Scan 127
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians ed. by J. A. Fuller Maitland, 1907
18 lines. Read by computer on 5 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1the introduction to 'Ariodant,' where three violoncellos and a trombone hold a kind of dialogue, and that in 'Mélidore et Phrosine,' where four horns which have a complete part throughout the score, accompany the voice of a dying man with a kind of smothered rattle. In 'Uthal' the violins are entirely absent, their places being taken by the violas, in order to produce a soft and misty effect. Grétry was shocked at this innovation, and so wearied by its monotony, that he cried on leaving the theatre after the first performance, 'Six francs for a chanterelle (E-string)!'
3Though Méhul's new and ingenious combinations were not always successful, and though his melodies were often wanting in that life and dash which rouse an audience, it must be acknowledged that with all his faults his work bears the stamp of a very individual mind and character, and the impress of that mighty race of 1789, with whom to will was to do, but amongst whose many gifts that of grace was too often wanting. Had he but possessed this fascinating quality, Méhul might have been the Mozart of France. As it is, we cannot withhold our admiration from the man who carried on Gluck's work with even more than Gluck's musical skill, regenerated opéra-comique, and placed himself at the head of the composers of his own time and nation.
5The portrait of Méhul which we engrave is taken from a remarkable print by Quenedey, 1808. Quatre-mère de Quincy pronounced his eulogium at the Institut in Oct. 1818, and Vieillard, one of his intimate friends, published an interesting Notice of him (Paris, 1859). The library of the Conservatoire contains many of his autographs, several being fragments of unpublished operas. The writer of this article discovered among them 'La Naissance d'Oscar Leclerc,' not elsewhere mentioned, an opéra-comique 'La Taupe,' and an 'Ouverture burlesque' for piano, violin, and reeds, interesting merely as musical curiosities.
7MEIBOM (in Latin MEIBOMIUS), MARCUS, learned historian of music, born early in the 17th century at Toenningen in Schleswig-Holstein. Nothing is known of his studies; but his great work, Antiquae musicae auctores septem graece et latine (Amsterdam, Elzevir), was published in 1652, and as in those days eminence was rarely attained in early youth, the date of his birth can hardly have been either 1626 or 1630 as commonly stated. The work was dedicated to Queen Christina of Sweden, at whose court he resided for some time. On one occasion, however, while singing at the Queen's request his version of an ancient Greek melody, the whole court burst out laughing, and Meibom, imagining that the Queen's physician Bourdelot was the instigator of this unseemly mirth, gave him a box on the ear, and was in consequence dismissed. He took refuge with Frederick III. of Denmark, who gave him a professorship at Upsala, but he soon returned to Holland. Having endeavoured in vain to find a capitalist who would carry into execution his plan of restoring the ancient triremes, he came to England in 1674 with the view of making arrangements for a new edition of the Old Testament. This project also failed, and returning to Holland, he died at Utrecht in 1711. The book already mentioned is one of the most valuable sources of information on ancient music, and may be considered a precursor of Gerber and Coussemaker. [Its usefulness is much enhanced in the modern reprints, the latest of which is by Karl von Jais (1895).] For his numerous works on music and geometry the reader is referred to Fétis.
9MEILAND, JACOB, born about 1542 at Senftenberg in Saxony, was brought up as a chorister in the Saxon Court Chapel, at Dresden. After attending the University of Leipzig, and spending some time in travelling, he was appointed capellmeister to the Margrave of Anspach, till the dissolution of this chapel in 1574. The rest of his life, to his early death in 1577, Meiland spent chiefly as an invalid at Frankfort on-the-Main, though busy to the last in bringing out his fairly numerous publications. He was highly thought of in his time as a composer of Latin and German Motets, and considered even the equal of Orlando Lassus. His harmonies are often rugged, after the manner of Orlando. In the composition of German secular songs he was one of the first to introduce into Germany the Italian Villanella style, paying more attention to the rhythmical declamation of the words than to the artifices of counterpoint. His works are:—
111. Cantiones Sacrae, 1564, 17 Nos. a 5 and 6.
122. Neue auserlesene teutsche Liedlein, 1569, 15 Nos. a 4 and 5.
133. Selectae Cantiones, 1572, 17 Nos. a 5 and 6.
144. Sacrae aliquot cantiones latinae et germanicae, 1575, 33 Nos. a 4 and 5.
155. Neue auserlesene Teutsche Gesäng, 1575, 18 Nos. 4 and 5.
166. Cantiones novae, etc., 1576, 19 Nos. a 5.
177. Cygneae cantiones latinae et germanicae, 1590, 22 Nos. a 4 and 5.
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