OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Figured Bass

From volume 1 of the work.
​FIGURED BASS is a species of musical shorthand by which the harmony only of a piece is indicated. It consists of the bass notes alone, with figures to represent the chords. It seems to have been first employed by Peri, Caccini, Viadana, and Monteverde, about 1600, in the accompaniments of their Recitatives and Songs, and was afterwards for some time in universal use for accompaniment; songs such as the collection of the Orpheus Britannicus, and anthems such as Boyce's collection, and great works like Bach's Passion and Handel's Messiah, having accompaniments indicated in this manner. The bass line consisted of the lowest part of whatever was going on at the time, whether treble, or tenor, or bass, and in choral works it often leapt about promiscuously in a manner that would be very harassing to a player unaccustomed to the process, as for example
The figures represented the diatonic intervals counting upwards, without reference to the nature of the chord; thus 2 always meant the next diatonic note above—D above C, as in (a), and 4 the next note but two, as (b), and so on up to the 9th, above which the figures of the lower octave were repeated; and the choice of the particular octave in which a note represented by a figure should be placed, as well as the progression of the parts, was generally left to the discretion of the player.
It was not customary to insert all the figures, as some intervals were looked upon as too familiar to require indication, such as the octave and the fifth and the third, or any of them in combination with other intervals; thus a 7 by itself would admit of any or all of them being taken without being indicated, as (c); and a 9 would admit of a fifth and a third, as (d); and a 6 of a third, but not of a fifth, as (e); and a 4 of a fifth and an octave, as (f). When a 2 was written alone over a note it admitted also of a sixth and a fourth, as (g); but more commonly the 4 was written with the 2, and the sixth only was understood; and this seems to be the only case in which notes other than the octave or fifth or third are left to be understood.
When notes were chromatically altered the accidental was added by the side of the figure representing that note (7♭), or for sharpening a note a line was drawn through the figure or by its side, as at (h), and as it was not customary to write the 3, when the third was to be chromatically altered the accidental was placed by itself with the bass note thus a simple ♯, ♭, or ♮, implied a ♯, ♭, or ♮, 3rd. When the bass moved and any or all ​of the notes of the harmony above it stood still, it was common to indicate this by a line drawn from the figures indicating the notes which remained stationary to the place where they moved again, and if the notes happened to be such as were usually left to be understood by the player, the lines were drawn over the bass from the point in which it began to move under the implied chord. Whenever the bass was to be unaccompanied by harmony, the words 'Tasto Solo' were written.
[ C. H. H. P. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Fingerboard

From volume 1 of the work.
​FINGERBOARD. The Fingerboard is that part of the violin and other stringed instruments played with a bow, over which the strings are stretched, and against which the fingers of the left hand of the player press the strings in order to produce sounds not given by the open string.
The fingerboard of the violin is best made of ebony, as harder and less easily worn out than any other wood. Its surface is somewhat curved—corresponding to the top line of the bridge, but not quite so much—in order to allow the bow to touch each string separately, which would be impossible, if bridge and fingerboard were flat. On an average-sized violin it measures 10½ inches in length, while its width is about 1 inch nearest to the head of the violin and 1¾ inch at the bridge-end. It is glued on to the neck, and extends from the head to about three-fourths of the distance between the neck and the bridge. At the head-end it has a slight rim, called the 'nut,' which supports the strings and keeps them at a distance sufficient to allow them to vibrate without touching the fingerboard. This distance varies considerably according to the style of the player. A broad tone and an energetic treatment of the instrument require much room for the greater vibration of the strings, and consequently a high nut. Amateur-players, as a rule, prefer a low nut, which makes it easier to press the strings down, but does not allow of the production of a powerful tone.
The fingerboard, getting worn by the constant action of the fingers, must be renewed from time to time. The modern technique of violin-playing requires the neck, and in consequence the fingerboard, to be considerably longer than they were at the time of the great Cremona makers. For these reasons we hardly ever find an old instrument with either the original fingerboard, bridge, sound-post, or bass-bar, all of which however can be made just as well by any good violin-maker now living as by the ancient masters.
The fingerboards of the Violoncello and Double-bass are made on the same principle as that of the violin, except that the side of the fingerboard over which the lowest string is stretched is flattened in order to give sufficient room for its vibration. Spohr adopted a somewhat similar plan on his violin by having a little scooping-out underneath the fourth string, which grew flatter and narrower towards the nut.
[ P. D. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Fille du Regiment, La

