OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Hortense de Beauharnois Bonaparte, ex-Queen of Holland

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HORTENSE DE BEAUHARNOIS BONAPARTE, EX-QUEEN OF HOLLAND,
Was born in 1783, daughter of the Vicomte Alexandre de Beauharnois and Josephine, subsequently Empress of France. The vicomte married at an early age; his dissipated habits and unjustifiable conduct obliged his wife to separate herself from him for a time; during this period, the education and charge of her children devolved solely upon her. A reconciliation took place, and the married pair seem to have afterwards lived in the utmost domestic peace and happiness.
Upon the breaking out of the Revolution, the vicomte rendered himself obnoxious to the existing powers, and after undergoing a sad imprisonment, was executed by the guillotine, July 24th, 1794. The childish days of Hortense were thus clouded by severe afflictions. It would be superfluous to detail the well-known circumstances of Josephine's marriage with General Bonaparte, who, in his rapid Elevation to the imperial throne, bore with him to the highest worldly splendours the family de Beauharnois. Hortense received a brilliant ​education; and, both from her charms and position in life, was one of the most admired women in Paris. Her marriage was not one of her choice; Napoleon obliged her to give her hand to his brother Louis. This match took place on the 4th. of January, 1802; and never was a wedding more gloomy! Louis was an honourable, an amiable, a cultivated man; Hortense, one of the most fascinating women; yet both were averse to the union. Neither could estimate the merits of the other.
In 1806, Louis Bonaparte was made King of Holland by Napoleon; but Louis cared little for the show and state of royalty, and after a few years of discontent, having abdicated his nominal sovereignty in favour of his eldest son, Napoleon Charles, he appointed his wife Hortense regent She had left him, and gone to Pads to enjoy the pleasures of the court circle.
After Holland was incorporated with France, Hortense was obliged to relinquish the title of queen, and was usually styled Countess of St. Leu; yet she was recognised as the Ex-queen of Holland by many of the French writers of that time; she bore her reverses better than her exaltation; was an affectionate mother, and a devoted daughter; for many of her errors, the peculiar circumstances in which she was placed, are a palliation, if not an excuse.
She had a talent for making occasional poems for society. Her romances, for which she also composed the music, have been published in a collected form; some of these obtained great popularity. She died in 1847.
Hortense had three children—the above-mentioned Napoleon Charles, who died in childhood; Napoleon Louis, who was killed at an insurrection at Romagna in 1832; and Charles Louis Napoleon, now Emperor of the French, whose career has been one of extraordinary vicissitude.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Hroswitha

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HROSWITHA,
(Helena Y. Rossen,) a nun of the Benedictine order, was born in Saxony, and died at Gandershein, in 984. She is known as a religious poetess through her "Comædia Sacrce VI.," edited by Schurzfleisch. These plays were written by her to suppress the reading of Terence, then a very popular author among the literary clergy of the age. She also composed a poetic narrative of the deeds performed by Otho the Great, to whom she was related, and a number of elegies. She wrote altogether in Latin. Her works were printed in Nuremberg, in 1601.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Huber, Mary

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HUBER, MARY
A voluminous author, was born at Geneva, in 1710. The manner of her education is not particularly known. Her principal works are, "Le monde fou, préferé au monde sage;" "Le Systême des Théologians Anciens et Modernes, sur l'etat des ames séparées des corps;" "Suite du même ouvrage, servant de response h, M. Ruchat;" "Reduction du Spectateur Anglais." This was an abridgment of the "Spectator," but did not succeed. "Lettres sur la Réligions essentielle à l'homme." Mary Huber was a Protestant, and this latter work in particular was attacked by the divines of the Roman Catholic communion. She had wit and knowledge, but was sometimes coarse in her expressions. She died at Lyons, in France, in 1763.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Horsford, Mary Gardiner

