pamphlet, and to force him, after the 9th Thermidor, to appear in parts distasteful to him, and to sing before the Bourbons after the Restoration. He was professor of singing at the Conservatoire from 1795 to 1799, when he retired from the post; and from 1819 to 1826 held the same office in the 'École royale de chant et de déclamation.' He had been principal singer in the chapel of Napoleon from 1801 till the fall of the Emperor, but was cashiered by Louis XVIII. After leaving the École he retired to Ingrande near Angers, where he died March 30, 1831. We have said that he was not a good actor, but Fétis pronounces him not even a good singer, saying that his taste was poor, and that he had several bad tricks; but he had warmth and animation, and the beauty of his voice so far atoned for all, that for a long time no opera could be successful in which he had not a part.
[ G. ]
LAZARUS, Henry, a native of London, commenced the study of the clarinet when a boy under Blizard, bandmaster of the Royal Military Asylum, Chelsea, and continued it under Charles Godfrey, sen., bandmaster of the Coldstream Guards. After fulfilling engagements in various theatrical and other orchestras he was, in 1838, appointed as second to Willman at the Sacred Harmonic Society. On the death of Willman in 1840 Lazarus succeeded him as principal clarinet at the Opera and all the principal concerts, festivals, etc. in London and the provinces, a position he has since retained with great and ever-increasing reputation. In both orchestral and solo playing the beauty and richness of his tone, his excellent phrasing, and his neat and expressive execution, are alike admired. He attributes his present high reputation mainly to the excellent advice he has during his career received from Sir Michael Costa. He has been a professor of his instrument at the Royal Academy of Music since 1854, and at the Military School of Music, Kneller Hall, near Hounslow, since 1858. [App. p.698 "Add date of birth, 1815. (Died March, 1895.)"]
[ W. H. H. ]
LAZZARINI, Gustavo, was born (as some biographers say) at Padua, or (according to others) at Verona, about 1765. His début was made at Lucca in 1789, in Zingarelli's 'Ifigenia in Aulide,' with great éclat. In the two following years he appeared in London, singing both in serious and comic operas, such as Bertoni's 'Quinto Fabio' and the 'Locanda' of Paisiello, in the former with Pacchierotti, but taking the principal rôle in the latter. Lord Mount-Edgcumbe thought him 'a very pleasing singer with a sweet tenor voice.' During the Carnival of 1794 he sang at Milan, with Grassini and Marchesi, in Zingarelli's 'Artaserse' and the 'Demofoonte' of Portogallo, and bore the comparison inevitably made between him and those great singers. He sang there again in 1795, and once more in 1798, appearing on the latter occasion in Cimarosa's 'Orazzi' and Zingarelli's 'Meleagro,' with Riccardi and Crescentini. In 1801 he was one of the Opera Buffa troupe at Paris, where he was again heard to advantage by Lord Mount-Edgcumbe (1802), singing in company with La Strinasacchi and Georgi Belloc. But his voice had now lost much of its freshness, though the great style remained. Lazzarini published two volumes of Italian airs, and a Pastoral, both at Paris (Carli). His portrait was engraved there by Nitôt Dufréne, an operatic singer.
[ J. M. ]
LEACH, James, born at Rochdale, Yorkshire, [App. p.698 "Wardle, near Rochdale, Lancashire"] in 1762, was a tenor singer and hymn-tune writer. He published a 'New Sett of Hymns and Psalm Tunes etc.' (Preston, London 1789); and a 'Second Sett' of the same, probably about 1794. His tunes are found in several of the American collections, as the Easy Instructor (Albany, New York 1798), the Bridgewater Collection (Boston 1802). The David Companion or Methodist Standard (Baltimore, 1810) contains 48 of his pieces. For more details see a letter signed G. A. C. in the Musical Times for April 1878, p. 226. In the Rev. H. Parr's 'Church of England Psalmody' will be found Mount Pleasant, Oldham, and Smyrna, by him, which used to be favourites in certain congregations. Leach died in 1797. [App. p.698 "Leach died from a stage coach accident, Feb. 8, 1798."]
[ G. ]
LEAD, TO, in fugues or imitative music is to go off first with a point or subject, which is afterwards taken up by the other parts successively. Thus in the Amen Chorus in the Messiah the bass 'leads,' the tenor taking up the subject at the 6th bar, the alto at the 10th, and so on. In the separate voice parts the fact is often stated ('Tenors lead,' etc.), that the singers may be on their guard, and the part is then said 'to have the lead.'
[ G. ]
LEADER. The chief of the first violins is the leader of the orchestra, the Concertmeister of the Germans, and Chef d'attaque of the French. He is close to the conductor's left hand. The position is a most important one, as the animation and 'attack' of the band depend in great measure on the leader. The great precision and force of the Gewandhaus orchestra, for instance, is said to have been mainly due to David being for so long at the head of them.
[ G. ]
LEADING NOTE (Fr. Note sensible; Germ. Leitton). In modern music it is absolutely indispensable for all harmonic progressions to have an appreciable connection with a tonic or keynote, and various lines converge to indicate that note with clearness; among these an important place is occupied by the Leading Note, which is the note immediately below the keynote, and separated from it by the smallest interval in the system, namely a semitone. Helmholtz has pointed out that in actual relationship to the tonic it is the most remote of all the notes in the scale, since the supertonic, which also appears to be very remote, at least comes nearer in being the fifth to the dominant, while the leading note is only the third. For this reason, and also from its not being capable of standing as a root note to any essential diatonic chord in the key, it seems to have no status of its own, but to exist mainly as preparatory to the tonic note, for which, by reason of its close proximity, it seems to prepare the mind when it is heard; and the melodic
