DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

mieulx ne vient, ' 'A
GENOVEVA GERBER 157
lombre dung buissonet,
' Le cueur fut mien,' Tors aeulement,' and
second volume
The 'Encore iray je jouer. '
contains Hynnis for the principal church festi\'al3
of the year, the third, Lamentations, and the
fourth a collection of Magnificats. The composer,
who cared so little for a wide popularity in his
lifetime, and wrote with the learned musicians
of the Papal Chapel in his mind's eye rather than
the general public, who scorned the popular
editions and published his works for a chosen
few, does not belie his character in the works
themselves. "We have in them music that
appeals to serious and learned musicians alone.
Solemn and dignified, the bishop-musician writes
as if fronr his episcopal throne, unbending and
severe in style, but appealing not in vain to the
sympathy of his Roman colleagues, who indeed
valued so highly and cherished so long the works
he gave them, that fifty years after his death
nothing less tlian the special command of Pope
Sixtus IV. could shake their firm adherence to
the ' Lamentations ' of Genet or cause them to
recognise in place of them those of the popular
Palestrina. Much of Genet's music was written
in the short intervals of comparative health
allowed him by an agonising complaint which
attacked him in the ears and brain, was beyond
the experience of his physicians, and embittered
the last years of his life. j. R. s. e.
GENO VEVA. Opera in four acts, the words,
after Tieck and Hebbel, arranged by Robert
Eeinick, and the composer ;
music hy Schumann
(op. 81). Produced at Leipzig, .Tune 25, 18.50.
Performed in English, by the pupils of the Royal
College of JIusic, at Drury Lane Theatre, Dec
6, 1893,
GEORGES, Alex.vndre, born at Arras, Feb.
25, 1850, studied at the Ecole de Musiipie
Eeligieuse (Niedermeyer), where he carried olf
the first prizes for organ, piano, and composition,
as well as diplomas as maitre de chapclle, and
organist, awarded by the State. Georges has
written music for two plays by Yilliers de
yisle-Adam, ' ' Le Nouveau Monde in 188.3, and
'Axel,' 1894; for 'Alceste' at the Odenn, 1S91;
an opera-comique in one act, ' Le Prin temps,'
was performed at the Ministry for Public Works,
in 1888, and later at the Theatre Lyrique ; a
three -act 'opera lyrique,' 'Poemes d'Amour,
(Bodiniere, 1892); 'Charlotte Corday,' lyric
drama in three acts (Opera Populaire, March
1901). Among his concert works, his 'Chansons
de Miarka ' for
voice and orchestra, words Ijy
J. Richepin), are some of the most beautiful of
modern French songs, and his symphonic poems,
' Leila,' ' La Naissance de Venus,' ' Le Paradis
Perdu, ' etc. , have added gi'eatly to his reputation
as a master of orchestration ; he is distinguished
by his interesting harmonisation, and his essen-
tially French musical temperament. G. r.
GERARDY, Jean, Pjelgian violoncellist, was
born at Sjia, on Dec. 7, 1877, commencing his
studies when seven years of age under Bellmann,
a pupil of Griitzmacher and member of the
famous Heckniann Quartet. In 1885 he entered
the Verviers Conservatoire, made phenomenally
rapid jirogress, and was already a graduate in
18SS. Prior to this he had made occasional
appearances as a soloist near home (at Liege
where his father was professor at the Conserva-
toire, at Aix la Chapelle, Lille, and elsewhere),
but it was in the year 1888 tliat he definitely
adopted the career of travelling virtuoso which
he has continued since, fulfilling his first engagement
at a concert at Nottingham in which Ysaye
and Paderewski also took part. His next appearance
was in London, where he gave several
successful recitals, followed up by tours in
France, Germany, and Russia. He has visited
the United States three times and Australia
twice, being heard chiefly in solos, though in
America he has occasionally taken part in concerted
music, playing quartets under Ysaye and
Marteau and trios with Kreisler and Hofmann.
In London, which he visited in 1903 after an
absence of five years, he has been heard so far
mainly in concertos, solos, and sonatas, but may
be credited ^\'ith the intention to give more
attention later on to chamber music. He is
still of course a very young man, and upon the
threshold of his career. As a boy his style was
a marvel of purity, and lie was marked out by
the critics as the legitimate successor of Piatti
as a classical player. In his present day playing
he displays more feeling for the romantic than
the Italian master, as well as a greater penchant
for modern M'orks (especially those of the French
and Belgian school) ; but there is the same
absence of exaggeration, the same mastery over
the bow in the production of long -sustained
notes, and the same perfect taste in the management
of the portamento. Some lii'ing violoncellists
pla}^ with greater power, none with
greater charm than CJerardy. w. w. c.
GERBER, Heixkich Nicolau.s, born Sept. 6,
1702, at ^Veingen-Ehricll in the iirincijialit}^ of
Sclnvarzburg ; son of a peasant, stmlied at the
University of Leipzig, where his love of music
found encouragement in the teaching and conversation
of Sebastian Bach ; in 1728 he was
organist at Heringen, and in 1731 court organist
at Sondershausen. Here for the first time he
felt himself safe, as, on account of his extraordinary
height, he had been constantly pursued
by the recruiting officers of Frederick William I.
He composed much for clavier, orJ;an, and harp;
a complete Choralbuch, witli figured basses ;
and variations on chorales, long and widely
used. He also made musical instruments, and
planned many improvements and new inven-
tions. Among others a kind of Strohfiedel or
Xylophone, harpsichord-shape, with a compass
of four octaves ; the keys liberated wooden
balls which struck on bars of wood, and thus
produced the notes. From 1719 Gerber was