Why Vegan A simple guide to the right

choice for us and our planet Cocolin

Michela
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://textbookfull.com/product/why-vegan-a-simple-guide-to-the-right-choice-for-us-
and-our-planet-cocolin-michela/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Why Vegan A simple guide to the right choice for us and

our planet Cocolin Michela

https://textbookfull.com/product/why-vegan-a-simple-guide-to-the-
right-choice-for-us-and-our-planet-cocolin-michela-2/

Food Fix How to Save Our Health Our Economy Our

Communities and Our Planet One Bite at a Time Mark
Hyman

https://textbookfull.com/product/food-fix-how-to-save-our-health-
our-economy-our-communities-and-our-planet-one-bite-at-a-time-
mark-hyman/

Chinese FDI in the EU and the US: Simple Rules for

Turbulent Times Tim Wenniges

https://textbookfull.com/product/chinese-fdi-in-the-eu-and-the-
us-simple-rules-for-turbulent-times-tim-wenniges/

PHARMACEUTICAL FREEDOM why patients have a right to

self medicate 1st Edition Jessica Flanigan

https://textbookfull.com/product/pharmaceutical-freedom-why-
patients-have-a-right-to-self-medicate-1st-edition-jessica-
flanigan/
The Vegan Baby Cookbook and Guide : 100+ Delicious
Recipes and Parenting Tips for Raising Vegan Babies and
Toddlers 1st Edition Ashley Renne Nsonwu

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-vegan-baby-cookbook-and-
guide-100-delicious-recipes-and-parenting-tips-for-raising-vegan-
babies-and-toddlers-1st-edition-ashley-renne-nsonwu/

Why Marx Was Right Terry Eagleton

https://textbookfull.com/product/why-marx-was-right-terry-
eagleton/

The Lonely Planet Bigger Book of Everything A Visual

Guide to Travel the World Lonely Planet

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-lonely-planet-bigger-book-
of-everything-a-visual-guide-to-travel-the-world-lonely-planet/

Vegan Basics Your Guide to the Essentials of a Plant

Based Diet and How It Can Work for You First Edition
Simon And Shuster

https://textbookfull.com/product/vegan-basics-your-guide-to-the-
essentials-of-a-plant-based-diet-and-how-it-can-work-for-you-
first-edition-simon-and-shuster/

Why Marx Was Right Second Edition Eagleton

https://textbookfull.com/product/why-marx-was-right-second-
edition-eagleton/
 Why Vegan?

A simple guide to the right choice for us and our planet

Introduction – The future is Vegan

It may seem a slightly presumptuous and unrealistic statement, but there is no

doubt than more and more people are choosing a vegan lifestyle. Just look at
how many vegan alternatives have cropped up in every aisle of all major
supermarkets.
Why are so many people turning vegan? Some may have vegan friends and
feel inspired to try new food, some may want to improve their own health and
wellbeing, others may be dictated by their own feelings of compassion for
farm animals or a strong concern for the environment.
Some people might even be inspired by sports celebrities, actors, models, or
influencers who are vegan.
The Coronavirus pandemic we are facing has had such a dramatic impact on
our lives that it has made us rethink our priorities and pay greater attention to
our health and the environment. According to London-based market research
firm Mintel, approximately 400,000 people in the UK alone have taken part
in Veganuary 2020.
25% of Britons aged between 21 to 30 say that the pandemic has made a
vegan diet more appealing. And it’s not only Millennials.
Overall, 23% of British consumers are eating more fruit and vegetables since
the start of the pandemic, and almost one in five say that since the outbreak
they have added more nutrients to their diet to help support the immune
system.
But is veganism for everyone?
We are all different human beings with different needs, different beliefs,
different interests, and different aspirations but one thing is certain: we all
share the same planet. And we need to look after it. For ourselves and the
future generations. It may seem a distant future to some but looking at the
speed with which the global temperature is rising, the glaciers are melting,
the forests are disappearing, there really isn’t much time to waste.
Children, more than adults, are aware of the environmental emergency we are
facing. Ask any 12-year-old if they have heard of Greta Thunberg and the
Fridays for Future movement she has inspired, ask a teenager if while
browsing through the programmes available on Netflix, they have come
across Seaspiracy. How many households have at least one book or DVD by
David Attenborough on a shelf? Chances are that you or someone in your
family have one, too.
So why is the current health of our planet so important and what does it mean
that vegans can have a positive impact on its future? Are we not designed to
eat meat? Can a child grow up healthy on a vegan diet? If we stopped eating
meat, will animals become too numerous and invade the cities? Can I just
become vegetarian instead? Does eating eggs and dairy harm animals? Does
eating meat increase the chances of getting cancer? These are just a few
questions I have come across on a number of occasions.
This book aims to try and answer them and help you make a considerate
choice.
Chapter 1: What is Veganism?

There has been a lot of confusion about vegetarianism and veganism. Is

vegan the same as vegetarian? Do vegetarians eat fish? Do vegans eat eggs?
Vegetarians are not the same as vegans. Whereas vegetarians follow a diet
that includes dairy and eggs, vegans do not. Vegetarians may wear leather,
silk and wool, vegans generally do not.
The concept of vegan is in fact rather simple: vegans adopt a plant-based diet.
This means they do not eat meat, fish, or any animal-derived products such as
eggs, milk, or cheese. They do not “give up” meat, they simply choose to eat
something else.
Vegans have often been wrongly portrayed and often even ridiculed, as some
tree-hugging hippies, animal-rights activists who go round organising
marches and causing trouble. Many of of them may well be environmental
activists and animal lovers but, as with everything else, one cannot
generalise.
In my experience there are three main factors that lead an individual to
embrace a vegan diet and lifestyle: an ethical reason, a health reason, an
environmental reason.
Chapter 2: The ethical reason

