Le Jeune is generally regarded as a Frenchman, though his birthplace did not become part of France till 1677. It would however be no great honour to be called the chief musician of an ungrateful country, which suffered Jannequin in his old age to bewail his poverty, which had killed poor Goudimel, and could now only boast of a decaying and frivolous school. It is more to his honour to remember him as the composer of one little book which was destined, after his death, to carry God's music to the hearts of thousands in many lands.
[ J. R. S.-B. ]
LEMMENS, Nicolas Jacques, was born Jan. 3, 1823, at Zoerle-Parwys, Westerloo, Belgium, where his father was echevin and organist. His career was attached to the organ from the first. At 11 years of age he was put under Van der Broeck, organist at Dieste. In 1839 he entered the Conservatoire at Brussels, but soon left it owing to the illness of his father, and was absent for a couple of years. In the interval he succeeded his former master at Dieste, but fortunately gave this up and returned to the Conservatoire at the end of 41. There he became the pupil of Fétis and was noted for the ardour and devotion with which he worked. He took the 2nd prize for composition in 44 and the first in 45, as well as the first for organ playing. In 46 he went at the government expense to Breslau, and remained there a year studying the organ under A. Hesse, who sent him back at the end of that time, with a testimonial to the effect that 'he played Bach as well as he himself did.' In 1849 he became professor of his instrument at the Conservatoire, and M. Fétis, as the head of the establishment, bears strong testimony to the vast improvement which followed this appointment, and the new spirit which it infused through the country; and gives a list of his pupils too long to be quoted here. Though distinguished as a pianist, it is with the organ that his name will remain connected. In 1857 M. Lemmens married Miss Sherrington, and since that time has resided much in England. His great work is his Ecole d'orgue, which has been adopted by the Conservatoires at Paris, Brussels, Madrid, etc. He has also published Sonatas, Offertoires etc. for the organ, and has been engaged for twenty years on a Method for accompanying Gregorian Chants, which is now on the eve of publication [App. p.699 "edited by J. Duclos, after the author's death and published at Ghent in 1886"]. On Jan. 1, 1879, he opened a college at Malines, under the patronage of the Belgian clergy, for training Catholic organists and choirmasters, which is already largely attended. [App. p.699 "date of death, Jan. 30, 1881. Four volumes of 'Œuvres inédites' have lately been published by Breitkopf & Härtel."] Madame Lemmens, née Sherrington, was born at Preston, where her family had resided for several generations, Oct. 4, 1834. Her mother was a musician. In 1838 they migrated to Rotterdam, and there Miss Sherrington studied under Verhulst. In 5 2 she entered the Brussels Conservatoire, and took first prizes for singing and declamation. On April 7, 1856, she made her first appearance in London, and soon rose to the position of leading English soprano, both in sacred and secular music, a position which she has maintained ever since. In 1865 [App. p.699 "1860"] she appeared on the English and in 1867 [App. p.699 "1866"] on the Italian operatic stage, and her operas embrace Robin Hood, Amber Witch, Helvellyn, Africaine, Norma, Huguenots, Roberto, Don Giovanni, Domino Noir, Fra Diavolo, Marta, etc., etc. [See Sherrington.]
[ G. ]
LENTO, i.e. 'slow,' implies a pace and style similar to a slow Andante. Beethoven rarely uses it. One example is in his last Quartet op. 135, Lento assai. Mendelssohn employs it for the introduction to his Ruy Bias overture, but he chiefly uses it, like 'con moto,' as a qualification for other tempos—as Andante lento (Elijah No. i, and Op. 35, No. 5), Adagio non lento (Op. 31, No. 3), Adagio e lento (Op. 87, No. 3).
[ G. ]
LENTON, John, one of the band of music of William and Mary and of Queen Anne, in 1693 published 'The Gentleman's Diversion, or the Violin explained,' with some airs composed by himself and others at the end. A second edition, with an appendix, and the airs omitted, appeared in 1702, under the title of 'The Useful Instructor on the Violin.' It is remarkable that in neither edition is there any mention of 'shifting,' and the scale given reaches but to C on the second ledger line above the stave. About 1694, in conjunction with Thomas Toilet, he published 'A Consort of Musick in three parts.' Lenton composed the overtures and act tunes to the following plays:—'Venice preserved,' 1685; 'The Ambitious Stepmother,' 1700; 'Tamburlain,' 1702; 'The Fair Penitent,' 1703; 'Liberty asserted' and 'Abra Muley,' 1704. Songs by him are in several of the collections of the period, and other vocal pieces in 'The Pleasant Musical Companion.' He contributed to D'Urfey's 'Third Collection of New Songs,' and revised the tunes for the earlier editions of his 'Pills to purge Melancholy.' The date of his death has not been ascertained. He was living in 1711.
[ W. H. H. ]
LENZ, Wilhelm von", Russian councillor at St. Petersburg, and author of 'Beethoven et ses trois styles' (2 vols. Petersburg, 1852), in which the idea originally suggested by Fétis, that Beethoven's works may be divided into three separate epochs, has been carried out to its utmost limits. This was followed by 'Beethoven. Eine Kunststudie,' in 6 vols., i.–iii. Cassel 1855, 6; iv.–vi. Hamburg 1860. This is an entirely different work from the foregoing, and though often extravagant in expression, has a certain value from the enthusiasm of the writer and the unwearied manner in which he has collected facts of all kinds about Beethoven's works. It contains a Life, an Essay on Beethoven's style, a detailed analysis of every one of his works in order, with various Lists and Catalogues not without use to the student, though in regard to the chronology of Beethoven's works, the minute investigations of Thayer and Nottebohm have superseded many of Lenz's conclusions. He also published 'Die grossen Pianofortevirtuosen unserer Zeit' (Berlin, 1872), a collection of articles on Liszt, Chopin, Tausig, Henselt, and many other
