Scan 152
Groves Dictionary Of Music And Musicians,vol.1 Ed.3, 1904
20 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1During the Philharmonic Society's tenure of the rooms (old and new), a period of about 17 years, many events of great interest to musicians occurred there. There, on Mar. 6 and Apr. 10, 1820, Spohr appeared, first as violinist and last as conductor (Selbstbiog. ii. 86), when a baton was used for perhaps the first time at an English concert. There, on June 11, 1821, Moscheles, and, on June 21, 1824, Liszt made their first appearances in England. On Mar. 21, 1825, Beethoven's 'Choral Symphony' was given for the first time in England. There, too, Weber, on Apr. 3, 1826, two months before his death, conducted one of the Philharmonic Society's concerts, and Mendelssohn first presented himself before an English audience. On May 25, 1829, the latter conducted, at one of the concerts of the Philharmonic Society, his symphony in C minor, and a month later, at the benefit concert of Drouet, the flautist, on midsummer night, June 24, produced for the first time in England his overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream.
3Besides concerts, the rooms were let for miscellaneous performances and exhibitions. One of the most attractive of the latter was a French exhibition of dramas performed by puppets, called 'The French Théâtre du Petit Lazary,' which was given in 1828 and 1829. In 1829-30 the rooms were tenanted by a M. Chabert, calling himself 'The Fire King,' during whose tenure of the place, at 10 o'clock in the evening of Feb. 6, 1830, a fire broke out, which in a short time completely destroyed the building. It was rebuilt soon afterwards, but never regained its former reputation. The Philharmonic concerts were removed after the fire to the concert-room of the King's Theatre, and thence to the Hanover Square Rooms, and although a few concerts and other entertainments were occasionally given in the Argyll Rooms, the place became by degrees deserted by caterers for public amusement and was, in the course of a few years, converted into shops.
5ARIA (Ital.), 'air.' The word is generally used of the more ambitious musical forms employed in the older operas, so that the English translation is not exactly synonymous with it (see AIR). The arias of the time of Handel, when opera was at its moment of extreme conventionality, were divided into several classes, and it was a rule that no two arias of the same class were to follow one another.
7(1) The Aria cantabile was a quiet slow movement, characterised, in the works of the best masters, by a certain tender pathos, and so contrived as to afford frequent opportunities for the introduction of extempore ornamentation at the discretion of the singer. Its accompaniment, always very simple, was limited in most cases to a plain thorough-bass, the chords of which were filled in on the harpsichord.
9(2) The Aria di portamento was also a slow movement, and generally a very telling one. Its rhythm was more strongly marked than that of the Aria cantabile, its style more measured, and its melody of a more decidedly symmetrical character, freely interspersed with sustained and swelling notes, but affording few opportunities for the introduction of extempore embellishments. Flowing and graceful in design, its expression was rather sedate and dignified than passionate; and its accompaniment rarely extended beyond a well-phrased thorough-bass, with one or two violins, used chiefly in the symphonies.
11(3) The Aria di mezzo carattere was open to great variety of treatment. As a general rule, it was less pathetic than the Aria cantabile, and less dignified than the Aria di portamento, but capable of expressing greater depths of passion than either. Its pace was generally, though not necessarily, andante; the second part being sung a little faster than the first, with a return to the original time at the Da capo. Its accompaniment was rich and varied, including at least the full stringed band, with the frequent introduction of oboes and other wind instruments.
13(4) The Aria parlante was of a more declamatory character, and therefore better adapted for the expression of deep passion, or violent emotion of any kind. Its accompaniments were sometimes very elaborate, and exhibited great variety of instrumentation, which the best masters carefully accommodated to the sense of the verses they desired to illustrate. Different forms of the air were sometimes distinguished by special names: for instance, quiet melodies, in which one note was accorded to each several syllable, were called Arie di nota e parola; while the terms Aria agitata, Aria di strepito, and even Aria infuriata were applied to movements exhibiting a greater or less amount of dramatic power.
15(5) The Aria di bravura, or d'agilità, was generally an allegro, filled with brilliant 'divisions' or passages of rapid fioritura calculated to display the utmost powers of the singer for whom the movement was intended. Some of the passages written for Elizabetta Pilotti Schiavonetti, Cuzzoni, Faustina, Nicolini, Farnelli, and other great singers of the period were amazingly difficult. Among such volate we may class that sung in Handel's 'Ricardo Primo,' by the celebrated soprani, Senesino (see next page).
17Though we sometimes meet with operatic airs of the 18th century which seem, at first sight, inconsistent with this rigid system of classification, a little careful scrutiny will generally enable us to refer them, with tolerable certainty, to one or other of the universally recognised orders.
19The Cavatina, for instance, distinguished
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.