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Scan 479
Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 1928
18 lines. Read by computer on 12 September 2026. Printed page 427. See the scan on archive.org.
1URLUS, Jacques (b. Amsterdam, Feb. 1868), operatic tenor. Educated at Utrecht, he studied singing at the Conservatoire, Amsterdam, and first sang in public at a concert in Utrecht in 1887. After that he went through a careful preparation for the operatic stage and made his début in the same city in 1894 as Canio in 'Pagliacci.' One by one he mastered the leading Wagnerian parts, for which his robust voice and declamatory gifts obviously fitted him, and ere long was engaged for Bayreuth, where he sang for several seasons with invariable success. During the Beecham spring season of 1910 he made his début at Covent Garden as Tristan, making a favourable impression, and returned in the following winter to sing Tannhäuser. He also appeared at Covent Garden in 1914 as Parsifal and Siegmund, under Bodanzky; and again in 1924 as Siegmund and Tristan under Bruno Walter. On the Continent he was engaged for considerable periods at the Paris Opéra and at Leipzig, while from 1912–17 he sang regularly at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York. He has many decorations, including one from the Queen of Holland.
3BIBL.—International Who's Who in Music; Northcott, Covent Garden and the Royal Opera.
5H. K.
7URQUHART, Thomas, an early London violin-maker, who worked in the reign of Charles II. The dates on his violins are chiefly in the 'seventies and 'eighties. The model superficially resembles Gasparo da Salo; it is high, straight and flat in the middle of the belly, and has a rigid and antique appearance. The corners have but little prominence. The sound-holes are 'set straight,' and terminate boldly in circles, the inner members being so far carried on and introverted that the straight cut in each is parallel to the axis of the fiddle. This is Urquhart's distinctive characteristic. The purfling is narrow, coarse and placed very near the edge. The violins are found of two sizes; those of the larger size would be very useful chamber instruments but for the height of the model, which renders them somewhat unmanageable. The varnish, of excellent quality ('equal to that on many Italian instruments,' says Hart), is sometimes yellowish brown, sometimes red. Urquhart is considered to have been a Scotsman; he made flutes as well as violins, and one of his flutes was formerly in the possession of the late John Glen of Edinburgh. Edward Pamphilon, a London violin-maker on London Bridge, about 1680–90, is said to have been his pupil. E. J. P.; addn. F. K.
9USANDIZAGA, José María (b. San Sebastian, Mar. 31, 1887; d. Oct. 1915), Spanish (Basque) composer, who, had he lived, might have done much for modern Spanish opera. His 'Mendy-Mendiyan' was produced at Bilbao (1910), and 'Las Golondrinas' at Madrid (1914). A posthumous work, not yet performed, is 'La Llama,' and there are works for chorus and orchestra and a string quartet. Usandizaga was a student at the Schola Cantorum, Paris.
11J. B. T.
13USE, the name given to any special group of rites or ceremonies belonging to a particular Church. Fundamentally all the Western Latin Services are the same; but local differences, both in rite and ceremony, naturally arose, and in the 13th century these crystallised into orderly Uses. Thus in England many dioceses other than that of Salisbury adopted the ways of that Cathedral, or in other words followed Sarum Use. Similarly in the North, York Use was popular, and in the West the Use of Hereford. Abroad a similar state of things prevailed; Rome had its Use, but it was in the main a local or at most an Italian Use, while elsewhere in France, Germany, etc., diocesan Uses preserved their local distinctions. At the Reformation a desire for uniformity in all quarters alike altered this. In England the local Uses were superseded by 'The Book of Common Prayer . . . according to the Use of the Church of England': while abroad after the Council of Trent the reformed Roman Use was widely adopted to the exclusion of the local Uses. The Old Religious Orders had Uses of their own; the Franciscans were instrumental in forming and disseminating the Roman Use, and even after the Tridentine reform the Old Religious Orders kept their own Uses. In the 17th and 18th centuries, France rebelled against the uniformity, and a new set of French diocesan Uses grew up which were only with difficulty suppressed when the pendulum again swung back in the direction of uniformity in the middle of the 19th century.
15At the present time the Roman Use prevails almost through the whole of the West where the Latin Services are in use; and revisions both of the text and of the music which are in progress under the guidance of the Vatican will no doubt tend to make this uniformity of Use all the more general and the more satisfactory; though the ancient Orders (which have been foremost in the work of revision) will no doubt retain their own Uses: and still more the Uniat Churches of the East, Armenians, Syrians, Greeks, etc., who, while in communion with Rome, use a language and a rite other than Latin. The English Prayer-Book has similarly disseminated 'the Use of the Church of England' throughout the world. This Use, though very definite as far as rite and ceremonial go, is not specific on the side of music pure and simple, for no official music is specified in conjunction with it as the old plain-song is specified in the case of the Latin Uses. At the beginning of the present century1 the Vatican insisted more strongly than ever on the claim of this plain-song to be the official ritual music of the Church, though not to the exclusion of
171 Motu Proprio of Pope Pius X., Nov. 22, 1903.
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