sentence beginning 7 lines below, with the words 'Mr. Bird's Battle' by a reference to Lesson, and Virginal Music, where the exact title is given. The detailed title of the piece from which the first examples on p. 36 are taken will be found in the article last mentioned, vol. iv. p. 308a, note 2. P. 36b, l. 19–26, the statement that the titles given by Couperin to his harpsichord pieces have no application in the sense of 'Programme-music,' is to be corrected; to mention but two instances out of many, 'Le Reveil-matin' is as true a specimen of the class as could be found in all music, while 'La Triomphante' exceeds 'The Battle of Prague' as far in graphic delineation as it does in musical beauty. P. 39b, l. 30 from bottom, for the preludes 'Tasso,' etc., read the symphonic poems, 'Les Préludes,' 'Tasso,' etc.
PROMENADE CONCERTS. P. 40b, l. 8 from bottom, for 1851 read 1850.
PROPORTION. P. 41b, in the diagram, above the figure 8 in the top row of figures, the sign should be a semicircle, not a circle. The note below the sign is correct.
PROUT, Ebenezer. Add to list of compositions Minuet and trio for orchestra, op. 14; 'Queen Aimée,' a cantata for female voices, op. 21; 'Freedom,' for baritone solo, chorus and orchestra; a Symphony in F, No. 4, op. 22 (Birmingham Festival, 1885); Symphony in D, No. 5 (MS. Oxford, 1886); a Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in D; a scena for contralto and orchestra, 'The Song of Judith,' Norwich Festival, 1887, etc. Made Prof, of Mus., T. C. Dublin, Easter, 1895.
PRUCKNER, Caroline, singer and professor, was born at Vienna in 1832, and developed dramatic feeling together with a powerful voice so early in life that, notwithstanding the counsels of prudence, she was heard (at a provincial theatre) in the part of Adalgisa when only 15. An engagement followed in 1850 at the Hanover Court Theatre, where she won much applause as Martha, Susanna, Leonora ('Stradella,') etc. Two years later similar success attended her performances, at Mannheim, of more arduous parts, such as Elvira and Valentine. Thus seemingly launched upon a brilliant career, Caroline Pruckner must have cruelly felt the total loss of her voice in 1855, when she was barely 24 years of age; and it speaks well for the courage and the temper of the budding prima donna that she at once resigned herself in the best possible way by devoting herself to teach the art she loved, especially that branch of it which is concerned with the nursing of the vocal organs (as a part of voice-training), and the healing of injuries done by forcing and other ill-usage. Fräulein Pruckner applied her newly acquired science to her own case; and to some extent her voice recovered its power. It was at Luib's Polyhymnia that she entered upon her professorial life; after two years, in 1870, she opened an independent School of Opera in the Feinfalter Strasse, whence a move was effected in 1887 to the Hohenstaufengasse. Her 'Theorie und Praxis der Gesangskuust' (Schlesinger 1872) has gained for the authoress a wide celebrity, and on the appearance of a second edition (1883), the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin decorated her with a gold medal for art and science. The production of new songs and cantatas is an important feature of the concerts and lectures given at the Schools of Song and Opera by Fräulein Pruckner and her pupils.
PSALTER, the english Metrical, or paraphrastic rhyming translation of the Psalms and Evangelical Hymns, intended to be sung, dates from the third year of King Edward the Sixth, the year 1549; but if we may believe the accounts usually given of the subject, the practice of singing compositions of this nature in England is far older, having existed among the sympathizers with the new doctrines, long before the Reformation; it may even have had its beginnings among the followers of Wycliffe or Walter Lollard. With regard to this supposition, one thing only is certain: Sternhold's translations—the nucleus of the metrical psalter which has come down to us—were not by any means the first. Sir Thomas Wyat the elder had already translated the seven penitential psalms, and the Earl of Surrey three others; and in 1549, the year in which Sternhold's first small work was published, without tunes, there appeared a metrical translation of the Psalter complete, together with the Evangelical Hymns, and music set in four parts, of which the title is as follows:—
The Psalter of David newely translated into Englysh metre in such sort that it maye the more decently, and wyth more delyte of the mynde, be read and songe of al men. Wherunto is added a [1]note of four partes, with other thynges, as shall appeare in the Epistle to the Readar. Translated and Imprinted by Robert Crowley in the yere of our Lorde MDXLIX the XX daye of September. And are to be sold in Eley rentes in Holbourne. Cum privilegio ad Imprimenaum solum.[2]
In the 'Epistle to the Readar' the music is described thus:—
A note of song of iiii parts, which agreth with the meter of this Psalter in such sort, that it serveth for all the Psalmes thereof, conteyninge so many notes in one part as be syllables in one meter, as appeareth by the dyttie that is printed with the same.
This book is extremely interesting, not only in itself, but because it points to previous works of which as yet nothing is known. In his preface the author says:—'I have made open and playne that which in other translations is obscure and harde,' a remark which must surely apply to something more than the meagre contributions of Surrey and Wyat; and indeed the expression of the title, 'the Psalter of David, newly translated,' seems clearly to imply the existence of at least one other complete version. The metre is the common measure, printed not,
- ↑ 'Note' or 'note of song,' was, or rather had been, the usual description of music set to words. At this date it was probably old-fashioned, since it seldom occurs again. In 1544, Cranmer, in his letter to Henry VIII, respecting his Litany, speaks of the whole of the music sometimes as 'the note,' and sometimes as the 'song.'
- ↑ The unique copy of this book is in the library of Brasenose College, Oxford. Thanks are due to the College for permission to examine it.
