[*] See the author’s “Homophonic Forms of Mus. Comp.” par. 70, par. 72.
[*] Idem, par. 73, par. 81a.
[*]This actually takes place in Jadassohn, Vocal Canon, op. 38, No. 1, during Div. I.
[back to text] GUILMANT, Félix Alexandre, son of an organist of Boulogne, and born there March 12, 1837. He took to the organ at an early age, and before he was sixteen was made organist of S. Joseph, in 1857 Maître de Chapelle of S. Nicolas, and shortly after professor of solfeggio in the local École communale. In 1860 he became for some months a pupil of Lemmens, who heard him play and was struck by his ability. In 1871 he removed from Boulogne to Paris, and was appointed organist of the church of the Trinité, a post which he still fills. His playing made a great impression on the general public during the Paris Exhibition of 1878. He is one of the leading organ players of France, and has considerable extempore power. For his instrument he has published a ‘Symphonie,’ (with orchestra), seven sonatas and many concertos, etc., and arrangements—‘Piéces de differents styles,’ ‘L’Organiste pratique,’ and ‘Archives des Maîtres de l’Orgue’; also a scène lyrique, ‘Belsazar,’ for soli, chorus, and orchestra; a hymn, ‘Christus vincit,’ etc, various masses, motets, airs, and original pieces for the harmonium. Guilmant is no stranger to England, having played at the Crystal Palace, at Sheffield, and many other places. G. [from George F. M. J. A. Grove, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians. New York: Macmillan, 1910.]
[back to text] Henschel, (Sir) George, composer, cond., and baritone singer, b. Breslau, Feb. 18, 1850 (on father’s side of Polish descent). Pupil of Wandelt and Schaeffer at Breslau, Moscheles and Wenzel (pf.), Götze (singing) and Reinecke (theory and comp.) at Leipzig Cons., 1867–70. In 1870 st. in Berlin with Kiel (comp.) and Adolf Schulze (singing); début as singer, 1868 in Leipzig. Undertook concert-tours through Europe; 1877–80, lived in London; 1881–4, cons. of the Boston Symph. Orch.: since 1885, settled in London (naturalized Engl. subject, 1890); founded the London Symphony Concerts,’ which he cond. from 1885–96; he was the first cond. of the Scottish Symph. Orch. at Glasgow, whose concerts he cond. from 1891–5. 1886–8, prof. of singing at the Royal Coll. of Mus. In 1881 he married Lillian Bailey (see Henschel, Lillian); after her death in 1901 he withdrew from public appearances until 1909, devoting himself to composition. Made his final appearance as singer in 1914, and was knighted the same year. H. is equally fine as singer, conductor and pianist. He was one of the most enthusiastic champions of Brahms, with whom he was on terms of friendship.-Comps.: Operas, Friedrich der Schöne (not prod.) and Nubia (Dresden, 1899); comic operetta, A Sea Change, or Love’s Castaway; an oratorio; a Requiem; a Stabat Mater, Te Deums; Zigeuner, serenade for orch.; Canon-Suite for string-orch.; a str.-quartet in E♭; incid. music to Hamlet; a mass for 8 voices a capp.: psalms, part-songs, songs, etc.—He has publ. Personal Recolletions of Johannes Brahms (Boston, 1907). Baker, Theodore, and Alfred Remy. Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. 3rd , rev. and enl. / by Alfred Remy. ed. New York: G Schirmer, 1919.