This seems to be the most popular reason, especially amongst young people
who decide to become vegan. Over the past 40 or 50 years, there has been an
increased awareness and sensitivity when it comes to topics like animal
testing, the use of fur in the fashion industry, intensive farming, fishing, and
the use of animals for entertainment. The greatest concern is whether animals
have feelings like us, whether they suffer pain, whether their killing for food
and clothing can be at all justified and how it can be carried out in the most
humane possible way.
Of course animals have feelings. Any scientist, any veterinary surgeon, any
ethologist would be able to confirm that animals, and by animals we mean
any multicellular organism, have a nervous system, and therefore can
experience pain. The only multicellular organisms without a nervous system
are sponges and a few microscopic organisms called placozoans and
mesozones. What varies is the complexity of the nervous system. Some
organisms lack a central nervous system but still possess nervous cells and
receptors. An example of such animals are members of the hydrozoa class,
like jellyfish, often called medusae. They are made for 95% of water and
possess a rudimental network of neurons that help them detect the
environment around them, but they lack a brain, a heart, bones, and a
respiratory system and therefore do not experience pain like we do.
We can comfortably state that any animal with a brain and a heart, from the
smallest fish to the majestic elephant, is able to feel pain.
Animals have primordial instincts that help them survive, but they also have
feelings, they bond, they communicate with each other and sometimes with
other species too. With social media platforms such as Tik-Tok, Facebook,
Instagram, and YouTube so widespread these days, it is very easy to come
across videos of animals helping animals of other species. So the question is,
do they act by instinct or are they able to feel empathy? Animal behaviour
experts, or ethologists, are still studying the subject in detail but it is wildly
agreed that the more complex the brain, the more developed feelings such as
self-awareness and compassion are. This is particularly evident in mammals.
One just needs to look in the eyes of a dog or a cat to see that they do have
feelings, they understand our moods, share our pain. They understand us,
comfort us, keep us company, even contribute to our mental health and
wellbeing. Pet therapy has proved so efficient in rehabilitation and in
relieving health conditions such as depression, anxiety, obesity, post-
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Animals have been exploited by humans for thousands of years, not just for
the meat and skin, but also for their role in medical research, in farming,
working in the fields, pulling the plough and carriages, transporting goods
and people and in the case of dogs in particular, aiding police and rescue
teams as search dogs, as guide dogs for the blind, just to name a few.
Following the Great Depression and the two World Wars, a regained
prosperity in first world countries and an increased demand for meat led to
the creation of intensive farming. Animals treated like meat-producing
machines, born, dragged away from their mother, caged, raised quickly with
the aid of growth hormones and antibiotics, killed systematically to meet our
demand for meat. The shorter the life of an animal, the smaller the cost of
raising it, the bigger the profit. Since ancient times, animals have been hunted
and killed for meat. With the advent of farming and animal farming, animals
were bred, raised, sold, and killed for food. Yet the question of whether this
was necessary or at all ethical is not new. The first roots of Vegetarianism
date back to the 6th century B.C. Amongst the great thinkers of the past, there
were people like Leonardo da Vinci who questioned whether the killing of
animals for food was justified. Equally, there were others like Cartesio, who
saw animals purely as meat-producing machines, unable to think, feel or
interact like humans. Many cultures and religions, especially in India and
other Asian countries, rejected the consumption of meat, seeing it as
unhealthy and, as the animal had suffered a painful death, this would
jeopardize the person’s inner spiritual balance. By the end of the 20th century,
the Indian philosophy of nonviolence toward humans and animals alike,
promoted by Mahatma Gandhi amongst others, had helped the diffusion of
vegetarianism in the West. 1908 saw the birth of the first International
Vegetarian Union, which included several Western national societies.
Vegetarianism continued to grow in the 20th century as a reflection of
nutritional and ethical concerns. However, vegetarians were still a minority
and vegans were even more uncommon.
Up to a hundred years ago, animals were typically sold and slaughtered in the
town’s market square. With the advent of intensive farming, slaughterhouses
were moved farther and farther away from towns, so that people did not see
the conditions in which animals were raised, abused, and killed, in the most
barbaric and inhumane way.
The great Italian Astrophysicist Margherita Hack, a vegetarian from birth,
suggested in an interview in 2011 that secondary school children and their
families should be exposed to the reality of the lagers in which animals are
kept, in the most horrific conditions, and shown around slaughterhouses
where animals are systematically killed, often still conscious, and hung, left
to bleed, awaiting to be quartered. Perhaps this would be the most efficient
way to make people realise the horrors behind the neat packet of meat,
wrapped in cellophane, that we find in supermarkets. It is easy to dig the head
in sand and pretend not to know where that packet of meat comes from.
People often say, “I don’t want to think about”. It is easy to ignore that, to
produce the 6 eggs in the punnet a customer just bought, hundreds of male
newly born chicks were killed, gassed, or minced alive, discarded, killed,
turned into pellets, and often fed back to hens. Their only fault? Being born
male. This is not only the case of caged or barn hens but often applies to free
range too.
The dairy industry is not cruelty-free either. One just needs to remember that,
in order to produce milk, a cow needs to have recently given birth. This
means that dairy cows are constantly kept pregnant through artificial
insemination, they are forced to produce more milk and in a shorter period of
time than they would in the wild, only to be sent to the slaughterhouse when
the milk production drops below a set target.
The reality of male calves is not dissimilar to the one of male chicks. A baby
cow, if male, is likely to be slaughtered before it reaches adult age.
People often think that fish are primitive creatures that don’t think, don’t
interact much, don’t feel pain and therefore their killing for food can be more
justified than the one of mammals. This could not be more wrong. Fish have
a brain and a heart, they do interact, they communicate, they feel pain.
Whether they are fished from the sea or farmed, they are still killed in the
same way, stabbed, suffocated, beheaded, quartered.
Another, often overlooked, ethical issue at the basis of a vegan choice, is the
one of animal testing. Between 550 and 100 million vertebrate animals are
used every year for medical research, genetic experimentation, testing of
medicine and cosmetics. Most animals are euthanised after use, whilst often
already agonising. The topic of animal testing is very complex and can lead
to fierce debate due to its sensitive nature. Supporters of animal testing claim
that virtually every achievement in medical research during the 20th century
was made possible thank to the use of lab animals. Animal rights activists,
however, argue that animals and humans have more differences than
similarities, and what may work on an animal may not have the same results
on humans, leading to potential catastrophic mistakes. They also see animal
testing as an extremely cruel practice, causing the animal prolonged
sufferings and an untimely, agonising death. The practice of animal testing is
often differently regulated in different countries. Whereas the use of animals
for medical research can be somewhat justified by some, the experimenting
of cosmetics on animals is now widely rejected by most Western countries.
The Body Shop, founded by Anita Roddick in 1976, was amongst the first
brands of cosmetics to add “against animal testing” on its products label.
Many other brands followed and now the “leaping bunny” symbol can
commonly be found on the label of most products that have not been tested
on animals. One has to be careful, though. Products sold in Europe, America,
Australia, and other countries may state they have not been tested on animals;
however, the same products may be sold in China, where animal testing is
required by law. In such case, tests may not be performed by the company
itself but by an independent Chinese firm. For example, French-based
“L’Occitane” despite stating they do not test their products on animals, they
do sell in mainland China. In other words, they have their products tested on
animals for them. The same can be said of companies such as L’Oreal,
Lacome, Clarins, Rimmel, Revlon, Clinique, Chanel, Chloe, Armani, Dior,
Burberry, Avon, Max Factor and many more. A company, therefore, to be
fully cruelty free must not be selling their products in countries where testing
is required.
Several websites such as Peta, Crueltyfreekitty and ethicalelephant offer lists
of brands that are either already cruelty-free, looking at reducing their animal
testing or still fully testing their products on animals. It is always a good idea
to check before buying.
Animal cruelty, sadly, spreads beyond the meat industry and medical
research. For centuries animals have been used for entertainment in circuses,
bullfights, zoos, and religious festivals in the name of “tradition”. Things are
changing fast, though, and animal welfare societies and much more involved
in the monitoring and often banning of cruel practices. There is a new
sensitivity, especially among the younger generation, which rejects the use of
animals for entertainment and animal products in the fashion industry.
Real animal fur, which has been used since ancient times and still is by
indigenous societies in cold climate countries, was seen as very fashionable
in the 1950’s but its popularity is now in rapid decline. The recent discovery
of a Covid-19 variant in humans, SARS-CoV-2, linked to mink farms, has
brought the issue of fur farms to the attention of media worldwide and with it,
a new awareness. Animals farmed for their fur are normally kept in
overcrowded, small cages. Great attention must be put not to spoil the fur
during the slaughtering process. Therefore, methods such as gassing, and
head to tail electrocution are commonly used. Foxes and raccoons are
typically electrocuted through the mouth and rectum, a method which can
inflict severe pain and distress to the animal. The use of incandescent rods
inserted in the rectum was also common practice – and still is in some Asian
countries - for the killing of minks, chinchillas, foxes, ferrets, rabbits,
raccoons, and in some countries, cats, and dogs too.
Many models have campaigned against the use of fur in fashion and have
refused to wear it, notoriously Stella McCartney, Pamela Anderson, Kim
Basinger to name a few. Sadly, many others still wear fur to this day, often
unaware of the cruelty involved in the process of fur clothes production.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, fur alternatives such as faux fur have
increased in popularity. It is sometimes not easy to distinguish real from
imitation fur. The price tag is not always a reliable indicator, as woolly hats
with a fur pom-pom made in China, for example, may cost considerably less
than a synthetic thermal hat made in the US. This is because the pom-pom,
usually made of raccoon fur, is unbelievably cheap to produce in Asian
countries. People are often not aware of this and assume that, because the hat
is cheap, the pom-pom cannot be made of real fur.
We often wonder whether animals have a conscience, perhaps we should
wonder whether we have a conscience. The moment we eat meat, fish, wear
leather or buy cosmetics sold in China, we must accept our share of
responsibility for all the suffering animals have endured. Animals are killed
because people want to eat meat and wear leather goods. It is quite simple,
demand generates offer.
Animals do feel pain and there is no humane killing, no painless death. The
sooner we accept this the sooner we can come to terms with it and make a
responsible choice when it comes to eat meat. Why would a cow or a pig or a
goat be considered any different from a pet dog or cat? People are different
and have different needs and different degrees of sensitivity. Some people
genuinely struggle to eliminate meat from their diet, others choose
alternatives and soon forget what meat tasted like. In my experience, there is
little point in trying to convince others to stop eating meat. Very often the
opposite result is obtained. It must be a personal choice. What is essential,
however, is information, education, people must be aware of where the meat
they consume comes from, what has gone into it before and after the animal
was killed and how it was slaughtered, the health risks involved in eating
meat and the consequences of animal farming and fishing on the
environment. Only then, can we make a responsible choice whether to eat
meat or look for alternatives.
Chapter 3: The health reason

