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Dictionary of music and musicians, 1908
18 lines. Read by computer on 5 September 2026. Printed page 784. See the scan on archive.org.
1great-grandfather of Nicolas, was a violin-maker here. His son LAURENT, born 1696, established himself in the trade at Lunéville (1751-1756) and Orléans (1756-1762). FRANÇOIS, son of Laurent, first worked with his father at Lunéville, and in 1758 migrated to Stuttgart, where he remained for twelve years as fiddle-maker in ordinary to the Grand Duke of Württemberg. In 1770 he returned, and settled at Orléans. He was the father of two sons, NICOLAS, the 'French Stradivarius,' born at Stuttgart in 1758, and FRANÇOIS, in his time a reputable bow-maker, born at Orléans in 1774. Nicolas began his career early. We have good instruments made by him at Orléans (Rue d'Illiers), before he had completed his twentieth year. These juvenile instruments are cheap in Paris at 500 francs.
3In 1794 Nicolas Lupot removed to Paris and set up a shop in the Rue de Grammont (1798-1803). He afterwards removed to the Rue Croix des Petits Champs, where he made those famous copies of the great Italian makers on which his reputation rests. Lupot wisely dropped all pretensions to originality, and became the first of copyists. His favourite pattern was the Stradivarius: his few copies of Guarnerius violins are less successful. Many instruments are signed with his autograph. He made several quintets of two violins, two tenors, and bass, to which he sought to give a perfect unity of tone and appearance. These quintets fetch fancy prices: but any Lupot violin dated from 1805 to 1824 is worth from 1000 to 1200 francs. The violoncellos are rarer: a handsome one is worth 2000 francs. Nicolas Lupot ranked in his time as the first of his trade in Europe. Spohr, who long played on one of his violins, recommends him as a maker. His weakest point is his varnish. He employed several kinds: the usual one is a thick and not very transparent oil varnish, which is sometimes badly dried, and presents a rough and lumpy appearance. Lupot died in 1824. His business descended to his son-in-law, Charles Francis Gand; and the present well-known makers, Gand and Bernardel, 21 Rue Croix des Petits Champs, correctly describe themselves as the 'Ancienne Maison Lupot, 1798.' François Lupot, the bow-maker, and brother of Nicolas, invented the 'coulisse,' or metal groove attached to the 'nut,' and carefully fitted to the stick, on which it works. He died in 1837, leaving as his successor Dominique Peccate, who ranks as the best bow-maker after Tourte. E. J. P.
5LURLINE. Grand legendary opera in three acts; words by E. Fitzball, music by W. Vincent Wallace. Produced at the Royal English Opera, Covent Garden, Feb. 23, 1860. G.
7LUSCINIUS, OTTOMAR (Nachtgall), born 1487 at Strasburg, a pupil of Hofhaimer, was organist at Strasburg in 1515, and afterwards canon of St. Stephen's, Vienna. Owing to the Reformation troubles he was obliged to leave Strasburg in 1523, and led a somewhat wandering life, dying at the Carthusian house near Freiberg-im-Breisgau, in 1537. He was the author of Musicae Institutiones, 1515, also of Musurgia, 1536, the latter work mainly a translation into Latin of Virdung's Musica getutscht. His name appears as the composer of a three-part organ piece in Kleber's organ Tabulatur-Buch, with the date 1516. J. R. M.
9LUSINGANDO, or LUSINGHIERO, literally 'flattering' or 'coaxing,' whence its musical meaning comes to be 'in a soft, tender manner,' resembling Amoroso in character, with perhaps a hint of coquetry in it, except that the latter is generally used at the beginning of movements, and the former as applying only to a short passage. Beethoven uses it in the Quartet, op. 131, in the slow movement (No. 4), where the entry of the second subject is marked 'Andante moderato e lusinghiero.' Lusingando is a very favourite direction of Weber's, occurring in the Piano Sonata, op. 4, first movement, 'tranquillo e lusingando,' in L'invitation à la Valse, where the coquettish second subject reappears pianissimo in C major, and in several other places. Chopin uses it in the Rondo in F (in 3–4 time). M.
11LUSTIGE WEIBER VON WINDSOR, DIE. See MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.
13LUTE (Fr. Luth; Ital. Liuto or Leuto; Germ. Laute; Dutch Luit; Spanish Laud; Port. Alaude). A large and beautiful stringed instrument with a long neck and fretted fingerboard; at one time much in use, but now obsolete. In mediaeval Latin the lute is called Testudo and the guitar Cithara, both inaccurate identifications of ancient Greek instruments of very different construction. [See LYRE.] The lute is of Oriental origin, and its Arabic name is Al'ud—from which its European names are derived by the omission of the initial vowel of the definite article Al.1 The Portuguese Alaude alone retains it. The lute became known throughout the West in the time of the Crusades. We class the Russian Kobsa as a lute: while the Balalaïka of the same country is of the guitar kind. As in the viol da gamba and violoncello, the formal difference between a lute and a guitar is to be found in the back, which in the lute is pear-shaped and in the guitar is flat. The lute is without ribs, which are essential to the framing of the guitar. [See GUITAR.]
15The invention of stringed instruments with finger-boards, or the neck serving as a finger-board, precedes the earliest historical monuments. The long-necked Egyptian Nefer was certainly depicted in the fourth dynasty; and wall-painting of the time of Moses, preserved in the British Museum, shows that it then had frets. We observe a similar instrument in Assyrian monuments, and the Hebrew Nebel has been supposed
171 In the same way El-arz, the cedar, became in English Larch.
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