Scan 68
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians;, 1904
16 lines. Read by computer on 5 September 2026. Printed page 55. See the scan on archive.org.
1strong conservative; and the Zeitung did not maintain under his editorship the position it held in the musical world under Rochlitz. M. C. C.
3FINTA GIARDINIERA, LA. Opera buffa in three acts, author of libretto unknown; music by Mozart; produced at Munich, Jan. 13, 1775.
5FINTA SEMPLICE, LA. Opera buffa in three acts; libretto by Coltellini, music by Mozart; composed at Vienna in 1768, when he was only twelve, but apparently never put on the stage.
7FIOCCO, the name of a family of some distinction who flourished in Brussels in the 18th century. They may have been related to a Domenico Fiocco, a mass of whose composition, for four voices (with added parts by Brossard), is in the Bibl. Nationale in Paris; the head of the Brussels family was Pietro Antonio Fiocco, a Venetian, who was in the court band at Brussels about 1696, and conductor of it from 1706. Van der Straeten states that he was the first director of the musico-dramatic 'Accademie' in 1704. A volume of Sacri concerti, op. 1, was printed at Antwerp in 1691, a cantata, 'Le Retour de Printemps,' is dated Brussels, 1699, and various masses and motets are mentioned in the Quellen-Lexikon. He died in Brussels, Nov. 3, 1714. His elder son, Jean Joseph (or Giovanni Gioseffo) Fiocco, succeeded his father as conductor at Brussels in 1714, but the younger son, Gioseffo Hectore Fiocco, the third in succession in the conductor's place, seems to have been the most important of the three. He was sub-conductor at Brussels in 1729, from 1731 master of the choristers at Antwerp Cathedral, and master of the music at Ste. Gudule, in Brussels, in 1737. He was a distinguished harpsichord player, and in his first book of 'Pièces de Clavecin' are many things of value, some of which were reprinted by Van der Straeten and in Elewyck's selections from the Netherlandish masters. (Quellen-Lexikon.)
9FIORAVANTI, VALENTINO, composer, born in Rome in 1764, studied under Sala at the 'Pietà de' Turchini' at Naples. His first opera 'Le avventure di Bertoldino,' produced in Rome, 1784, was followed by at least fifty others, all comic, the last of which, 'Ogni eccesso è vizioso,' was produced at Naples in 1823. He was invited to Paris in consequence of the success of 'Le Cantatrici Villane' (1806), and there wrote 'I virtuosi ambulanti' (1807). These two were on the whole his best operas, though all possessed a genuine vein of comedy, a freshness, and an ease in the part-writing, which concealed their triviality and want of originality, and made them very popular in their day. He was again in Naples in 1807, and in June 1816 he succeeded Jannaconi as maestro di cappella to St. Peter's at Rome, and while in that post wrote a quantity of church music very inferior to his operas. His character was gentle and retiring; and the last few years of his life were spent very quietly. He died at Capua, on his way to Naples, June 16, 1837. Like Paisiello and other considerable Italian composers of that date, Fioravanti was extinguished by Rossini.
11His son VINCENZO, born April 5, 1799, died March 28, 1877, also composed operas with ephemeral success. M. C. C.
13FIORILLO, FEDERICO, violin player and composer, was born in 1758 at Brunswick, where his father Ignazio, a Neapolitan by birth, lived as conductor of the opera. He appears to have been originally a player of the mandoline, and only afterwards to have taken up the violin. In 1780 he went to Poland, and about the year 1783 we find him conductor of the band at Riga, where he stayed for two years. In 1785 he played with much success at the Concert Spirituel at Paris, and published some of his compositions, which were very favourably received. In 1788 he went to London, where he appears to have been less successful as a violinist, as we conclude from the fact that he played the viola part in Salomon's quartet-party. His last appearance in public in London took place in the year 1794, when he performed a concerto on the viola at the Antient Concert. Of the rest of his life but little is known, except that he went from London to Amsterdam, and in 1823 was in Paris. The place and date of his death are not known. His numerous compositions are Duos for violins, for piano and violin, and violin and violoncello; Trios for flute, violin, and tenor, for two violins and bass; Quartets and Quintets for stringed instruments; Concertos for the violin; Concertantes for two violins, etc. (see Quellen-Lexikon for fuller list). They were very favourably received in his time, and, although somewhat dry and old-fashioned, show him to have been a sound and earnest musician. There is, however, one particular work which has brought his name down to our time, and will probably long remain a standard. His thirty-six Caprices or Études are known and valued by every violin player. They rank with the classical studies of Kreutzer and Rode, and, apart from their usefulness, are not without merit as compositions. They have been edited over and over again—most recently by Ferdinand David (Leipzig, Senff). Spohr wrote and published an accompanying violin-part to them. P. D.
15FIORITURE. The Italian term for ornaments—scales, arpeggios, turns, shakes, etc.—introduced by singers into airs. In the 18th century airs were often written plain, and were embroidered by the singers according to their taste and ability. Such songs as 'O dolce concerto' and 'Nel cor più' were seldom sung alike by two different singers. Rossini's early airs were written for the same treatment—witness
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