Books › Grove's dictionary of music and musicians;, 1904 › scan 230
Scan 230
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians;, 1904
24 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1URHEEN
3the originators, and where his performances on the viola and the viole d’amour excited great attention. He also contributed to the success of the memorable evenings for chamber-music founded by Baillot, and of Fétis’s Concerts historiques. Urhan had studied all instruments played with the bow, and could play the violin with four strings, the five-and-four-stringed viola and the viole d’amour, in each case preserving the characteristic quality of tone. He had a particular method of tuning, by which he produced varied and striking effects of tone. Charmed with his talent and originality, and anxious to turn to account his power of bowing and knowledge of effect, Meyerbeer wrote for him the famous viole d’amour solo in the accompaniment to the tenor air in the first act of the ‘Huguenots.’
5Short in stature, and with no personal attractions, Urhan dressed like a clergyman, and was looked upon, not without reason, as an eccentric; but his religion was untainted by bigotry, and he was kind and charitable. He pushed his asceticism so far as to take but one meal a day, often of bread and radishes; and during the thirty years he sat in the orchestra of the Opéra, either from religious scruples, or fear of being shocked at the attitudes of the ballerine, he never once glanced at the stage. As a composer he aimed at combining new forms with simplicity of ideas. He left two string quintets; two quintets for three violas, violoncello, double-bass, and drums ad lib.; PF. pieces for two and four hands; and melodies for one and two voices, including a romance on two notes only, all published by Richault, and now almost unprocurable. Urhan styled all his music ‘romantic.’ He died after a long and painful illness at Belleville (Paris), Nov. 2, 1845. Urhan was godfather to Julius Stockhausen the singer. G. C.
7URHEEN, the Chinese fiddle, consists of a small circular block of wood hollowed out and covered at one end with the skin of a serpent, forming the ‘belly’ or sounding-board. The two strings (usually of silk) are tuned in the interval of a fifth from each other. The hairs of the bow pass under the strings, and as the strings are close together the chief difficulty of the novice is to learn to press the bow squarely on one string without touching the other. Tradescant Lay (The Chinese as They Are, London, 1841) says that: ‘Out of this wretched thing performers contrive sometimes to draw sounds of great brilliancy, so that I have heartily wished them a better tool for their pains.’ There is no mention of the Urheen or of any kind of fiddle in the Chinese sacred books which record the teaching and doings of Confucius. The instrument doubtless came into China from India with the Buddhist religion during the first century of our era, and shares, in the writer’s opinion, with the ancient Egyptian nefe, or nofre, the honour of being the ancestor of all western bow-instruments. See Violin Family. E. H. A.
9URIO, FRANCESCO ANTONIO, a Milanese composer of the 17th and 18th centuries. The title of his first 1 published work, of which there are copies in the Library of the Liceo Musicale of Bologna, in the Royal Library of Berlin, the British Museum, etc., is as follows:—
11Motetti di Concerto a due, tre e quattro voci, con violini, e senza. Opera prima. Composti e Dedicati all’ Eminentissimo e Reverendissimo Prencipe Il signor Cardinale Pietro Ottoboni . . . da Francesco Antonio Urio da Milano Minore Conventuale, Maestro di Cappella nell’ Insigne Basilica de’ Santi Dodici Apostoli di Roma. In Roma MDCXC nella Stamperia di Gio. Giacomo Komarek, Boemo, etc.
13Between this date and that of his second work—also contained in the Bologna Library—he had migrated from Rome to Venice, and was chapel master of the church of the Frari.
15Salmi concertati a trè voci con Violini à beneplacito del Padre Francesco Antonio Urio Maestro di Cappella nella Chiesa dei Frari di Venetia. Opera Seconda dedicata all’ Eccellenza del signor Don Filippo Antonio Spinola Colonna, Duca del Testo Gentilhuomo della Camera di S. M. Cattolica, suo Generale della Cavaleria nello Stato di Milano, e Castellano del Castel Nuovo di Napoli, etc. In Bologna per Martino Silvani, 1697, etc.
17M. Arthur Pougin, in his Supplement to Fétis’s Biographie, states that Urio wrote a Cantata di camera (1696), and two oratorios, ‘Sansone accecato da’ Filistri’ (1701) and ‘Maddalena convertita’ (1706), for Ferdinand de’ Medici, Prince of Tuscany; but neither the authority for the statement nor the place where the works are to be found can now be ascertained. A ‘Tantum ergo’ for soprano solo and figured bass is in the library of the Royal College of Music, London, and a nameless oratorio is at Modena. Urio’s most important known work, however, is a Te Deum for voices and orchestra, which owes its interest, not only to its own merits which are considerable, but to the fact that Handel used it largely, 2 taking, as his custom was, themes and passages from it, principally for his Dettingen Te Deum (10 numbers), and also for ‘Saul’ (6 numbers), ‘Israel in Egypt’ (1 ditto), and ‘L’Allegro’ (1 ditto).
19Of this work three MSS. are known to be in existence. (1) In the Library of the Royal College of Music, which is inscribed ‘John Stafford Smith, a.d. 1780. Te Deum by Urio—a Jesuit of Bologna. Apud 1682.’ Over the Score: ‘Te Deum. Urio. Con due Trombe, due Oboe, Violini & due Viole obligati & Fagotto a 5 Voci.’ (2) In the British Museum (Add. MS. 31,478), ‘Te Deum Laudamus con due Trombe, due Oboe et Violini, et due 3 Viole obligati. Del Padre Frañco Uria (sic) Bolognese.’
211 I am indebted for this fact, unknown to Fétis, to the kindness of the Cavaliere Castellani, Chief Librarian to the Biblioteca della R. Università, at Bologna.
222 First publicly mentioned by Crotch in his Lectures (see the list, p. 122 note), and then by V. Novello (Preface to Purcell, p. 9).
233 In the score itself these are given as ‘Violetta’ (in alto clef) and ‘Violetta tenore’ (in tenor clef).
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