Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 4.djvu/282

266 During his last years, Villoteau wrote a Traité de Phonéthésic,' now lost, which was not approved by the Institut de France, and consequently not published. He died at Tours, April 27, 1839, aged nearly 80. [ G. C. ]

VINCI,, born 1690 at Strongoli in Calabria, and educated with Pergolesi and Porpora, in the Conservatorio de' Poveri di Gesù Cristo at Naples, under Gaetano Greco. Of his life but little is known. He appears to have begun his career in 1719 with two comic pieces in Neapolitan dialect, which were followed by 26 operas of various characters and dimensions. Of these, 'Ifigenia en Tauride' (Venice, 1725), 'Astianatte' (Naples, 1725), 'Didone abbandonata' (Rome, 1726), and 'Alessandro nell' Indie' (Rome, 1729), had the greatest success. 'Didone' established his fame. His last was 'Artaserse' (Naples, 1732). In 1728 he was received into the congregation of the Rosario at Formiello, for whom he composed two Oratorios, a Kyrie, two Masses à 5, and some Motets. He was poisoned by the relative of a Roman lady with whom he had a liaison, and died in 1732. His operas, says Burney (iv. 400–537, etc.), form an era in dramatic music by the direct simplicity and emotion which he threw into the natural clear and dramatic strains of his airs, and by the expressive character of the accompaniments, especially those of the obbligato recitatives. He left a great number of cantatas for 1 and 2 voices, with bass or strings. These are quoted by Florimo ('Cenno Storico' p. 230–234), from whom the above facts are chiefly derived. A collection of his airs was published by Walsh of London, and highly prized. 'Vo solcando,' from 'Artaserse,' was sung everywhere by musicians and amateurs alike. [ G. ]

VINGT-QUATRE VIOLONS. No reader of French 'Mémoires' of the 17th century can be ignorant of the part played by ballets at the courts of Henri IV., Louis XIII., and Louis XIV. The ballet combined the pleasures of music, dancing, and the play, gave great opportunities for magnificent display, and was for nearly a century the favourite diversion of princes and grands seigneurs, thus preparing the way for opera. The passion for ballets de cour and dancing led to the formation of a special band of violinists, who, under Louis XIII, bore the name of the 'band of 24 violins of the King's chamber.' Its members, no longer mere ménestriers [see, iii. 145], became musiciens en charge, with a prospect of being eventually admitted to the Chapelle du Roi. Their functions were to play for the dancing at all the court-balls, as well as to perform airs, minuets, and rigadoons, in the King's antichamber, during his lever and public dinner, on New Year's Day, May 1, the King's fête-day, and on his return from the war, or from Fontainebleau.

No complete list of 'the 24 violins' who enlivened the court of the melancholy Louis XIII. has yet been made, but some of their airs may be seen in the MS. collection of Philidor diné—one of the precious possessions of the Conservatoire library. [See vol. ii. p. 703 a.] The composers names are Michel Henri, Constantin, Dumanoir, Robert Verdié, Mazuel, Le Page, Verpré, de La Pierre, de La Vallez, and Lazarin, all, we conjecture, among the 24. The violinists occasionally acted in the ballets, as in the 'Ballet des doubles Femmes' (1625), when they walked in backwards, dressed as old women with masks at the back of their heads, so as to look as if they were playing behind their backs. This had a great success, and was revived by Taglioni (the father) in the masked ball in Auber's 'Gustave III,' in 1833.

In Louis XIV's reign the band of 24 violins was called the 'grande bande,' and on Dumanoir's appointment as Roi des Violons, the King made him conductor, with the title of '25me violon de la Chambre.' The post however was suppressed at the same time with that of the Roi des ménestriers (May 22, 1697). The 'grande bande,' again called 'the 24 violins,' continued to exist till 1761, when Louis XV. dissolved it by decree (Aug. 22). During the rage for French fashions in music which obtained in Charles II.'s reign, the '24 violons' were imitated here, in the 'King's music,' and became the 'four-and-twenty fiddlers all of a row' of the nursery rhyme. Meantime a dangerous rival had sprung up in its own home. In 1655 Lully obtained the direction of a party of 16 violins, called the 'petite bande.' As violinist, leader, and composer he soon eclipsed his rival, and his brilliant career is well known. The modest position of conductor of a few musicians, whose duty was simply, like that of the 'grande bande,' to play at the King's levers, dinners, and balls, satisfied him at first, but only because it brought him in contact with the nobility, and furthered his chance of becoming 'Surintendant de la Musique' to Louis XIV. This point once gained, nothing further was heard of the 'petite bande,' and by the beginning of the next reign it had wholly disappeared.

The 24 violins remained, but as time went on they became old-fashioned and distasteful to the courtiers. Accordingly, as fast as their places fell vacant they were filled by musicians from the Chapelle du Roi, and thus the band became independent of the community of St. Julian. After 1761 the only persons privileged to play symphonies in the King's apartments were the musicians of his 'chamber' and 'chapel.' [ G. C. ]

VINNING,, born probably at Newton Abbot, Devon. She appeared in public when a child, from 1840 to 42, under the title of the 'Infant Sappho,' as a singer and harpist at the Adelaide Gallery, Polytechnic, and elsewhere. She afterwards received instruction in singing from Frank Mori, and on Dec. 12, 1856, was brought prominently into notice by taking the soprano part in the 2nd and 3rd parts of the 'Messiah' at the Sacred Harmonic Society's Concert, at a moment's notice, and 'with credit to herself,' in place of the singer engaged, who became suddenly indisposed during the performance. Miss Vinning afterwards sang at the Crystal Palace, the Worcester Festival, 1857, the Monday Popular 