Geminiani’s L’Art du Violon (c.1803): the evolution of pedagogy, technique and style in early-nineteenth-century Paris

Abstract

During the process of preparing for an audition, a spurious note printed in ‘Composition 4’ in the London edition of Francesco Geminiani’s Art of Playing on the Violin (1751) caused me to search for alternative sources. In a French edition (c.1803) of the method I found the note I was looking for, and along with it a set of violin duets replacing most of Geminiani’s original compositions for violin and basso continuo. This in turn led to a very enjoyable reading session with a colleague, discovering the delights of these duets - a set of progressively more difficult compositions in the galant style. My curiosity about the authorship of these duets was piqued; I wanted to discover more about the musical environment in which violin duets were seemingly more appealing than Geminiani’s original accompanied works, and the changes that had been made to Geminiani’s contents.

After an initial search I concluded that the extent of contemporary literature regarding this curious French edition was limited to passing references about its existence. A detailed comparison between Geminiani’s original edition and the French edition, two significantly different versions, helps to understand the longevity of Geminiani’s teachings. This combined with research into the place of the French edition in the prolific contemporaneous pedagogical publications from Paris, helps establish Geminiani’s standing in the emerging nineteenth-century French Violin School, about which so much has been written. An investigation of the violin duet as a genre yielded a surprising number of musical compositions but again very little critical examination. Analysis of some surviving examples increases understanding not only of the importance of the genre but also its place in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century society.

This study of L’Art du Violon and related literature (both pedagogic and musical) reveals Geminiani’s importance in the burgeoning nineteenth-century French Violin School, while also exploring the role of the violin duet in teaching, domestic music making and virtuosic performance at the beginning of the nineteenth century.