“You must eat a little bit of everything”. “We are designed to eat meat”.
“Fish is good for the brain”.
These are just a few of the things I was told by family and friends during my
teenage years. Growing up in North-East Italy in the 1980’s was an aspiring
vegetarian’s nightmare. Restaurants did not offer vegetarian menus, the usual
meat-free options were cheese and bread, omelette, beans salad, mushroom
risotto, tomato pasta and margherita pizza. There were no vegan options.
Asking for something meat-free, dairy-free, and egg-free was often met with
a raised eyebrow or a joke by the waiter. “Water?” was often the cheeky
suggestion.
Since then, things have moved on considerably. There are now countless
vegetarian and vegan food brands available in supermarkets from the pioneer
Quorn and Linda McCartney to the more recent The Vegetarian Butcher and
Beyond Meat, offering countless options from pizzas to burgers and sausages
to fishless fingers and steaks in addition to the hundreds of grains and fresh
ingredients already available, like rice, pasta, tofu, pulses, fruits, vegetables,
seeds, nuts, and spices for the cookery enthusiast.
Cafes and restaurants often have a vegan menu or vegetarian and vegan
options clearly marked with the green v symbol for vegetarian and v symbol
with a leaf for vegan.
Vegetarian and vegan foods and growing in popularity among all age groups.
It is no longer a young adult trend, many middle-aged and senior citizen
choose to eat meat-free alternatives, often dictated by health concerns. More
and more dieticians and general practitioners advise their patients to cut down
on or eliminate completely red meat from their diet, often in the presence of
high blood pressure or high cholesterol levels.
Do we need to eat meat? Not at all. Can a healthy diet be meat-free?
Absolutely. What about the “we are designed to eat meat” belief, then? In
my brief experience as a veterinary student back in the 1990’s, I had the
opportunity to learn amongst many other things, that humans are not
“designed” to eat meat, they are designed to evolve. Contrary to other
animals who hunt for food, we can choose to eat or not to eat meat. Our teeth
include incisors for cutting, canines for tearing and molars for munching. In
fact, our teeth are more similar to the ones of herbivores than the ones of
carnivores. Herbivores lack big canines and carnivores lack large incisors.
Some primates have large canines though they are mainly vegetarian. In such
case, canines are used to crack open the shell of nuts. They are also shown to
communicate with other primates.
The health risks associated with the consumption of meat, particularly red
meat, are now well-documented. There are two problems with eating meat:
the meat itself and what is added to it before and after the animal is
slaughtered. Some meats are high in saturated fat, which can lead to increased
levels of cholesterol in the blood and to a high risk of heart disease.
Chemicals found in processed meat, such as haem, used to give meat that
fresh red colour, nitrates and nitrites, aimed at delaying the natural
decomposing of the carcass, heterocyclic amines, and polycyclic amines,
produced when meat is cooked, can increase dramatically the risk of damage
to human cells and therefore the risk of cancer, particularly bowel cancer.
Because it is in the meat industry’s interest to keep the life span on an animal
as short as possible to minimise the cost of raising it and maximise profits,
animals are given growth hormones and antibiotics, which inevitably end up
in the animal’s blood and meat before they land on the plate.
Chickens, for example, can live for 6 or more years in a natural environment
and under natural conditions. The average age of a chicken in intensive
farming at slaughter, however, is a merely 6 weeks. What to us looks like a
chicken is, in fact, still a chick that has been blown with growth hormones. In
the case of free-range the average age at slaughter is 8 weeks and 12 weeks in
the case of organic free-range. Pigs are slaughtered at different ages, from
piglets of 1 -3 months of age to fully grown pigs of 6-12 months of age. The
slaughtering of a pig – usually with a knife - is still a traditional, autumnal
activity in some European countries and often involves the gathering of
family and friends to help out with the butchering. My late mother used to
recall hearing, as a young child, the screams of a pig being dragged out of its
pen to be slaughtered, only a few houses away. The screams were unbearable,
and my mother used to hide in her bed with a pillow over her head.
Beef cattle are typically killed at 1-2 years of age, later in the case of dairy
cows. However, a cow could live up to 20 years in natural conditions.
The age of lambs and sheep at slaughter varies between 10 weeks and 12
months, the average being 6 months. There are few happier things to see than
a baby lamb moving its first steps and a young kid skipping around, their joy
in so infectious! From experience, I can firmly say there are few things more
traumatic than witnessing the slaughtering of lambs. Even more so when
done in the name of tradition or religion. The process is simply inhuman and
barbaric, and it is not my wish to share the details here. Perhaps it is not
surprising that psychologists have recorded an increased risk of post-
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in slaughterhouse workers as well as
increased incidents of domestic abuse, violence, drug, and alcohol abuse.
We do not need to eat meat, fish, eggs, or dairy. However, we do need to
follow a healthy and well-balanced diet which includes the right amount of
protein, carbohydrates, fats, sugars, vitamins, and minerals, as per the
Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA). This is particularly important in
the case of children, young adults, and pregnant women. The RDA can be
found on all pre-packed foods, as well as on the NHS website and other
health websites. There is no lack of books dedicated to healthy living,
vegetarian, and vegan cuisine. It can be great fun to experiment with
ingredients.
Protein is an important nutrient found in muscles, skin, tendons, bones, and
other tissues in the body. Our digestive system constantly dismantles proteins
from the food we eat and rebuilds proteins to make us what we are. Proteins
play an essential role not only in the building and repairing of cells and
tissues, but also in coordinating bodily functions such as maintaining PH
levels, fluid balance and oxygen levels. It has often been wrongly assumed
that ready proteins such as those found in meat, fish, eggs, and dairy are
essential to a healthy diet. What people often seem to be unaware of, is that
proteins are also found in oats, beans, peas, nuts, seeds, broccoli, spinach,
tofu (bean curd), seitan and many more “clean” foods, free from additives
and pathogens and therefore posing a much lower health risk for us and for
the environment.
Many world-famous bodybuilders and athletes follow a vegan diet, Formula
1 champion Lewis Hamilton, surfer Tia Blanco, tennis champion Venus
Williams, cyclist Dotsie Bausch, runner Scott Jurek, skater Meagan Duhamel,
weightlifter Kendrick Farris, NBA star Deandre Jordan are just a few vegan
advocates.
The list of vegan actors, actresses, singers, models, and directors is also long:
Natalie Portman, Ellen Pompeo, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zac Efron, Beyonce,
Jason Mraz, Madonna, Daryl Hannah, Ariana Grande, Alicia Silverstone,
Woody Harrelson, Miley Cyrus, Ellen Page, Peter Dinklage, Michelle
Pfeiffer, and James Cameron are just a few examples.
Chapter 4: The environmental reason