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HORSFORD, MARY GARDINER,
Was born in the city of New York, 1824. Her father, Samuel S. Gardiner, soon after removed to the family mansion on Shelter Island, where her mother's ancestors had resided. Here, in this secluded and beautiful place. Miss Gardiner passed the greater portion of her youth, books and nature her chief companions. She soon became, from a reader of poetry, a writer; her father's library was her best means of education, although she had other good instructors. In 1840 she was placed in the Albany Female Seminary, where she continued three years with great advantage. Soon afterwards she began her contributions, by request, to the Knickerbocker; and also wrote for the Lady's Book, and other periodicals. In 1847 Miss Gardiner was married to Eben Norton Horsford, Rumford Professor in Harvard University at Cambridge. Since her marriage Mrs. Horsford has written some of her most beautiful poetry. There is an exquisite delicacy of fancy, united with power of thought in her verses, that, is rarely equalled by those who have established their fame.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Hopton, Susanna

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HOPTON, SUSANNA,
A lady of Staffordshire, who became a Roman Catholic, but afterwards returned to the Protestant faith, and died at Hereford, in 1709, aged eighty-two. She married Richard Hopton, one of the Welsh judges. She wrote "Daily Devotions," "Hexameron, or Meditations on the Six Days of the Creation," and also corrected the devotions in the ancient way of offices, published by her friend Dr. Hickes. She was a very charitable woman, and was noted for her excessive severity in performing her religious duties.
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Müller, Wenzel

[ M. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Müller, August

From volume 2 of the work.
[ J. A. F. M. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Müller, The Brothers

From volume 2 of the work.
​MÜLLER, the brothers, celebrated quartet-players, four sons of the Duke of Brunswick's Hofmusikus, Aegidius Christoph Müller, [App. p.722 "date of birth, July 2, 1766"] who died Aug. 14, 1841, at Brunswick, where all his sons were born. The brothers were Karl Friedrich, 1st violin and concertmeister to the Duke, born Nov. 11, 1797, died April 4, 1873; Theodor Heinrich Gustav, viola, born Dec. 3, 1799, died Sept. 7, 1855; August Theodor, cello, born Sept 27, 1802, died Oct. 20, 1875; Franz Ferdinand Georg, 2nd violin and Capellmeister to the Duke, born July 29, 1808, died May 22, 1855. Educated by their father expressly with a view to quartet-playing, they brought the art to a perfection then unknown. The Duke of Brunswick's somewhat tyrannical regulation, by which none of his musicians were allowed to take any part in the music of the town, obliged them to prepare in secret for appearing in public, and in 1830 they sent in their resignations. They gave concerts at Hamburg in 1831, and in 1832 at Berlin, where the public gradually learned to appreciate their wonderful ensemble. In 1833 they left Berlin, and visited in turn all the principal cities of Germany and Paris, extending their tours farther and farther, till 1845, when they went to Russia. Their repertoire consisted almost entirely of the works of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, and they thus contributed immensely to the spread of a taste for really good music. Their rendering of Haydn's 'Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser' especially had a world-wide reputation.
[ F. G. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Ménestrel, Le

From volume 2 of the work.
[ G. C. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Müller, Christian

[ V. de P. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Müller, Iwan

[ M. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Médecin Malgré Lui, Le

From volume 2 of the work.
[ G. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Médée

From volume 2 of the work.
[ G. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Méric, Madame

From volume 2 of the work.
​MÉRIC, Madame. [See Lalande.]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Pastorale

From volume 2 of the work.
​PASTORALE, 1. A dramatic composition or opera, the subject of which is generally of a legendary and pastoral character. Pastorales had their origin in Italy, where, at the time of the Renaissance, the study of the Eclogues of Theocritus and Virgil led to the stage representation of pastoral dramas such as Politian's 'Favola di Orfeo,' which was played at Mantua in 1472. The popularity of these dramatic pastorales spread from Italy to France and Spain, and eventually to Germany; but it is principally in France that they were set to music, and became of importance as precursors of the opera. In April 1659 'La Pastorale en Musique,' the words by the Abbé Perrin, the music by Cambert, was performed at Issy, at the house of M. de Lahaye, and proved so successful that the same authors wrote another similar work, 'Pomone,' which was played in public with great success in May [App. p.745 "on March 19"] 1671. These two pastorales are generally considered as the earliest French operas. The pastorale, owing to the weakness of its plot, was peculiarly suited for the displays of ballet and spectacle which were so much in vogue at the French court, and examples of this style of composition exist by nearly all the French composers before the Great Revolution. Lully's 'Acis et Galathée' ('Pastorale heroïque mise en musique') is perhaps one of his finest compositions. Matheson ('Vollkommener Kapellmeister'), with his passion for classifying, divides pastorales into the very obvious categories of comic and tragic, and gives some quaint directions for treating subjects in a pastoral manner. The pastorale must not be confounded with the pastourelle, which was an irregular form of poetry popular in France in the 12th and 13th centuries.
[ W. B. S. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Pastorale (sonata)

