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Scan 53
Dictionary of music and musicians, 1908
17 lines. Read by computer on 5 September 2026. Printed page 33. See the scan on archive.org.
1mann. A year in Paris (1868-69) was followed by a stay at Mannheim, where Vincenz Lachner was his teacher. In 1870 he returned home, and shortly afterwards (1874) his first opera 'Bukovin,' a melodramatic work, influenced by Weber and Mozart, was produced. From 1873 to 1874 he was a music teacher at Wilna, and on returning to Prague in the latter year he became in 1875 second conductor of the Bohemian Theatre. This post he occupied till 1878, when he was conductor of the choir in the Russian Church at Prague till 1881. After this Fibich retired into private life in order to devote himself entirely to composition. He died at Prague, Oct. 10, 1900.
3That Fibich was a very prolific composer the list of his compositions testifies. His works amount to about 700, written in some thirty-five years. Of these the most important, quantitatively, are his six melodramas, six operas, and three 'scenische melodramen' (the latter quite distinct from the other melodramas); the melodramatic trilogy 'Hippodamia' ('Pelops Brautwerbung,' Vienna, 1892; 'Die Sühne des Tantalus': 'Hippodamia's Tod,' 1892); the operas 'Der Sturm' (after Shakespeare, 1895); 'Hady' (1896); 'Sarka' (1897); and 'Helga,' the first part of the opera 'Der Fall Arkunas.' A string quartet in G, op. 8; a pianoforte quartet in E minor, op. 11; and a quintet, with clarinet, horn, pianoforte, and strings, op. 42, represent the best of his chamber music, while his orchestral works include the overture 'Eine Nacht auf Karlstein' (1886), probably his most familiar work, the 'Komensky-Festouvertüre' (1892); symphonies in F (op. 17, 1883); and E flat (op. 38, 1892); and seven symphonic poems, some 352 pianoforte pieces for two hands, and four sets of duets, besides a host of songs and vocal duets, and three compositions for chorus and orchestra.
5Fibich's fame has been largely overshadowed by that of Smetana and Dvorák, but in some of his pianoforte music especially there is much that is full of charm if not great originality; and a good deal of his music deserves to be better known, though it would appear that none is destined to survive for any great length of time.
7R. H. L.
9FIDDLE. The old English word, before 'viol' came in, and still more idiomatic than VIOLIN (q.v.). Both are possibly derived from the same root—vitula, a calf, from the springing motion of dancers (Murray, Oxford Dictionary, and Littré; and compare the connection of Geige and jig). FIDDLESTICK is the violin-bow, as in the Epigram on a Bad Fiddler:—
11Old Orpheus play'd so well he mov'd Old Nick,
12Whilst thou mov'st nothing—but thy fiddlestick.
14The Germans have three terms for the instrument—Fiedel, Geige, and Violine.
16FIDELIO, ODER DIE EHELICHE LIEBE. Beethoven's single opera (op. 72); the words adapted by Joseph Sonnleithner from Bouilly's 'Léonore, ou l'Amour conjugal.' He received the text in the winter of 1804, and composed the opera at Hetzendorf in the summer. It was produced (1) at the Theatre 'ander Wien,' Vienna, on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 1805, in three acts; the overture was probably that known as 'Leonora No. 2.' Cherubini was in the house. (2) It was played again on the 21st and 22nd, and then withdrawn. (See vol. i. pp. 241-242.) The libretto was then reduced by Breuning to two acts; three pieces of music—said to have been an air for Pizarro with chorus; a duet, Leonore and Marzelline; and a terzet, Marzelline, Jaquino, and Rocco—were sacrificed, and the overture 'Leonora No. 3' composed. It was played again at the Imperial private theatre on Saturday, March 29, 1806, and April 10, and again withdrawn. (3) After the death of Guardasoni, the Italian Director of the Prague opera, in 1806, the appointment of Liebich, and the adoption of the German opera there, Beethoven, with the view to a probable performance of 'Fidelio,' wrote the overture known as 'Leonora, No. 1,' as an 'easier work' than either of the two preceding. The performance, however, did not come off, and the overture remained in MS. and unknown till after Beethoven's death, when it was sold in the sale of his effects and published in 1832 (Haslinger) as 'Overture in C, op. 138' (Aut. 'Characteristische Ouverture'). See Seyfried, p. 9; Thayer, iii. 25. (4) Early in 1814 the opera, as again revised by Treitschke, was submitted to Beethoven; he at once set to work, and it was produced a third time, in two acts, at the Kärnthnerthor Theatre, Vienna, on May 23, 1814, as 'Fidelio.' The overture was that of the 'Ruins of Athens,' but on the 26th the overture in E, known as the 'Overture to Fidelio,' was first played. Nottebohm's researches in the sketch-books have made it clear that for the revival of the opera in 1814, Beethoven's first intention was to recast the Prague Overture No. 3 (op. 138), changing the key to E. Of this various drafts exist, and some are given in Beethoveniana, p. 74. Had this intention been carried out the overture would have borne the same relation to op. 138 that 'Leonora No. 3' does to 'Leonora No. 2,' and we might then have possessed five overtures to the opera! It was Beethoven's wish that the opera should be called 'Leonora,' but it was never performed under that name. (5) It was produced in Paris, at the Théâtre Lyrique, translated by Barbier and Carré, and in three acts, May 5, 1860. In London by Chelard's German company (Schröder, etc.) at the King's Theatre, May 18, 1832. In English (Malibran) at Covent Garden, June 12, 1835. In Italian (Cruvelli and Sims Reeves, Recitatives by Balfe) at Her Majesty's, May 20, 1851. (6) The chief editions are—a PF. score of the second arrangement (by Moscheles under B.'s direction) without Overture or Finale,
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