DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

170 GIMEL GIMEL
positions. Having learnt the elements of music
from the organist Cantillon, he studied harmony
and counterpoint with Duyck, a pupil of tlie
elder Fetis. He also took private lessons from
Gevaert, the director of the Brussels Conservatoire,
and in 1889 obtained the Prix de Rome,
instituted by tlie Belgian government in imitation
of the similar prize given by the French
Institut. His prize cantata, '
' Sinai, performed
in 1890 at Brussels, piroduced a very great
sensation. It was followed by a symphonic
work, 'La Mer, ' after a poem by Eddy Levis,
which is recited before each movement of the
sympliony. Performed at the Concerts Popu-
laires of Brussels in 1892, afterwards at Paris,
at the Golonne Concerts, and in many towns of
Germany (Crystal Palace, Nov. 1897), it is
jjublished in a piano score by Breitkopf & Hartel.
It reveals a most remarkable mastery of orches-
tral technique, a strong sense of picturesrpie
instrumentation, an uncommon knowledge of
harmony joined to an interesting originality of
invention, together with a clever employment of
rhythms taken fromoriental folk-music. Though
of Flemish race, M. Gilson is the spiritual
descendant of the young Russian School, whose
works he has studied with marked attention.
Besides his cantata already spoken of, we may
mention among his choral works, ' Francesca
de Rimini,' for soli, choir, and orchestra (Concerts
Populaires, Brussels, 1895) ; Inaugural
Cantata for the Brussels Exhibition of 1897 ;
' and Le Demon,' an oratorio, after Lermontov,
performed at Mons. For orchestra there are a
fantasia on Canadian themes, a Scottish Rhapsody,
a ' Humores(|ue ' for wind instruments,
often played at the Brussels Conservatoire.
About thirty songs, with accompaniment for
piano or orchestra. M. Gilson's dramatic works
(Theatre de la
include a ballet, ' ' La Captive
Monnaie, 1902) ; incidental music for Em.
Kiel's drama, ' Alva, ' and an opera, ' Prinses
Zonneschijn ' (produced at Antwerp, 1904).
The composer has numerous compositions as
yet unperformed. M. K.
GIMEL (from the Latin gemellus, ' twin '), a
formofdiscantdescribed by GulielmusMonachus,
a/ writer of the 15th century, as peculiar to the
English. It was siing by two voices, generally
at the interval of a tliird above or below, thus :
"^i^'*~TX^^=%=i5=
Sometimes, however, in a 'Gimel ad modum de
Fauxbourdon,' the voices were a sixth or even
a tenth apart, as in the following example, in
whicli a contratenor ' bassus '
(i.e. below the
tenor) is added.
The treble part was often constructed from a
plain-song melody, with embellisliments, as in
Fauxbouidon. Gulielmus gives an example
founded on this plain-song.
i- g> ^^5" -i^
in which the ' twin ' voices are a sixth apart,
and a contratenor bassus is again added, as in
the previous example.
Treble.
^^^S^^f^S^fpii^
1 ^^I^^^Ej
2=^
EE^
See CorsRETMAKEn, /^n-i^ifnrf.^. Hi. 29fl, 292.
In the 16th century the term gimel was
applied to any part of a vocal composition that
was temporarily 'divided.' Such a gimel occurs
in the first treble part of Tye's Eiige Bone mass
at the words ' Pleni sunt coeli ' (p. 35 of Mr.
Arkwright's Old English Edition). In tlie Sadler
part-books at Oxford (MS. Mus. e. 1-5 of tlie
Bodleian Library) may be seen an example of
a double gimel. It occurs in Robert White's
5-part antiplion 'Justus es, Domine,' at the
words 'Trilmlatio ct angustia invenerunt me.'
Both the treble and alto jiarts are divided for