Perhaps the lesser known and most recent reason why more people choose a
vegan diet and lifestyle, the impact of animal farming and the fishing industry
on the environment is having catastrophic consequences for our planet.
Following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, there has
been an increased interest in topic such as climate change and global
warming. For decades experts have been studying the effects of human
activity on the environment, but it is only in recent years that people have
become more aware of them. In the past 18 months, there has been an
increased media coverage of events organised by environmental activists like
Swedish teenage Greta Thunberg and the Fridays for Future movement she
inspired. TV programmes such as David Attenborough’s testimonial
documentary A Life on our Planet and Ali Tabrizi’s Seaspiracy were both
released while most countries were still in Covid lockdown. Information
related to global warming and climate change was, and still is, shared daily
on social media and discussed online, in the classroom, in the workplace and
at home. What is the difference between climate change and global warming?
The two are often used interchangeably. Global warming, as the name
suggests, is the gradual warming of the Earth caused by human activity.
Climate change may refer to changes in the condition of the Earth and its
atmosphere, caused by either human activity, natural changes, or a
combination of both.
Increased levels of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gases such as those found in
spray cans and refrigerants have been responsible for the thinning of the
ozone layer that covers the Earth, protecting it from harmful ultraviolet (UV)
rays which come from the sun. Another well-known gas, carbon dioxide
(CO2), the most important greenhouse gas in the Earth’s atmosphere, is
naturally present in volcanoes, hot springs and geysers and released from
carbonate rocks through dissolution before reaching rivers and oceans where
it is absorbed. CO2 is also naturally produced by all living organisms,
through photosynthesis in the case of plants and respiration in the case of
animals. Since the industrial revolution, levels of CO2 have dramatically
increased due to human activities such as deforestation and fossil fuels
emissions, leading to global warming and the acidification of oceans, which
is having a negative effect on marine life and ecosystems.
The main cause of global warming is not, as some may think, gas emissions
from motor vehicles or factories. Methane, though not as long lasting, has
more than 80 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide over the first 2
decades since it reaches the atmosphere. The oil and gas industry are one of
the main sources of methane. Methane is also naturally produced in the
stomachs of cattle. Animal agriculture, which includes deforestation for the
cultivation of soya to feed cattle and the use of large quantities of water, is
responsible for up to 51% of greenhouse gas emissions. Motor vehicles, on
the other hand, are responsible for 13% of gas emissions and air travel 3%.
To give an idea of the impact of animal farming on the environment, let’s
take into consideration the production of one beef burger. It takes
approximately 3000 litres of water to produce a burger, the equivalent of two
months of running shower water. It takes 90% less water to produce a meat-
free vegan burgher. Freshwater used to grow livestock feed accounts for 23%
of the global water supply. The livestock systems occupy around 45% of
global land. The Amazon forest, often regarded as the “lungs of Earth” is
being destroyed to grow livestock feed. 20 % of it is already gone. More than
200.000 acres of rainforest are lost every day, that is more than 150 acres per
minute or 78 million of acres a year. In addition to this, we are seeing an
increased level of CO2 in oceans, which are responsible for the absorption of
31% of CO2 produced by humans. This increase in CO2 level is causing the
acidification of oceans, which can affect the breathing process of fish and
dissolve the calcium carbonate which make up the shells of mussels and coral
skeletons. As if this wasn’t enough, the fishing industry is destroying entire
marine ecosystems.
Fishing has wiped out 90% of the world’s big fish. Longline boats set enough
fishing line every day to wrap the earth 500 times. Environmentalists have
campaigned for decades to raise awareness about the plastic waste that litters
our beaches and oceans, yet it is still little known that 70% of macro plastic
that lands at sea comes from fishing gear. I will never forget watching a
YouTube video of a sea turtle having a plastic straw removed from her
nostril. It was heart-breaking. Yet plastic straws only account for 0.03% of
plastic found in the oceans.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimates that 38 million tonnes of sea
creatures are caught as bycatch and discarded every year. This accounts for
40% of fish caught worldwide. Of the remaining 60%, only 1 in 5 fish will be
considered suitable for human consumption. Despite the “dolphin friendly”
seal found of many labels of tuna cans, there is no guarantee that dolphins are
not killed as bycatch. In fact, in some counties such as Japan, dolphins and
whales are systematically chased, rounded up and brutally killed by
fishermen as they are seen as “competitors”. An estimated 300,000 dolphins
and whales are killed in fishing gear and approximately 500,000 sea turtles
are caught as bycatch every year.
Sharks suffer a similar fate as they are killed for their fins, considered a
delicacy in Chinese cuisine. As apex predators in the ocean food chain,
sharks play a fundamental role in marine ecosystems. They limit the number
of their prey which, in turn, limits the number of the prey below them and so
on. Around 10 people are killed by sharks every year, yet round 300,000
sharks are killed in fishing nets every hour! This is very damaging to oceans
ecosystems and it is not sustainable. What can be done to save our oceans,
then? The answer is simpler than one may think: leave them alone.
Unfortunately, this is not happening, and the reason is money. Over $30
billion dollars in subsidies is given to the fishing industry every year, forced
labour in the seafood industry is reported in more than 40 countries,
approximately 24,000 fisheries workers die on the job every year.
Rainforests are being burnt in order to grow cattle feed, the oceans are being
scraped and precious marine life is being lost, gas emissions are continuing to
rise in level despite the race to find alternative, cleaner energy, glaciers are
melting, the sea level is rising, cities are being lost. Time is not on our side;
we need to act now. Everyone has a part to play, big or small. Reducing the
amount of water we use, turning lights off when we don’t need them, limiting
the use of car and buses in favour of alternative, cleaner means of transport,
supporting Fairtrade, buying wisely and recycling are all going to help reduce
our carbon footprint. For me, the transition between vegetarian and vegan
was a natural and relatively easy one. Choosing a vegan diet and lifestyle
means minimising our impact in the destruction of our planet, allowing for it
to rebalance and rewild itself. It means adopting the ancient philosophy of
“live and let live”, respecting nature and protecting animal species instead of
exploiting them, feeling compassion for other creatures and being at peace
with ourselves knowing that we have contributed to leave the planet a better
place than we found. But it must be a responsible and personal choice.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
at the Italian opera in Paris; but the only foundation for such a report
seems to be that it was not uncommon for violinist composers of that
period to enlist the aid of their friends in writing for the orchestra.
Viotti was a broadly educated musician, whose experience with
orchestras was wide.

Second in importance to the concertos are the duets for two violins
written during his stay in Hamburg. These are considered second in
musical charm only to Spohr’s pieces in the same manner. That
Viotti was somewhat low in spirit when he was at work on them,
exiled as he was from London and Paris, is shown by the few words
prefixed to one of the sets, ‘This work is fruit of the leisure which
misfortune has brought me. Some pieces came to me in grief, others
in hope.’

Viotti had a brilliant and unrestricted technique. He was among the

greatest of virtuosi. But little of this appears in his music. That is
distinguished by a dignity and a relative simplicity, well in keeping
with the noble traditions inherited from a country great in more ways
than one in the musical history of the eighteenth century. But as far
as form and style go he is modern. He undoubtedly owes something
to Haydn. Moreover, Wasielewski makes the point that there is no
trace in his music of the somewhat churchly dignity one feels in the
sonatas of Corelli and Tartini. Viotti’s is a thoroughly worldly style, in
melody and in the fiery but always musical passage work. He is at
once the last of the classic Italians and the first of the moderns,
standing between Corelli and Tartini on the one hand and Spohr,
David, and Vieuxtemps on the other.

