OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Bexfield, William

From volume 1 of the work.
​BEXFIELD, William Richard, Mus. Doc., born at Norwich April 27, 1824, and became a chorister of the cathedral under Dr. Buck. After leaving the choir he applied himself to the study of music, in which, although almost self-taught, he attained to considerable skill. He obtained the situation of organist at Boston, Lincolnshire, and in 1846 graduated as Bachelor of Music at Oxford. He lectured on music, and on the death of Dr. Crotch in 1847 became a candidate for the professorship of music at Oxford. In February 1848 he left Boston for London on being appointed organist of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate Street. He proceeded Doctor of Music at Cambridge in 1849.
[ W. H. H. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Beyer, Ferdinand

From volume 1 of the work.
[ E. D. ]
# A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon/Shem, Land of

​SHEM, LAND OF. The region immediately surrounding the City of Shem. It appears to have been situated considerably to the north;
# A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon/Shazer

​SHAZER. A place in the Arabian desert, where Lehi and his colony rested white the hunters of the party procured a supply of food (B.C. 600).
# A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon/Shem

​SHEM. A Nephite general, who commanded a corps of ten thousand men in the last great struggle between the Nephites and the Lamariites. He, with all his command, was slain in the final series of battles in the land Cumorah, when the Nephite nation was annihilated. (A. C. 385.)
# A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon/Shearjashub

​SHEARJASHUB. The son of Isaiah, the prophet, mentioned only in a quotation from his writings. (II Nephi, 17:3.)
# A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon/Shem, City of

​SHEM, CITY OF. A city on the northern continent, north of Antum and Jashon. To this city the Nephites, under Mormon, were driven by the Lamanites and Gadiantons (A. C. 345). Here, however, they made a stand and fortified the city. Encouraged by the earnest pleadings of their commander, 30,000 of them gave battle to 50,000 Lamanites, and defeated them. The Nephites followed up their victory with such decisive action that the enemy were driven continually southward, until (A. C. 350) a treaty was entered into, by the terms of which the Nephites retained possession of the whole of North America and the Lamanites held the southern continent.
# A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon/Seezoram

​SEEZORAM. A member of the Gadianton band, elected by the Nephites, during the times of their degeneracy, to be their Chief Judge. The date of his election is not given, but he probably succeeded the son of Cezoram, who was assassinated. (B, C. 26.) Seezoram himself was murdered in the year B. C. 23, in the city of Zarahemla, by his brother Seantum, who desired to obtain the chief judgeship.
The three years preceding the death of Seezoram are dark ones in the history of the Nephites. The people were rapidly growing in iniquity—they gave succor and support to the Gadianton bands, whose members held the chief offices in the gift of the people. Justice was travestied, the law was administered in the interest of the wicked and of those who would bribe or buy the judges; while the righteous were persecuted, abused and robbed in its name. It thus became an engine of oppression to the good or uninfluential, and an instrument to aid and protect the vile and the influential in all their evil-doing.
The prophet Nephi was the first who informed the people of the death of their chief magistrate. He was preaching from a tower in his garden at the time the foul deed was perpetrated. By the ​spirit of revelation he told his hearers what had been done; five of them hastened to the judgment hall and found it was as the prophet had declared. So thunderstruck were they that they swooned, in which condition they were discovered by others, with the murdered Seezoram lying before them. When they recovered, they found themselves in prison, charged with the crime, and Nephi was also arrested, because of his prophecy, charged as an accessory before the fact. The confession of Seantum, that be was the guilty one, brought about the release of all those who had been imprisoned, and the five unfortunate accused were converted to the Lord.
Of Seezoram's life, acts or character we have no record; it is probable, nay, we must almost necessarily believe, that he was a leader in iniquity, or it would have been impossible for him to have attained his exalted position through the votes of the sin-stained majority.
# A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon/Shelem

​SHELEM. A mountain to which the Jaredites gave this name because of its exceeding height, situated not far from the great ocean which they were about to cross. It was upon this mountain that the Savior touched with His finger the sixteen stones which were to give light in the barges built to carry them to the promised land; and here He showed Himself to the brother of Jared and revealed to him the great truths regarding His coming to the earth in the flesh. (Ether, ch. 3, 4.)
# A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon/Shared

