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Scan 877
Grove's Dictionary of music and musicians, 1910
22 lines. Read by computer on 12 September 2026. Printed page 813. See the scan on archive.org.
1a symphony, op. 16 (Diabelli); several masses and smaller church pieces; music for piano-forte and organ, choruses, and a large quantity of popular Lieder (chiefly Diabelli); 'Hymns for the Orthodox Greek Church,' in three vols., Vienna, 1847; a grand mass for four male voices with organ, op. 76, etc. He died in Vienna, May 9, 1901.
2C. F. P.
4PRICK-SONG. The name given by old writers upon music to divisions or descant upon a Plain-song or Ground, which were written, or pricked, down, in contradistinction to those which were performed extemporaneously. (See Morley's Introduction, Second Part.) The term is derived from the word 'prick,' as used to express the point or dot forming the head of the note. Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet, Act ii. Sc. 4) makes Mercutio describe Tybalt as one who 'fights as you sing prick-song, keeps time, distance, and proportion; rests me his minim rest, one, two, and the third in your bosom.' The term 'pricking of musick bookes' was formerly employed to express the writing of them. Payments for so doing are frequently found in the accounts of cathedral and college choirs.
5W. H. H.
7PRIESTNALL, JOHN, English violin-maker and repairer, born at Saddleworth, near Oldham, in Nov. 1819; died at Rochdale, Jan. 18, 1899. Originally a joiner and pattern-maker, as well as the inventor of several improvements in wood-cutting machines, Priestnall did not devote himself entirely to violin-making until 1870. From that year until his death he made some three hundred excellent violins, thirty violas, six violoncellos, and eight double basses. The wood of these instruments is mostly regular in figure, the workmanship finished, the scrolls cut with a free firm hand, the sound-holes pleasing but somewhat quaint, and the gold-amber oil varnish transparent and handsome. The tone of the violins is powerful, but has something of the viola quality on the lower strings. Priestnall's instruments do not bear a conventional label, but his name is stamped upon the wood with a cold punch in several places, and the opus number marked on the button. As a repairer this maker's inventive genius stood him in good stead, and brought him considerable fame, and a vast number of old English and French violins owe their regeneration to his clever manipulation. During his lifetime Priestnall sold his fiddles for £4, but their value has risen considerably since his death.—Meredith Morris, British Violin-Makers.
8E. H-A.
10PRIMAVERA, GIOVANNI LEONARDO, was born at Barletta in the kingdom of Naples. All that we know of his career is that about 1573 he was maestro di cappella to the Spanish Governor of Milan. He has sometimes been confused with Giovanni Leonardo di l'Arpa, though the very title of the work in which the two names occur together show them to belong to two different persons ('Il 1 lib. de Canzone Napolitane a 3 voci di Jo. Leonardo Primavera con alcune Napolitane di Jo. Leonardo di L'Arpa, 1565'). Primavera's works consist of several Books of Madrigals a 5 and 6, some of which are lost, and four Books of Canzone Napolitane or Villotte a 3, all published between 1565 and 1584. Palestrina took the themes of a madrigal a 6 by Primavera, 'Nasce la gioia mia,' as a subject for richer contrapuntal treatment by himself in a mass bearing the same title, and having the same distribution of voices. The mass is No. 7 in his 'Fifth Book of Masses,' dedicated to Duke William of Bavaria, and published in 1590.
11J. R. M.
13PRIME (Lat. Prima; Hora prima. Officium (vel Oratio) ad Horam primam). The first of the 'Lesser Hours' in the Roman Breviary.
14The Office of Prime consists of the Versicle and Response, 'Deus in adjutorium'; a Hymn, 'Te lucis orto sidere,' which never changes; and three Psalms, sung under a single Antiphon. These are followed, on Sundays, by the hymn 'Quicunque vult,' commonly called the Athanasian Creed. On other occasions the Antiphon is immediately succeeded by the Capitulum and Responsorium breve. The disposition of the next division of the Office, including the Preces and the Martyrologium for the day, depends entirely upon the rank of the Festival on which it is sung. Certain Prayers are said, next in order; and the whole concludes with the Lectio brevis and the Benediction.
15The Plain-song music for Prime will be found in the Antiphonal.
16W. S. R.
18PRIMO, 'first,' is used in two ways in music: (1) In pianoforte duets, Primo or 1mo is generally put over the right-hand page, and then means the part taken by the 'treble' player, while Secondo or 2do is put over that for the 'bass.' (2) In the reprise of the first section of a movement, a few bars are often necessary before the double-bar to lead back to the repetition, which are not required the second time of playing the section. The words Primo, 1mo, 1ma volta, or 1st time are then put over all these bars, so that when the repeated portion reaches this direction, the player goes on to the part after the double-bar, leaving out the bars over which 'Primo' is written. The first few bars after the double-bar are frequently, but not always, labelled Secondo, 2do, or 2nd time. The 'Primo' varies greatly in length. Beethoven often does without it at all (C minor and Pastoral Symphonies); in his No. 2 Symphony it is two bars long, in his No. 4 it is fourteen bars long, and in Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony twenty-three bars (1st movement in all cases).
19M.
21PRINCE IGOR. Opera, in a prologue and four acts, text and music by Alexander Borodin; unfinished, but completed by Rimsky-Korsakov
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