The list of the men who came to him for instruction while he was in
Paris contains names that even today have an imposing ring. Most
prominent among them are Rode, Cartier, and Durand. And among
those who were not actually his pupils but who accepted him as their
ideal and modelled themselves after him were Rodolphe Kreutzer
and Pierre Baillot. These men are the very fountain head of most
violin music and playing of the nineteenth century. They set the
standard of excellence in style and technique by which Spohr and
later Vieuxtemps ruled themselves.

IV
Before considering their work, the development of violin music in
Germany during the eighteenth century must be noticed. The
influence of the Italians was not less strong here than in France.
Both Biber and Strungk had come under it in the late seventeenth
century, Strungk being, as we know, personally acquainted with
Corelli and at one time associating closely with him in Rome. The
German violinists of the eighteenth century either went to Italy to
study, or came under the influence of various Italians who passed
through the chief German cities on concert tours.

The most conspicuous of them are associated with courts or cities

here and there. For instance, early in the century there is Telemann
in Hamburg; a little later Pisendel in Dresden; J. G. Graun in Berlin;
Leopold Mozart in Salzburg; the gifted Stamitz and his associates
Richter, Cannabich and Fränzl in Mannheim; and the most amiable if
not the most gifted of all, Franz Benda, here and there in Bohemia,
Austria and Saxony. Though these and many more were widely
famous in their day as players, and Mozart was influential as a
teacher, little of their music has survived the centuries that have
passed since they wrote it. The eighteenth century was in violin
music and likewise in opera, the era of Italian supremacy; and in
violin music we meet with little except copies outside of Italy.

Georg Philipp Telemann, it is true, wrote that he followed the French

model in his music; but as Wasielewski says, this applies evidently
only to his vocal works and overtures, for his violin compositions are
very clearly imitations of Corelli’s. All his music, and he wrote
enormous quantities in various branches, is essentially
commonplace. Between 1708 and 1721 Telemann occupied a
position at the court of Eisenach. It was chiefly during these years
that he gave himself to the violin and violin music. Afterwards he
went to Hamburg and there worked until his death in 1767.

Johann Georg Pisendel is a far more distinguished figure. He was

born on the twenty-sixth of December, 1687, at Carlsburg in
Franconia, and died in Dresden, after many years’ service there, in
November, 1755. While still a boy the Marquis of Anspach attached
him to his chapel, on account of his beautiful voice. In the service of
the same prince at that time was Torelli, the great Italian composer
for the violin; and Pisendel was his pupil for a considerable period.
Later in life he was able to journey in Italy and France, and was
apparently at one time a pupil of Vivaldi’s in Venice. From 1728 to
the time of his death he was first violin in the royal opera house at
Dresden. His playing was distinguished by care in shading, and in
his conducting he was said to have laid great importance upon ‘loud
and soft.’ As a composer he is without significance, though some of
his works—concertos and sonatas—have been preserved. But his
influence served to educate violinists in that part of Germany, so that
little by little Germans came to supplant the Italians in that branch of
music, and to find occupation in connection with the opera house
orchestra, which had been up to that time almost entirely made up of
Italians.

Most conspicuous among those who were actually his pupils was
Johann Gottlieb Graun, brother of the still familiar Carl Heinrich. But
Graun was not content with instruction in Germany alone, and
betook himself to Tartini in Padua. After his return to his native land,
he eventually found his place at the court of Frederick the Great,
who was still crown prince. With him at this time were Quantz, the
flute player, and Franz Benda. After the accession of Frederick to the
throne of Prussia, Graun was made first violin and concert master in
the royal orchestra; and he held this place until his death in 1771.
His compositions, like all others for the violin at this period, are
hardly more than imitations of the Italian masterpieces. And like
Pisendel, his importance is in the improvement of the state of
instrumental music in Germany, and especially of the orchestra at
Berlin.
His successor in this royal orchestra was Franz Benda, who, not only
by reason of the romantic wanderings of his life, is one of the most
interesting figures in the history of music in Germany during the
eighteenth century. His father, Hans Georg, had been a sort of
wandering player, as well as a weaver; and his brothers, Johann,
Georg, and Joseph, were all musicians who won a high place in their
day. Georg was perhaps the most distinguished of the family, but in
the history of violin-music Franz occupies a more important place.

The Bendas were Bohemians, but most of them settled in Germany

and accepted German ideals and training. Franz Benda, after a
changing career as a boy singer in various places, finally came
under the influence of Graun and Quantz in the crown prince’s
orchestra, at Rheinsberg. The principal instruction he received upon
the violin came from Graun, who was himself a pupil of Tartini’s; so,
although Benda shows the marks of an independent and self-
sufficient development, not a little of Italian influence came close to
him. He remained in the service of the Prussian court from 1733,
when Quantz befriended him, until his death as an old man in 1786.

His playing was admired for its warm, singing quality, which showed
to such advantages in all slow movements that musicians would
come long distances to hear him play an adagio. Burney heard him
in 1772 and was impressed by the true feeling in his playing. Burney,
too, mentioned that in all Benda’s compositions for the violin there
were no passages which should not be played in a singing and
expressive manner. He went on to say that Benda’s playing was
distinguished in this quality from that of Tartini, Somis, and Veracini,
and that it was something all his own which he had acquired in his
early association with singers.

He had indeed been a great singer, and he gave up public singing

only because after singing he was subject to violent headache. He
trained his two daughters to be distinguished singers of the next
generation.

His works for the violin are numerous, but only a small part of them
was published, and this posthumously. In spite of the often lovely
melodies in the slow movements they have not been able to outlive
their own day. Wasielewski calls attention to the general use of
conventional arpeggio figures in the long movements, which,
characteristic of a great deal of contemporary music for the violin,
may have been written with the idea of offering good technical
exercise in the art of bowing.

Among Benda’s many pupils the two most significant are his own
son, Carl, and Friedrich Wilhelm Rust. The former seems to have
inherited a great part of his father’s skill and style. The sonatas of the
latter are among the best compositions written in Germany for the
violin in the second half of the eighteenth century. Rust died in
February, 1798. His name is remembered as much for his sonatas
for pianoforte as for his violin compositions. Another pupil, Carl
Haack, lived until September, 1819, and thus was able to carry the
Benda tradition over into the nineteenth century. On the whole Franz
Benda may be said to have founded a school of violin playing in
Berlin which has influenced the growth of music for that instrument in
Germany. Its chief characteristic was the care given to simplicity and
straightforwardness, especially in the playing of slow movements
and melodies, which stands out quite distinctly against the current of
more or less specious virtuosity running across the century.

Johann Peter Salomon (1745-1815) has been associated with the

Berlin group, though his youth was spent in and about Bonn, and his
greatest activity was displayed as an orchestral conductor in London.
It was he who engaged Haydn to come to London and to compose
symphonies specially for a London audience; and he occupies an
important place in the history of music in England as one of the
founders (1813) of the Philharmonic Society. He published but little
music, and that is without significance.

One of the outstanding figures in the history of violin music in

Germany is Leopold Mozart, the father of Wolfgang. He is hardly
important as a composer, though many of his works were fairly well
known in and about Salzburg where the greatest part of his life was
spent; but his instruction book on playing the violin marks the
beginning of a new epoch in his own country. This was first
published in Augsburg in 1756, was reprinted again in 1770, 1785,
and in Vienna in 1791 and 1804. It was for many years the only book
on the subject in Germany.

