Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 26 - AUS-CHI.pdf/78

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50

BACHE—BACKERGUNJE

the last syllable of a word; when the accent falls there, 0^crev5, '’Ico, ^ISa?. The principal feature, best exemplified, on a grave accent is written on the preceding syllable, or on two by the first and third, is necessarily epic narrative,—often such syllables (e.g., j3pxpa^, TrdvOaXps). ... As Kenyon observes, no MS. of equal antiquity is so well adorned with touches of picturesque detail, and animated supplied with accents. The MS. which comes nearest to it in this by short speeches in the epic manner. respect is the Aleman fragment in the Louvre, which is of similar Several other classes of composition are represented by those or slightly higher age, belonging perhaps to the early part of the fragments of Bacchylides, preserved in ancient literature, which first century a.d. ; and in that MS. the comparatively frequent were known before the discovery of the new MS. (1) ifin'oi. Among accents were doubtless designed to aid readers unfamiliar with these we hear of the aTroirefnrTiKol, hymns of pious farewell, speed- Aleman’s Laconian Doric. With regard to other grammatical or ing some god on his way at the season when he passed from one metrical signs (irpocripSiai) used in the Bacchylides MS., there is not haunt to another. (2) waiaves, represented by the well-known frag- much that calls for special remark. The punctuation, whether by the ment on the blessings of peace. (3) irpoirodia, choral odes sung during scribe or by correctors, is very sparse, and certainly cannot always processions to temples. (4) vTropxv^aTa, lively dance-songs for religi- be regarded as authoritative. The signs denoting the end of a ous festivals. (5) dpom/cd, represented by five fragments of a class strophe or antistrophe (paragraphus), of an epode. (coronis), or of akin to <tk6icl, drinking-songs. Under this head come some lively an ode {asterisk), are often omitted by the scribe, and, when and humorous verses on the power of wine, imitated by Horace employed, are sometimes placed incorrectly, or employed in an (C. iii. 21. 13-20). It may be conjectured that the facile grace and irregular manner. bright fancy of Bacchylides were seen to especial advantage in Editions.—F. J. Kenyon. Ed. princeps, 1897.—F. Blass. light compositions of this kind. (6) The elegiacs of Bacchylides Leipzig, Teubner. 1st ed. 1898 ; 2nd 1899.- H. JurenkA. are represented by two eTriypdp.p.ara dvad-qp-ariKd, each of lour Vienna, 1898. — N. Festa. Text, trans. and notes. Florence, lines, in the Palatine Anthology. The first (Anth. vi. 313) is an 1898). («• C. J.) inscription for an offering commemorative of a victory gained by a chorus with a poem written by Bacchylides. The second (Anth. Bache, Francis Edward (1833 1858), vi. 53) is an inscription for a shrine dedicated to Zephyrus. Its English musical composer, was born in Birmingham, 14th authenticity has been questioned, but not disproved. _ September 1833. The pupil of Alfred Mellon for violin, The papyrus containing the odes of Bacchylides was found m Egypt by natives, and reached the British Museum in the autumn and Sterndale Bennett for composition, he afterwards went of 1896. It was then in about 200 pieces. By the skill and to Leipzig in 1853 and studied with Hauptmann and Plaidy. industry of Mr F. G. Kenyon, the editor of the editio princeps Considering the early age at which he died, his composi(1897), "the MS. was reconstructed from these lacerated members. tions are fairly numerous, and the best, a trio for piano As now arranged, the MS. consists of three sections. (1) The first section contains 22 columns of writing. It breaks ofl after the 8 and strings, is still held in high esteem. Two operettas, a opening verses of ode xii. (2) The second section contains columns piano concerto, and a number of published pianoforte pieces 23-29. Of these, column 23 is represented only by the last letters and songs, do little more than show how great was his of two words. This section comprises what remains of odes xui. promise. He died at Birmingham of consumption on the and xiv. It breaks off before the end of xiv., which is the last of the epinikia. (3) The third section comprises columns 30-39., It 24th of August 1858. His younger brother, Walter begins with the mutilated opening verses of ode xv. CAvr-rivopiSai, (1842-1888), was born in Birmingham, 19th June 1842, the first of the dithyrambs), and breaks off after verse 11 of the and followed him to the Leipzig Conservatorium, where last dithyramb,' I5cts. The number of lines in a column varies from he became an excellent pianist. From 1862 to 1865 he 32 to 36, the usual number