From volume 2 of the work.
​PASTORALE. 'Sonata pastorale' is the titleoften given to Beethoven's Sonata in D, op. 29, but apparently quite without warrant. Its opening Allegro and its Finale both begin with long passages on a pedal bass, both are also in triple time, and so far have a 'pastoral' air; but Beethoven has said nothing of any such intention. The original edition is entitled 'Grande Sonate pour le Pianoforte,' and the autograph is inscribed 'Gran Sonata.' It is worth notice that this is the first of the Sonatas which is not composed expressly both for harpsichord or pianoforte; all the preceding ones have the words 'pour le Clavecin (or Clavicembalo) ou Pianoforte' on the title-page.
It was composed in 1801 and published in Aug. 1802. According to Czerny the Andante was for long a special favourite of the composer's, and often played by him. The fly-leaf of the autograph—in the possession of Herr Johann Kaffka of Vienna—contains a little piece of 17 bars long, for 2 voices and chorus, aimed at the unwieldy figure of Schuppanzigh, Beethoven's favourite first violin, and entitled 'Lob auf den Dicken'—'Glory to the fat.' It begins thus:—
[ G. ]
PASTORAL SYMPHONY in Handel's 'Messiah.' A short and unaffected little piece of music in 12-8 time, serving to introduce the scene of the 'Shepherds abiding in the field.' Handel more than any other great composer was accustomed to 'prendre son bien partout où il le trouvait,' and mostly without acknowledgment. In the present instance he has affixed the word 'Pifa' to this movement, more probably to indicate the reason for inserting it than to show that it was not his own composition, a matter which probably did not occupy his thoughts in the least. People in those days had not ready access either to older or contemporaneous works, and were not in a position to compare one thing with another; and our composer, often in a great hurry to get through his mighty task, did not trouble himself to enlighten them: his superb genius answered for all, as it gave life and immortality to anything he chose to put on paper. When it was first called a Pastoral Symphony is not very clear; Randall & Abell's edition gives the word 'Pifa' only, a fact overlooked by Dr. Rimbault in his
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Patey, Janet

From volume 2 of the work.
​PATEY, Janet Monach, née Whytock, was born May 1, 1842, in London, her father being a native of Glasgow. She received instruction in singing from Mr. John Wass, and made her first appearance in public at a very early age, at the Town Hall, Birmingham. She became a member of Henry Leslie's Choir, and afterwards received further instruction from Mrs. Sims Reeves and Pinsuti. In 1865 she was engaged by M. Lemmens for a provincial concert tour. In 1866 she was married to Mr. Patey (see below), and sang at the Worcester Festival of that year. From that time her reputation continued to increase, until in 1870, on the retirement of Madame Sainton-Dolby, she succeeded to her position as leading contralto concert-singer, and as such has sung in several of the principal new works, such as Benedict's 'St. Peter,' Barnett's 'Ancient Mariner,' 'Paradise and the Peri,' and 'Raising of Lazarus,' and in Macfarren's 'St. John the Baptist,' 'Resurrection,' 'Joseph,' and 'Lady of the Lake.' In the part of Blanche of Devan, in the last of these, she developed an amount of dramatic power for which her admirers had not given her credit. In 1871 she started on a concert tour in America with Edith Wynne, Cummings, Santley, and her husband, and enjoyed great success. In 1875 she sang with her usual success in Paris, in French, in four performances of the 'Messiah,' on the invitation of M. Lamoureux, and under his direction. Also on Jan. 31 of the same year she sang in English 'O rest in the Lord,' at the concert of the Conservatoire, with such effect that she was reengaged for the next concert, Feb. 7, when she more than confirmed the previous impression. In commemoration of this the directors presented her with a medal bearing the dates of the concerts, a compliment rarely accorded by that conservative body to any singer.
[ A. C. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Passing Notes

