fresh subjects have been treated, new and interesting information given, and some ancient mistakes corrected. As instances of the kind of subjects embraced and the general mode of treatment adopted, reference may be made to the larger biographies-especially that of Haydn, which is crowded with new facts; to the articles on Auber, Berlioz, Bodenschatz, Bull, Cristofori, David, Farinelli, Finck, Froberger, Galitzin, Gibbons, Hasse; on Additional Accompaniments, Agrémens, Arpeggio, Arrangement, Fingering, Form, and Harmony; on Académie de Musique, Bachgesellschaft, Breitkopf and Härtel, Bassoon, Carmagnole, Choral Symphony, Conservatoire, Concerts, Concert Spirituel, Copyright, Drum, English Opera, Fidelio, Grand Prix de Rome, Handel and Haydn Society, Handel Festivals and Commemorations, Harpsichord, Harmonica, Hexachord, and many others. The engraved illustrations have been specially prepared for the work, and will speak for themselves. In an English dictionary it has been thought right to treat English music and musicians with special care, and to give their biographies and achievements with some minuteness of detail. On this point thanks are due to Colonel Joseph Lemuel Chester for much accurate information which it would have been almost impossible to obtain elsewhere, and which he has afforded in every case with the greatest kind ess and promptitude. Every means has been taken to procure an adequate treatment of the various topics, and to bring the information down as near as possible to the day of publication. Notwithstanding the Editor's desire, however, omissions and errors have occurred. These will be rectified in an Appendix on the publication of the final volume. The limits of the work have necessarily excluded disquisitions on Acoustics, Anatomy, Mechanics, and other branches of science connected with the main subject, which though highly important are not absolutely requisite in a book concerned with practical music. In the case of Acoustics, sufficient references are given to the best works to enable the student to pursue the enquiry for himself, outside the Dictionary. Similarly all investigations into the music of barbarous nations have been avoided, unless they have some direct bearing on European music. The Editor gladly takes this early opportunity to express his deep obligations to the writers of the various articles. Their names are in themselves a guarantee for the value of their contributions; but the lively interest which they have shown in the work and the care they have taken in the preparation of their articles, often involving much time, and laborious, disinterested research, demand his warm acknowledgment. 29 BEDFORD STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON. April 1, 1879. M. GUSTAVE CHOUQUET, Keeper of the Museum of the Con servatoire de Musique, Paris B. J. B. J. R. S.-B. D. B. M. C. C. W. C. G. C. A. D. C. W. H. C. E. D. P. D. J. W. D. E. H. D. H. S. E. C. A. F. F. G. REV. THOMAS HELMORE, Master of the Children of the Chapels Royal T. H. EDWARD JOHN HOPKINS, ESQ., Organist to the Temple REV. T. PERCY HUDSON FRANCIS HUEFFER, ESQ. JOHN HULLAH, Esq., LL.D. G. H. A. J. H. E. J. H. T. P. H. F. H. J. H. .. WILLIAM H. HUSK, ESQ., Librarian to the Sacred Harmonic Society W. H. H. F. H. JENKS, Esq., Boston, Mass., U. S. A. EDWIN G. MONK, ESQ., Mus. Doc., Organist of York Cathedral SIR HERBERT S. OAKELEY, Mus. Doc., Professor of Music at the REV. SIR FREDERICK A. GORE OUSELEY, BART., Mus. Doc., Professor of Music in the University of Oxford C. HUBERT H. PARRY, ESQ. .. A. M. J. M. F. A. M. E. G. M. H. S. O. F. A. G. O. C. H. H. P. HERR C. F. POHL, Librarian to the Gesellschaft der Musik SIR ROBERT P. STEWART, Mus. Doc., Professor of Music in Dublin P. E. J. P. E. H. P. C. M. P. C. F. P. W. P. V. DE P. E. P. W. Pg. C. H. P. E. F. R. W. S. R H. H. S. University WILLIAM H. STONE, ESQ., M.D. FRANKLIN TAYLOR, ESQ. ARTHUR SEYMOUR SULLIVAN, ESQ., Mus. Doc. .. ALEXANDER W. THAYER, ESQ., United States Consul, Trieste, Author of the Life of Beethoven C. A. W. TROYTE, ESQ. COLONEL H. WARE, Public Library, Boston, Mass., U. S. A. Bedford Street, Covent Garden, April 1, 1879. A DICTIONARY OF A. MUSIC AND MUSICIANS. The name of the sixth degree of the natural scale of C. The reason of its being applied to the sixth instead of the first degree will be found explained in the article ALPHABET. It represents the same note in English or German, and in French and Italian is called La. A. A is the note given (usually by the oboe, or by the organ if there be one) for the orchestra to tune to, and it is also the note to which French and German tuning-forks are set, the English being usually tuned to C. In all stringed instruments one of the strings is tuned to A; in the violin it is the second string, in the viola and violoncello the first, and in the contrabasso generally the third. A is also the key in which one of the clarinets in the orchestra is set. In German the keys of A major and A minor are occasionally expressed by A and Ab. [F.T.] AARON (correctly ARON), PIETRO, born at Florence in the latter part of the 15th century. A monk of the order of Jerusalem, and devoted to the study of counterpoint. His various works on the history and science of music (for a list of which see Becker, 'Musik Literatur,' Leipsic, 1836) were printed at Venice and Milan. By Pope Leo X he was admitted into the Roman Chapel, and distinguished in various ways. In or about 1516 Aaron founded a school of music at Rome, which obtained much reputation. He became a canon of Rimini, and died in 1533[C. F. P.] ABACO, EVARISTO FELICE DALL', born at Verona, and renowned as performer and composer on the violin; in 1726 concert-meister in the band of the Kurfürst Max Emanuel of Bavaria. Died 11740. Compositions of his for church and chamber were printed at Amsterdam. [C. F. P.] (c.) in A BATTUTA (Ital., 'with the