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Dictionary of music and musicians, 1908
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1brought by practice to play very just.' His incapacity both as performer and composer were commented upon by Pelham Humfrey (Pepys, Nov. 15, 1667). His opera, 'Ariadne, or, The Marriage of Bacchus,' originally composed to a French text, was produced at Drury Lane, adapted to English words, in 1674. [In 1679 he contributed a song to Durfey's 'Squire Old Sap' (see Durfey's New … Songs, 1683.) He was selected to compose the music for Dryden's opera, 'Albion and Albanius,' produced at Dorset Garden, June 6, 1685, at great expense, but performed for six nights only. It has been asserted that its failure was occasioned by the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion, the news of which reached London on the last day it was played: the real causes, however, were the innate worthlessness of both drama and music. Both were published (in 1687), and readers may therefore judge for themselves. Dryden, in his preface to the piece, bestowed some extravagant encomiums upon Grabu, extolling him above all English composers, but a few years later changed his tone and awarded the palm to Purcell. A satirical song upon the piece, ridiculing both author and composer, is contained in Hawkins's History (Novello's edition, p. 707). [An account of the piece is in the preface to F. Spence's translation of St. Evremond's Miscellanies, London, 1686.] It is presumed that Grabu lost his Court appointment, but he seems to have remained in England, as in 1690 he composed the instrumental music for Waller's alteration of Beaumont and Fletcher's 'Maid's Tragedy.' A few songs by him are contained in some of the collections of the period. W. H. H.
3GRACE NOTES, or GRACES, the English name for the ornaments in vocal and instrumental music—appoggiaturas, acciaccaturas, mordents, turns, shakes, and many more—which are treated of in this work under the general head of AGRÉMENS, as well as under their own separate names. G.
5GRADUAL. This term is used in two quite distinct senses. (1) Its original use is to denote the respond sung at Mass in the Roman rite between the Epistle and the Gospel. This particular respond was called responsorium graduale, perhaps out of a fancied similarity to the psalms of degrees (Psalms cxx.-cxxxiv.) or gradual psalms, because the gradual was sung from the steps of the ambo or pulpit in church, and it was thought that the Gradual psalms were so-called, from being similarly sung on the steps of the temple. The so-called 'graduals' of composers from the time of Byrd onward are of quite a different style, even when designed for the same position in the Mass. They will be more properly discussed in the article MOTET.
7(2) From this use the term was taken and applied to the book containing such graduals, or, more generally speaking, to the book containing all the Gregorian music of the Mass; and in this sense the word has been used to denote the service-book which is the musical counterpart of the Missal since the later Middle Ages (see ANTIPHONAL). For further particulars as to both these uses of the term see GREGORIAN MUSIC. W. H. F.
9GRADUATES IN MUSIC. See DEGREES IN MUSIC.
11GRADUS AD PARNASSUM. The title of two important progressive works on music. 1. Fux's treatise on composition and counterpoint—Gradus ad Parnassum, sive manuductio ad compositionem musicae regularem, methoda nova ac certa, nondum ante tam exacto ordine in lucem edita: elaborata a Joanne Josepho Fux (Vienna, 1725; 1 vol. folio). It was translated into German by Mizler (Leipzig, 1742), into Italian by Manfredi (Carpi, 1761), and into English, Practical rules for learning Composition, translated from a work entitled Gradus ad Parnassum, written originally in Latin by John Joseph Feux, late chief composer to the Roman Emperor Charles VI.—Welcker, 10 Hay Market (a thin folio with no date, published 1791. See FUX). This contains, in addition to the exercises in the text, a Kyrie and Amen from the Missa Vicissitudinis.
132. Clementi's well-known work Gradus ad Parnassum, ou l'art de jouer le Pianoforte démontré par des Exercices dans le style sévère et dans le style élégant. Composé et dédié à Madame la Princesse Wolkonsky, née Wolkonsky, par Muzio Clementi, membre de l'Académie Royale de Stockholm. (London, no date [1803]).
15It is in two parts or volumes, containing in all 100 exercises. Some of these are marked as having been published before, and extended and revised by the author. Thus Ex. 14 is headed 'extrait par l'auteur de ses Duos à 4 mains, œuvre xiv, publié à Londres en 1784. Tulit alter honores. Virg. apud Donat.' Ex. 39, Adagio in Bp, is entitled 'Scena patetica,' and so on. The work has at the beginning an English motto from Dr. Johnson—'Every art is best taught by example.' Clementi published as an Appendix to the Gradus, an Introduction to the Art of Playing the Pianoforte (cir. 1802-3), containing 134 Exercises, Gavottes, Gigues, Airs with Variations, etc., partly his own, but chiefly by other composers. They are arranged, each key with its relative minor—usually a prelude or preludes by Clementi, followed by pieces. G.
17GRÄDENER, CARL GEORG PETER, born Jan. 14, 1812, at Rostock, received his first musical employment as a violoncellist at Helsingfors. After three years he went to Kiel and was appointed Musikdirector to the University there, a post which he retained for ten years. In 1851 he founded an academy for vocal music at Hamburg, and remained there until, in 1862, he was appointed to teach singing and theory in the Vienna Conservatorium. After three years he
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