Scan 256
The American History and Encyclopedia of music Music Biographies Vol.1, 1910
11 lines. Read by computer on 15 September 2026. Printed page 234. See the scan on archive.org.
1Fétis
2work in this line was largely overshadowed by his biographical work. He composed seven operas, among them L'Amant et le Mari; Marie Stuart en Écosse; and Le Vieille and Le Mannequin de Bergamo, all given at the Opéra Comique with a fair degree of success, but all antiquated and not at all brilliant. He also wrote overtures; sextets; sonnets; wind-octets; caprices; and much sacred music, including masses, motets; and a requiem; which last was considered his greatest composition, and was composed in 1850 for the funeral of the Queen of Belgium. Fétis was a learned student of counterpoint and a champion of the old Italian style. He was noted for his apparently tireless energy, and often worked sixteen and eighteen hours a day. His Revue Musicale, which he founded in 1827, was the foundation of the musical press of France. After his death his great library was purchased by the Belgian government and is now in the Brussels Conservatory.
4The didactic and historical works of Fétis include the famous Biographie Universelle, already mentioned, which was originally published in eight volumes at Brussels in 1835 to 1844. A second edition was brought out in Paris in 1862, and a supplement in two volumes was published by Pougin, in Paris, in 1878 to 1880, several years after the death of Fétis. He also wrote a manual for composers; a biography of Haydn; an account of the career of Antoine Stradivari, the great violin-maker, with original researches on bowed instruments, and a biography of Beethoven. His treatise on counterpoint and fugue is undoubtedly the best and most exhaustive text-book on these subjects that exists. His work, Music Explained, was translated into English from the French for the Boston Academy of Music. He left many works and treatises unfinished and unpublished and edited numerous methods. Fétis left a son, Edouard Louis François, professor and composer at Brussels and art critic and editor of La Revue Musicale from 1833 to 1835, who has helped to perpetuate his father's name. He wrote Les Musiciens Belges in two parts.
6Fevin (fu-văn), Antoine de. 1490-1517.
7His name is sometimes spelled Feum, and he is generally believed to be a native of Orleans, although some historians claim he was born in Spain. He is mentioned by Glareanus as a successful emulator of Josquin de Pres, and the historian declares that Fevin's modesty and diffidence matched his genius. He is generally regarded as one of the greatest musical geniuses between De Pres and Lasso. Riemann says he was a distinguished (probably a Netherlander) contrapuntist, although nothing is positively known of his life. Of his works there are preserved three masses, printed by Petrucci in 1515; others in manuscript are at Munich and Vienna, and numerous motets and French chansons are in the collections of 1540 and 1545. Three of the masses mentioned are in the English Museum, and musicians have praised especially his Sancta Trinitatus in this collection.
9Febich
10A name famous in Bohemia, and in opera this composer ranks next to Smetana in his own country, and in this field won most of his laurels. He was born at Vsebořics, near Czaslau, and first studied music in Vienna and Prague, afterward going to Leipsic to study at the Conservatory under Moscheles, Richter and Jadassohn. There he produced a G minor symphony as well as other compositions. He was attracted to Schumann's works and took them for his model, and produced a dozen compositions in imitation of Manfred. He next went to Paris to pursue his studies further, and also studied at Mannheim under Vincent Lachner. Returning to Prague, he was appointed assistant choirmaster at the National Theatre, and in 1878 director of the Russian Church choir. He conducted there for several years, then devoted himself almost wholly to composition. His first work was Bukovin and then came Blanik on the same subject as Smetana's. Fibich was, whatever his faults, a most prolific composer, and his works number about seven hundred, or more. Of these, the most important are six melodramas; six operas; Haideé, after Byron's Don Juan; seven symphonic poems; a choral ballad, Die Windsbrant; a Spring Romanza for choir and orchestra; some three hundred pieces for the piano; many songs; duets; and compositions for chorus and orches-
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