From volume 1 of the work.
​FILLE DU REGIMENT, LA. Opera in 2 acts; words by Bayard and St. Georges; music by Donizetti. Produced at the Opéra comique Feb. 11, 1840. In London, as La Figlia di Reggimento, at Her Majesty's (Jenny Lind) May 27, 1847; and as The Daughter of the Regiment (Fitzball) at Surrey Theatre Dec. 21, 47.
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Wilbye, John

[ W. H. H. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Wilder, Jérôme van

​WILDER, Jérôme Albert Victor van, lyric poet and musical critic, born Aug. 21, 1835, at Welteren, between Alost and Ghent. While studying for his doctor's degree in law and philosophy at the University of Ghent, he also frequented the Conservatoire, and thus acquired a thorough knowledge of harmony. Having written for a time for the 'Journal de Gand,' he came to the conclusion that there was no field in Belgium for a writer on music, and determined, like his countrymen Vaez and Gevaert, to push his way in Paris. He began by translating songs, and ended with adapting Wagner's works for the French stage. Being not only a clever versifier, but having a fine musical instinct, his work of this kind is excellent. His printed volumes include '40 Melodies' by Abt; Schumann's 'Myrthen' and an Album; 'Echos d'Allemagne'; Rubinstein's 'Mélodies Persanes' and duets; Mendelssohn's Lieder and duets; Chopin's songs; Weber's songs; 'Les Gloires d'Italie,' etc.; French versions of Handel's 'Messiah,' 'Judas Maccabeus,' and 'Alexander's Feast'; Schumann's 'Paradise and the Peri,' 'Manfred,' 'Mignon,' 'Pilgrimage of the Rose,' 'Sängers Fluch,' and 'Adventlied'; Rubinstein's 'Tower of Babel,' and A. Goldschmidt's 'Seven Deadly Sins.' He has adapted for the French stage Abert's 'Astorga'; Mozart's 'Oca di Cairo'; Schubert's 'Häusliche Krieg'; Paisiello's 'Barbiere di Siviglia'; F. Ricci's 'Une Folie a Rome,' and L. Ricci's 'Festa di Piedigrotta'; Weber's 'Sylvana'; J. Strauss's 'La Reine Indigo' and 'Tsigane'; Suppé's 'Fatinitza'; and Wagner's 'Meistersinger,' 'Tristan und Isolde,' and 'Walküre.'
[ G. C. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Wilhelmi, Auguste

[ G. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Williams, Anna

[ A. C. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Wilhelm, Carl

[ G. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Wilis, The

​WILIS, THE, or the Night-Dancers. An opera of E. J. Loder's. [See The Night-Dancers, vol. ii. p. 488a.]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Willaert, Adrian