Much of it is now old-fashioned, but it still makes interesting reading,

partly because he was far-seeing enough to seize upon fundamental
principles that have remained unchanged in playing any instrument,
partly because the style is concise and the method clear, partly
because of the numerous examples it contains of both good and bad
music. Evidently his standard of excellence is Tartini, so that we still
find violin music in Germany strongly under the influence of the
Italians. But the great emphasis he lays upon simplicity and
expressiveness recalls Benda and his ideals, so that it would appear
that some wise men in Germany were at least shrewd enough to
choose only what was best in the Italian art. Among the many
interesting points he makes is that it takes a better-trained and a
more skillful violinist to play in an orchestra than to make a success
as a soloist. Evidently many of the German musicians distrusted the
virtuoso. Emanuel Bach, it will be remembered, cared nothing for
show music on the keyboard. C. F. D. Schubart, author of the words
of Schubert’s Die Forelle, said that an orchestra made up of virtuosi
was like a world of queens without a ruler. He had the orchestra at
Stuttgart in mind.

V
Meanwhile about the orchestra at Mannheim there was a band of
gifted young men whose importance in the development of the
symphony and other allied forms has been but recently recognized,
and now, it seems, can hardly be overestimated. The most
remarkable of these was J. C. Stamitz, a Bohemian born in 1719,
who died when less than forty years old. His great accomplishments
in the domains of orchestral music have been explained elsewhere
in this series. In the matter of violin music he can hardly be said to
show any unusual independence of the Italians, but in the meagre
accounts of his life there is enough to show that he was a great
violinist. He was the teacher of his two sons, Carl (1746-1801) and
Anton (b. 1753), the latter of whom apparently grew up in Paris,
where the father, by the way, had been well known at the house of
La Pouplinière. Anton, as we shall see, was the teacher of Rodolphe
Kreutzer, already mentioned as one of the great teachers at the
Paris Conservatory in the first of the nineteenth century.

Christian Cannabich, a disciple if not a pupil of Stamitz, was likewise

a famous violinist, but again like his master, was more influential in
what he accomplished with the famous orchestra at Mannheim than
in his playing or composing for the violin. He seems to have spent
some years in Naples to study with Jomelli, and the Italian influence
is evident in all he wrote for the violin. Wilhelm Cramer, the father of
the now more famous J. B. Cramer, was another violinist associated
with the Mannheim school, until in 1773 he went to London on the
advice of Christian Bach. Here he lost one place after another as
conductor, owing now to the arrival of Salomon, now to that of Viotti.
He died in 1799 in great poverty.

Others connected with the orchestra at Mannheim are Ignaz Fränzl,

whose pupil, F. W. Pixis, became the teacher of Kalliwoda and Laub,
and whose son Ferdinand (1770-1833) was a distinguished violinist
in the next century; and Johann Friedrich Eck (b. 1766) and his
brother Franz. Their father was, like Stamitz, a Bohemian. Indeed
Stamitz seems to have induced Eck the elder to leave Bohemia and
come to Mannheim. Franz Eck is most famous today as one of the
teachers of Ludwig Spohr.

In Vienna the Italian influence was supreme down to nearly the end
of the century. The first of the Viennese violinists to win an
international and a lasting renown was Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf (b.
1739), the friend of Haydn and Gluck. Though two of his teachers,
König and Ziegler, were Austrians, a third, who perfected him, was
an Italian, Trani. Through Trani Dittersdorf became familiar with the
works of Corelli, Tartini, and Ferrari, after which he formed his own
style. Practically the first German to draw a circle of pupils about him
was Anton Wranitzky (b. 1761). Among his pupils the most
distinguished was Ignaz Schuppanzigh, who, as the leader of the
Schuppanzigh quartet, won for himself an immortal fame, and really
set the model for most quartet playing throughout the nineteenth
century. He was the son of a professor at the Realschule in Vienna.
From boyhood he showed a zeal for music, at first making himself a
master of the viola. At the time Beethoven was studying counterpoint
with Albrechtsberger he was taking lessons on the viola with
Schuppanzigh. Later, however, Schuppanzigh gave up the viola for
the violin. His most distinguished work was as a quartet leader, but
he won fame as a solo player as well; and when the palace of Prince
Rasoumowsky was burned in 1815, he went off on a concert tour
through Germany, Poland and Russia which lasted many years. He
was a friend not only of Beethoven, but of Haydn, Mozart, and of
Schubert as well; and was the principal means of bringing the
quartet music of these masters to the knowledge of the Viennese
public. He died of paralysis, March 2, 1830. Among his pupils the
most famous was Mayseder, at one time a member of the quartet.

What is noteworthy about the German violinist-composers of the

eighteenth century is not so much the commonness with which they
submitted to the influence of the Italians, but the direction their art as
players took as soon as they began to show signs of a national
independence. Few were the match of the Italians or even the
French players in solo work. None was a phenomenal virtuoso. The
greatest were most successful as orchestral or quartet players; and
their most influential work was that done in connection with some
orchestra. This is most evident in the case of the Mannheim
composers. Both Stamitz and Cannabich were primarily conductors,
who had a special gift in organizing and developing the orchestra.
Their most significant compositions were their symphonies, in the
new style, in which they not only gave a strong impetus to the
development of symphonic forms, but brought about new effects in
the combination of wood-wind and brass instruments with the
strings. Leopold Mozart’s opinion that a man who could play well in
an orchestra was a better player and a better musician than he who
could make a success playing solos, is indicative of the purely
German idea of violin music during the century. And it cannot be
denied that great as Franz Benda and Johann Graun may have been
as players, they contributed little of lasting worth to the literature of
the violin, and made practically no advance in the art of playing it.
But both were great organizers and concert masters, and as such
left an indelible impression on the development of music, especially
orchestral music, in Germany.

VI
Before concluding this chapter and passing on to a discussion of the
development of violin music in the nineteenth century a few words
must be said of the compositions for the violin by those great
masters who were not first and foremost violinists. Among these,
four may claim our attention: Handel, Bach, Haydn, and Mozart.

Handel is not known to have given much time to the violin, but it is
said that when he chose to play on it, his tone was both strong and
beautiful. He wrote relatively little music for it. Twelve so-called solo
sonatas with figured bass (harpsichord or viol) were published in
1732 as opus 1. Of these only three are for the violin: the third, tenth,
and twelfth. The others are for flute. Apart from a few characteristic
violin figures, chiefly of the rocking variety, these solo sonatas might
very well do for clavier with equal effect. There is the sane, broad
mood in them all which one associates with Handel. In the edition of
Handel’s works by the German Handel Society, there are three
additional sonatas for violin—in D major, A major, and E major.
These seem to be of somewhat later origin than the others, but they
are in the same form, beginning with a slow movement, followed by
allegro, largo, and final allegro, as in most of the cyclical
compositions of that time. One cannot deny to these sonatas a
manly dignity and charm. They are in every way plausible as only
Handel knows how to be; yet they have neither the grace of Corelli,
nor the deep feeling of Bach. One may suspect them of being, like
the pieces for clavier, tossed off easily from his pen to make a little
money. What is remarkable is that sure as one might be of this, one
would yet pay to hear them.

There are besides these solo sonatas for violin or flute and figured
bass, nine sonatas for two violins, or violin and flute with figured
bass, and seven sonatas, opus 5, for two instruments, probably
intended for two violins.

Among the most remarkable of J. S. Bach’s compositions are the six

sonatas for violin without any accompaniment, written in Cöthen,
about 1720. These works remain, and probably always will remain,
unique in musical literature, not only because of their form, but
because of the profound beauty of the music in them. Just how much
of a violinist Bach himself was, no one knows. He was fond of
playing the viola in the court band at Cöthen. It can hardly be
pretended that these sonatas for violin alone are perfectly adapted to
the violin. They resemble in style the organ music which was truly
the whole foundation of Bach’s technique. In that same organ style,
he wrote for groups of instruments, for groups of voices, for clavier
and for all other combinations.

