Bow & Bridge Violin and bow makers, as the old books printed them

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Scan 1044

Baker S Biographical Dictionary Of Musicians, 1900

8 lines. Read by computer on 9 September 2026. Printed page 1024. See the scan on archive.org.

1Opera between 1766-71, and then received a life appointment at the Berlin Court Opera. The caprices of a vicious husband (the cellist Mara, whom she married in 1773) and the autocratic rule of Frederick II rendered this period of her life wretched; in 1780 she was in Vienna; then, armed with letters of recommendation to Marie Antoinette, she went to Paris. From 1784 to 1802 she made her home in London, singing chiefly in concerts, and twice visited Italy; obtained a decree of separation from her husband in 1799; left London to make a long European tour, and settled in Moscow, but lost all her property in the conflagration of 1812. She then went to Reval, where she taught singing; died there at the age of 83. —Cf. G. C. Grosheim, Das Leben der Künstlerin Mara (Kassel, 1823); Fr. Rochlitz, Für Freunde der Tonkunst (Leipzig, 1824-32; in vol. I); G. Bürkli, Gertrud Elisabeth Mara (Zürich, 1835); Autobiographie (ed. by Riesemann) in the 'Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung' (Leipzig, 1875); A. Niggli, Gertrud Elisabeth Mara, in Waldersee's 'Sammlung musikalischer Vorträge' (Leipzig, 1881; after the autobiography); E. Wolff, Mignon (Munich, 1909); Rosa Kaulitz-Niedeck, Die Mara: das Leben einer berühmten Sängerin (Heilbronn, 1929); O. Anwand, Die Prima Donna Friedrichs des Grossen (Berlin, 1931).
3Marais (mäh-rā'), Marin, great French player on the viola da gamba; b. Paris, March 31, 1656; d. there, Aug. 15, 1728. He was a shoemaker's son; was apprenticed as a choirboy at the Sainte-Chapelle; studied viola da gamba with Hottemann and composition with Lully (whom he addresses as teacher in a letter published in his first book of pieces for his instrument). He then became "joueur de viole du roi" (Aug. 1, 1679). In 1686 he presented at Versailles an Idylle dramatique; in 1701 he was called upon to write a Te Deum for the convalescence of the Dauphin. Marais possessed matchless skill as a virtuoso on the viola da gamba, and set a new standard of excellence by enhancing the sonority of the instrument. He also established a new method of fingering which had a decisive influence on the technique of performance. As a composer, he followed Lully's French manner; his recitatives comport with the rhythm of French verse and the inflection of the rhyme. The purely instrumental parts in his operas were quite extensive; in Alcione (Paris, Feb. 18, 1706) he introduced a 'tempeste,' which is one of the earliest attempts at stage realism in operatic music. His other operas are Alcide (1693), Ariane et Bacchus (1696), and Sémélé (1709). He published 5 books of pieces for gamba (1686-1717); trios (or 'symphonies') for violin, flute, and viola da gamba (1692); a book of trios for violin, viola da gamba, and harpsichord under the title La Gamme (1723). He was married on Sept. 21, 1676 and had 19 children; in 1709 he played a concert with three of them for Louis XIV. His son Roland was also a talented gambist; he publ. 2 books of pieces for the instrument with a basso continuo and a Nouvelle méthode de musique pour servir d'introduction aux acteurs modernes (1711). —Cf. L. de La Laurencie, L'école française de violon (Paris, 1924); F. Lesure, Marin Marais and M. Barthélemy, Les opéras de Marin Marais (both in 'Revue Belge de Musicologie,' 1953).
5Marazzoli (mäh-rah-tsoh'-lē), Marco, Italian composer; b. Parma, c. 1600; d. Rome, Jan. 24, 1662. He was a singer in the papal chapel from about 1637; he is important in music history because he was the composer of the 1st comic opera (in collaboration with Virgilio Mazzocchi), Chi soffre, sperì, produced in Rome on Feb. 27, 1639. He was the sole author of the serious opera La Vita Umana (Rome, Jan. 31, 1656), dedicated to Queen Christina of Sweden, who was then resident in Rome. For details, see A. Lowenberg, Annals of Opera (Cambridge, 1943).
7Marbeck (Merbecke), John, English composer and theologian; b. Windsor, c. 1510; d. there, c. 1585. He was a chorister in St. George's Chapel, Windsor (1531); narrowly escaped burning as a heretic in 1544; was imprisoned, but pardoned by Henry VIII; Mus. Bac., Oxford, 1550; lay clerk, and organist of St. George's Chapel. His chief work is The Booke of Common Praier noted (1550), an adaptation of the plainchant of earlier rituals to the first ritual of Edward VI; reprinted in facsimile, 1939: republished in Jebb's 'Choral Responses and Litanies' (1857; vol. II). One of his hymns appears in Hawkins' General History of the Science and Practice of Music. Marbeck was also the compiler of a concordance of the English Bible (1550). —Cf. J. Pulver, A Biographical Dictionary of Old English Music (London, 1927); J. Eric Hunt, Cranmer's First Litany, 1544, and Merbecke's Book of Common Prayer noted, 1550 (London, 1939); R. Stevenson, John Marbeck's 'Noted Booke' of 1550, in the 'Mus. Quarterly' (April, 1951).

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