Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 4.djvu/696

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680
HOTHBY.
HUEFFER.

punctum'; (4) 'Manus per genus diatonicum declarata'; (5) 'Regulæ de Monochordo manuali.' Among other minor works are a 'Tractatus quarundum regularum artis musices' at Florence, and a second treatise on Counterpoint, beginning 'Consonantia interpretatur sonus cum alio sonans,' in the Paris MS. Little is known of the life of John Hothby, Ottobi or Octobi, as he is still called in Italy. The Paris MS. styles him a Doctor of Music; but whether he took his degree at an English or foreign University does not appear. After leaving the monastery at Ferrara he is supposed to have taken up his residence at Florence, where he was held in great honour in 1471. The British Museum MS. of 'Quid est proportio' is dated 1500, and it is probable that Hothby died soon after this at an advanced age.

HOWELL. Add dates of death of James, Aug. 5, 1879, and of Arthur, April 16, 1885.

HUBER, Hans, born June 28, 1852, at Schönewerd in Switzerland, studied from 1870 to 1874 at the Leipzig Conservatorium, and subsequently, after two years' experience as a teacher in Alsace, took up his residence at Basle. His compositions, most of which are for the piano, either in combination with other instruments or alone, show the strong influence of Brahms, but not to the exclusion of the more romantic style of Liszt. A fairy opera 'Florestan,' concertos for piano and for violin, a trio, a pastoral sonata for piano and violoncello, 'Carneval,' 'Ländliche Symphonie,' and 'Römischer Carneval,' for orchestra, as well as piano pieces and songs, may be mentioned.

[ M. ]

HUBERT. After Porporino add in Appendix.

HUCBALDUS DE S. AMANDO (Hubald de S. Amand; Hugbald de S. Amand). Our knowledge of the condition of Music during the early Middle Ages is derived chiefly from the information furnished by three learned writers, of whom the earliest was a Monk, named Hucbald, of S. Amand sur l'Elnon, in Flanders, who is frequently mentioned under the title of Monachus Elnonensis. He was born about the year 840, and flourished, therefore, a full century before Guido d'Arezzo, and a century and a half before Magister Franco the only two writers whose musical treatises possess an interest comparable with his own. Of the details of his life we know but very little more than that he was a disciple of S. Remi of Auxerre, and the intimate friend of S. Odo of Cluny; that he was a Poet, as well as a Musician;[1] and, that he died, at a very advanced age, in the year 930. But of his life-work we know all that need be desired.

Of Hucbald's 'Enchiridion' or tract, 'De Harmonica Institutione'—the only work by him that has been preserved to us—the two most perfect copies known are those in the Paris Library, and in that of S. Benet's (now Corpus Christi) College, Cambridge. The title of the Paris MS. is 'Enchiridion Musicæ.'[2] The Cambridge MS. forms part of a volume[3] entitled 'Musica Hogeri, sive Excerptiones Hogeri Abbatis ex Autoribus Musicæ Artis,' and containing, besides the 'Enchiridion' of Hucbald, a less perfect copy of another 'Enchiridion' by his friend, S. Odo of Cluny, which, though written in Dialogue, resembles it, in many respects, so closely, that copies of the one MS. have sometimes been mistaken for the other.[4]

In this tract, Hucbald describes, under the name of Symphonia, the primitive form of Part-writing called, by Guido d'Arezzo, Diaphonia, or Organum, and, by Magister Franco, Discant. Of this Symphonia he mentions three kinds, which he calls Diatessaron Symphonia, Diapente Symphonia, and Diapason Symphonia; in other words, Harmony in the Fourth, the Fifth, and the Octave. Examples of these rude attempts at Harmony have already been given, in vol. ii. p. 469, and vol. iii. p. 427b. But, in addition to the rules for the construction of these, he tells us, in his Eighteenth Chapter, that so long as one voice continues to sing the same note, the others may proceed at will; of which method he gives the following example:—

{ \clef bass \cadenzaOn \relative c' << { c1 c d e f f e c e d c d c b a b \bar "||" } \\ { c, c c c c c c c b b a b a g a b } 
\addlyrics { Te hu -- mi -- les fa -- mu -- li mo -- du -- lis ven -- er -- an -- dam pi -- is. } >> }

These examples are written in a peculiar form of Notation, invented by himself, which has already been described, and illustrated by his own examples, in the articles above referred to. He did not, however, confine himself entirely to this ingenious device, but supplemented it by the invention of fifteen arbitrary signs, for representing the notes of the Gamut, from Γ, to aa, together with four more signs, of like character, for the four Authentic Modes—

Primus qui et gravissimus Græce Protos dicitur vel Archos.

Secundus Deuteros tono distans a Proto.

Tertius Tritos semitono distans a Deutero.

Quartus Tetardos tono distans a Trito.

The number of examples given in illustration of these principles, and others deduced from them, is very great; and the tract concludes with an account of the descent of Orpheus into Hades, in search of Eurydice.

HUEFFER, Francis, Ph. D., author and musical critic, was born in 1845. After studying modern philology and music in London, Paris, Berlin, and Leipzig, he fixed his residence in London and devoted himself to literary work. His first articles appeared in the late 'North British Review,' in the 'Fortnightly Review' (when under Mr. John Morley's editorship), and

  1. He dedicated to the Emperor, Charles the Bald, a poem in praise of baldness, beginning 'Carmina Clarisonæ, Calvis, Cantate Camœnæ'; in which every word began with the letter C.
  2. No. 7202.
  3. No. cclx.
  4. Hucbald and S.Odo were both disciples of S. Remi of Auxerre. S. Odo was born a. d. 878, and died in 942.