​SHARED. A Jaredite military commander, opposed to Coriantumr during a part of the great series of wars which ended in the destruction of that race. Nothing is said of him until he comes to the front as the leader of an army which gave battle to Coriantumr and defeated him. This appears to have been a lengthy campaign, and not one solitary fight, for we are told that "in the third year he (Shared) did bring him into captivity. And the sons of Coriantumr, in the fourth year, did beat Shared, and did obtain the kingdom again unto their father." The war. at this period, would seem to have grown beyond the control of the great leaders, and to have degenerated into a condition of affairs in which every man's hand was ​against his neighbor, and mobs, instead of disciplined armies, carried bloodshed and devastation far and wide, throughout the land. Bands of brigands and robbers committed all manner of outrages, and the country was a scene of anarchy and horror from one end to the other. After a time, Coriantumr, being exceedingly angry, gathered his forces and met Shared in the valley of Gilgal. The fight, which lasted three days, was a desperate and stubborn one. Shared was beaten and retreated as far as the plains of Heshlon, where he again withstood Coriantumr, and this time was victorious, driving his foes back to their former battle ground—the valley of Gilgal. Here another fierce battle was fought, in which Shared was slain and his troops defeated. In after years, Gilead, a brother of Shared's, took his place and continued the bitter conflict with Coriantumr.
# A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon/Sebus, Waters of

​SEBUS, WATERS OF. A watering place in the Land of Ishmael, which, in the time of Lamoni, was used to water the king's flocks. On its banks occurred the conflict between Ammon, the son of Mosiah, and the Lamanite robbers, who sought to scatter the royal cattle.
# A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon/Seth

​SETH. A Jaredite prince, the son of king Shiblom, who, in the war in which his father was slain, was brought into captivity, and so held all the rest of his life. His son, Ahah, regained the kingdom. Of Seth's character we have no details.
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Belloc, Teresa

From volume 1 of the work.
[ J. M. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Bells (Peals)

From volume 1 of the work.
​BELLS are rung in peal in the British Islands only, with the exception of one or two rings of bells in America and the Colonies. On the Continent they are simply clashed, being swung with a lever—the notes of the bells not being arranged in any special order. In our islands it is usual to tune bells in the diatonic scale, and they are then rung in order from the highest to the lowest.
To enable the ringers to do this with accuracy, and also to enable them to change the order in which the bells strike by proper methods (see Change-Ringing), bells are hung as shown in the accompanying illustrations:—
(Fig. 1.)
They are first carefully secured by iron bolts and braces through the ears or 'canons,' K, to the stock A (Fig. 1) which is fitted with axles or gudgeons of iron, M, working in brass or gunmetal bearings. The stock is fitted with a wheel, E, and a stay, B; and a ground pulley, N, is fixed to the floor of the belfry. By pulling the rope, F, the bell is gradually swung till she stands mouth upwards, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, when she is maintained in this position by the stay B, and slider C, which prevent her from
(Fig. 2.)
falling over (or turning clean round). It will be seen that when the rope, F, has been pulled enough to bring the fillet or ' sallie pin,' G, down to the nearest point to the ground pulley, N, that it can reach, it would in swinging past that point raise the rope; this gives tie ringer a second pull, M will be seen by reference to Fig. 2, and this is called the 'hand-stroke' pull. Now by ​following with the eye the motion of the bell as indicated by the arrow in No. 2, she will be seen to turn over, bringing the fillet G past N; then, winding the rope round the wheel as she moves, she will arrive at the position of the bell in Fig. 3—this is called the 'back-stroke' blow.
(Fig. 3.)
The first thing a ringer has to learn is so to swing his bell by the use of the rope, that he can be quite certain to bring her from one stroke to another, pulling her with proper judgment, so as just to throw her over the balance as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. If however too much force is used, there is a danger of breaking the stay or some other part of the machinery, and the ringer himself may be seriously injured.
[ C. A. W. T. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Belly (pianoforte)

From volume 1 of the work.
[ A. J. H. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Belly (violin tribe)

