DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

FREZZOLINI FEICHOT lOS
oC the notes. To correct this the frets must
be shifted towards the nut. The Hindu uses
finger pi'essnre, or in otiier words, greater tension,
to ^et his half-tones from a diatonic fret system,
and in the Japanese Ivoto tlie linger of the left
hand is pressed upon the string on tile opposite
side of the movable tret to the side plucked
thus semitones
by the finger of the right hand ;
are produced in certain ornaments. To the
instrument maker the disposition of the frets
is a dirticiilt task, requiring nice adjustment.
On the side that the strings are thicker the
frets should be higher, and the finger-board
must be concave in the direction of its length
to allow the thicker strings to vibrate. The
frets are gradually lowered as they descend
towards the bridge, the chanterelle, or melodysUing,
having often a longer series extending
only jiartly across the finger-board. The personal
peculiarity of the hand or touch finally modifies
the adaptation of the frets.
Jv'airow slips of wood are generally glued up
the sides of the finger-board to prevent the frets
projecting. The convex finger-boards of bow
instruments requiring convex frets, fretted viols
had catgut bound round the finger- lioard and
neck at the stoi)ping distances. Hence the
German ' Bunde '—binds. (See the cut of
Gamba.) The French 'ton' indicates the note
jiroduced ; the Italian '
' tasto the touch pro-
ducing it. The English 'fret' perhaps implies
the rubbing or friction of the string at the point
of contact, but the derivation of the word is
doubtful. Some take the original meaning of
' fret' to have been a note, and thence the stop
by which the note was produced. Shakespeare
puns upon the word in Hamlet, 'though you
can fret me you cannot J'lay upon me.' The
writer has been much assisted by the exhaustive
article of Herr Max Albert on ' Bunde ' in
Mendel's Lexikon. A. J. H.
FliEZZOLINI, EiiMiN'iA, was born at Orvieto
in 1818 ; received her, first lessons in singing
from her father, a bufl'o cantante ; and afterwards
from Nuncini at Florence. She had further
instruction from the elder Eonconi at Milan,
and from Manuel Garcia ; and conijileted her
musical education under Tacchinardi at Florence.
In this town she made her debuts in 1838, in
'Beatrice di Tenda' and in the 'Marco Visconti'
of Vaccaj. She sang also in that year at Siena
and Ferrara, and in 1839 at Pisa, Reggio, Peru-
gia, and Bologna. She played 'Lucrezia Borgia'
at Milan in 1840 with brilliant eclat, and then
went to Vienna. Returning to Turin, she married
the tenor, Poggi ; but continued to be known
on the stage as Frezzolini. In 1842 (not 1841,
as stated by Fetis) she came with her husband
to London, during Grisi's temporary absence, but
did not succeed in seizing the popular sympathy.
' She was an elegant, tall woman, born with a
lovely voice, and bred into great vocal skill (of a
but she was the first who arrived
ciTtain order) ;
of the "young Italians"—of those who fancy that
driving the voice to its exti'emities can stand in
the stead of passion. But she was, nevertheless,
a real singer ; and her art stood her in stead for
some years after nature broke down. When she
had left her scarce a note of her I'ich and real
soprano voice to scream with, Madame Frezzolini
was still charming ' (Chorley). In London,
however, she never took root. She returned to
Italy, and in 1848 was engaged Ibr St. Peters-
burg. But the climate drove her back to Italy
in two years. In 1850 she reappeaied in London
at Her Majesty's Theatre, and in 1S53 was
at Madrid. In November of that year she made
her first appearance in Paris, in the 'Puritani' ;
but notwithstanding her stage-beauty, and her
nobility of style and action, she could not achieve
any success ; her voice had suH'ei'ed too much
from wear and tear, and showed signs of fatigue.
She subsequently met with the usual enthusiastic
reception in America ; but her career was
over, and she was not heard again in Etirope.
She died in Paris, Nov. 5, 1884.
FEIBERTH, Karl, born June 7,
j. m.
1736, at
WuUersdorf in Lower Austria, wdiere his father
was schoolmaster ; came early to A'iemia, and
studied singing under Bonno and composition
under Gassmann. He had a fine tenor voice,
and sang at St. Stephen's, at Prince Hildburghausen's
concerts, and in Italian operas at court.
In 17.59 he was engaged by Prince Esterhazy,
and while in his service formed an intimate
friendship with Haydn, in wdiose operas he sang.
He liimself wrote several librettos. In 1768 he
married Maria Magdalena Spangler, a singer in
the Prince's company, and removed with her in
1776 to Vienna, wdiere he was aiij)ointed ca]icllmeister
to the Jesuits and to the l\linoi-ites.
During a visit to Italy in 1796 Pope Pius VI.,
' on account of his services to music,' made Iiim
a knight of the Golden Spur— the order to
which Gluck and Mozart also belonged. Friberth
was an active member of the 'Tonkiinstler-
Societiit, ' and took Haydn's part warmly in the
discn'ssions there. As a comjioscr he restricted
himself almost entirely to church music [but
see Qi'el/rii-Lexil-oi'^. He died August 6, 1816,
universally respected both as a man and an
artist. In the museum of the ' Gesellschalt der
Musikfreruide ' at Vienna, there is a jiortrait of
him in oils, showing a fine head and exjiressive
countenance. c. F. p.
FRIOHOT, a Frenchman, who claimed to have
invented the bass-horn or ojihicleide, settled in
London about 1790, published there in 1800
' A
complete Scale and Gamut of tlie Bass-liorn
. . . invented by Mr. Frichot.' This instrument
supplied a new and powerlul bass
for wind instruments in aid of the bassoon,
which was too weak, and the serpent, which
was verv imperfect. It is now generally
supersederl by the Bombardon and Euphonium.
[Ophicleide.] m. c. c.