Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 1.djvu/49

moreover to the character of the song which treats of 'jealous pangs and desperation.' Our last extract will be from the song 'What passion cannot music raise and quell?' in which Mozart has added pizzicato chords for the strings above the obligate part for the violoncello.

Handel.

Illustration

Mozart.

Illustration

10. It has been said already that additional accompaniments must in all cases be judged upon their own merits. The question is not whether but how they should be written. Their necessity in many cases has been shown above; and they will probably continue to be written to the end of time. While however it is impossible to lay down any absolute law as to what may and what may not be done in this respect, there are two general principles which may be given as the conclusion of the whole matter. First, that all additions to a score merely for the sake of increasing the noise are absolutely indefensible. At many operatic performances, Mozart's 'Don Giovanni' and 'Figaro' are given with copious additional accompaniments for trombones; and a conductor has even been known to reinforce the score of Weber's overture to 'Euryanthe,' which already contains the full complement of brass, with two cornets and an ophicleide. All such procedures are utterly inartistic, and cannot be too strongly condemned. And lastly, no one who writes additional accompaniments has any right whatever to tamper with the original text, either by adding, cutting out, or largely modifying passages. By all means let such additions be made as are needed to adapt the music to our modern requirements, but let the changes be such as to bring out more clearly, not to obscure or alter the thought of the composer. These additions moreover should be in unison with the spirit, as well as the letter of the original. To hear, as is sometimes to be heard, Handel's music scored after the fashion of Verdi's grand operas shows an equal want of artistic feeling and of common sense on the part of the arranger. Those additional accompaniments will always best fulfil their object in which most reverence is shown for the author's original intentions.

A DEUX MAINS (Fr.). 'For two hands.' A term applied to music for one performer on the piano, as contradistinguished from a quartre mains, etc.

ADLGASSER, ANTON CAJETAN. Born 1728 at Inzell in Bavaria. After being a pupil of Eberlin's, he was sent to Italy by the Archbishop of Salzburg, and recalled thence to the post of organist to the cathedral and cembalist to the court at Salzburg, where he died Dec. 21, 1777, from an apoplectic stroke while at the organ. Adlgasser was noted both as organ player and contrapuntist. His works remain mostly in MS. The principal of them are a requiem, a litany, and a salve regina.

AD LIBITUM (Lat.). At the pleasure of the performer, as regards time and expression. In the case of arrangements—'with violin or flute ad libitum'—it signifies that the solo instrument may be left out or exchanged at pleasure.

ADLUNG, Jacob, born at Bindersleben, Erfurt, Jan. 14, 1699; a theologian, scholar, and musician. His taste for music came late; the clavier, organ, and theory, he learned from Christian Reichardt the organist, who though not a musician of the first rank was truly devoted to his art. After the death of Buttstett in 1727 Adlung received his post as organist of the Evangelical church, where he was soon known for his masterly playing, and in 1741 became professor at the Rathsgymnasium of Erfurt. In 1736 his house and all his possessions were burnt, but the undaunted man was not discouraged. He taught both music and Language, wrote largely and well on music, and even constructed instruments with his own hands; and thus made a successful resistance to adverse fortune till his death, July 5, 1762. Three of his works are of lasting value in musical literature: (1) 'Anleitung zur musik. Gelahrtheit,' with a preface by Joh. Ernst Bach (Erfurt, 1758); a 2nd edition, issued after his death, by J. A. Hiller (Leipsic, 1783). (2) 'Musica mechanica Organœdi,' etc. (Berlin, 1768), a treatise in two volumes on the structure, use, and maintenance of the organ and clavi-cymbalum. This contains additions by J. F. Agricola and J. L. Albrecht, a translation by the former of a treatise on the organ by Bedos de Celles, and an autobiography of Adlung. (3) 'Musikalisches Siebengestirn' (Berlin, 1768). (See Hiller's Lebensb. ber. Musikgelehrten.)

ADOLFATI, Andrea, born in Venice 1711, date and place of death unknown; was a pupil of Galuppi, conductor of the music in the church