From volume 1 of the work.
​BELLY. The belly or upper part of the instruments of the violin tribe, is perhaps the most important of all, as it is the first to receive through the bridge the vibrations of the strings, and to communicate them to the whole body of the instrument. Soft wood being more easily set in vibration in all its parts, the belly is invariably made of deal, while the back and sides, which are not intended to vibrate to the same extent, but rather to throw back the waves of sound, are made of harder wood—maple.
[ P. D. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Bemetzrieder

From volume 1 of the work.
​BEMETZRIEDER, born in Alsace in 1743, came to Paris, and was engaged as teacher of music to the daughter of Diderot, whose patronage was of great service to him. In 1782 he left Paris for London, and there he died in 1817. He published both in London and Paris several didactic works on music, one of which, 'Leçons de claveçin' (Paris, 1771), was often republished in France, Spain, and England. In the contest between the Gluckists and Piccinnists he wrote on the side of toleration. Diderot rewrote the work just named—a questionable benefit, except as far as style is concerned.
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Belmonte und Constanza

From volume 1 of the work.
​BELMONTE UND CONSTANZA, Oder die Entführung aus dem Serail, an opera in four acts, words by Bretzner, music by Johann Andre; produced at Berlin May 26, 1781. It is only worth mention because the libretto, as altered by Stephanie, was set by Mozart under the title of 'Die Entführung,' etc. [See p. 66a.]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Belshazzar

From volume 1 of the work.
[ G. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Dietsch, Pierre

​DIETSCH, Pierre Louis Philippe. See vol. iv. p. 213a, note 1, and add that in 1863 he was dismissed from his post as conductor by M. Perrin, and that he died Feb. 20, 1865.
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Dieupart, Charles

From volume 1 of the work.
[ W. H. H. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Diminution

From volume 1 of the work.
​DIMINUTION, in Counterpoint, is the repetition of a subject or figure in notes of less value than in its original statement, as—
[ C. H. H. P. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Digitorium

From volume 1 of the work.
​DIGITORIUM. An apparatus fcr exercising and strengthening the fingers, intended especially for the use of pianists, but claimed by its inventor, Myer Marks, to be of great service to all who require flexible and well-trained fingers.
It consists of a small box about six inches square, provided with five keys, fitted with strongly resisting springs, upon which keys such exercises as the five-finger exercises to be found in every Pianoforte School are to be practised. In addition, there are attached to the sides of the box certain appliances for stretching the fingers, and a support for the wrist.
The idea of sparing the ears of pianoforte students, and those who may be in their neighbourhood, by the use of dumb keyboards is by no means new, either here or abroad. Great composers in boyhood, practising under difficulties, have been reduced to muffling the wires that they might practise unheard. It is difficult however to say when the first 'dumb-piano' was manufactured. In 1847 a long article appeared in the 'Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung' censuring the employment of the dumb piano, and Schumann in his 'Musikalische Haus- und Lebensregeln' says, 'There have been invented so-called dumb keyboards; try them for a while, that you may discover them to be of no value. One cannot learn to speak from the dumb.' Though this may be incontrovertible the question is worth consideration, whether the muscles of the fingers may not be increased in speed and endurance (two essential qualities in pianoforte playing), by a suitable course of properly regulated gymnastic exercises, just as the other muscles of the body are trained for running, rowing, etc.
That considerable muscular power is required in pianoforte playing at the present day, will be seen from the following table of resistances, the one set being taken from one of the most recent concert grand pianos, and the other from a grand made in 1817, both by Messrs. Broadwood and Sons.
| | Lowest C. | Middle C. | Highest C. |
| 1817 | 2⅝ oz. | 2⅜ oz. | 1¾ oz. |
| 1877 | 4 oz. | 3⅛ oz. | 2⅜ oz. |
The resistance offered by the Digitorium is far in excess of the above numbers; it is manufactured in three different degrees of strength, the resistance of the medium touch being no less than 12 ounces. On this account, and also because the resistance is obtained by metal springs, instead of by weights at the farther end of the lever (as in the old dumb pianos), the touch of the digitorium does not in the least resemble that of the pianoforte, but rather a heavily weighted organ-touch, and it should therefore be looked upon as a gymnastic apparatus, and by no means as a substitute for the pianoforte in the practice of exercises.
[ F. T. ]
* ↑ Digitoriums are occasionally made of greater compass, with black and white keys, the ordinary digitorium having only white keys.
* ↑ It will be seen that the amount of resistance is not equal throughout the key-board, and that the left hand, although the weaker, has the greatest resistance to overcome.
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Dignum, Charles

