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Scan 635
Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 1928
32 lines. Read by computer on 12 September 2026. Printed page 571. See the scan on archive.org.
1during this period may be cited the well-known essay in the Spectator of Mar. 28, 1712, on 'Merry Epilogues after Tragedies, and Jigging Voluntaries.' Similar complaints may be found in periodicals as late as the middle of the 19th century, at which time the custom arose of using transcriptions from all kinds of sources, often inappropriate. There is now a better and rapidly improving standard, owing to the general recognition of the principle that a voluntary should justify itself on the grounds of (a) musical quality, and (b) fitness for use in connexion with divine service. The ideal is reached when the principle of fitness is developed from the general to the particular, and voluntaries are chosen to suit the liturgical season—and even a given Sunday or holy day. This may be done without great difficulty, as there is now a large repertory of admirable English, German and French organ music based on liturgical themes from plain-song and chorales to modern hymn tunes and carols. Thanks to this wide field of choice, a service may now open and close with organ music not less appropriate than the hymns and anthems. Thus used, the voluntary amply justifies itself, both as a decorative accessory and an aid to devotion.
3For examples of the 17th and 18th century 'Voluntary' at its best, see the large collection of John E. West alluded to above (Novello).
5H. G.
7VOMÁČKA, BOLESLAV (b. Mlada Boleslav, 1887), Czechoslovak composer and writer. He is a doctor of law and practised as a solicitor until he entered the civil service in 1919 (the Ministry of Social Welfare). He studied music at the Prague Conservatoire under Vít. Novák (q.v.), and acted as musical critic to the journals Čas and Lidové Noviny. At present he edits the Listy Hudební Matice, the monthly journal of the musical section of Umělecká Besedá (the Society of Arts). He composes at infrequent intervals, and his works accord with the views which he advocates strongly as regards modern music—that it must now avoid the excessive subjectivity and personal lyricism too freely exploited by the earlier generation, and adapt itself to a more detached and universal expression. He began as a disciple of Schönberg, but soon formed an individual style; a little harsh, as might be expected from his reluctance to show the least sign of sentimentality, but full of vitality, courage, and robust independence. His workmanship is too firmly based on a sound traditional culture to degenerate into merely freakish experimentalism. His fine pianoforte sonata, introduced to Paris by Mlle. Blanche Selva, has made its way on the Continent. His chief compositions are:
9Symphonic Poem 'Mlada' (Youth); Pianoforte Sonata; Violin and Pianoforte Sonata; Cycle for Pianoforte, 'Hledani' (The Quest); Song Cycle, '1914'; short Choral Works; all published by Hudební Matice, Prague.
11R. N.
13VOPELIUS, GOTTFRIED (b. Herwigsdorf, near Zittau, Jan. 28, 1645; d. Leipzig, Feb. 3, 1715), became cantor at St. Nicholas, Leipzig, in 1675. He wrote some original tunes to hymns previously set to other music, but is chiefly known as a harmoniser of older melodies in four voice-parts. He adopts the more modern form of regular rhythm (generally 3–2), and freely uses the subdominant and major dominant even in minor keys, and the accidental ♯ and ♭. He published in 1682 the 'Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch,' which contains besides other tunes 100 hymns from Schein's Cantional oder Gesangbuch' of 1627. R. M.
15VORHALT, see APPOGGIATURA.
17VORSCHLAG, see APPOGGIATURA; ORNAMENTS, GERMAN.
19VORSPIEL (Ger.), see PRELUDE.
21VORTRAG (Ger., lit. a drawing-out), a term used purely in reference to the performance or interpretation of a musical work. The best English equivalent is perhaps 'interpretation' or 'reading.' Vortrag embraces not only all that belongs to differences of rates of speed and force, but all that lies beyond the mere execution of the written notes in the proper rhythm. 'Vortragsbezeichnungen' are the directions for the various shades of force and kinds of expression.
23M.
25VOSS, CHARLES (b. Schmarsow, near Demmin, Sept. 20, 1815; d. Aug. 29, 1882), received his musical education at Berlin, and settled in Paris in 1846, where he had a successful career as pianist and teacher, turning out a great number of pianoforte pieces to suit the taste of the day. He also wrote a concerto in F minor which was highly praised by Mendelssohn. (Riemann and Baker.)
27M.
29VOSS (Vossius), (1) GERHARD JOHANN (b. in or near Heidelberg, c. 1577; d. Amsterdam, Mar. 19, 1649), was professor of rhetoric at Leyden in 1618. He was presented by Laud to a canonry at Canterbury in 1629, and became professor of history at Amsterdam in 1633. His works bearing on music are: De artis poeticae natura ac constitutione, 1647, and De quatuor artibus popularibus grammatica, gymnastica, musica et graphica liber, 1650.
31His seventh child, (2) ISAAC (b. Leyden, 1618; d. Windsor, Feb. 21, 1688–89), was in 1649–52 at the court of Christina of Sweden, was given the degree of D.C.L. at Oxford in 1670, and was presented by Charles II. to a vacant prebend in the royal chapel of Windsor on May 12, 1673. In the same year appeared, anonymously, his important contribution to musical literature, De poematum cantu et viribus rythmi, a treatise on the alliance of poetry with music. There are some curious criticisms on the work by Roger North in the B.M. Add. MSS. 32,531,
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