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Scan 46
grove's dictionary of music and musicians, 1916
12 lines. Read by computer on 10 September 2026. Printed page 26. See the scan on archive.org.
1Italy at that time. He aroused the greatest enthusiasm wherever he appeared; hundreds of sonnets were written in his honour, he was covered with roses in his carriage after simply singing a cantata, and at Florence a number of distinguished persons went three miles out of the town, to escort him into it. (Ginguené.) He is said also to have visited London, and to have sung here the part of Zephyr: but this must be a fable, as Italian opera did not begin in England till 1692,—twelve years after his death. It is true that in M. Locke’s ‘Psyche’ (1671) there is a character called Zephyr; but he has only four lines to speak, and none to sing. Ferri had, nevertheless, made one journey (before 1654) to Sweden, to gratify Queen Christina’s wish to hear him. Ginguené says that his portrait was engraved with the inscription ‘Qui fecit mirabilia multa’; but such a portrait (as far as the present writer knows) has never been seen. A medal was struck, bearing on one side his head crowned with bays, and on the other the device of a swan dying by the banks of Meander. Ferri was tall and handsome, with refined manners; and he expressed himself with distinction. He died very rich, leaving 600,000 crowns for a pious foundation.
3His voice, a beautiful soprano, had an indescribable limpidity, combined with the greatest agility and facility, a perfect intonation, a brilliant shake, and inexhaustible length of breath. Although he seems to have surpassed all the evirati in brilliance and endurance, he was quite as remarkable for pathos as for those qualities. (Bontempi, Historia Musica.) J. M.
5FERTÉ, PAPILLON DE LA, born in Feb. 1727 at Chalons; became in 1777, by purchase, ‘Intendant des Menus-plaisirs’ to Louis XVI., and as such had the direction of the ‘École Royale de Chant’ founded by the Baron de Breteuil, and of the opera after the municipality had given up the administration of it. In 1790 he published a reply to a pamphlet by the artists of the opera—‘Mémoire justificatif des sujets de l’Académie royale de musique’—in which they demanded a reform of the administration. He died in Paris, July 19, 1794. His son occupied the same post after the Restoration. M. C. C.
7FERVAAL. Opera in three acts, words and music by Vincent d’Indy. Produced at the Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels, March 12, 1897; at the Opéra Comique in Paris, May 10, 1898.
9FESCA, FRIEDRICH ERNST, composer, born at Magdeburg, Feb. 15, 1789. His father was an amateur, and his mother a singer, pupil of J. A. Hiller, so he heard good music in his youth, and as soon as he could play the violin had taste enough to choose the quartets and quintets of Haydn and Mozart in preference to Pleyel’s music, for which there was then a perfect rage in Germany. Having completed his elementary studies, he went through a course of counterpoint with Pitterlin, conductor of the Magdeburg theatre. On Pitterlin’s death in 1804 he became a pupil of August Eberhardt Müller at Leipzig. Here he played a violin concerto of his own with brilliant success. In 1806 he accepted a place in the Duke of Oldenburg’s band, but in the following year became solo violinist under Reichardt at Cassel, where he passed six happy years and composed his first seven quartets and first two symphonies, interesting works, especially when he himself played the first violin. In 1814, after a visit to Vienna, he was appointed solo violin, and in the following year concert-meister, to the Duke of Baden at Carlsruhe. During the next eleven years he wrote two operas, ‘Cantemir’ and ‘Leila,’ overtures, quartets, quintets, chorales, psalms and other sacred music. He died at Carlsruhe, May 24, 1826, of consumption, after many years’ suffering, which, however, had not impaired his powers, as his last works contain some of his best writing. His ‘De Profundis,’ arranged in four parts by Strauss, was sung at his funeral. Fesca was thoughtful, earnest, and warm-hearted, with occasional traits of humour in striking contrast to his keen sensibility and lofty enthusiasm for art. He appreciated success, but steadfastly declined to sacrifice his own perceptions of the good and beautiful for popularity. Fesca’s rank as a composer has been much disputed. There is a want of depth in his ideas, but his melodies are taking and his combinations effective. His quartets and quintets, without possessing the qualities of the great masters, have a grace and elegance peculiar to himself, and are eminently attractive. His symphonies are feebly instrumented, but his sacred works are of real merit. In richness of modulation he approaches Spohr. A complete edition of his quartets and quintets (twenty and five in number) has been published in Paris (Rimbault). His son, ALEXANDER ERNST, born at Carlsruhe, May 22, 1820, died at Brunswick, Feb. 22, 1849, was a pupil of Rungenhagen, Wilhelm Bach, and Taubert, and composer of trios for pianoforte, violin, and violoncello, and other chamber-music popular in their day. The best of his four operas was ‘Der Troubadour’ (Brunswick, 1854). M. C. C.
11FESTA, COSTANZO, one of the earliest composers of the Roman School, was born somewhere towards the close of the 15th century. He was elected a member of the Pontifical choir in 1517, and died April 10, 1545. He eventually became maestro at the Vatican, and his nomination was so far singular that he was at that time the only Italian in a similar position throughout the Peninsula. His genius cannot be doubted, and Dr. Burney, who had been at the trouble of scoring a great number of his Madrigals, was astonished at the rhythm, grace, and facility of them. He calls one of Festa’s Motetti, ‘Quam pulchra es, anima mea,’ a model of elegance,
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