Scan 281
Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians Vol. 3, 1925
14 lines. Read by computer on 10 September 2026. Printed page 241. See the scan on archive.org.
1Gostena, Oscar Chilesotti has reprinted fourteen little pieces in modern notation in his 'Lautenspieler des XVI. Jahrhunderts' (Breitkopf & Härtel, 1891). In these pieces, as Eitner says, Molinaro despises all counterpoint, and shows himself as a pure melodist and harmonist, but both in so simple and pretty a way, that they all have something uncommonly attractive (see Monatshefte, xxiv. p. 29). J. R. M.
3MOLIQUE, WILHELM BERNHARD, celebrated violinist and composer, was born Oct. 7, 1802, at Nuremberg. His father, a member of the town band, at first taught him several instruments, but Molique soon made the violin his special study. Spohr, in his Selbstbiographie (i. 228), relates that while staying at Nuremberg, in 1815, he gave some lessons to the boy, who already possessed remarkable proficiency on the instrument. Molique afterwards went to Munich, and studied for two years under Rovelli. After having lived for some time at Vienna, as member of the orchestra of the Theater-an-der-Wien, he returned in 1820 to Munich, and succeeded his master Rovelli as leader of the band. From Munich he made several tours through Germany, and soon established his reputation as an eminent virtuoso and a solid musician. In 1826 he accepted the post of leader of the Royal Band at Stuttgart, and remained there till 1849. In that year he came to England, where he spent the remaining part of his professional life. The sterling qualities of Molique as a player, and his sound musicianship, soon procured him an honourable position in the musical world of London. His first appearance at the Philharmonic was on May 14, 1840, when he played his own A minor Concerto. With the general public he was equally successful as a soloist, quartet-player and teacher, while the serious character and the fine workmanship of his compositions raised him high in the estimation of connoisseurs and musicians.
5As an executant he showed a rare perfection of left-hand technique, but his bowing appears to have been somewhat wanting in breadth and freedom. His style of playing was usually very quiet, perhaps deficient in animation. As a composer he holds a prominent place among modern writers for the violin. The influence of Spohr is evident, not only in the character of most of his subjects, but also in his manner of treating and working them out, yet some of his works—especially the first two movements of his third Concerto in D minor, and of the fifth in A minor—are fine compositions. The main subjects are noble and pathetic, the form is masterly, the working-out and the scoring full of interest. On the other hand, they suffer in effect by being too much spun out, and by being overladen with somewhat old-fashioned and extremely difficult passages. His other compositions, though evincing the same technical mastery, are very inferior in interest to these concertos—they bear hardly any traces of inspiration and had no great or lasting success.
7Molique [gave a farewell concert at St. James's Hall, May 3, 1866, and five days afterwards] retired to Cannstadt near Stuttgart, where he died May 10, 1869. His principal published works are:—six Violin Concertos; eight Quartets for stringed instruments; two Pianoforte Trios; a Symphony; two Masses, and an Oratorio, 'Abraham,' performed at the Norwich Festival in 1860. To these must be added Duos for two violins, and for flute and violin, with a number of smaller vocal and instrumental pieces. P. D.
9MOLL and DUR are the German terms for Minor and Major.
11MOLLENHAUER, EDWARD R., a violin-maker, established in New York in the latter half of the 19th century, who introduced an 'improvement' in violin construction which was patented in this country (1881, No. 621). 'The invention consists in placing a board between the sounding-board and the back of the instrument, and parallel to these two boards, so as to divide the interior into two compartments. This intermediate board is provided with sound-holes and a bass bar.' This contrivance was considered of sufficient importance by Count Luigi Francesco Valdrighi to form the subject of No. 9 of his Musurgiana under the title 'Strumenti ad Arco Rinforzati' (Modena, 1881). E. H-A.
13MOLLER, JOACHIM, who afterwards dropped his patronymic, and subscribed himself Joachim von Burck or Burgk, was born in 1541 at Burg, in what was then the territory of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg. His teacher in music as he himself tells us, was a certain Hermann Noricus, of whom nothing else is known. His real teaching, however, was derived from his diligent study of the works of Orlando di Lasso, whom, as he says he endeavoured to imitate, not only in his free admixture of the chromatic with the diatonic style, but in his careful adaptation of the music to the sense and accent of the words. From 1566 to his death, May 24, 1610, Joachim von Burck was organist of the Church of St. Blasius, Mühlhausen, a post in which he had several distinguished successors, and greatest of all, Sebastian Bach. Spitta says that 'Burck may be regarded as having given the chief impulse to the earnest musical feeling for which Mühlhausen was long distinguished.' Johann Eccard, who was born at Mühlhausen, was probably his pupil, and was afterwards associated with him in several of his publications. Besides being organist at St. Blasius, Burck subscribes himself as 'Symphonista' of the city of Mühlhausen, which would seem to imply that he held some position as instrumentalist in the town-band. He was also chosen to be Senator or Alderman in the city Council, which, as Mühlhausen was a free city of the Empire, was then an office of some distinction. A large number
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