beat"). An indication, mostly used in recitatives, where after the free declamation of the singer the strict time is resumed. It is thus equivalent to A TEMPO. ABBATINI, ANTONIO MARIA, was born at Tiferno, or at Castello (Baini), in 1595 or 1605, and died in 1677. Was successively Maestro di Cappella at the Lateran, the Church of the Gesù, and San Lorenzo in Damaso, and three times held the like office at Maria Maggiore; was also, for a time, maestro at the church of Loreto. Was offered by Pope Urban VIII the task of rewriting the Hymnal: but refused to supersede the music of Palestrina by any of his own. His published works consist of four books of Psalms and three books of Masses, some Antifone for twenty-four voices (Mascardi, Rome, 1630-1638, and 1677), and five books of Mottetti (Grignani, Rome, 1635). He is named by ALLACCI as the composer of an opera 'Del male in bene.' The greater part of his productions remain unprinted. Some academical lectures by him, of much note in their time, mentioned by Padre Martini, do not seem to have been preserved. He assisted KIRCHER in his 'Musurgia.' [E. H. P.] ABBÉ, PHILIPPE PIERRE DE ST. SEVIN and PIERRE DE ST. SEVIN, two brothers, violoncellists, were music-masters of the parish church of Agen early in the last century. It seems doubtful whether they were actually ordained priests, or merely in consequence of their office had to wear the ecclesiastical dress. From this circumstance however they received the name of Abbé l'ainé— or simply l'Abbé-and l'Abbé cadet, respectively. They gave up their connection with the church and went to Paris, where they obtained engage ments at the Grand Opéra. They were both excellent players, but the younger brother seems B to have been the more celebrated of the two, and to have been specially remarkable for his beautiful tone. It is said to have been owing in great measure to the impression produced by his playing that the viola di gamba more and more fell into disuse and the violoncello was more extensively introduced. (Batistin.) [T. P. H.] ABBEY, JOHN, a distinguished organ-builder; was born at Whilton, a Northamptonshire village, Dec. 22, 1785. In his youth he was employed in the factory of Davis, and subsequently in that of Russell, both organ-builders of repute in their day. In 1826 Abbey went to Paris, on the invitation of Sebastian Erard, the celebrated harp and pianoforte maker, to work upon an organ which Erard had designed, and which he sent to the Exhibition of the Productions of National Industry in 1827, and also to build an organ for the Convent of the Legion of Honour, at St. Denis. He also built an organ from Erard's design for the chapel of the Tuileries, which, however, had only a short existence, being destroyed in the Revolution of 1830. Having established himself as an organ-builder in Paris, Abbey became extensively employed in the construction, renovation, and enlargement of organs in France and elsewhere. Amongst others he built choir organs for accompanying voices for the cathedrals of Rheims, Nantes, Versailles, and Evreux, and for the churches of St. Eustache, St. Nicholas des Champs, St. Elizabeth, St. Medard, St. Etienne du Mont, and St. Thomas Aquinas, in Paris; and large organs for the cathedrals of Rochelle, Rennes, Viviers, Tulle, Chalons-surMarne, Bayeux, and Amiens, and for churches, convents, and chapels at St. Denis, Orleans, Caen, Chalons, Picpus, and Versailles. He repaired and enlarged organs in the cathedrals of Mende, Moulins, Rheims, Evreux, and Nevers, and in the churches of St. Etienne du Mont, St. Philippe du Roule, The Assumption, and St. Louis d' Antin in Paris. He also built many organs for Chili and South America. In 1831 Abbey was employed, at the instance of Meyerbeer (who had introduced the instrument into the score of his opera Robert le Diable,' then about to be produced), to build an organ for the Grand Opera at Paris, which instrument continued to be used there until it was destroyed, with the theatre, by fire in 1873. Abbey was the first who introduced into French organs the English mechanism and the bellows invented by Cummins. His example was speedily followed by the French builders, and from that period may be dated the improvements in organ building which have raised the French builders to their present eminence. His work was well finished, and gener. ally satisfactory. He died at Versailles, Feb. 19, 1859. He left two sons, E. and J. Abbey, who now carry on the business of organ-builders in Versailles. [W. H. H.] ABBREVIATIONS. The abbreviations employed in music are of two kinds, namely, the abridgment of terms relating to musical expression, and the true musical abbreviations by the help of which certain passages, chords, etc., may be written in a curtailed form, to the greater convenience of both composer and performer. Abbreviations of the first kind need receive no special consideration here; they consist for the most part of the initial letter or first syllable of the word employed-as for instance, p. for violoncello, fag. for bassoon (fagotto), timp. for piano, cresc. for crescendo, ob. for oboe, cello for drums (timpani); and their meaning is everywhere sufficiently obvious. Those of musical passages are indicated by signs, as follows. is expressed by a stroke or strokes across the The continued repetition of a note or chord stem, or above or below the note if it be a semibreve (Ex. 1), the number of strokes denoting the subdivision of the written note into quavers, semiquavers, etc., unless the word tremolo or tremolando is added, in which case the repetition is as rapid as possible, without regard to the exact number of notes played. On bowed inis easy, but in pianoforte music an octave or struments the rapid reiteration of a single note chord becomes necessary to produce a tremolo, the manner of writing and performing which is shown in Ex. 2. I. Written. |