[back to text] JADASSOHN, Salomon, born at Breslau, Sept. 3, 1831. His years of study were passed partly at home under Hesse, Lüstner, and Brosig, partly at the Leipzig Conservatorium (1848), partly at Weimar under Liszt, and again, in 1853, at Leipzig under Hauptmann. From that time he resided in Leipzig, first as a teacher then as the conductor of the Enterpe concerts, and lastly in the Conservatorium as teacher of Harmony, Counterpoint, Composition, and the Pianoforte. [In 1887 he received the honorary degree of D. Phil. from the Leipzig University, and in 1893 was appointed Royal Professor.] His compositions are varied and numerous, reaching to well over 100 opus numbers. [His skill in counterpoint is shown in an orchestral serenade in canon, Op. 35; in two serenades for piano, opp. 8 and 125; in the ballet-music, op. 53 for piano duet; and in the vocal duets, opp. 9, 36, 38, and 43. Four symphonies, orchestral overtures, and serenades, two piano concertos, four trios, three quartets, three quintets, a sextet for piano and strings, two string quartets, are among his instrumental works; and of his choral works the following may be mentioned:— Psalms xliii. and c. (8-parts), ‘Vergebung,’ ‘Verheissung,‘ ‘Trostlied,’ ‘Johannistag,’ and ‘An dam Sturmwind.’ As a private teacher Jadassohn was highly esteemed, and his many theoretical works have passed through many editions, and have been translated into various languages. The chief of these are his Harmonielehre (1883), Kontrapunkt (1884), Kanon und Fuge (1884), Die Formen in den Werken der Tonkunst (1889), and Lehrbuch der Instrumentation. All have been translated into English and published by Breitkopf & Härtel, the treatises on Harmony and Counterpoint have also been translated into French and Italian. Jadassohn died at Leipzig, Feb. 1, 1902.] G.; additions from Riemann’s Lexikon. [from George F. M. J. A. Grove, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians. New York: Macmillan, 1910.]
[back to text] KLENGEL, August Alexander, born Jan. 27, 1783, at Dresden, son of a well-known portrait and landscape painter, first studied music with Milchmayer, inventor of a piano which could produce fifty different qualities of tone (see Cramer’s Magazin der Musik, i. 10). In 1803 Clementi visited Dresden, and on his departure Klengel went with him as his pupil. The. two separated on Clementi’s marriage in Berlin, but the young wife dying shortly after, they went together to Russia, where Klengel remained till 1811. He then spent two years studying in Paris, returned to Dresden in 1814, went London to in 1815, and in the following year was appointed Court-organist at Dresden, which remained his home till his death on Nov. 22, 1852. During a visit to Paris in 1828 he formed a close friendship with Fétis, who with other musicians was much interested in his pianoforte canons. Of these he published only ‘Les Avant-coureurs’ (Paul, Dresden, 1841). After his death Hauptmann edited the ‘Canons et Fugues’ (Breitkopf & Härtel, 1854), with a preface, in which he says, Klengel was brought up on Sebastian Bach, and knew his works thoroughly. It must not be supposed, however, that he was a mere imitator of Bach’s manner; it is truer to say that he expressed his own thoughts in the way in which Bach would have done had he lived at the present day. He left several concertos, and many other works. His visit to London was commemorated by the composition of a Quintet for Piano and Strings for the Philharmonic Society, which was performed Feb. 26, 1816, he himself taking the pianoforte. There is a pleasant little sketch of him in a letter of Mendelssohn’s to Eckert, Jan. 26, 1842. F. G. [from George F. M. J. A. Grove, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians. New York: Macmillan, 1910.]
[back to text] Leschetizky [lĕh-shĕ-tĭt´skē], Theodor, pianist and famous pedagogue; b. Lancut, Austr. Poland, June 22, 1830, d. Dresden, Nov. 17, 1915. Pupil of his father, an eminent teacher in Vienna; then of Czerny (pf.) and Sechter (comp.). In his fifteenth year he began teaching; also attended the Univ. as a student of philosophy until its closure in 1848 (the revolutionary year); made highly successful professional tours 1842–8, and 1852, and then went to Petrograd, becoming a teacher in the Cons., giving many private lessons, playing, composing, and acting as conductor to the Grand Duchess Helen during Rubinstein’s absences. Ill health compelled him to leave Russia in 1878; he then played in London, Holland, Germany, and Vienna; there he married (1880) his former pupil, Annette Essipov, and settled as a teacher. He still made occasional concert-tours, but his interest in teaching caused him to withdraw at the height of his powers from the concert-stage in 1886, appearing for the last time in Frankfort. After the phenomenal success of his pupil Paderewski (Vienna, 1887; London and New York, 1891) L. was regarded as the worlds foremost piano-pedagogue, and pupils flocked to him from all quarters of the globe. He retained the full vigor of his mental faculties to the very end, and taught almost to last day of his life. The long list of his pupils includes the names of Gabrilowitsch, Mark Hambourg, A. Schnabel, Fanny Bloomfield Zeisler, Katherine Goodson, Ethel Leginska, etc. He was married four times, and, with the exception of his first wife (a singer, Anna Friedbourg), to his own pupils: Annette Essipov (1880–91), Dominirska Benislavska (1894–1908), Marie Rozborska (1908). These varied matrimonial ventures, except the last, ended in divorce. He wrote a successful opera, Die erste Falte (Prague, 1867), and numerous brilliant and effective compositions for pf.: Op. 2, Les deus Alouettes; op. 5, Grande Polka de Caprice, op. 10, La Cascade (concert-étude), op. 20, Perpetuum mobile, op. 22, Valse chromatique; op. 39, Souvenirs d’Italie (6 pcs.), op. 40, À la Campagna (5 pcs.); op. 41, Trois Études caractéristiques; etc.—His method was explained by Malvine Brée, Die Grundlage der Melhode L’.s (1902, also in Engl. and Fr. transl.).—Cf. Countess A. Potocka, Th. L. (New York, 1903); A. Hullah, Th. L. (London, 1906). Baker, Theodore, and Alfred Remy. Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. 3rd , rev. and enl. / by Alfred Remy. ed. New York: G Schirmer, 1919.
