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Scan 78
A dictionary of music and musicians, 1926
24 lines. Read by computer on 11 September 2026. Printed page 56. See the scan on archive.org.
1'Non più mesta.' A remnant of it some will still remember in the long, tasteless cadenzas indulged in at the close of Handel's airs. This was all very well as long as singers were also good musicians, and as long as the singing was more thought of than what was sung. But now these things are changed, and the composer writes exactly what he intends to be sung—notes, nuances, and expression.
3The practice of 'fioriture' was not unknown to players in the orchestra as well as to singers. Spohr gives some amusing and almost incredible instances of such freaks of Horns and Clarinets in the Tutti of his 'Scena Cantante' Concerto, at Rome in 1816 (Selbstbiog. i. 330). G.
5FIPPLE FLUTE. The designation Flute, as applied to modern European instruments, includes broadly all in which the tone is produced by the breath without the use of either a reed or a cup-shaped mouthpiece. In the more limited modern use, the term is applied to those instruments only in which the current of air proceeds directly from the lips across the mouth-hole, or embouchure. In a large class of flutes, however, now rapidly disappearing, the wind was blown through a tube into a cavity from which it issued in a flat stream against a sharp lip opposite. This flat form was given to the air-reed or stream by a block in the chamber or cavity, and this block was called the fipple. Hence the instruments variously called recorders, flûtes-à-bec, and flûtes douces are all fipple flutes, as are also flageolets, ocarinas, and whistles generally. For derivation of the word fipple, and many interesting details, see Mr. Welch's paper 'Literature relating to the Recorder' in Proc. Mus. Assoc. 1897-98. (See Flageolet, Flute, Recorder.) D. J. B.
7FIREWORK MUSIC. A series of pieces—Overture, Allegro, Lentement, Bourrée, Largo alla siciliana, Allegro, and two Minuets, all in the key of D—written by Handel and performed at the Fireworks given in the Green Park, April 27, 1749, on the occasion of the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. The band—100 in all—contained twenty-four oboes, twelve bassoons, nine trumpets, nine horns, three drums, besides strings. G.
9FIRING is pulling all the bells in a tower at once, so as to make them strike together. It is practised in England on specially joyful or mournful occasions—on the latter with the bells muffled. C. A. W. T.
11FIS and FISIS, the German terms for F# and F× respectively. The equivalent French terms are Fa dièse and Fa double dièse.
13FISCHER. A family of singers of the 18th and 19th centuries. The founder was Ludwig, a bass, of whom Otto Jahn (Mozart, 2nd ed. i. 661, 630) speaks as 'an artist of extraordinary gift, for compass, power, and beauty of voice, and artistic perfection both in singing and playing, probably the greatest German bass-singer.'
15He was born at Mayence, August 18, 1745, and well known at the theatres of Munich (1778), Vienna (1779), Paris (1783), Italy (1784), Berlin (1788), etc. He died at Berlin, July 10, 1825. He was the original Osmin in the 'Entführung,' and had a compass of two octaves and a half 'all round, even, and in tune' (Reichardt).
17Fischer was a great ally of Mozart's, who wrote for him 'Non sò d' onde viene,' and often mentions him with affection—'A truly splendid voice, though the Archbishop told me he sang too low for a bass, and I assured him he should sing higher next time' (Sept. 26, 1781); 'A man whose loss is irretrievable' (Feb. 5, 1783); 'I went to see the Fischers; I cannot describe their joy, the whole family desire to be remembered to you' (March 17, 1781). The others of the family were his wife Barbara, a more than respectable singer and actress; his son Joseph (1780-1862), also a bass of renown, but more known as an impresario than a singer; his daughters Fischer-Vernier—who in 1835 founded a singing school of great repute for girls in Vienna—and Wilhelmine, and Joseph's adopted daughter, Fischer-Maraffa, all good, efficient, intelligent artists. M. C. C.
19FISCHER, JOHANN, violinist and composer, was born in Swabia in the middle of the 17th century, probably about 1650. He was a musician whose career presents features not a little remarkable, the (musically) remote period in which he lived being taken into consideration. A thorough Cosmopolitan, a writer and performer of what is known to-day as Virtuoso music, and composer of at least one example of 'programme music,' he possessed a combination of qualities we are accustomed to look upon as essentially modern. His instructor in violin playing is unknown, but it is recorded that he was taught harmony by Capricornus at Stuttgart, and sent in early youth to Paris, where he became copyist to Lully, whose music he is said to have subsequently introduced into Germany. In any case, traces of that composer's influence are to be found in his compositions.
21After leaving Paris, he led a wandering life, remaining for a time at Augsburg (in the Barfüsser Kirche) and at Schwerin, where he held an appointment as Capellmeister. He also visited Denmark and Sweden, finally settling down in Schwedt in Pomerania as Markgräflicher Capellmeister. Here he died at the age of seventy years.
23He composed Tafelmusik, Overtures, Dances, Madrigals, Minuets, and Solos for violin and viola. In a list of his compositions given by Fétis are also to be found various vocal pieces, and the primitive example of programme music, already alluded to, entitled, 'Feld und
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