On the other hand no activity of Bach’s is more interesting, and

perhaps none is more significant, than his assiduous copying and
transcribing again and again of the violin works of Vivaldi, Torelli, and
Albinoni. Especially his study of Vivaldi is striking. He used themes
of the Italian violinists as themes for organ fugues; he transcribed the
concertos of Vivaldi into concertos for one, two, three, or four
harpsichords. And not only that, practically all his concertos for a
solo clavier are transcriptions of his own concertos for violin.

But the polyphonic style of the sonatas for violin alone is peculiarly a
German inheritance. Walter and Biber were conspicuous for the use
of double stops and an approach to polyphonic style. Most
remarkable of all was a pupil of the old Danish organist, Buxtehude,
Nikolaus Bruhns (1665-1697), who was able to play two parts on his
violin and at the same time add one or two more with his feet on the
organ pedals. Though Corelli touched gently upon the polyphonic
style in the movements of the first six of his solo sonatas, the
polyphonic style was maintained mostly by the Germans. As Bach
would write chorus, fugue, or concerto in this style, so did he write
for the violin alone.

Of the six works the first three are sonatas, in the sense of the
sonate da chiesa of Corelli, serious and not conspicuously
rhythmical. The last three are properly suites, for they consist of
dance movements. The most astonishing of all the pieces is the
Chaconne, at the end of the second suite. Here Bach has woven a
series of variations over a simple, yet beautiful, ground, which finds
an equal only in the great Passacaglia for the organ.

The three sonatas of this set can be found transcribed, at least in

part, by Bach into various other forms. The fugue from the first, in G
minor, was transposed into D minor and arranged for the organ. The
whole of the second sonata, in A minor, was rearranged for the
harpsichord. The fugue in the third sonata for violin alone exists also
as a fugue for the organ.

There are besides these sonatas for violin alone, six sonatas for
harpsichord and violin, which are among the most beautiful of his
compositions; and a sonata in E minor and a fugue in G minor for
violin with figured bass. It is interesting to note that the six sonatas
for harpsichord and violin differ from similar works by Corelli and by
Handel. Here there is no affair with the figured bass; but the part for
the harpsichord is elaborately constructed, and truly, from the point
of view of texture, more important than that for the violin.

Bach wrote at least five concertos for one or two violins during his
stay at Cöthen. One of these is included among the six concertos
dedicated to the Margrave of Brandenburg. All of these have been
rearranged for harpsichord, and apparently among the harpsichord
concertos there are three which were originally for violin but have not
survived in that shape. The concertos, even more than the sonatas,
are not essentially violin music, but are really organ music. The style
is constantly polyphonic and the violin solos hardly stand out
sufficiently to add a contrasting spot of color to the whole. Bach’s
great work for the violin was the set of six solo sonatas. These must
indeed be reckoned, wholly apart from the instrument, as among the
great masterpieces in the musical literature of the world.

Haydn’s compositions for violin, including concertos and sonatas,

are hardly of considerable importance. His associations with
violinists in the band at Esterhazy, and later in Vienna with amateurs
such as Tost and professionals like Schuppanzigh, gave him a
complete idea of the nature and the possibilities of the instrument.
But the knowledge so acquired shows to best advantage in his
treatment of the first and second violin parts in his string quartets, in
many of which the first violin is given almost the importance of a solo
instrument. Eight sonatas for harpsichord and violin have been
published, but of these only four were originally conceived in the
form.

The young Mozart was hardly less proficient on the violin than he
was on the harpsichord, a fact not surprising in view of his father’s
recognized skill as a teacher in this special branch of music. But he
seems to have treated his violin with indifference and after his
departure from Salzburg for Paris to have quite neglected his
practice, much to his father’s concern. The most important of his
compositions for the violin are the five concertos written in Salzburg
in 1775. They were probably written for his own use, but just how
closely in conjunction with the visit of the Archduke Maximilian to
Salzburg in April of that year cannot be stated positively. Several
serenades and the little opera, Il re pastore, were written for the fêtes
given in honor of the same young prince. The concertos belong to
the same period. In Köchel’s Index they are numbers 207, 211, 216,
218, and 219. A sixth, belonging to a somewhat later date, bears the
number 268. Of these the first in B-flat was completed on April 14,
1775, the second, in D, June 14, the third, in G, September 12, the
fourth, in D, in October, and the fifth, in A, quite at the end of the
year.

The sixth concerto, in E-flat, is considered both by Jahn and Köchel

to belong to the Salzburg period. It was not published, however, until
long after Mozart’s death; and recently the scholarly writers, Messrs.
de Wyzewa and de St. Foix, have thrown considerable doubt upon
the authenticity of large parts of it. According to their theory[50] the
opening tutti and the orchestral portion at the beginning of the
development section are undoubtedly the work of Mozart, but of the
mature Mozart of 1783 and 1784. Likewise the solo passages in all
the movements seem to bear the stamp of his genius. But apart from
these measures, the development of the solo ideas and the
orchestral accompaniment were completed either by André, who
published the work, or by Süssmayer, who was also said by Mozart’s
widow to be the composer of a mass in B-flat, published by C. F.
Peters as a composition of Mozart’s.

In addition mention should be made of the concertos introduced

between the first and second movements of various serenades,
according to the custom of the day. Most of these are of small
proportions; but one, in G major (K. 250), written in Salzburg some
time in July, 1776, has the plan of an independent composition.

It was the custom for a master like Schobert in Paris, or Mozart in

Vienna, to ‘accompany’ the young ladies who played pianoforte or
harpsichord sonatas of his composition and under his instruction with
music on the violin. There are many sonatas for harpsichord
published by Schobert, with a violin part ad libitum. This in the main
but reinforces the chief melodic lines of the part for harpsichord or
pianoforte; and works with such a violin part, ad libitum, are not at all
violin sonatas in the sense of the term accepted today, i.e., sonatas
in which violin and piano are woven inextricably together. They are
frankly pianoforte or harpsichord sonatas with the ‘accompaniment’
of a violin.

On the other hand, we have found the violin masters like Corelli and
Tartini writing sonatas for violin, with figured bass for harpsichord,
lute, or even viol. Such sonatas were often called solo sonatas, as in
the case of those of Handel, recently mentioned. The accompanying
instrument had no function but to add harmonies, and a touch of
imitation in the written bass part, here and there.
Between these two extremes lies the sonata with harpsichord
obbligato, that is to say, with a harpsichord part which was not an
accompaniment but an essential part of the whole. In these cases
the music was generally polyphonic in character. The violin might
carry one or two parts of the music, the harpsichord two or three.
Very frequently, if the instruments played together no more than
three parts, the composition was called a Trio. The sonatas by J. S.
Bach for harpsichord and violin are of this character. Though the
harpsichord carries on more of the music than the violin, both
instruments are necessary to the complete rendering of the music.

Mozart must have frequently added improvised parts for the violin to
many of his sonatas written expressly for the keyboard instrument.
Among his earliest works one finds sonatas for clavecin with a free
part for violin, for violin or flute, for violin or flute and 'cello. Oftenest
the added part does little more than duplicate the melody of the part
for clavecin, with here and there an imitation or a progression of
thirds or sixths. But among his later works are sonatas for pianoforte
with added accompaniment for violin in which the two instruments
contribute something like an equal share to the music, which are the
ancestors of the sonatas for violin and piano by Beethoven, Brahms,
and César Franck. Among the most important of these are six
published in November, 1781, as opus 2. In Köchel’s Index they bear
the numbers 376, 296, 377, 378, 379, and 380. The greatest of them
is that in C major, K. 296, with its serious and rich opening adagio, its
first allegro in Mozart’s favorite G minor, and the beautiful variations
forming the last movement. Four more sonatas, of equal musical
value, were published respectively in 1784, 1785, 1787, and 1788.

