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Scan 99
Harvard Dictionary Of Music, 1944
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1BELGIAN MUSIC
3[see *Editions XVII]. While the latter two followed the trends of the French Rococo (F. Couperin), the next Belgian composer to be mentioned, François Gossec (1734–1829) belongs to the *Mannheim group, and the slightly younger André Grétry (1741–1813) plays an important role in the history of the French opera (Richard Coeur de Lion, 1784; see *Leitmotif). It should be noted that Belgium has a certain claim to one of the greatest composers, namely Beethoven, whose ancestors lived near Antwerp and Mecheln [cf. P. Bergmans, Les Origines belges de Beethoven (1927); E. Closson, L'Élément flamand dans Beethoven (1928)].
5In the 19th-century music of Belgium, César Franck (1822–90) is by far the most important personality. Like Tchaikovsky, he adhered to the conception of music as an international language, while Pierre Benoit (1834–1901) played a role comparable to that of Moussorgsky, namely, that of the initiator of national music, freed from German as well as French influence. He is particularly important in the field of the oratorio and of the cantata. Among his successors Jan Blockx (1851–1912) and Edgar Tinel (1854–1912) must be mentioned especially. Paul Gilson (b. 1865) adopted some elements of Russian music and is particularly known for his symphonic poem La Mer (1892). A composer who in a very short life wrote several works of great promise was Guillaume Lekeu (1870–94). Joseph Jongen (b. 1873) was active mainly in the field of symphonic and of chamber music. The novel trends of 20th-century music have found little response in Belgium. Paul de Maleingreau (b. 1887) is the main representative of neo-classical tendencies based on Bach.
7Belgium has produced a number of outstanding music historians, notably François Fétis (1784–1871), Charles Coussemaker (1805–76; see *Scriptores), Pierre van Maldeghem (1810–93; published La Trésor musicale), Edmund van der Straeten (1826–95; La Musique aux Pays-Bas, 1867–88), and Charles van den Borren (b. 1874).
9Lit.: Fl. van der Mueren, Vlaamsche Muziek en Componisten (1931); LavE i.3, 1815ff; Ch. van den Borren, "The General Trends in Contemporary Belgian Music" (MQ vii); id., "Belgian Music and French Music" (MQ ix); AdHM ii, 1074–77.
11Bell. (1) A percussion instrument of metal sounded by a clapper usually placed inside the bell. The best alloy for bells is 76 per cent pure copper and 24 per cent pure tin. Sometimes small amounts of zinc or lead are added. The tone of a well tuned bell is characterized by a great number of overtones which, in old bells (chiefly those of the Continent), are slightly out of tune; owing to the efforts of English bell-founders (especially, Taylor of Loughborough), modern English bells have five overtones (including the minor, not the major, third) tuned with absolute accuracy. The pitch of a bell varies inversely with the cubic root of its weight. Therefore, if a bell weighing 100 pounds sounds c''' (the actual tone is nearer b''), a bell of 800 pounds (\( \frac{1}{8} = 2 \)) will be needed for the tone of the half frequency, c'', one of 6,400 for c', of 51,200 pounds for c, and of 409,600 pounds for C. The largest bell ever founded was the Tsar Kolokol of the Kremlin of Moscow (1734, destroyed by fire in 1737) which, after the best estimation, weighed c. 500,000 pounds, and measured over 20 feet in diameter. The largest bell in existence is the Trotzkoi, also in Moscow, weighing c. 350,000 pounds. Old bells in France and in Germany weigh from 20,000 to 40,000 pounds. Large modern bells usually weigh from 5,000 to 15,000 pounds. The use of bells in churches can be traced back to the 6th century (Gregory of Tours, c. 560); the earliest record of large bells in England dates from the 10th century (Turketyl, Abbot of Croyland); the earliest preserved bells are to be found in Italy and in Germany (11th century).
13Three ways of sounding church bells are distinguished: (a) chiming, in which the rope moves the bell just sufficiently for the clapper to strike it; (b) ringing,
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