From volume 1 of the work.
[ W. H. H. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Diesis

From volume 1 of the work.
​DIESIS, from the Greek δίεσισ which means division, and was the name given to quarter tones in their system. Aristotle takes it as the unit of musical tones, the last subdivision of intervals. In modern acoustics it means the interval which results from the two sounds which are arrived at by tuning up 3 perfect thirds and an octave, which is the same as the difference between a major or diatonic semitone, and a minor or chromatic semitone, the ratio of their vibrations being 125:128. It is commonly called the Enharmonic Diesis, enharmonic being the word which is applied to intervals less than a semitone.
[ C. H. H. P. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Diminished Intervals

From volume 1 of the work.
​DIMINISHED INTERVALS are such as are either less than perfect or less than minor by one semitone. Thus (a) being a perfect fifth, (b) is a diminished fifth; and (c) being a perfect fourth, (d) is a diminished fourth:—
[ C. H. H. P. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Diminuendo

From volume 1 of the work.
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Dinorah

From volume 1 of the work.
​DINORAH. The original and Italian title of Meyerbeer's opera which was brought out in Paris (Opéra Comique, April 4, 1859) as 'Le Pardon de Ploermel'—Cabel as Dinorah. Dinorah was produced, with recitatives by Meyerbeer, and under his own direction, at Covent Garden July 26, 1859, in 3 acts, with Miolan Carvalho as the heroine; and in English in the autumn of the same year at Drury Lane by Pyne and Harrison.
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Dietrich, Albert

[ M. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Scheller, Jakob

From volume 3 of the work.
[ G. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Schechner-Waagen, Nanette

From volume 3 of the work.
​SCHECHNER-WAAGEN, Nanette, dramatic singer, born at Munich in 1806. She was employed in the chorus-scenes of the opera, and, on the occasion of Madame Grassini's visit, was chosen to second her in some selections from Cimarosa's 'Gli Orazzi e Curiazi.' Schechner's beautiful voice made a great impression, and won for her a patroness in the Queen of Bavaria. After some study in singing and in Italian, she appeared in Italian opera in Munich, until 1827, after which she devoted herself to German opera. In 1826 she was in Vienna, if a curious story, related by Schindler, of a scene in the theatre there, à propos to an air written for her by Schubert, may be believed. [See Schubert.] It is related by Fétis that, when she first appeared in Berlin in Weigl's 'Schweizerfamilie,' the first act was played to an almost empty house; but such enthusiasm did her Emmeline arouse in the few listeners, that the report of it spread to the neighbouring cafés during the entr'acte, a large audience was drawn to the theatre for the rest of the performance, and the singer's success was complete. Her Donna Anna, Euryanthe, Fidelio, Reiza, Vestalin and Iphigenie in Tauris excited great admiration in Berlin and Munich. In 1832 she married Waagen, a lithographer and painter.
Madame Schechner's voice was powerful, even massive in its tones, her acting was earnest and natural. She took a place in the first rank of German singers, but her brilliant career lasted no longer than ten years. A severe illness injured her voice; she retired from the stage in 1835, and died in 1860.
[ L. M. M. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Scheidemann