From volume 2 of the work.
​PASSING NOTES are inessential discordant notes which are interposed between the essential factors of the harmonic structure of music on melodic principles. Their simplest form is the succession of notes diatonically connected which fill up the intervals between the component notes of essential chords, and fall upon the unaccented portions of the bar: as in the following example ​from Pergolesi; in which the melody passing from note to note of the chord of F minor touches the discordant notes G, B, D, and E in passing.
Equally simple are the passing notes which are arrived at by going from an essential note of harmony to its next neighbour in the degrees of the scale on either side and back again, as in the following example from Handel.
The remaining simple form is the insertion of notes melodically between notes of different chords, as (a). In modern music notes are used chromatically in the same ways, as (b).
It would appear from such simple principles that passing notes must always be continuous from point to point; but the early masters of the polyphonic school soon found out devices for diversifying this order. The most conspicuous of these was the process of interpolating a note between the passing note and the arrival at its destination, as in the following example from Josquin des Prés—
in which the passing note E which lies properly between F and D is momentarily interrupted in its progress by the C on the other side of D being taken first. This became in time a stereotyped formula, with curious results which are mentioned in the article Harmony [vol. i. p. 678]. Another common device was that of keeping the motion of sounds going by taking the notes on each side of a harmony note in succession as
which is also a sufficiently common form in modern music.
A developed form which combines chromatic passing notes to a point with a leap beyond, before the point is taken, is the following from Weber's Oberon, which is curious and characteristic.
A large proportion of passing notes fall upon the unaccented portions of the bar, but powerful effects are obtained by reversing this and heavily accenting them: two examples are given in the article Harmony [vol. i. p. 683] and a curious example where they are daringly mixed up in a variety of ways may be noted in the first few bars of No. 5 of Brahms's Clavier-Stücke, Op. 76. Some writers classify as passing notes those which are taken preparatorily a semitone below a harmony note in any position, as in the following example—
[ C. H. H. P. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Pastoral Symphony (Handel)

From volume 2 of the work.
​PASTORAL SYMPHONY in Handel's 'Messiah.' A short and unaffected little piece of music in 12-8 time, serving to introduce the scene of the 'Shepherds abiding in the field.' Handel more than any other great composer was accustomed to 'prendre son bien partout où il le trouvait,' and mostly without acknowledgment. In the present instance he has affixed the word 'Pifa' to this movement, more probably to indicate the reason for inserting it than to show that it was not his own composition, a matter which probably did not occupy his thoughts in the least. People in those days had not ready access either to older or contemporaneous works, and were not in a position to compare one thing with another; and our composer, often in a great hurry to get through his mighty task, did not trouble himself to enlighten them: his superb genius answered for all, as it gave life and immortality to anything he chose to put on paper. When it was first called a Pastoral Symphony is not very clear; Randall & Abell's edition gives the word 'Pifa' only, a fact overlooked by Dr. Rimbault in his ​preface to the Handel Society's edition (1850); but Arnold's edition has 'Sinfonia Pastoralle.' Handel's MS. and the Smith transcripts give only 'Pifa.' As to the origin of the music Dr. Rimbault, in his Preface to the edition of the Handel Society professes to give the melody note for note from a MS. collection of ancient hymns written in 1630; but what collection, and where it is to be found, is not told us.
Playford's 'Musick's Handmaid' (1678) has a very similar tune, and in Crotch's specimens this also figures as an example of Italian music—a Siciliana. In these two works the title of 'Parthenia' has been added to it. Doubtless Handel heard the peasants playing such an air about the streets of Rome at Christmas during his visit there, and stored up the. idea for future use. [See Pifero.]
At first it consisted of the first part alone, the second being added on a slip of paper wafered into the original MS. Of the second part there are two versions, one which is in use, 10 bars long, the other, 12 bars, with the sequence prolonged, taking the music into F, in which key it winds up before the Da Capo. The second version, which is on the back of the slip of paper just mentioned, Handel has crossed through.
[ W. G. C. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Patey, John

