Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 1.djvu/107

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ARRANGEMENT. 95

ARTARIA.

des Camacho, and to the 95th Psalm (op. 46). He also arranged the scherzo from the string octett (op. 20) for full orchestra to replace the minuet and trio of his symphony in C minor on the occasion of its performance by the Philharmonic Society, as noticed above.

6. Schumann. For four hands : Overture, scherzo, and finale; Symphony No. 2 (C major); Overture to 'Hermann und Dorothea.' Madame Schumann has arranged the quintett (op. 44) for four hands, and the accompaniments to the opera of 'Genoveva' for two hands.

7. Brahms has arranged Nos. 1, 3, and 6 of his 'Ungarische Tanze,' originally published as piano pieces for four hands, for full orchestra. He has also arranged his piano string quintett (op. 34) as a 'Sonata' for four hands on two pianos, and his two Orchestral Serenades for Piano, a quatre mains.

[ C. H. H. P. ]

ARRIAGA, Juan Crisostomo d', born at Bilbao 1808, a violinist and composer of great promise. When a mere child, without having learnt even the elements of harmony, he wrote a Spanish opera, and at the age of thirteen was sent to the Conservatoire at Paris to study the violin under Baillot and harmony under Fétis. In two years he became a learned contrapuntist, and wrote an 'Et vitam venturi' in eight parts, which Cherubini is said to have pronounced a masterpiece. (Fétis.) On his premature death, of decline, at Marseilles in 1826, this gifted artist left three quatuors for the violin (Paris, 1824)—compositions deserving to be better known—an overture, a symphony, and many other unpublished works.

[ M. C. C. ]

ARRIGONI, Carlo, a lutenist, born at Florence at the beginning of last century, whose only claim to notice is his possible antagonism to Handel. He is said by Fétis and Schoelcher to have been engaged, with Porpora, as composer to the theatre at Lincoln's Inn, which was started as an opposition to Handel in 1734, and to have produced there in that year an opera called 'Fernando' without success; but it is impossible to discover on what this is grounded. That Arrigoni was in London at or about that date is possible, and even probable, since a volume of his 'Cantate da Camera' was published there in 1732; and in Arbuthnot's satire 'Harmony in an Uproar,' the 'King of Arragon' is mentioned amongst Handel's opponents, a name which Burney ('Commemoration') explains to mean Arrigoni. But on the other hand the impression he made must have been very small, and his opera becomes more than doubtful, for the names neither of Arrigoni nor Fernando are found in the histories of Burney or Hawkins, in the MS. Register of Colman, in the newspapers of the period, nor in any other sources to which the writer has had access. It is in accordance with this that Arrigoni is mentioned by Chrysander in connection with Arbuthnot's satire only ('Händel,' ii. 343).

In 1738, taking a leaf out of his great antagonist's book, he produced an oratorio called 'Esther,' at Vienna, after which he appears to have retired to Tuscany, and to have died there about 1743.

[ G. ]

ARSIS AND THESIS. Terms used both in music and in prosody. They are derived from the Greek. Arsis is from the verb αίρω (tollo, I lift or raise), and marks the elevation of the voice in singing, or the hand in beating time. The depression which follows it is called θέσισ (deposilio or remissio).

When applied to beating time, arsis indicates the strong beat, and thesis the weak: for the ancients beat time in exactly the reverse way to ours, lifting the hand for the strong beat and letting it fall for the weak, whereas we make the down beat for the strong accents, and raise our hand for the others.

When applied to the voice, a subject, counterpoint, or fugue, are said to be 'per thesin,' when the notes ascend from grave to acute; 'per arsin' when they descend from acute to grave, for here again the ancient application of the ideas of height or depth to music was apparently the reverse of our own.

A fugue 'per arsin et thesin' is the same thing as a fugue 'by inversion,' that is to say, it is a fugue in which the answer to the subject is made by contrary motion. (See Fugue, Canon, Inversion, and Subject). The terms arsis and thesis may be regarded as virtually obsolete, and are practically useless in these days.

[ F. A. G. O. ]

ARTARIA. A well-known music-publishing firm in Vienna, the founders of which were Cesare, Domenico, and Giovanni Artaria, three brothers from Blevio on the Lake of Como, who settled in Vienna about the end of the year 1750. In 1770 the privilege of the Empress was granted to Carlo, the son of Cesare, and his cousins, to establish an art business in Vienna. To the sale of engravings, maps, and foreign music, was added in 1776 a music printing press, the first in Vienna, from which two years later issued the first publications of the firm of Artaria and Co. At the same time appeared the first of their catalogues of music, since continued from time to time. From the year 1780 a succession of works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and other composers, were published by the firm, which is in full activity at the present day. A branch house was founded at Mayence in 1793 by the brothers of Pasquale Artaria; this was afterwards extended to Mannheim, in conjunction with the bookselling house of Fontaine, under the name of Domenico Artaria. In 1793 the Vienna firm united with Cappi and Mollo, who however shortly afterwards dissolved the association, and started houses of their own, Cappi again subsequently joining with Tobias Haslinger, and Mollo with Diabelli. In 1802 the business came into the hands of Domenico, a son-in-law of Carlo. Under his management the business reached its climax, and the house was the resort of all the artists of the city. His valuable collection of autographs by Mozart,