DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

246 GROSSVATER-TANZ GROVE
instruments with the full band. Thus Corelli's
Concert! Gross! (op. 6) are described in the title
as ' con duoi violini e violoncello di concertino
obligate, e duoi altri violini viola c basso di concerto
grosso, ad arbitrio che si potranno radoppiare.
' The same is the case with Handel's
'twelve Grand Concertos,' which are for two
solo violins and a violoncello, accompanied by
and alternating with a band of two violins, viola,
violoncello, and bass. The piece contained four,
five, or six movements of different tempo, one
being usually a fugue and one a dance, and all in
the same key. It is worth mentioning that J. C.
Bach occasionally puts a middle movement in
the key of the dominant.
The name does not occur in the works of either
Haydn or Mozart. It was probably last used
by Geminiani, who, before his death in 1762,
arranged Corelli's solos as Concerti Grossi. G.
GROSSVATER-TANZ, ' grandfather-dance.
A curious old German family-dance of the 17th
century, which was greatly in vogue atweddings,
Spohr had to introduce it into the Festival march
-which he wrote by command for the marriage of
Princess Marie of Hesse with the Duke of Saxe
Meiuingen in 1825 (Selisthiog. ii. 165). It consisted
of three parts, the first of which was an
andante in triple time, sung to the words
Und alg der Grossvater die Grossmutter nahm,
Da war der Grossvater ein Briiutigam,
to which succeeded two quick phrases in 2-4
time
Andante.
As this dance usually concluded an evening, it
was also called the ' Kehraus ' (clear-out). Its
chief musical interest arises from the fact that
it is the 'air of the 17th century,' used by
Schumann in his ' Carnaval ' to represent the
flying ' Philistines ' in the ' March of the Davids-
biindler.' He also uses it in the finale of his
'Papillons,' op. 2. E. P.
GROUND BASS (Ital. basso ostinato). The
most obvious and easily realisable means of
arriving at symmetry and proportion in musical
works is by repetition, and a large proportion
of the earliest attempts in this direction took
the safe side of making the symmetry absolute
by repeating the same thing over and over again
in the form of variations ; and of this order of
form a Ground Bass, which consisted of constant
repetition of a phrase in the Bass with varied
figures and harmonies above it, is a sub-order.
At an early period of Modern Music this was a
very popular device, resorted to alike by Italians,
suchasCarissimi and Astorga, and by our English
Purcell. In the works of Purcell there are a
great number of examples, both in his songs in
the 'Orpheus Britannicus,' and in his dramatic
works, as in the ' Dido and JSneas, ' in which,
though not a lengthy work, there are three songs
I
When on a Ground Bass ; the best of which, '
am laid in earth,' has often been pointed out as
a fine example. An expansion of the idea was
also adopted by him in the ' Music before the
play ' of King Arthur, in which the figure after
Ijeing repeated many times in the bass is transferred
to the upper parts, and also treated by
inversion. Bach and Handel botli made use of
the same device ; the former in his Passacaglia
for Clavier with Pedals, and the
'
' Crucifixus
of his Mass in B minor ; ' and the latter in his
Choruses ' ' Envy, eldest-born of Hell ' in Saul,'
' and '0 Baal, monarch of the skies in 'Deborah.'
In modern times Brahms has produced a fine
example in the Finale to the Variations on a
Theme of Haydn in Bb for orchestra. The finale
of his fourth symphony, in E minor, is a monumental
example of a Ground Bass that is not
absolutely strict.
At the latter part of the 17tli century Ground
Basses were known bythe names of their authors,
as ' Farinell's Ground, '
' Purcell's Ground,' etc.,
and extemporising on a Ground Bass w as a very
popular amusement with musicians. Christopher
Sympson's ' Chelys Minuritionum, or Division
Viol' (1665), was intended to teach the practice,
which he describes as follows— ' Diminution or
division to a Ground is the breaking either of
the bass or of any higher part that is applicable
thereto. The manner of expressing it is thus :
' A
Ground, subject, or bass, call it what you
please, is pricked down in two several papers ;
one for him who is to play the ground upon an
organ, harpsichord, or what other instrument
may be apt for that purpose ; the other for him
that plays upon the viol, who having the said
ground before his eyes as his theme or subject,
plays such variety of descant, or division in concordance
thereto as his skill and present invention
do then suggest unto him.
A long extract and a specimen of a ' Division
on a Ground '
are given in Hawkins's History,
chap. 149. c. H. H. p.
GROVE, George, writer on music, first
Director of the Royal College of Music, and editor
of the first edition of this work, was born on
August 13, 1820, at Thurlow Terrace, "WandsworthRoad,Clapham.
Hisfather, ThomasGrove,
came of a yeoman stock, long resident at Penn,
Buckinghamshire, and his mother was a woman
of some culture, a lover of music, and a proficient
amateur. George Grove gained his first schooling
as a weekly boarder at an establislmient on
Clapham Common. Thence he migrated to the
1 See an example of a g:ro\ind baas of four tnininiaonly, accompanying
a cauoD 7 in 1, by Bach, in Spitta'3 Life, Eugt. tr. iii, 404.