Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/312

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NOTES AND QUERIES, cio* s. v. MARCH 31, i9o&

Walpole. See the history of the college by the late Provost (pp. ix, 05, 66).

HAVEL AND SLAIE MAKERS (10 th S. v. 209). In 'The English Dialect Dictionary' 41 Havel and slaie or slea" are described as "part of the fittings of a weaver's loom." See also Forby's k Vocabulary of East Anglia.'

E. E. STREET.

This trade is still enumerated amongst those carried on in the city of Norwich in Jarrold's directory of that city for 1904-5, and one person is described as "a slaie and havel maker." FREDERICK T. HIBGAME.

Given keddle for " small cords," as equiva- lent to havel, we may add slaie, a weaver's reed. So both words connote the same industry. A. HALL.

102, Highbury Hill, N.

FEMALE VIOLINISTS (10 th S. v. 229). Maddalena Lombardini - Sirmen, wife of Ludpvico Sirmen, violinist, was born at Venice in 1735, and studied the violin and singing at the Conservatorio di Mendicant! of that city, afterwards receiving instruction from Tartini. She appeared at Paris at the Concert Spiritual in 1768, and at London in 1771, both as performer and composer. After 1774 she seems to have devoted herself, so far as public life is concerned, solely to singing. Tartini wrote her a letter 6 March, 1760, which was published, shortly after her death, in 'Europa Letteraria' (1770, vol. v.) under the title * Lettera alia signoria Maddalena Lombardini, inserviente ad una importante lezione per i suonatoridi violino. That letter was published by Burney, with an English translation, in 1771. It appeared in German in Killer's 'Lebensbeschreibungen beriihmter Musikgelehrten u. Tonkiinstler (1784), and in French in Fayolle's ' Notices ur Corelli, Tartini, Gavinies, Pugnani, et Viotti '(1810).

Then there was Regina Strinasacchi, or Sacchi (1762-1839), trained at the Conserva torio della Pieta, Venice, for whom Mozart wrote his B flat Sonata for violin and piano- forte (Koechel, 454). The composer made her Acquaintance at Vienna in 1784, and the sonata was performed by her and the com poser at her concert on 29 April, 1784 Mozart wrote a letter to his father, praising the beauty and strength of her -tone, am really of opinion," he adds, "that a woman can play with more expression than a man."

Two other performers may be mentioned Luigia Gerbini, who is said to have studiec

with Viotti, and to have appeared as violinist

at some concerts in London; and Signora arravacini, nee Gandini, born at Turin in 769, also said to have studied under Viotti.

She appeared, with immense success, in 797, at the concerts of the Societe Olym- )ique, and later at Berlin, Leipzig, and Dresden. Her last public performance seems

bo have been at Munich in 1827, when she

was nearly sixty years old.

These are early and interesting instances >f female violinists. It is, however, possible hat some hunter among old records may ind even earlier ones. J. S. SHEDLOCK.

The name of the first lady violinist is )anoplied in the dim magnificence of myth. )ubourg claims that it was Queen Elizabeth 'The Violin,' fifth ed., 1878, p. 255), founding lis pretension upon the boxwood violin in
 * he South Kensington Museum, said to have

>een given by her to the Earl of Leicester. See Hawkins's 'History of Music,' London, L776, vol. iv. p. 342, and (J. Engel's * Cata- ogue of the Musical Instruments at South Kensington,' London, 1874, p. 287.)

The earliest female violinist of whom I have a record is Mrs. Sarah Ottey, who was born about 1695, and of whom Dr. Burney records
 * hat in the years 1721/2 she played solos at

concerts on the harpsichord, bass-viol, and violin.

Gertrude Elizabeth Schmeling, known to- fame as Madame Mara (b. 1749, d. 1833), was destined by her father to be a violinist, and astonished audiences on the instrument at the age of ten ; in later life she declared that had she a daughter she should learn to- fiddle before she sang a note of music. The same century gives us Signora Maddalena Lombardini, to whom Tartini wrote his cele- brated letter, published originally in 'Europa Litteraria' (vol. v., 1770, pt. ii. p. 74), and subsequently in several other works.

Female violinists were not regarded with favour until the immense development of the art as a feminine accomplishment about 1875-85. In 1877 Hullah (' Music in the House,' p. 30) remarks :

" The blank and stupid astonishment with which the apparition nay, the very mention of a female violinist was once received amongst us, is happily a thing of the past."

Parke, on the other hand, tells us in his 'Musical Memoirs' (London, 1830, vol. i. p. 30), under date 19 February, 1790 :

" The Concertos \vere by Clement! on the piano- forte, and Madame Gautherot on the violin. It is said by fabulous writers that Minerva happening

to look into the stream whilst playing the flute,

and perceiving the distortion of countenance which