DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

GIPSY'S WARNING, THE GITTERN 173
tliat this Giovannini is the real composer. The
external evidence quite admits tlie possibility
of this, as the book may very probably have
come into other hands alter the death of Anna
Magdalena Bach, and so competent a critic as
Dr. Spitta saw no reason to endorse Dr. Rust's
opinion that some of the notes are in Bach's
liandwriting ; while from internal evidence it
might well be thought that no musician who had
even a slight acquaintance with Bach's work
could ever suspect it to be by him. See also the
pireface to B.-G. xliii. II., by Graf Waldersee,
p. XV. ; and the Viertcljahrsschriftf, Musikwis-
senschaft, i. p. 350 f.
GIPSY'S WARNING, THE.
u.
An opera in
three acts ; \:-ords by Linley and Peake ; music
by Sir Julius llenedict. Produced at Drury Lane,
Aprill9, 1838. It was much acted in Germany.
* Rage, rage, thou angry storm, ' and ' Blest be the
home,' were long favoiu'ites in concert rooms. G.
GIRARDEAU, Isabella., detta LA ISA-
BELLA, an Italian singer, married to a Frenchman,
wlio performed in the early Italian Operas
in London. She is, perhaps, the same as
the Isabella Calliari mentioned in Quadrio's list
among the female singers who nourished in
] 700-20. She succeeded ' the Baroness ' at the
Haymarket, and appeared first in 'Almahide.'
She sang in the first and succeeding jjerformances
of Handel's ' Rinaldo.' In this, one other
songs, ' Bel placer,' was "wholly unaccompanied
even by a bass,— a severe trial for any voice.
On Dec. 12 of the same year, Gasparini's ' Antiochus.'
was produced, in which La Isabella took
a part, as she did also in the following .lanuary
in his ' Ambleto.' In the latter she had ' a
noisy song for trmnpets and hautbois obligate '
(Burney), from which it may be inferred that
her voice was very strong. J. M.
GIRELLI AGUILAR, Signora, an Italian
j)rima donna, who took part in the ' grand
dramatic serenata ' composed by Mozart (1771)
in honour of the nuptials of the Archduke
Ferdinand, celebrated at Jlilan on Oct. 17 of
that year. ' The archduke and his bride, not
only frequently inclined their licads from tlieir
box and applauded the maestro, but encored two
airs sung by Manzuoli and Girelli ' (Holmes,
p. 79). After this, Girelli married a Frenchman
named Aguilar, and visited London, succeeding
Grassi, and singing the principal role in Vento's
' ' Sophonisba (1772-73) ; after which her name
is not found again in London. j. M.
GIS. The German name for G sharp.
GISELLE, ou LES Wilis. A ballet by
Adol])he Adam on a plot adapted from Heine
by Theophile Gautier ; produced at the Grand
Opera, July 4, 1R41, atHer Majesty's, March 12,
1842. It contained one of Carlotta Grisi's
greatest parts.
The subject was employed by Loder in his
opera of 'The Wilis, or The Night Dancers,'
and Puccini's ' Le Villi ' is on the same subject.
GISMONDI, Celeste, a mezzo-soprano engaged
at the opera in London in 1732-34.
She made her first appearance (Dec. 1732) as
Lisaura in Handel's ' Alessandro.' She played
a small part in 'Orlando' (1733); parts were
assigned to her (1733) also in 'Deborah,'
'Toloineo,' and 'Ottone,' but, after this, she
is said by M. Schcelcher to have assisted in
setting up the rival theatre in Lincoln's Inn
Fields. The newspapers of the day (Nov. 3,
1735), however, give another account of her
secession, by announcing the death of ' Wife
Signora
Celeste Gismondi . . .
to Mr. Hemjison
an English Gentleman, on Tuesday [Oct. 28],
after a lingering Illness. She peiform'd in
Mr. Handel's Ojieras for several Winters
with great Applause, but did not sing this
season on any stage, on Account of her Indisposition.'
J. M.
GITTERN (or Ghitteen, etc.), an obsolete
instrument of the guitar type. It is mentioned
several times by Chaucer in such terms as to
show that it was used for the accompaniment
of songs. Other later writers refer to it, and it
is named in a list of musical instruments which
had belonged to Henry VIII. as :
' Four gittcrons
which are called Spanish vialles.' There
can be but little doubt that it underwent
many minor changes in shape and character
during the period of its use, and that the name
was by no means detiiiitely fixed upon one
particular form, but would be assigned to any
of the guitar trilie.
In the 17th century it appears to have liad
but little dilference from the cithreu, that difference
being its smaller size, and its being strung
with gut instead of wire, as was the cithreu.
Drayton in J'olyofbion, 1613, seems to confirm
this as to stringing by the lines :—
Some that delight to touch the sternsr wire
The Cithreu, the Pandore, and the Theorbo strike.
The Gittern and the Kit the wandering fiddlers like.
In An English Dictionary by E. Coles, 1713,
the definition of 'ghittern' is 'a small kind of
cittern.' John Playford published, with the
date 1652, A Book of Nrw Lessonsfor the Cithren
etnd Gittern^ a copy of "which is in the Euing
Library, Glasgow. In advertisements Playford
alludes to this (a later edition) as having been
'printed in 1659, and at various dates between
1664 and 1672 he advertises as ' newly printed '
another work, Jlusir/Zs 'Solace on the Cithreu and
Gittern. The gittern and cithren never appiear
to have had much pojiidarity in England, and
after the last-named date they seenr to have
died a natural death. The music transcribed
for the instruments ^\'as written in tablatin-e on
a four-line stave. About 1756-58 the cithren
had a revival in the English guitar, a wirestrung
instrument which closely resembled it.
This, however, gave place to the gut -strung
Spanish variety as now used. (See Ci'rHER,
Guitar.) r. k.