His voice, though both sweet and sympathetic in quality, is somewhat deficient in power; and his success as a singer must therefore be attributed to the purity of his vocal production and to his complete mastery of all styles of music.
His compositions, which are marked by considerable charm and elegance, show the influence of Schumann and Bennett; and in his Overture, performed at the Crystal Palace in 1874, and his Pianoforte Concerto, at the Brighton Festival of 1879, he proves himself an adept at musical form.
SHARP (Diesis, from Lat. Divisio; Fr. Dièse). The term which expresses the raising of a note by a less quantity than a whole tone. F sharp is half a tone higher than F natural: a singer 'sang sharp'—that is, sang slightly higher than the accompaniment; 'the pitch was sharpened'—that is, was slightly raised.
The sign for a sharp in practical music is ♯; for a double sharp, two half tones, ×. In French the same signs are used, but the raised note is entitled dièse—Fa dièse, Ré dièse, etc.; in German Fis, Dis, etc., just as E♭, G♭ are designated Es, Ges, and so on.
The sign is said to have originated[1] in the fact that in the 15th and 16th centuries the tone was divided into five intervals, which were designated by ×, ♯, 
, (
Music characters), according to the number of parts represented by each. These gradually fell into disuse, and the second alone remained. In the printed music of the 17th century however the sign is usually 
.
In Germany the sign was used to express the major mode, C♯ meaning C major, A♯, A major, and so forth. Thus Beethoven has inscribed the overture to Leonora known as 'No. 1' (which is in the key of C) with the words 'Ouvertura in C♯, Characteristische Ouverture.' The Eroica Symphony, in E♭, was even announced in the programme of Clement's Concert, April 7, 1805, as 'Eine neue grosse Sinfonie in Dis' (i.e. D♯). Instances of the practice are frequent in the Index to the 'Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung.'
SHAW, Mary (Mrs. Alfred Shaw), daughter of John Postans, messman at the Guard Room, St. James's Palace, was born in 1814. She was a student at the Royal Academy of Music from Sept. 1828 to June 1831, and afterwards a pupil of Sir George Smart. Miss Postans appeared in public as a contralto singer in 1834, and at the Amateur Musical Festival in Exeter Hall in November of that year attracted great attention by the beauty of her voice and the excellence of her style. In 1835 she was engaged at the Concert of Ancient Music and the York Festival, and about the end of the year became the wife of Alfred Shaw, an artist of some repute. In 1836 she appeared at the Charing Cross Hospital Festival at Exeter Hall, and at the Norwich and Liverpool Festivals, at the latter of which she sang the contralto part in Mendelssohn's 'St. Paul' on its first performance in England. In 1837 she was engaged at the Philharmonic and Sacred Harmonic Societies and Birmingham Festival. In 1838, after fulfilling an engagement at Gloucester Festival, she quitted England and appeared at the Gewandhaus concerts, Leipzig, under Mendelssohn. A letter from him to the Directors of the Philharmonic Society—Leipzig, Jan. 19, 1839—speaks of Clara Novello and Mrs. Shaw as 'the best concert-singers we have had in this country for a long time.' From Germany she proceeded to Italy, and appeared at La Scala, Milan, Nov. 17, 1839, in Verdi's opera, 'Oberto.' She returned to England in 1842 and appeared at Covent Garden in opera with Adelaide Kemble, and in 1843 at the Sacred Harmonic Society in oratorio with Clara Novello, and afterwards at Birmingham Festival. She had now reached the zenith of her reputation, when her career was suddenly arrested by a heavy visitation. Her husband became deranged, and the calamity so seriously shocked her whole system that the vocal organs became affected and she was unable to sing in tune. She then resorted to teaching, for three or four years appearing in public at an annual benefit concert. After her husband's death she married John Frederick Robinson, a country solicitor, and retired from the profession. She died at her husband's residence, Hadleigh Hall, Suffolk, Sept. 9, 1876, after suffering for three years from 'malignant disease of the breast.'
SHAWM or SHALM (Germ. Schalmey or Chalmei; Fr. Chalumeau).
The name of this ancient instrument is variously derived from the Latin Calamus, Calamellus, 'a reed,' or from the German schallen, 'to sound.' The σῦριγξ of the Greeks, supposed by Bernsdorff and others to be identical with it, is shown by Mr. Chappell[2] to have been the Pandean pipe. Under the names of Pommer and Bombard smaller and larger forms were known in Germany; the latter, also called the Brummer, developing into the Bassoon. [See Bassoon.] It was clearly a reed instrument like the shepherd's pipe, although Mr. Chappell thinks it more closely allied to the modern clarinet. The older dictionaries define it as 'a hautboy or cornet,' and it is so frequently associated with the bagpipe that there must evidently have been some affinity between the two instruments. For instance, we find in Clement Marot, i. 166,
Faisoit sonnor Chalumeaux et Cornemuses;
and again, Drayton, 'Polyolbion,' iv.
Even from the shrillest Shawme unto the Cornamute.
This combination of the pastoral oboe with the bagpipe may be daily seen in the streets. [See Pifferaro.]
Another similarity between the shawm and the bagpipe, as also between it and the musette, is noted by Schladebach in describing the Schalmey or Schalmei. He states that it is still played under this name by the peasants of the Tyrol and of Switzerland, and that the reed, instead of being inserted directly into the player's lips, is fitted into a box or 'capsule' with a mouthpiece,
