Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 1.djvu/524

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512
FERIAL and FESTAL.
FERRARA.

the chief difference is that on the ferial days the music is less elaborate and ornate than on festal days, when it is more florid, for more voices, accompanied by the organ, etc. The two kinds are known respectively as the ferial use and festal use.

[ G. ]

FERLENDIS, Signora, daughter of an architect named Barberi, born at Rome about 1778. Her voice was a strong contralto, but somewhat hard and inflexible. Having studied with a teacher called Moscheri, she made her debut at Lisbon. Here she had the advantage of some lessons from Crescentini, and here also (1802) she married Alessandro Ferlendis, the oboist, member of a very distinguished Italian family of players on the oboe and English horn. She appeared at Madrid in the next year, at Milan in 1804, and in 1805 at Paris (Théâtre Louvois) in Fioravanti's 'Capricciosa pentita.' She achieved there, however, no success in any other rôle but that one. Soon after this, she made her first appearance in London with Catalani in Cimarosa's 'Orazzi e Curiazzi.' She was 'a pretty good actress, and at that time first buffa; she was less liked than she deserved, for she had a very good contralto voice, and was far from a bad buffa. She would have been thought, too, to have acted the part of Orazzia well, had it not been for the comparison with Grassini, and for Catalani's then eclipsing everybody.' (Lord Mount-Edgcumbe.) She accompanied her husband to Italy in 1810; her later career is not known.

[ J. M. ]

FERMATA is the Italian name for the sign , which in English is commonly called a Pause, and signifies that the note over which it is placed should be held on beyond its natural duration. It is sometimes put over a bar or double bar, in which case it intimates a short interval of silence.

{ \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \override Score.Clef #'stencil = ##f \time 4/4 { s1 \mark \markup { \musicglyph #"scripts.ufermata" } \bar "||" s4 } }

Schumann, in the first movement of his 'Faschingsschwank in Wien' for the pianoforte, has the sign over the double bar in this manner, where the key changes from two flats to six sharps, and has also written 'Kurze Pause.'

FERNAND CORTEZ, OU LA CONQUÉTE DU MEXIQUE. Opera in 3 acts; words by Esménard and De Jouy, after Piron; music by Spontini. Produced at the Académie impériale Nov. 28, 1808 [App. p. 635 "1809"]; at Dresden, March 1812; after revision by the composer, at Paris, May 28, 1817, Berlin, Apr. 20, 1818.

FERRABOSCO (or FERABOSCO), Alfonso, an Italian musician who settled in England in the middle of the 16th century, ranked among the first of the Elizabethan era. He composed motets, madrigals, and pieces for the virginals. His first book of madrigals was printed at Venice in 1542, and some of his motets at the same place in 1544. Morley (Introduction to Practical Music, 1597) speaks of a 'vertuous contention' between Ferrabosco and W. Byrd in making each to the number of 40 parts upon the plainsong of Miserere, 'without malice, envie, or backbiting,' 'each making other Censor of that which they had done.' And Peacham mentions another friendly contest between them which could best set the words of the madrigal, 'The nightingale so pleasant and so gay,' and awards the palm to Ferrabosco. Many of Ferrabosco's madrigals were printed in the two books of 'Musica Transalpina,' 1588 and 1597, and several of his other compositions are extant in MS.

FERRABOSCO, Alfonso, the younger, probably son of the preceding, born at Greenwich about 1580, was one of the extraordinary grooms of the privy chamber of James I, and the instructor in music of Prince Henry, for his services in which respect he was rewarded in 1605 with an annuity of £50. In 1609 he published a folio volume of 'Ayres,' dedicated to Prince Henry, and prefaced by commendatory verses by Ben Jonson, Dr. Campion, and N. Tomkins. This work contains many of the songs in Ben Jonson's plays and masques. In the same year Ferrabosco published some Lessons for Viols, with some introductory lines by Ben Jonson. He was one of the contributors to the collection published in 1614 by Sir William Leighton under the title of 'The Teares or Lamentacions of a Sorrowfull Soule.' He composed numerous Fancies for viols. Antony Wood says he first set music lyra-way for the lute. In 1641 his name occurs in a warrant exempting the king's musicians from the payment of subsidies. He died in 1652. Pepys twice (1664 and 1667) mentions a lady named Ferrabosco as a good singer. At the latter date she was an attendant on the Duchess of Newcastle. She was probably a daughter of Alfonso the younger. A fine song by Ferrabosco, 'Shall I seek to ease my grief?' from the 'Ayres' above mentioned, is published by Dr. Rimbault (Novello).

FERRABOSCO, John, Mus. Bac., organist of Ely Cathedral from 1662 to his death in 1682, was probably a son of Alfonso Ferrabosco the younger. He obtained his degree at Cambridge in 1671 'per literas regias.' Eight complete services and eleven anthems by him are preserved in MS. in the library of Ely Cathedral, some of which have often been erroneously ascribed to his presumed father.

FERRARA. The earliest and best-known musical academy in Ferrara was that of the 'Intrepidi,' founded in 1600 by Giambattista Aleotti d'Argenta for dramatic musical representation. The magistrates of the city allowed the academicians 100 scudi a year for public celebrations in their theatre. Previous to the founding of this academy, Ferrara could boast one of the most magnificent theatres of Italy, opened in 1484 by Ercole I, Duke of Ferrara, in which were celebrated the 'Feste Musicali,' those earliest forms of the musical drama universal in Italy in the 15th century. While the 'Orfeo' of Poliziano was represented at Mantua, the theatre of Ferrara witnessed the 'Cefalo' of Niccolò da Correggio, the 'Feast of Amphitrione