[back to text] Moszkowsky [mŏhsh-kŏhf´skē], Moritz, brilliant concert-pianist, teacher, and composer; b. Breslau, Aug. 23, 1854. His father, a Polish gentleman of independent means, early recognized his son’s mus. talent. M. was trained at home, in the Dresden Cons., and at the Conservatories of Stern and Kullak in Berlin, in which latter he taught for several years. His first public concert, at Berlin, 1873, was highly successful, and, followed by tours to other German cities, and to Warsaw and Paris, establ. his fame as a pianist. Until 1897, M. made Berlin his headquarters; since then he has been living in Paris. In 1899 he was elected a member of the Berlin Akademie.—As a composer he is most widely known by his elegant and dainty salon-music for piano; the Spanish Dances brought his pieces into vogue, and the concert-studies, concert- waltzes, gavottes, Skizzen, a Tarantella, a Humoresque, etc., have also won favor among pianists. In larger forms he has successfully produced an opera, Boabdil, der Maurenkönig (Berlin, 1892); the music to Grabbe’s Don Juan und Faust (1896); a ballet, Laurin (1896); a symphonic poem, Jeanne d’Arc, op. 19; Phantastischer Zug f. orch.; Aus allen Herren Länder f. orch., op. 23; 2 orchl. suites (F, op. 39; G m., op. 47): a violin-concerto, op. 30; a pf.-concerto in E, op. 59; Der Schäfer putzte such zum Tanz, scene from ‘Faust’ for soli, ch. and orch.; a Suite for 2 violins and pf., op. 71. About 75 opus-numbers have appeared. Baker, Theodore, and Alfred Remy. Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. 3rd , rev. and enl. / by Alfred Remy. ed. New York: G Schirmer, 1919.
[back to text] CANON. This is the strictest and most regular species of imitation. [See IMITATION.] It is practised in music for two, three, or more parts. The word is derived from the Greek [word for] a rule or standard. A canon, therefore, is a composition written strictly according to rule. The principle of a canon is that one voice begins a melody, which melody is imitated precisely, note for note, and (generally) interval for interval, by some other voice, either at the same or a different pitch, beginning a few beats later and thus as it were running after the leader. For this reason the parts have been sometimes respective]y called ‘Dux’ and ‘Comes,’ or ‘Antecedens’ and ‘Consequens.’
The following is a simple example of a canon ‘two in one at the octave,’ i.e. for two voice an octave apart, and both singing one and the same melody. [example]
By means of a coda (or tail-piece) this canon is brought to a conclusion. But many canons lead back to the beginning, and thus become ‘circular’ or ‘infinite.’ The following is a specimen of this kind, which is ‘two in one at the fifth below,’ or ‘canon ad hypodiapente’:—
Sometimes two or more canons are simultaneously woven into one composition. The following, for instance (from Travera’s Service, 1740), would be called a canon ‘four in two.’
Byrd’s ‘Diliges Dominum,’ for 8 voices, consists of four canons all sung together, each voice singing the melody of its fellow reversed.
