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Scan 693
Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 1928
26 lines. Read by computer on 12 September 2026. Printed page 625. See the scan on archive.org.
1under the Strauss family, Lanner, Labitzky and Gung'l, that the waltz became fixed in the form in which we now know it, i.e. an introduction generally in a slow tempo, foreshadowing the principal motive of the composition, and followed by five or six separate waltzes ending with a coda recapitulating the best numbers. Vienna has, moreover, always preserved the tradition of playing what a modern writer aptly describes as 'those irresistible waltzes that first catch the ear, and then curl round the heart, till on a sudden they invade and will have the legs.' France has produced a few good waltzes, but more for operatic or vocal purposes than for dancing, while England is very far below either country in compositions of this kind. W. B. S.
3WALTZ, GUSTAVUS, a German, who seems to have acted as Handel's cook, and after some time to have come out as a singer. He appeared¹ as Polyphemus in Handel's 'Acis and Galatea,' when it was performed as an 'English Pastoral Opera,' under Arne, at the 'new English theatre in the Haymarket,' May 17, 1732, showing that his voice was a large bass. Seven years later (1739) he and Reinhold sang 'The Lord is a man of war' at the performance of 'Israel in Egypt,' their names being pencilled by Handel over the duet. He also sang Abinoam in 'Deborah,' Abner in 'Athaliah,' and Saul, on the production of those oratorios. His portrait was painted by Hauck and engraved by Müller. He is seated with a violoncello, a pipe and a pot of beer on the table beside him. It belonged to the late Mr. J. W. Taphouse, of Oxford, and was exhibited in the Loan Collection of the Inventions Exhibition, 1885.
5Handel, on one occasion, speaking to Mrs. Cibber, said of Gluck: 'He knows no more of contrapunta than my cook Waltz.' This very impolite speech is often misquoted,² and given as if Handel had said 'no more music'; but its force as uttered is very much altered when we recollect that Gluck was no contrapuntist, and that Waltz must have been a considerable musician to take such parts as he did at Handel's own choice.
7WAMSLEY (WALMSLEY; WARMSLEY), PETER, one of the best English luthiers of the 18th century. (See VIOLIN FAMILY.) He worked in London from about 1720-60, becoming renowned for his excellent violoncellos and altos, which he made upon the Stainer model. His workshop was in Piccadilly in 1727, at 'Ye Golden Harp,' a sign that was subsequently changed to 'The Harp and Hautboy.' He used a yellowish-brown varnish, and often drew lines round his instruments, after the manner of Jacobs of Amsterdam, instead of inlaying purfling. Wamsley sought to age his instruments artificially by making the plates too thin, and the wood he employed has consequently not always lasted well.
9E. H.-A.
11In 1741 his business in Piccadilly was carried on by Mrs. Walmsley,³ which points to Peter being dead. His name as 'P. Warmsley at Ye Harp in Piccadilly' is on the imprint of 'The Songs in Hurlothrumbo' (1729). In 1741 De Fesch's 'Eight Concertos' are advertised as sold by him. He appears to have been in business relations with John Barrett, who worked at the Harp and Crown, also in Piccadilly, as a violin-maker and music-seller at a contemporary date; also with William Smith the music-engraver, as the three names are frequently conjoined on imprints of works issued about 1720-30.
13It is stated that Walmsley was succeeded at the 'Harp and Hautboy' by Thomas Smith, a pupil, some of whose labels bear the date 1756.
15F. K.
17BIBL.—HART, The Violin; MEREDITH MORRIS, British Violin-Makers; HERON-ALLEN, Violin-Making; VON LUTGENDORFF, Die Geigen und Lautenmacher.
19WANHAL (in English publications VANHALL), JOHN BAPTIST (b. Nechanicz, Bohemia, May 12, 1739; d. Vienna, Aug. 26, 1813), a contemporary of Haydn, was of Dutch extraction. His instructors were two local worthies, Kozák and Erban, and his first instruments the organ and violin. His early years were passed in little Bohemian towns near the place of his birth. At one of these he met a good musician, who advised him to stick to the violin, and also to write for it; both which he did with great assiduity. In 1760 he was taken to Vienna by the Countess Schaffgotsch, and here his real progress began; he studied under Dittersdorf, read all the works he could get at, played incessantly, composed with great enthusiasm and what was then thought extravagance, and was soon taken up by many of the nobility. One of these, the Freiherr Riesch, sent him to Italy for a long journey, of which he took full advantage. On his return to Vienna he fell into a state of mental depression, which for some time affected him greatly. It was thus that Burney found him in 1772.⁴ Life in Vienna then was very much what it was fifty years later, and Wanhal's existence was passed, like Beethoven's or Schubert's, in incessant work, varied by visits to Hungary or Croatia, where the Count Erdödy, the immediate predecessor of Beethoven's friend, received him. Though somewhat younger than Haydn, his music arrived in England first. Burney mentions this fact⁵ and speaks of his symphonies as 'spirited, natural and unaffected,' and of the quartets and other music for violins of this excellent composer as 'deserving a place among the first productions in which unity of melody, pleasing harmony and a free and manly style are constantly preserved.'
21¹ He had previously sung in Lampe's 'Amelia,' Mar. 13, 1732.
22² As, for instance, by Berlioz in his Autobiography, chap. xx.
23³ Old newspaper advt.
24⁴ Present State, etc. p. 358.
25⁵ Hist. iv. 599.
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