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Scan 590
Dictionary of music and musicians, 1908
13 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 526. See the scan on archive.org.
1WILLEMS. The surname of a family of Ghent violin-makers, consisting of Jooris, Hendrick—presumably his brother—and the latter's son, or nephew, Heyndrick. Jooris (worked 1634–42) was a cornet-player as well as a luthier, in which latter capacity he turned out very careful work. His model resembles that of the Amati School, but with stouter and more projecting edges. The varnish is brittle and pale in colour. A bass viol by Jooris is preserved in the Snoeck Collection, Berlin. His son Nicholas was a viol-player in the Ghent Cathedral. Hendrick I. (1651–98) was the best maker of the trio. He followed the Stainer model, adhering to the high arch, sharp-edge, and stiff sound-holes, of the Brescian School. The work of this maker is excessively neat, and the wood of the belly always well chosen, but the varnish is ordinary and roughly laid on. For the backs of his fiddles he employed maple wood, beech, lime, and almond. Some of Hendrick Willem's work is preserved in the cathedral at Ghent, and in the Snoeck Collection in Berlin there is a Pochette of his dated 1679. He also made lutes. Heyndrick II. (1717–1743) made fiddles and violoncellos on the Amati model. A certain J. B. Willems, who came to the fore as a maker of brass instruments in 1760, seems to have been a fiddle-maker also. The relationship is undefined. Von Lutgendorff, Die Geigen und Lautenmacher. E. H-A.
3WILLIAM TELL. See Guillaume Tell, vol. ii. p. 259a.
5WILLIAMS, ANNA, born in London, August 6, 1845, daughter of Mr. William Smith Williams, reader to Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co., to whose insight the publication of Jane Eyre was due. She was taught singing by Mr. H. C. Deacon and Mr. J. B. Welch, and on June 27, 1872, took the first soprano prize at the National Prize Meeting Festival at the Crystal Palace. She afterwards studied for fifteen months at Naples with Domenico Scaafiti, and on Jan. 17, 1874, reappeared at the Crystal Palace. She obtained a very high position as an oratorio- and concert-singer at the principal festivals and Musical Societies of the United Kingdom. Special mention must be made of her singing at three successive Birmingham Festivals in three new oratorios: in 1885 in Stanford's 'Three Holy Children'; in 1888, in Parry's 'Judith'; and in 1891, at very short notice, in Stanford's 'Eden.' On the last occasion she received from the committee a handsome present in acknowledgment of her readiness in taking extra work on account of the illness of Mme. Albani (Brit. Mus. Biog.). She sang occasionally in opera in the provinces, but it is as a refined and accomplished concert-inger that she was best known. Her powerful soprano voice was of 2½ octaves in compass, and she used it like a true musician. On Oct. 13, 1897, while still in the plenitude of her powers, she made a farewell appearance, and devoted herself to teaching at the Royal College of Music and elsewhere, until 1904, when she resigned her appointment; she has since lived out of England. A. C.
7WILLIAMS, ANNE. See below, Williams, the Sisters.
9WILLIAMS, CHARLES FRANCIS ABDY, born at Dawlish, S. Devon, July 16, 1855, was educated at Sherborne School, and subsequently under the Rev. F. A. Radcliffe, Rector of Milsston, near Amesbury, whose influence contributed, in no small degree, to foster his love of music. In 1875 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took the degrees of B.A. in 1878, M.A. in 1882, and Mus.B. in 1891. He also took the Oxford Mus.B. degree in 1889. While at Cambridge he took an active part in the management of the Cambridge University Musical Society, and played the violin and viola at its concerts. On taking his degree he went for health to New Zealand, where he was organist for some years at a church in Auckland, playing in the orchestra of the Auckland Choral Society, and founding a Glee Club. Returning to England in 1889 he resumed his studies for the church; but family opposition to the musical profession being overcome, he became organist and music-master at Dover College in 1881. In the following year he entered the Leipzig Conservatorium, and in 1885–91 was organist of St. Mary's, Boltons, S.W., where he did much to improve the standard of the music. He next devoted himself to the study of Ancient Greek Music, and especially Plain-song, making tours for purposes of research in Italy, Belgium, and France. Articles and lectures by him on this subject led to his appointment, in 1895, as composer and director of the music of the Greek Theatre at Bradfield College, of which institution he afterwards became the organist. For the Greek plays he made use of ancient modes and rhythmical forms, besides reproducing, from ancient models, auloi and lyres, on which he taught the boys to play. In 1901, in consequence of ill-health, he retired, and since that time has written many valuable books, and done much to promote the revival of plain-song. He trained the body of priests of Capri in the Solesmes system in 1904, and directed the music of their Easter Mass; this led to the establishment of that system in the island, a work for which in 1907 he was received in private audience and thanked by the Pope. one of two readings
10WILLIAMS, CHARLES FRANCIS ABDY, born at Dawlish, S. Devon, July 16, 1855, was educated at Sherborne School, and subsequently under the Rev. F. A. Radcliffe, Rector of Milsiton, near Amesbury, whose influence contributed, in no small degree, to foster his love of music. In 1875 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took the degrees of B.A. in 1878, M.A. in 1882, and Mus.B. in 1891. He also took the Oxford Mus.B. degree in 1889. While at Cambridge he took an active part in the management of the Cambridge University Musical Society, and played the violin and viola at its concerts. On taking his degree he went for health to New Zealand, where he was organist for some years at a church in Auckland, playing in the orchestra of the Auckland Choral Society, and founding a Glee Club. Returning to England in 1889 he resumed his studies for the church; but family opposition to the musical profession being overcome, he became organist and music-master at Dover College in 1881. In the following year he entered the Leipzig Conservatorium, and in 1885–91 was organist of St. Mary's, Boltons, S.W., where he did much to improve the standard of the music. He next devoted himself to the study of Ancient Greek Music, and especially Plain-song, making tours for purposes of research in Italy, Belgium, and France. Articles and lectures by him on this subject led to his appointment, in 1895, as composer and director of the music of the Greek Theatre at Bradfield College, of which institution he afterwards became the organist. For the Greek plays he made use of ancient modes and rhythmical forms, besides reproducing, from ancient models, auloi and lyres, on which he taught the boys to play. In 1901, in consequence of ill-health, he retired, and since that time has written many valuable books, and done much to promote the revival of plain-song. He trained the body of priests of Capri in the Solesmes system in 1904, and directed the music of their Easter Mass; this led to the establishment of that system in the island, a work for which in 1907 he was received in private audience and thanked by the Pope. one of two readings
12His published compositions are few in number; they include a Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in F, a Morning, Evening, and Communion Service for Alto, Tenor, and Bass, the Choruses of the 'Antigone' of Sophocles, in the Greek modes, as performed at Bradfield. Unpublished
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