​WILLAERT, Adrian, the founder of the Venetian school of musicians, was born in Flanders about the year 1480. His birthplace has been generally given as Bruges, a statement which, according to Fétis, rests on the authority of Willaert's own pupil Zarlino: but this reference appears to be an error; while on the other hand we have the express assertion of a contemporary, Jacques de Meyere (1531), that he was born at Roulers, or Rosselaere, near Courtrai. Willaert was bred for the law and sent to ​Paris for the purpose of study; but his energies were soon turned aside into their natural channel, and he became the pupil either of Jean Mouton or of Josquin des Prés—which, it is not certain—in the theory of music. He returned to Flanders for a while, then went to Venice, Rome, and Ferrara. It was during this visit to Rome, when Leo X was Pope, that Willaert heard a motet of his own ('Verbum dulce et suave') performed as the work of Josquin. As soon, it is added, as the choir learned its real authorship, they refused to sing it again. Willaert's name evidently had not yet become that power which it was soon to be, under the naturalised form of 'Adriano,' among Italian musicians. From Ferrara he went northward, and became cantor to King Lewis of Bohemia and Hungary; and as on December 12, 1527, he was appointed chapel-master of St. Mark's at Venice by the doge Andrea Gritti, it ispresumed that he returned to Italy at the king's death in the previous year. His career at Venice, where he lived until his death, Dec. 7, 1562, is associated principally with the foundation of the singing-school which was soon to produce a whole dynasty of musicians of the highest eminence in their day. Among the first of these may be named Willaert's own pupils, Zarlino and Cyprian de Rore; the latter was Willaert's successor at St. Mark's.
[ R. L. P. ]
* ↑ See the opposite views in Fétis. viii. 470 (2nd ed., 1867), and E. vander Straeten, 'La Musique aux Pays-bas,' i. 249–257. Sweertius, 'Athenæ Belgicæ,' p. 104 (Antwerp, 1628. folio), also describes Willaert as of Bruges. Very possibly the discrepancy is to be explained by supposing Bruges to have been the seat of Willaert's family, and Boulers that of his actual birth.
* ↑ See A. W. Ambros, 'Geschichte der Musik,' iii. 502: Breslau 1868.
* ↑ Fétis, viii. 471.
* ↑ A fine portrait of the musician is given by M. vander Straeten i. 258.
* ↑ See the lists in Fétis, l.c., and, for those published in the Netherlands, M. Goovaert's 'Historie et Bibliographie de la Typographie musicale dans les Pays-bas,' under the different years.
* ↑ Ambros, i. 3. See this writer's excellent criticism of Willaert, vol. iii. 503–509.
* ↑ Compare Fétis, viii. 471.
# A Dictionary of Saintly Women/Achartio

​St. Achartio, Acacia.
# A Dictionary of Saintly Women/Abundantia (1)

​St. Abundantia (1), Jan. 29, called in French Abondance or Bonde. A widow who lived at Spoleto, and buried St. Gregory and other martyrs there, during tho persecution by Diocletian, c. 300. Jacobilli, Santi Dell' Umbria.
# A Dictionary of Saintly Women/Acacia

​St. Acacia, March 29 (Acatia, Achatia, Achatio, Achartio), M. at Antioch, with about 250 others. Boll. AA.SS. from old MS. Martyrologies.
# A Dictionary of Saintly Women/Acapis, Cionia, and Herene

​SS. Acapis, Cionia, and Herene, with Ingeniana, Saturninus, and Secundus, April 1. Mentioned in Mart. of Reichenau. The first three appear to be Agape, Chionia, and Irene.
# A Dictionary of Saintly Women/Abyce

​St. Abyce or Abycia, Aug. 24, prioress in England, according to Guérin and Pétin. Perhaps a mistake for St. Alice Rich, who is honoured on this day.
# A Dictionary of Saintly Women/Achachildis

​St. Achachildis or Atzin. 11th century. Supposed to be a sister of St. Cunegund, the empress. Achachildis is represented: (1) presenting five infants to her husband; (2) performing various charitable miracles. She had five children at a birth, after which she and her husband took a vow of celibacy. She passed her life as a benefactor of the poor. Her tomb was found, in 1447, at Wendelstein, near Schwabach. On the stone was an inscription, calling her a holy woman and founder of the parish church of the place. After the discovery of the grave, many miracles of healing occurred, especially on behalf of children, and gifts of wax and many other offerings were made in consequence. The place afterwards became protestant, and the worship ceased. Stadler und Heim, Heiligen Lexikon.
# A Dictionary of Saintly Women/Achatia

​St. Achatia, Acacia.
# A Dictionary of Saintly Women/Achatio

​St. Achatio, Acacia.
# A Dictionary of Saintly Women/Achia

​St. Achia, Echea.
# A Dictionary of Saintly Women/Abundantia (2)

