Francesco Geminiani was the most remarkable of Corelli’s pupils.  Born at Lucca in 1680, he finished his studies under Corelli at Rome, and spent several years with great musical eclat at Naples.  In 1714 he went to England, in which country he spent many years.  His execution was of great excellence, but his compositions only achieved temporary favor.  His life is said to have been full of romance and incident.  Geminiani’s connection with Handel has a special musical interest.  The king, who arrived in England in September, 1714, and was crowned at Westminster a month later, was irritated with Handel for having left Germany, where he held the position of chapel-master to George, when Elector of Brunswick, and still more so by his having composed a Te Deum on the Peace of Utrecht, which was not favorably regarded by the Protestant princes of Germany.  Baron Kilmanseck, a Hanoverian, and a great admirer of Handel, undertook to bring them together again.  Being informed that the king intended to picnic on the Thames, he requested the composer to write something for the occasion.  Thereupon Handel wrote the twenty-five little concerted pieces known under the title of “Water Music.”  They were executed in a barge which followed the royal boat.  The orchestra consisted of four violins, one tenor, one violoncello, one double-bass, two hautboys, two bassoons, two French horns, two flageolets, one flute, and one trumpet.  The king soon recognized the author of the music, and his resentment against Handel began to soften.  Shortly after this Geminiani was requested to play some sonatas of his own composition in the king’s private cabinet; but, fearing that they would lose much of their effect if they were accompanied in an inferior manner, he expressed the desire that Handel should play the accompaniments.  Baron Kilmanseck carried the request to the king, and supported it strongly.  The result was that peace was made, and an extra pension of two hundred pounds per annum settled upon Handel.  Geminiani, after thirty-five years spent in England, went to Paris for five years, where he was most heartily welcomed by the musical world, but returned across the Channel again to spend his latter years in Dublin.  It was here that Matthew Dubourg, whose book on “The Violin and Violinists” is a perfect treasure-trove of anecdote, became his pupil.

Another remarkable violinist was an intimate friend of Geminiani, a name distinguished alike in the annals of chess-playing and music, Andre Danican Philidor.  This musician was born near Paris in 1726, and was the grandson of the hautboy-player to the court of Louis XIII.  His father and several of his relations were also eminent players in the royal orchestras of Louis XIV and Louis XV.  Young Philidor was received into the Chapel Royal at Versailles in 1732, being then six years old, and when eleven he composed a motette which extorted much admiration.  In the Chapel Royal there were about eighty musicians