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Scan 631
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians, 1904
14 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 568. See the scan on archive.org.
1and many others, and was Professor of the Bassoon at the Royal College of Music until his retirement in 1904. [His brother, T. E. Wotton (born 1852), is a bassoon-player of high position, principal bassoon of the London Symphony Orchestra. He succeeded to the various posts held by his brother, with whom he was associated in the Crystal Palace band from 1879. W. B. Wotton's son, L. V. Wotton, was also a bassoon-player, but has left the profession for many years.] G.
3WOTTON, WILLIAMS, 'Orkyn maker,' in 1486 built a 'pair of organs' for Magdalen College, Oxford, for £28, and in 1487 agreed to make a similar instrument for Merton College, which was to be completed in 1489. v. DE P.
5WRANITZKY, PAUL, conductor of the orchestra at the two Court Theatres at Vienna, and a popular composer of operas and instrumental music, born Dec. 30, 1756, at Neureisch in Moravia, was educated at the monastery close by, and at Iglau and Olmütz, where he perfected himself, especially in violin-playing. In 1776 he went to Vienna to study theology at the Imperial Seminary, and at once obtained a post as conductor. He next studied composition with Kraus, a Swedish composer then living in Vienna, and produced a number of new works which attracted notice. Towards the end of 1780 he became conductor of the court theatres, and remained so till his death. He was also for many years capellmeister to Prince Lobkowitz. His operas were great favourites, and became known nearly throughout Germany. The one which was oftenest and longest performed was 'Oberon' (May 23, 1791), a serio-comic fairy opera, libretto adapted by Giesecke from Wieland, which at one time ran the 'Zauberflöte' hard. Special mention should also be made of 'Die gute Mutter,' comic opera (1795); 'Der Schreiner,' Singspiel (1799); 'Mitgefühl,' Liederspiel (1804); all produced at the court theatre, as were also many ballets, including 'Die Weinlese,' 'Das Urtheil des Paris,' 'Der Sabinerraub,' all between 1794 and 1800. Gerber gives a detailed catalogue of Wranitzky's operas, ballets, and instrumental music. Among his many works, mostly published by André in Paris and Vienna, may be specified: 12 symphonies; string-quintets, quartets, and trios; 3 trios for 2 flutes and violoncello, op. 83; concertos for violoncello, op. 27, flute, op. 24; and sonatas for pianoforte, violin, and violoncello. He also left much music in MS. His connection with the Tonkünstler-Societät must not be passed over. He entered it in 1793, and having become secretary undertook, at Haydn's instigation, to reorganise its affairs, then in a very bad state. In 1797 he completely effaced the difficulties which existed in 1779, when Haydn had thought of entering. Haydn had a great respect for him, both as a man and an artist, and expressly desired that he might lead the strings at the first performances of the 'Creation' and the 'Seasons.' Wranitzky died in Vienna, Sept. 26, 1808. [His younger brother, ANTON, born at Neureisch in 1761, studied law at Brünn, when he began to compose. He went next to Vienna, where he was esteemed as a teacher. Prince von Lobkowitz made him his Capellmeister in 1808, and he died in Vienna in 1819. See Dlabacz and the Quellen-Lexikon for list of works of both brothers.] C. F. P.
7WRECKERS, THE (Les Naufrageurs; Strandrecht); opera in three acts, libretto by H. B. Leforestier (H. B. Brewster), music by Ethel Smyth. Produced at Leipzig, Nov. 11, 1906, and at Prague, Dec. 22, 1906. In English at the Afternoon Theatre (His Majesty's Theatre), June 22, 1909; at Covent Garden, March 1, 1910.
9WREST–PLANK¹ and WREST–PINS. The Wrest-plank or Pinblock of a pianoforte is the carrier of the wrest- or tuning-pins, and is of great importance to the tone and stability of the instrument, its solidity maintaining the due continuance of the upper partials of the strings as it also contributes to the enduring resistance against their tension. In modern pianos it is built up of layers of wood with grain running alternately longitudinally and transversely; the woods employed being generally beech and wainscot. A brass plate which is to be often seen covering the rest-plank and is attractive to the eye, plays no real part in assuring the solidity of the structure. Broadwoods' metal pin-piece, a plate of iron ⅛ inch thick, through which the wrest-pins screw into the wooden wrest-plank beneath, is the surest means for keeping the pin in position without crushing the wood where the leverage of the string is exerted, or allowing the tuner the facile but unsound practice of rocking the pin from side to side. Becker of St. Petersburg exhibited, at Paris, 1878, a grand piano wherein this part of the instrument was entirely of iron, and cast together with the frame. The bar was not bored for wrest-pins, but was the bed for a system of mechanical tuning-pins, the principle of which is the female screw analogous to the machine heads used in guitars, etc. Becker has been followed by others, as was shown in the London Inventions Exhibition, 1885, where four more or less ingenious adaptations of this principle were submitted. The prime objection to mechanical tuning-pins, first introduced in pianos in 1800 by John Isaac Hawkins, and tried again from time to time, is in the fact that the elasticity of the wire is rebellious to a method of tuning that proceeds throughout by very small degrees. The string requires to be drawn up boldly, so as to give at once the tension intended. Without this the operation of tuning becomes tedious
11¹ Wrest from wraestan, A.S., to strain a string to a required tension; O.E. wrest, a tuning hammer or key.
12The clartcord hath a tunely kynde,
13As the wyre is wrested high and lowe. SKELTON.
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