VII
Looking back over the eighteenth century one cannot but be
impressed by the independent growth of violin music. The Italians
contributed far more than all the other nationalities to this steady
growth, partly because of their native love for melody and for sheer,
simple beauty of sound. The intellectual broadening of forms, the
intensifying of emotional expressiveness by means of rich and
poignant harmonies, concerned them far less than the perfecting of a
suave and wholly beautiful style which might give to the most singing
of all instruments a chance to reveal its precious and almost unique
qualities. This accounts for the calm, classic beauty of their music,
which especially in the case of Corelli and Tartini does not suffer by
changes that have since come in style and the technique of
structure.

The success of the Italian violinists in every court of Europe, both as

performers and as composers, was second only to the success of
the great singers and the popular opera composers of the day. Their
progress in their art was so steadfast and secure that other nations
could hardly do more than follow their example. Hence in France and
Germany one finds with few exceptions an imitation of Italian styles
and forms, with a slight admixture of national characteristics, as in
the piquancy of Cartier’s, the warm sentiment of Benda’s music.
What one might call the pure art of violin playing and violin music,
abstract in a large measure from all other branches of music, was
developed to perfection by the Italian violinist-composers of the
eighteenth century. Its noble traditions were brought over into more
modern forms by Viotti, henceforth to blend and undergo change in a
more general course of development.

Perhaps only in the case of Chopin can one point to such a pure and
in a sense isolated ideal in the development of music for a single
instrument, unless the organ works of Bach offer another exception.
And already in the course of the eighteenth century one finds here
and there violin music that has more than a special significance. The
sonatas for unaccompanied violin by Bach must be regarded first as
music, then as music for the violin. The style in which they were
written is not a style which has grown out of the nature of the
instrument. They have not served and perhaps cannot serve as a
model for perfect adaptation of means to an end. Bach himself was
willing to regard the ideas in them as fit for expression through other
instruments. But the works of Corelli, Tartini, Nardini and Viotti are
works which no other instrument than that for which they were
written may pretend to present. And so beautiful is the line of melody
in them, so warm the tones which they call upon, that there is
scarcely need of even the harmonies of the figured bass to make
them complete.

In turning to the nineteenth century we shall find little or no more of

this sort of pure music. Apart from a few brilliant concert or salon
pieces which have little beyond brilliance or charm to recommend
them, the considerable literature for the violin consists of sonatas
and concertos in which the accompaniment is like the traditional half,
almost greater than the whole. In other words we have no longer to
do with music for which the violin is the supreme justification, but
with music which represents a combination of the violin with other
instruments. Glorious and unmatched as is its contribution in this
combination, it remains incomplete of itself.
 FOOTNOTES:
[48] See A. Schering: Geschichte des Instrumentalkonzerts.

[49] Die Violine und ihre Meister.

[50] See ‘W. A. Mozart,’ by T. de Wyzewa and G. de St. Foix, Paris, 1912.
Appendix II, Vol. II, p. 428.
 CHAPTER XIII
VIOLIN MUSIC IN THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY
The perfection of the bow and of the classical technique—The
French school: Kreutzer, Rode, and Baillot—Paganini: his
predecessors, his life and fame, his playing, and his compositions
—Ludwig Spohr: his style and his compositions; his pupils—
Viennese violinists: Franz Clement, Mayseder, Boehm, Ernst and
others—The Belgian school: De Bériot and Vieuxtemps—Other
violinist composers: Wieniawski, Molique, Joachim, Sarasate, Ole
Bull; music of the violinist-composers in general—Violin music of
the great masters.

The art of violin music in the nineteenth century had its head in
Paris. Few violinists with the exception of Paganini developed their
powers without the model set them by the great French violinists at
the beginning of the century. Most of them owed more than can be
determined to the influence of Viotti. Even Spohr, who with more or
less controversial spirit, wrote of the French violinists as old-
fashioned, modelled himself pretty closely upon Rode; and therefore
even Spohr is but a descendant of the old classical Italian school.

The technique of playing the violin was thoroughly understood by the

end of the eighteenth century. Viotti himself was a brilliant virtuoso;
but, trained in the classic style, he laid less emphasis upon external
brilliance than upon expressiveness. The matters of double stops,
trills, runs, skips and other such effects of dexterity were largely
dependent upon the fingers of the left hand; and this part of
technique, though somewhat hampered by holding the violin with the
chin upon the right side of the tailpiece, was clearly mastered within
reasonable limits by the violinists of the middle of the century, Tartini,
Veracini, Nardini, Geminiani, and others. Indeed Geminiani in his
instruction book recommended that the violin be held on the left side;
and in range of fingering gave directions for playing as high as in the
seventh position. Leopold Mozart, however, naturally conservative,
held to the old-fashioned holding of the instrument.

The technique of bowing, upon which depends the art of expression

in violin playing, awaited the perfection of a satisfactory bow. Tartini’s
playing, it will be remembered, was especially admired for its
expressiveness; and this, together with certain of his remarks on
bowing which have been preserved in letters, leads one to think that
he may have had a bow far better than those in the hands of most of
his contemporaries. Whether or not he made it himself, and indeed
just what it may have been, are not known. Certainly it must have
been better than the bows with which Leopold Mozart was familiar.
The clumsy nature of these may be judged by the illustrations in his
instruction book.

The final perfection of the bow awaited the skill of a Frenchman,

François Tourte (1747-1835), who has properly been called the
Stradivari of the bow. It was wholly owing to his improvements that
many modern effects in staccato, as well as in fine shading,
particularly in the upper notes, became possible. He is supposed not
to have hit upon these epoch-making innovations until after 1775;
and there is much likelihood that he was stimulated by the presence
of Viotti in Paris after 1782. No better testimony to the service he
rendered to the art of violin playing can be found than the new
broadening of violin technique and style accomplished by men like
Viotti, Kreutzer, Baillot, Rode, and Lafont, who availed themselves
immediately of the results of his skill.

I
Something may now be said of these men, whose activities have
without exception the glaring background of the horrors of the
French Revolution. Though Kreutzer was of German descent, he
was born in Versailles (1766) and spent the greater part of his life in
and about Paris, intimately associated with French styles and
institutions. Apart from early lessons received from his father, he
seems to have been for a time under the care of Anton Stamitz, son
of Johann Stamitz. At the Chapelle du Roi, to which organization he
obtained admittance through the influence of Marie Antoinette, he
had the occasion of hearing Viotti. The great Italian influenced him
no less than he influenced his young contemporaries in Paris.
Concerning his activities as a composer of operas little need be said,
though one or two of his ballets, especially Paul et Virginie and Le
Carnaval de Venise, held the stage for some years. As a player he
ranks among the most famous of the era. His duets with Rode
roused the public to great enthusiasm. In 1798 he was in Vienna in
the suite of General Bernadotte, and here made the acquaintance of
Beethoven. Subsequently Beethoven dedicated the sonata for violin
and piano (opus 47) to Kreutzer.

By reason of this and his book of forty Études ou caprices pour le

violon, he is now chiefly remembered. His other compositions for the
violin, including nineteen concertos and several airs and variations,
have now been allowed to sink into oblivion. To say that the
concertos are ‘more brilliant than Rode’s, less modern than Baillot’s’
distinguishes them as much as they may be distinguished from the
compositions of his contemporaries. They are dry music, good as
practice pieces for the student, but without musical life. But Kreutzer
was a great teacher. He was one of the original professors of the
violin at the Conservatoire, and with Baillot and Rode prepared the
still famous Méthode which, carrying the authority of that sterling
institution, has remained, almost to the present day, the standard
book of instruction for the young violinist. His own collection of forty
studies likewise holds still a place high among those ‘steps to
Parnassus’ by which the student may climb to the company of
finished artists.