being 35, or (though less often) 34. It is impossible to say how much has been lost between the end studied with Liszt in Borne, and for many years devoted of column 29 and the beginning of column 30. Probably, however, himself to the task of winning popularity for his master’s ode xiv., if not the last, was nearly the last, of the epinikia. It works in England. At his annual concerts in London, concerns a festival of a merely local character, the Thessalian nearly all Liszt’s larger works were heard for the first nerpeua, and was therefore placed after the thirteen othei epinikia, which are connected with the four great festivals. The same time in England, and on the occasion of Liszt s last visit lacuna leaves it doubtful whether any collective title was prefixed to England, in 1886, he was entertained by Bache at a to the 8i0vpap.(3oi. After the last column (39) of the MS., a good memorable reception at the Grosvenor Gallery. Waltei deal has probably been lost. Bacchylides seems to have written at Bache was professor of the pianoforte at the Royal least three other poems of this class (on Kassandra, Laocoon, and Academy of Music for some years before his death, and Philoctetes); and these would have come, in alphabetical order, the foundation of the Liszt scholarship at that institution after the last of the extant six (Idas). The writing of the MS. is a fine uncial. It presents some traits was mainly due to his efforts. He died in London on the of a distinctly Ptolemaic type, though it lacks some features found 26th of March 1888. An interesting memoir of the two in the earlier Ptolemaic MSS. (these of the 3rd or 2nd century B.c.). brothers, by Miss Constance Bache, appeared in 1901 under Among the characteristic forms of letters is the Y, with a shallow (j. a. f. m.) curve on the top of the upright; a form found in MSS. asenbed to the the title Brother Musicians. 1st century b.c., and different from the more fully formed upsilon of Bachian (Dutch, Batjan), an island (belonging to the Roman period. Another very significant letter is the a, written as 31, a form which begins to go out after circ. 50 B.c., the residency of Ternate) in the Molucca Sea, in 0° 13'givin" place to one in which the middle stroke is connected with 0° 55' S. and 127° 22'-128° E. It lies west of the the other two. From these and other indications it is probable southern peninsula of the island of Halmaheia (or Jilolo), that the MS. is not later than the middle of the first century b.c. The scribe, though he sometimes corrected his own mistakes, and has an area of 2990 square miles. It is the most was, on the whole, careless of the sense, as of the metre ; he seems important island of a group formerly governed by a to have been a mechanical copyist, excellent in penmanship, but sultan, but since 1889 by a committee of chiefs under intent only on the letters. The MS. has received corrections or the control of a Dutch controleur. Since 1882 the small supplements 2from at least two different persons. One of them (Kenyon’s A ) 3was contemporary, or nearly so, with the Batjan company has attempted to exploit the island, but scribe. The other (A ) was considerably later; he wrote a Roman unsuccessfully, owing to a deficient knowledge of the soil cursive which might belong to the end of the first centuiy a.d., oi and its capabilities and a lack of labourers. to the early part of the second. The correctors seem to be generally trustworthy; though, like the scribe, they were inBackergunje, or Bakarganj, a district of British attentive to metre, passing over many metrical faults which could India, in the Dacca division of Bengal, forming part of easily have been removed. They appear to have compared their MS with another, or others ; but they sometimes made a bad use the joint delta of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra.. The of such aid, intruding a false reading where their text had the true administrative headquarters are at Barisal, which is Breathings are generally added, especially rough breathings ; the the only town in the district. Its area is 3649 square form is usually square, but sometimes partially rounded. Accents miles. In 1891 the population was 2,153,965, giving are added, not to all words, but only, as a rule, to those which an average density of 590 persons per square mile. might cause doubt or difficulty to the reader. This was the Classified according to religion, Hindus numbered 680,381; Alexandrian practice, accents being regarded as aids to correct Mahommedans, 1,462,712; Buddhists and Jams, 60 r reading and more liberally used when the dialect was not Attic. Christians, 4659, including 60 Europeans; “others, 133. In accordance with the older system, the accent is not written