From volume 2 of the work.
[ A. C. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Act

From volume 1 of the work.
​ACT. A section of a drama having a completeness and often a climax of its own. Though the word Act has no representative in Greek, the division indicated by it was not unknown to the ancient theatre, where the intervention of the chorus stopped the action as completely as the fall of the curtain in the modern. The 'Plutus' of Aristophanes, the earliest Greek play from which the chorus was extruded, has come down to us without breaks or divisions of any kind; practically, therefore, it is 'in one act.' Whether the earlier essays of Roman dramatists were divided into acts by themselves is uncertain. The canon of Horace, that a drama should consist of neither more or less than five acts ('Epist. ad Pisones,' 189), was doubtless drawn from previous experience and practice.
The number of acts into which the modern drama is divided, though of course largely dependent on the subject, is governed by many considerations unknown to the ancient, in which 'the unities' of place as well as of time and action was strictly observed. With us the locality generally changes with each act, frequently with each scene. For this change the convenience of the mechanist and even of the scene-shifter has to be consulted. In the musical drama other considerations beside these add to the difficulties of laying out the action; such as variety and contrast of musical effect, and the physical capabilities of the performers, whose vocal exertions must not be continued too long without interruption. It is not surprising therefore that operas, even of the same class, present examples of every kind of division. French 'grand opera' consists still generally, as in the days when Quinault and Lully worked together, of five acts; French 'opéera comique' of three, and often one only. The Italians and Germans have adopted every number of acts, perhaps most often three. In performance the division into acts made by the author or composer is frequently changed. Mozart's 'Nozze di Figaro,' originally in four acts, is now generally played in two; and Meyerbeer's 'Huguenots,' originally in five, in four.
The curtain let down between the acts of a drama is called in the theatre 'the act drop.'
[ J. H. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Acuteness

From volume 1 of the work.
There are however two other words still more generally used. These are 'high' and 'low'; the former denoting greater, the latter less, rapidity of vibration. The application of these is the most puzzling of all, as there is no imaginable connection between any number of vibrations per second, and any degree of elevation above the earth's surface. It is very customary to use the figure of elevation to express an idea of magnitude or superiority, as high prices, high pressure, elevation of character, and so on; and if the vibration-numbers corresponding to any note had been a matter of general knowledge in early ages, we might have assumed that the terms had been chosen on this principle. But the vibration-numbers are quite a modern discovery, not even yet generally believed in by practical men: and unfortunately such relations of sound as do address themselves to the eye point entirely the other way; for, as already stated, the grave sounds convey most strongly the idea of magnitude, and therefore by analogy these ought to have been called high rather than low.
The ancients appear to have imagined that the acute sounds of the voice were produced from the higher parts of the throat, and the grave ones from lower parts. And this has been supposed by some writers to have been the origin of the terms; but the idea is incorrect and far-fetched, and can hardly be considered a justification.
[ W. P. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Action

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

From volume 1 of the work.
​ADAGIETTO (Ital., diminutive of Adagio). (1) a short adagio (e.g. Raff's Suite in C). (2) As a time indication, somewhat less slow than adagio.
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Adam, Louis

From volume 1 of the work.
​ADAM, Louis, born at Miettershelz in Alsace, 1758 [App. p.518 "Dec. 3"], died in Paris 1848 [App. p.518 "April 11, 1849"]; a pianist of the first rank; appeared in Paris when only seventeen as the composer of two symphonies-concertantes for the harp, piano, and violin, the first of their kind, which were performed at the Concerts Spirituels. Having acquired a reputation for teaching, in 1797 he was appointed professor at the Conservatoire, a post he retained forty-five years, training many eminent pupils, of whom the most celebrated are Kalkbrenner, Hérold, father and son, Chaulieu, Henri le Moine, and Mme. Renaud d'Allen, and last, though not least, his own more famous son, Adolphe Charles.
[ M. C. C. ]