered. No one,
unless he should be inspired by the same feelings which animated the
breast of Ole Bull, could ever evolve from his musical tone-pictures
of Scandinavian myth and folk-lore the weird fascination which his
bow struck from the strings. Ole Bull, like Paganini, laid no claim to
greatness in interpreting the violin classics. His peculiar title to
fame is that of being, aside from brilliancy as a violin virtuoso, the
musical exponent of his people and their traditions. He died at Bergen,
Norway, on August 18, 1880, in the seventy-first year of his age,
and his funeral services made one of the most august and imposing
ceremonials held for many a long year in Norway.

MUZIO CLEMENTI

The Genealogy of the Piano-forte.--The Harpsichord its Immediate
Predecessor.--Supposed Invention of the Piano-forte.--Silbermann the
First Maker.--Anecdote of Frederick the Great.--The Piano-forte only
slowly makes its Way as against the Clavichord and Harpsichord.--Emanuel
Bach, the First Composer of Sonatas for the Piano-forte.--His Views
of playing on the New Instrument.--Haydn and Mozart as Players.--Muzio
Clementi, the Earliest Virtuoso, strictly speaking, as a Pianist.--Born
in Rome in 1752.--Scion of an Artistic Family.--First Musical
Training.--Rapid Development of his Talents.--Composes Contrapuntal
Works at the Age of Fourteen.--Early Studies of the Organ and
Harpsichord.--Goes to England to complete his Studies.--Creates
an Unequaled Furore in London.--John Christian Bach's Opinion of
Clementi.--Clementi's Musical Tour.--His Duel with Mozart before the
Emperor.--Tenor of Clementi's Life in England.--Clementi's Pupils.--Trip
to St. Petersburg.--Sphor's Anecdote of Him.--Mercantile and
Manufacturing Interest in the Piano as Partner of Collard.--The Players
and Composers trained under Clementi.--His Composition.--Status as
a Player.--Character and Influence as an Artist.--Development of the
Technique of the Piano, culminating in Clementi.

I.

Before touching the life of Clementi, the first of the great