​St. Abundantia (2), V. Jan. 19 and July 15. † 804. Represented as a child, before the image of the Virgin Mary, receiving a golden apple from the Infant Jesus. Born at Spoleto, of parents who had long been childless. Her birth was announced by the spontaneous ringing of tho bells of the town. At her baptism lamps were lighted without human hands. One day, when about eight years of age, she was seized with a longing for a golden apple she saw in the hand of an image of the Infant Christ in His mother's arms. He gave it to her. She ran to fetch Him a bouquet in return, and although it was mid-winter, she found plenty of beautiful flowers, which she gathered and presented to the Holy Child. Majolo, or Nicholas, abbot of St. Mark's, at Spoleto, undertook her education. He took her to Palestine, where she remained some years. She spent five years as a recluse in the cave of St. Onuphrius, and then, as her father kept constantly asking to have her home again, she returned to Spoleto. At her father's death she gave all her inheritance to the poor. The same mysterious ringing of bells which hailed her birth was also heard at her death, in 804; and where her funeral passed, leaves and flowers burst forth in January, and angels wore heard to sing Veni sponsa Christi. She performed miracles of healing in life and after her death. ​Ferrarius, Catalogus, Jan. 19. Bucelinus, Men, Ben., July 15. Guérin, Dec. 25. Cahier, Caractéristiques, "Images." Pétin, Dic. Hag.
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Seraglio, The

[ G. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Seraphine

​SERAPHINE. In vol. i. p. 667a reference is made to the seraphine as a precursor of Debain's Harmonium. It was an English free-reed instrument resembling the German Physharmonica, which latter was brought to this country by the Schulz family in 1826, and introduced to the London public at a concert at Kirkman's rooms in Frith Street, Soho, by Edouard Schulz, then a boy of 14. In 1828 a similar instrument, but named Aeol-harmonica, was played by young Schulz in a Philharmonic Concert (Concertante for Aeol-harmonic and 2 guitars, April 28). In 1833, John Green, who had been Clementi's traveller, and had a shop in Soho Square, brought out the Seraphine. According to Mr. Peters (for many years with Messrs. Broadwood, and formerly Green's pupil), the reeds for the seraphine were made by Gunther the piano-maker, and the cases by Bevington the organ-builder, Green putting them together. Green engaged old Samuel Wesley to give weekly performances upon the seraphine at his shop, and managed for some time to dispose of his instruments at 40 guineas each. But the seraphine was harsh and raspy in tone, and never found favour with sensitive musicians. The wind apparatus, similar to the organ, was a dead-weighted bellows giving ​a uniform pressure, and a swell was produced by opening a shutter of a box placed over the reeds.
In the year 1841, Mr. W. E. Evans invented the 'Organo Harmonica,' the improvements on the seraphine consisting of thin steel reeds artistically voiced, and coiled springs in the reservoir to enable the player to produce a rapid articulation with a small wind pressure, and to increase the power of tone as the reservoir filled. Eminent musicians, among them Potter, Novello, and Sir George Smart, publicly pronounced Mr. Evans's instrument more valuable than the seraphine as a substitute for the organ, but neither the one nor the other was capable of what is now known as 'dead expression.'
[ A. J. H. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Septet

​SEPTET (Fr. Septuor; Ital. Septetto). A composition for seven instruments or voices, with or without accompaniment.
There is no instance, among the works of the great composers, of a septet for strings only, though there are several octets (Mendelssohn, Bargiel, Raff, Gade, Svendsen, etc.). Beethoven's famous Septet for Strings and Wind naturally heads the list, and Hummel's for Piano, Strings, and Wind is the next best known, though far inferior to Spohr's difficult and brilliant work for a similar combination (op. 147). The great paucity of instrumental septets is probably owing to the fact that wind instruments are too full and powerful in tone to sound well with single strings, or even the piano. A striking instance of this incompatibility is accorded by Saint-Saëns' recently produced Septet for Piano, Strings and Trumpet; but, truth to say, whenever we hear even Beethoven's Septet or Schubert's Octet, we hare the impression of an exceedingly feeble orchestra, and yearn for the proper fulness of string power, albeit these works are not in the least orchestral.
[ F. C. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Senza Piatti

