Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 2.djvu/192

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180
LUTHER'S HYMN.
LYCEUM THEATRE.

as he heard it sung by a traveller. It was first printed in 1535, but it is certain that the melody had already served as 2nd melody to the older hymn 'Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g'mein.'[1]

It will be found in the ordinary collections as 'Luther's Hymn.'

[ G. ]

LUTHERAN (German) CHAPEL, of St. James's Palace. The building now used as the German Chapel is said to have been erected about 1626 by Inigo Jones, for Queen Henrietta Maria, who had been permitted the free use in England of her religion. In 1662 it was assigned for the like purpose to Queen Catherine of Braganza, the first mass being celebrated on Sept. 21 in that year. The choir was composed of Italians, and the soprani were eunuchs. At the Revolution the friars were expelled, and the chapel was in Dec. 1688 appropriated to the use of French Protestants. Shortly afterwards a service in Dutch was also established in it for the benefit of the followers of William III. About 1703, Queen Anne and Prince George of Denmark established a German Lutheran service in a small chapel in the Middle Court of St. James's Palace, which was in 1781 transferred to the present chapel, the French and Dutch services being removed at the same time to the chapel vacated by the Germans, where they were performed until their discontinuance in 1839. Upon the removal, a new organ was erected in the chapel. The present organ, by Snetzler, was built for Buckingham House, and removed here prior to the demolition of that edifice in 1825. The organists since 1781 have been Augustus Friedrich Christopher Kollmann, died Aug. 23, 1829; George Augustus Kollmann, died March 19, 1845; Miss Joanna Sophia Kollman, died in May, 1849; and Frederic Weber, the present organist. [App. p.706 "The last sentence of the article should run:—The organists since 1784 have been Augustus Friedrich Karl Kollmann, died Easter Day, 1829, etc."]

LUTZ, Wilhelm Meyer, was born in 1829 at Männerstadt, Kissingen, where his father was organist and teacher of harmony to the Schoolmaster's Institute. He showed a gift for the piano at a very early age, and when 12 played in public with the orchestra. His father removing to Würzburg, he entered the Gymnasium and University there, and at the same time studied music under Eisenhofer and Keller. Since 1848 Mr. Lutz has been settled in England, first as organist to St. Chad's, Birmingham, and St. Ann's, Leeds, and then organist and choirmaster to St. George's Catholic Cathedral, London, a post he still holds, and for which he has composed several grand masses and much other music. Mr. Lutz has also had a long and wide experience of the stage as chef d'orchestre, first at the Surrey Theatre (1851–55), and since 1869 at the Gaiety Theatre; and has also had the management of the operatic tours of Grisi and Mario, Pyne and Harrison, and other eminent artists. Many of his operas and operettas are well and favourably known in England, amongst them 'Faust and Marguerite' (Surrey Theatre, ), 'Blonde and Brunette' (1862), 'Zaida' (1868), 'Miller of Milburg' (1872), 'Legend of the Lys' (1873), a cantata entitled 'Herne the Hunter,' etc., etc. A string quartet which he wrote for M. Sainton's chamber concerts was very well spoken of, and he has much music, orchestral and chamber, in MS.

[ G. ]

LWOFF, Alexis, violinist, composer, and writer on musical subjects, was born at Reval in 1799 [App. p.706 "May 25"]. His father, a high Russian government official, made him enter a military career, but not without having previously given him an excellent musical and general education. Owing to his many brilliant qualities he quickly advanced to high military rank, and in 1836 we find him at the same time a general, personal adjutant to the Emperor, and chief-director of the music at the Imperial Court and of the singers in the Imperial chapel, to which last post he succeeded on the death of his brother Theodor in 1836.

His merits as a violinist, especially as quartet-player, were fully recognised at Berlin, Leipzig, Paris, and other places. Schumann is loud in praise of his thoroughly musical style of playing (Ges. Schriften, iii. 216). It is however as the composer of the Russian National Hymn that his name will be perpetuated. This hymn, a simple but noble strain, well known in England through the version of the late Mr. Chorley, included in Hullah's 'Part Music,' and often used as a hymn tune, met in Russia with a most enthusiastic reception, and is now the universally adopted National Anthem of that country. Lwoff has published a violin-concerto, 2 fantasias for violin, 4 operas, and a number of sacred choruses for the services of the Imperial Chapel. He also harmonised the traditional chants and tunes of the Russian Church, and edited them in eleven volumes.

Lwoff died on his property in the province of Kowno, Dec. 28, 1870, having suffered for 20 years from a very distressing affliction of his organs of hearing. Berlioz and he were much allied. They first met in St. Petersburg in 1847, and the volume of the correspondence of the former, recently published, contains two letters addressed to him.

[ P. D. ]

LYCEUM THEATRE. The original theatre bearing this name occupied the site of a building erected in 1765 (on ground formerly belonging to Exeter House) for the exhibitions of the 'Society of Artists' (subsequently 'Royal Academy of Arts),' but afterwards used for a great variety of entertainments. It was constructed about 1798 under the direction of Dr. Arnold, who contemplated performing in it operas and other musical pieces, but being unable to obtain a license was compelled to abandon his intention, and the house waa occupied, occasionally only, for pictorial exhibitions, table entertainments, etc., until 1809, when Samuel James Arnold, the Doctor's son, succeeded in getting a license for English operatic performances during four months in each year, June 3, to Oct. 3. Drury Lane

  1. See Düring, 'Choralkunde' (1865), pp. 31, 407.