Scan 26
The American history and encyclopedia of music, 1908
9 lines. Read by computer on 11 September 2026. Printed page 9. See the scan on archive.org.
1Mader
2tion with Krenn, harmony with Bruckner, and piano with Schmitt and Schenner, and taking first prizes in composition and piano, the great silver medal in 1880, and the Liszt piano prize. On leaving the Conservatory he took a position with the Vienna Court Opera as coach of solo singers and was also conductor of ballets and minor operas, and in 1895 he became chorusmaster of the Academy Gesangverein. Both these positions were given up in 1895, when he became chief conductor of the Royal Opera. His compositions are the ballets, Die Hochzeit in Frisirsalon, Die rothen Schuhe, She, Die Sireneninsel, and Tanzblut; a parody on Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana; the three-act comic opera, Die Flüchtlinge and the three-act operetta, Cœur d'ange. He also wrote some songs and choruses.
4Maelzel (měl'-tsěl), Johann Nepomuk. 1772-1838.
5An early inventor of automatic musical instruments. He was born at Ratisbon, where his father was an organ-builder, and in 1792 he went to Vienna as a music-teacher. His first mechanical work was an automaton composed of a trumpet, drum and other instruments, which played selections from Mozart and Haydn and which he sold for three thousand florins. He next invented the panharmonicon by making some additions to his former instrument. This was exhibited at Vienna in 1804. Then he bought Kempelen's chessplayer and took it and his own instrument to Paris. He sold the former soon, and then made a trumpeter playing military marches and signals. He was made Court mechanic in 1808. He invented an ear-trumpet, and in 1812 opened an Art Cabinet showing his inventions. He made a public chronometer which was an improvement on all similar instruments in existence. He was a friend of Beethoven's and at one time started to England with him for the purpose of exhibiting the panharmonicon. On the way Beethoven composed a battle-piece for the instrument which Maelzel appropriated as his own. This made Beethoven so angry that he took the matter to court, but the only result of the affair was that Maelzel gave up going to England and went to Munich instead with the panharmonicon, and also the battle-piece. He then went to Amsterdam, where he bought the metronome, an instrument for time-keeping, from the Dutch inventor, Winkel. In 1816 he established a metronome factory in Paris, advertising the instrument as his own idea. Winkel objected and was finally recognized as the real inventor when it was too late to do much good. Maelzel then journey to Munich and Vienna to rebuy the chessplayer and help along the metronome. He at last went to the United States and exhibited his curious inventions there and in the West Indies.
7Maggini (mäd-jě'-nē), Giovanni Paolo. (Magino or Magicino.) 1581-1632.
8Italian fiddle-maker, called the father of the violin, because he was the first to create that instrument as a distinct type. He was born at the little military town of Brescia. Nothing is known of his early boyhood, but a legal document dated 1602 proves that he was then the apprentice of Gasparo da Salò, a famous old maker of doublebasses and violas. In 1615 he had started his business, with the aid of an apprentice, Jacopo de Lanfranchini. He manufactured citharas, violoncellos, violas and violins, and seems to have been very successful, for in 1626 he bought another house, and also a residence and lands in the hill country. The date of his death is unknown, but it is very probable that Maggini was a victim of the plague in 1632. Naturally his first work was much like that of his master, Gasparo. His violins were of large size, resembling small viols, were rather roughly made, and had the wood cut across the grain and the dark varnish of Gasparo. After Gasparo's death his pupil began using the wood the straight way of the grain, and cutting the sound-holes more delicately and beveled inwards. He used the best of material, produced beautiful purfling, gave up Gasparo's dark brown varnish for a rich orange and golden color, and greatly reduced the amount of ornamentation which had hitherto decorated similar instruments to the disadvantage of their tone. His violoncellos were in general rather small. The tone of his instrument is full, melodious, and plaintive. They are not dated and only about fifty violins and half that number of cellos and tenors are known to exist at present.
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