Often in a quartet there may be a canon between two of the voices, while the other two are free; or three voices may be in canon and the fourth part free. We would quote as an example the admirable Gloria Patri to Gibbons’s ‘Nunc dimittis’ in F, in which the treble and alto are in canon while the tenor and bass are free. Again, there are canons by inversion, diminution, ang- mentation, or ‘per recte et retro,’ cancrizans, etc. [See those headings.] A modern one of great ingenuity by Weber exists to the words ‘Canons zu zwey sind nicht drey’ (Jähns, No. 90).
The old writers often indicated canons by monograms, symbols, or other devices, instead of writing them out in full. Indeed they went so far as to write their indications in the form of a cross, a hand, or other shape, with enigmatical Latin inscriptions to indicate the solution. Such pieces were called ‘enigmatical canons.’ As compositions of this nature can only be regarded in the light of ingenious puzzles, bearing the same relation to music that a clever riddle does to poetry, it will be needless to give examples here,—let it suffice to refer to those which are to be found in Fétis’s admirable Traité du Contrepoint at de la Fugue, and in Marpurg’s celebrated work on the same subjects.
The great masters were fond of the relaxation of these plays on notes. They occur often in Beethoven’s letters, and the well-known Allegretto Scherzando of his Eighth Symphony originated in a canon to be sung at Maelzel’s table. Köchel’s Catalogue of Mozart’s works contains 23 canons ; that of Weber by Jahns, 8 ; and an interesting collection will be found in the Appendix to Spohr’s Autobiography. [The wonderfully expressive canons in Bach’s ‘30 Variations’ are far more than examples of mere ingenuity. Every third variation is a canon, and each successive canon is at the distance of an interval by one degree larger than the one before it. Nearly all the canons are in two parts upon a free bass, a few in contrary motion, and they proceed from a canon at the unison (No. 3) to a canon at the ninth (No. 27).]
As popular examples of canons may be named the well-known ‘Non nobis Domine,’ which is a canon three in one, in the fourth and eighth below, and Tallis’s ‘Canon,’ a hymn-tune (usually adapted to Ken’s evening hymn) in which the treble and tenor are in canon while the alto and bass are free. The lover of cathedral music will find specimens of almost every variety of canon in the service by Purcell in B♭, which is a masterpiece of ingenuity and skill. Other good specimens will be found in the Collection of his Gloria Patris, published by V. Novello for the Purcell Club. On the tablet erected in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey to the memory of Dr. Benjamin Cooke, organist of Westminster Abbey at the close of the 18th century, there is engraved a canon, three in one, by double augmentation, which is one of the best extant specimens of that kind of composition. See AUGMENTATION. Another, by Andre, four in one, by threefold augmentation, in given in Ouseley’s Counterpoint, Canon, and Fugue, example 12.
Canons are often introduced into fugues as the closest species of ‘stretto’ [see Fugue and Stretto], and are to be found both in vocal and instrumental compositions. As specimens of the former we would refer, in addition to the references given above, to many of Handel’s choruses, especially to one in ‘Judas Maccabæus,’ ‘To our great God,’ which contains a canon by inversion; also to Sebastian Bach’s magnificent cantata on the chorale ‘Ein’ feste Burg.’ As specimens of instrumental canons we would refer to the first movement of Mozart’s sonata for pianoforte and violin in E minor; or to the minuet of Haydn’s symphony in the same key.
The word ‘Canon’ is also applied, somewhat incorrectly, to a species of vocal composition called a Round. And thus we have duets, trios, and quartets ‘a canone,’ especially in the works of modern Italian composers, which are not really canons, but a much freer and less scientific kind of music. Good examples may be quoted in Beethoven’s ‘Mir ist’ (Fidelio), Curschmann’s ‘Ti prego,’ Cherubini’s ‘Perfida Clori,’ and Rossini‘s ‘Mi manca la voce.’ F. A. G. 0. [from George F. M. J. A. Grove, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians. New York: Macmillan, 1910.]
[back to text] Round. 1. A species of vocal rhythmical canon at the unison, differing from the regular canon in having no coda, thus being infinite; a favorite style of composition in England, from early times (the celebrated round Sumer is i-cumen in” is supposed to date from the middle of the 13th century) down to the present day. It differs from the catch with which it was formerly identical) in eschewing the comical effects of the latter.—The round proper sometimes has an harmonic support or accompaniment called the pes.—2. A circle- dance, or round dance. from Baker, Theodore. A Dictionary of Musical Terms. 11th ed. New York: Schirmer, 1907.