A Musical Biograhy: Or Sketches of the Lives and Writings of Eminent Musical Characters. Interspersed with an Epitome of Interesting Musical MatterStone & Fovell ... Congress Square., 1824 - 250 pages |
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A Musical Biograhy: Or Sketches of the Lives and Writings of Eminent Musical ... John R. Parker No preview available - 2016 |
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acquired admiration afterwards anthem appear astonishing bass beautiful BEETHOVEN Billington BUONONCINI CATALANI celebrated chant chapel character CHARLES HAGUE choir church music CLEMENTI composer compositions concert delightful effect eminent emperor employed engaged England English excellent execution expression extraordinary fame father feeling friends genius grace Handel harmony harpsichord HAYDN heard HENRY PURCELL human voice imagination instrument Italian Italy JOHN WALL CALLCOTT London Madame majesty manner Mara master melody ment merit METASTASIO mind Miss MOZART musician Naples nature never notes object opera oratorio orchestra organ organist ornament PAISIELLO passion performed perhaps persons piano forte play pleasure possessed prince produced pupil PURCELL RAYNER TAYLOR received remarkable rendered ROSSINI SAMUEL WEBBE scarcely SENESINO singer singing sion songs soon sound style sublime success sung superior talents taste theatre thing tion tone tune Vienna violin vocal voice Westminster Abbey whole words
Popular passages
Page 27 - But soon, ah soon, rebellion will commence, If music meanly borrows aid from sense : Strong in new arms, lo ! giant Handel stands, Like bold Briareus, with a hundred hands ; To stir, to rouse, to shake the soul he comes, And Jove's own thunders follow Mars's drums, Arrest him, empress ; or you sleep no more...
Page 88 - Gibbons, in which no instrument is employed but the organ, and the several parts are constantly moving in fugue, imitation, or plain counterpoint ; or, giving way to feeling and imagination, adopted the new and more expressive style of which he was himself one of the principal inventors, accompanying the voice parts with instruments, to enrich the harmony, and enforce the melody and meaning of the words, ha manifested equal abilities and resources.
Page 226 - ... attention of the whole congregation, who, instead of- vacating their seats as usual, remained for a considerable space of time, fixed in silent admiration. The Organist began to be impatient, (perhaps his wife was waiting dinner,) and at length addressing the Performer, told him...
Page 75 - ... which he made to keep himself awake, the continual alternation of sleep and watching, so fatigued him, that his wife persuaded him to take some rest, promising to awake him in an hour's time. He slept so profoundly, that she suffered him to repose for two hours. At five o'clock in the morning she awoke him. He had appointed the music-copiers to come at seven, and by the time they arrived, the overture was finished.
Page 83 - So much the better."—" What time do you require ?" — " A month." — " Very well ; in a month's time I shall return — what price do you set on your work?" — "A. hundred ducats." The stranger counted them on the table, and disappeared. Mozart remained lost in thought for some time : he then suddenly called for pen, ink, and paper, and, in spite of his wife's entreaties, began to write. This rage for composition continued several days ; he wrote day and night, with an ardour which seemed continually...
Page 17 - ... the effort. Without waiting to replace it, he advanced bareheaded to the front of the orchestra, breathing vengeance, but so much choked with passion that utterance was denied him.
Page 110 - ... that he first attempted to play a tune himself: for, the same evening after her departure, the child cried, and was so peevish that his mother was wholly unable to appease him. At length, passing through the dining room, he screamed and struggled violently to go to the organ, in which, when he was indulged, he eagerly beat down the keys with his little fists, as other children usually...
Page 86 - ... of their productions. And so much of our great musician's celebrity is already consigned to tradition, that it will soon be as difficult to find his songs, or at least to hear them, as those of his predecessors Orpheus and Amphion, with which Cerberus was lulled to sleep, or the city of Thebes constructed.
Page 26 - When Handel's Messiah was first performed, the audience were exceedingly struck and affected by the music in general; but when the chorus struck up," For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth...
Page 84 - I have found it impossible,' said Mozart, ' to keep my word ; the work has interested me more than I expected, and I have extended it beyond my first design. I shall require another month to finish it.