​SCHEIDEMANN. The name of a family of organists in Hamburg in the 16th and 17th centuries. Gerber, in his Lexicon, mentions Heinrich Scheidemann, born about 1600, died 1654, but appears to confuse him with an older and more important member of the family, David Scheidemann, probably an uncle of Heinrich. The date of David Scheidemann's birth is not ascertained, but in 1585 he was organist of St. Michael's Church, Hamburg. He is chiefly noteworthy as associated with three other Hamburg organists of repute, Jacob and Hieronymus Praetorius, and Joachim Decker, in the compilation of what we should now call a Choralbuch, though this name was not in general use then, a book of the usual hymn-tunes or chorales of the Lutheran Church, simply harmonized in four parts for congregational singing. This book appeared in 1604. Its original title is 'Melodeyen-Gesangbuch, darem Dr. Luthers und ander Christen gebräuchlichste Gesänge, ihren gewöhnlichen Melodien nach … in vier stimmen tibergesetzt.' The example first set by Lucas Osiander in 1586, of uniformly giving the melody to the soprano part, and not to the tenor, as the older practice was, is here followed, and in the preface attention is called to the greater convenience of this for congregational singing. Of the 88 tunes in the book, David Scheidemann harmonized 13 or 14; among them there appears for the first time harmonized 'Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern.' Gerber, confusing David with Heinrich, attributes both the melody and the setting of this Chorale to Heinrich. But Winterfeld shows (Ev. Kirch, i. p. 90) that the melody belongs to neither, but seems to be taken from an old secular song, beginning with similar words ('Wie schön leuchten die Aeugelein'), to the metre of which Philip Nicolai in 1599 wrote the words of his hymn, 'Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern.' Winterfeld praises Scheidemann's settings of the chorales for their fresh animated character, and for the happy way in which the rhythmical peculiarities of the old melodies are brought out. Chorales were not then sung as now, all in slow uniform rhythm, but many of the older melodies had curious changes of rhythm, as from common to triple time, in successive lines. See the specimens of Scheidemann in Winterfeld, Part I. nos. 70, 71.
[ J. R. M. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Schebest, Agnes

From volume 3 of the work.
[ G. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Scheibler, Johann Heinrich

From volume 3 of the work.
[ A. J. H. ]
* ↑ 'The physical and musical Tonometer, which proves visibly by means of the pendulum, the absolute numbers of vibrations of musical tones, the principal kinds of combinational tones, and the most rigid exactness of equally tempered and mathematical just chords.'
* ↑ He selected it as the mean of the variation of pitch in pianos as then tuned at Vienna, and not from the fact that it enables the scale of C major, in just intonation, to be expressed in whole numbsrs, as has been sometimes stated.
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Schelble, Johann Nepomuk

From volume 3 of the work.
​SCHELBLE, Johann Nepomuk, a thoroughly excellent and representative German musician, born May 16, 1789, at Hoffingen in the Black Forest, where his father was superintendent of the House of Correction. His strict musical education was begun in the Monastery of Marchthai 1800–03; and continued at Donaueschingen, under Weisse. He then spent some time, first with Vogler at Darmstadt, and then with Krebs, a distinguished singer at Stuttgart, and there, in 1812, he filled the post of elementary teacher in the Royal Musical Institution, a very famous and complete school of those times. In 1813 he went to Vienna, lived in intimate acquaintance with Beethoven, Moscheles, Weigl, Spohr, etc., composed an opera and many smaller works, and went on the stage, where however his singing, though remarkable, was neutralised by his want of power to act. From Austria in 1816 he went to Frankfort, which became his home. Here the beauty of his voice, the excellence of his method, and the justness of his expression, were at once recognised. He became the favourite teacher, and in 1817 was made director of the Musical Academy. This however proved too desultory for his views, and on July 24, 1818, he formed a Society of his own, which developed into the famous 'Cæcilian Society' of Frankfort, and at the head of which he remained till his death. The first work chosen by the infant institution was the 'Zauberflöte'; then Mozart's Requiem; then one of his Masses; and then works by Handel, Cherubini, Bach, etc. In 1821 the Society assumed the name of the 'Cäcilienverein'; the repertoire was increased by works of Palestrina, Scarlatti, and other Italian masters, and at length, on March 10, 1828, Mozart's 'Davidde penitente' and the Credo of Bach's Mass in B minor were given; then, May 2, 1829 (stimulated by the example of Mendelssohn in Berlin), the Matthew Passion; and after that we hear of 'Samson' and other oratorios of Handel, Bach's motets, and choruses of Mendelssohn, whose genius Schelble was one of the first to recognise, and whose 'St. Paul' was suggested to him by the Cæcilian Association, doubtless on the motion of its conductor. Whether the Society ever attempted Beethoven's mass does not appear, but Schelble was one of the two private individuals who answered Beethoven's invitation to subscribe for its publication.' [See vol. i. p. 197 note; vol. ii. 271b.]
[ G. ]
* ↑ See the A. M. Z. 1812, 334.
* ↑ 'Mendelssohn,' translated by Miss M. E. von Glenn, p. 8.