Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 4.djvu/166

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150
TONIC SOL-FA COLLEGE.
TORELLI.

examining body, but it also carries on the teaching of music (mainly directed to the training of teachers) by means of lectures and correspondence classes. The buildings, lecture-rooms, offices, etc., are at Forest Gate, E., an eastern suburb of London, some twenty minutes' railway journey from the City.

The examinations are based on a system of graded certificates, arranged so as to test the progress of pupils from the earliest stage. From the elementary certificate upwards the power to sing at sight is demanded. The higher certificates are granted upon a paper examination combined with vocal tests, on the rendering of which the local examiner has to report to the College. The official report gives the number of certificates granted in the year 1879–80 at 15,755, which was 964 more than in the previous year. The number of persons entered in correspondence classes was 4729. The subjects of these were Harmony-Analysis, Musical Composition (four stages), Staff Notation, Musical Form, Musical and Verbal Expression, Counterpoint, English Composition, Organ-fingering and Chord-naming. Students from all parts of the world enter these correspondence classes. The College further organises a summer term of study, lasting for six weeks in vacation time, which is attended by young teachers and students from Great Britain, the Colonies, etc. A great point is made of the art of presenting facts to the learner, and of cultivating the intelligence as well as the ear and voice. The students give model lessons, which their teachers criticise. The total number of certificates issued by the College up to the present time (September 1884) is stated to be as follows: junior, 51,500; elementary, 163,850; intermediate, 44,073; matriculation, 3,367; advanced, 525. The receipts for the year 1883–84 were £1398, the payments £904. The total payments for the new buildings were £3635. Altogether the published reports of the College give an impression of a vast amount of useful work carried on with thoroughness and spirit.

The College has 1465 shareholders, and is governed by a council, in the election of which every holder of a 'Matriculation' certificate has a vote. The constitution of the council is somewhat curious. It is composed of 48 members elected in eight classes of six members each, and drawn from the following classes of society:—(a) handworkers, (b) clerks and employés, (c) masters in commercial or professional occupations, (d) schoolmasters, (e) professional musicians, (f) clergymen and ministers, (g) persons of literary and other qualifications, and (h) honorary members. The object of this arrangement is to prevent the College getting into the hands of any one interest or party. The present president is Mr. J. Spencer Curwen, A.R.A.M., who succeeded his father, the founder, in 1880.

TONKÜNSTLERVEREIN. A society founded in Dresden in 1854 for the popularisation of good chamber music. It took its rise from Richard Pohl's evenings for the practice of chamber-music, and its first and present president is Herr Fürstenau. The following musicians are, or have been, honorary members:—Von Bülow, Chrysander, Hauptmann, Otto Jahn, Joachim, Lauterbach, Julius Rietz, Clara Schumann, and Ferdinand David. By degrees orchestral works were introduced into the practices and performances. Out of 992 works played between 1854 and 1879, 116 were in MS., 95 being by members and 21 by non-members. These figures show the liberality of the society in producing the work of modern artists. Furthermore, it possesses a considerable library, has provided lectures on the science of music by such men as Fürstenau, F. Heine, Rühlmann, and Schneider (author of the 'History of the Lied'), and in all respects amply fulfilled its professed object, the promotion of the art of music. After an existence of 25 years, it musters 195 ordinary members (practical musicians) and 164 extraordinary ones. For further details see the Festival prospectus of 1879.

[ F. G. ]

TONNERRE, GROSSE CAISSE EN, i.e. bass drum as thunder. This direction occurs in Hérold's overture to 'Zampa,' and a few other works, and means a roll. But as the bass drum is played with one stick only, the roll is best executed with a two-headed stick (Tampon or Mailloche double), as made in Paris, by Tournier, Boulevard St. Martin. It is held in the middle, where it is 1 3/16 inch in diameter, so that the roll is easily made by an alternate motion of the wrist. The stick, ending in a round knob at each end, is turned out of a piece of ash; the knobs are thickly covered with tow and a cap of chamois leather, and are both of the same size. When finished the heads are about 2 3/4 inches in diameter, and the same in length. The length of the whole stick is 12 1/2 inches.


TONOMETER. [See Scheibler, vol. iii. p. 243b. Also Tuning-fork.]

TORCULUS, or Cephalicus. A Neume, indicating a group of three notes, of which the second was the highest; as C, D, C. [See vol. ii. pp. 467b, 468a].

TORELLI, Giuseppe, violinist and composer, was born about the middle of the 17th century. He lived for many years in Bologna as leader of a church orchestra, but in 1701 accepted the post of leader of the band of the Markgraf of Brandenburg-Anspach at Anspach in Germany, where he died in 1708. To him is generally ascribed the invention of the 'Concerto'—or, more correctly speaking, the application of the sonata-form to concerted music. His most important work, the Concerti grossi, op. 8, were published at Bologna, 1709, three years earlier than Corelli's Concerti grossi. They are written for 2 obligato violins and stringed orchestra, and are said clearly to present the main features of the concerto-form, as used by Corelli, Handel, and others. According to Fétis, eight works of his have been published—all in concerted style, for 2, 3, or 4 stringed instruments.

[ P. D. ]