[ V. de P. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Serafin, Santo

​SERAFIN, Santo and Georgio (uncle and nephew), two celebrated violin-makers of Venice. The uncle, as his label informs us ('Sanctus Seraphin Utinensis fecit Venetiis'), was originally of Udine, a town in the Venetian territory towards the mountains of Carinthia, and probably of Jewish extraction. His violins date from about 1710 to 1740. The nephew, if we may judge from the style of his instruments, worked with the uncle many years, and appears to have succeeded him in the business. The instruments of Sanctus Serafin occupy a middle place between the Italian and the Tyrolese school. As far as external appearance goes, the maker seems to vacillate between the model of Stainer and that of Nicholas Amati. But in the essential particulars of the art, in the selection of wood of the finest and most sonorous quality, in the proper calculation of the proportions, and the solidity and finish of the parts, he worked on the principles of the Cremona makers. Few equalled him as a workman. Those who wish to see how far mechanical perfection can be carried should examine Serafin's purfling with a magnifying glass. In Serafin's earlier years, the Stainer character predominates in his instruments: in his later years he leaned to the Amati model. His instruments are famous for their perfect finish (reminding forcibly of the style of Stradivarius), their remarkably lustrous deep red varnish, and fine mellow tone.
[ E. J. P. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Sergeant Trumpeter

[ W. H. H. ]
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Carmenta, or Nicostrata

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CARMENTA, or NICOSTRATA,
An ancient poetess of Latium, who flourished before the foundation of Rome, in which city divine honours were afterwards paid to her. According to Dionysius of Halicamassus, Carmenta was born in Arcadia, where she was known by her name of Nicostrata. Her son Evander being implicated in an unintentional homicide, she found means for an emigration, which she conducted herself, about sixty years prior to the Trojan war. She led her followers into ​Italy, and established her son as king of that country, which afterwards contained Rome. She found it inhabited by a savage race, without religion, without courtesy, without agriculture. She taught them to sow grain, she polished them by introducing poetry and music, and she built their first temple, and lifted their thoughts to a superintending Deity. For these great benefits she was revered as prophetess, priestess, and queen, and received her celebrated name of Carmenta, in allusion to the oracular power with which she was supposed to be gifted.
That she was a woman of great genius and a remarkably practical mind, there can be little doubt; as the Romans would not otherwise have acknowledged, for such a length of time, her talents and merits. In their proudest days, they never forgot the honours due to the benefactress of their rude ancestors. Cicero speaks of an officer in his day called Flamen Carmentalis, who had charge of the rites instituted by this ancient prophetess. Virgil alludes to this remarkable woman in the eighth book of the Æneid:—
——"Dehinc progressus, monstrat et aram, Et Carmentalem Romano nomine imrtam, Quam memorant Nymphæ priscum Cannentis honorem Vatis fatidicæ."
It is supposed to be from her name that verses were called Carmina by the Latins. She was well skilled in the Greek language, and of extraordinary learning for the age in which she lived.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Cartismandua

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CARTISMANDUA,
First Queen of the Iceni, and afterwards of the Brigantes of Britain, is chiefly known in history for treacherously betraying Caractacus, her step-son, who had taken refuge in her dominions, to the Romans, and for discarding her husband Venusius to marry his armour-bearer, Vellocatus. When her subjects revolted against her, she solicited aid from the Romans, who thus obtained possession of the whole country. But she at last met with the reward of her perfidies; being taken prisoner by Corbred the First, King of Scots, and buried alive, about the year 57.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Caroline Matilda

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CAROLINE MATILDA,
Born 1751, daughter of Frederic Lewis, Prince of Wales, married, 1766, Christian the Seventh, King of Denmark, and became mother of Frederic, afterwards Frederic the Seventh of Denmark, in 1768. Though young, beautiful, and beloved by the nation, she was treated with neglect and hatred by the grandmother and the step-mother of her husband, who for some time influenced him against her. Struensee, a physician, and the favourite of the king, became her friend, together with Brandt, and they endeavoured to gain the king from the influence of the party opposed to the queen. The reins of government came into the hands of Struensee; but, in 1722, the party of the king's step-mother, and her son. Prince Frederic, procured the imprisonment of the queen and all her friends. Counts Struensee and Brandt were tried, and executed for high treason. Even the queen was at first in danger of death. She ​was accused of too great an intimacy with Struensee, was separated from her husband, and confined in Alborg, hut was released by the interference of her brother, George the Third of England. She died May 10th., 1775, at Zell, in Hanover, in consequence of her grief. The interesting letter in which she took leave of her brother, George the Third, is to be found in a small work, "Die lezten Stunden der Königin von Dänemark." She was mild and gentle, and much beloved; and though not always prudent, yet there is no doubt that she was perfectly innocent.