DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

422 HOLMES HOLMES
settled in London, where he was highly esteemed
as a solo violinist and quartet player. His
principal compositions are four symphonies
(No. 1, in A, performed at the Crystal Palace,
Feb. 24, 1872), a concert overture, two quintets
for stringed instruments, a violin concerto (in
F, Crystal Palace, Dec. 11, 1875), many violin
solos, two sacred cantatas for solo voices, chorus
and orchestra, entitled 'Praise ye the Lord,'
and 'Christmas,' and numerous songs. [A
symphony, ' Boscastle,' was performed at one
of the London Symphony Concerts in the spring
of 1887. For some years from 1868 he gave
chamber concerts under tire title of Musical
Evenings ; he held tlie post of professor of the
violin at the Royal College of Music from its
foundation until his enforced resignation in
1891, since which time he has not appeared in
public in ^England. ] w, h. h.
HOLMES (properly Holmes), Augu.staMaky
AxxE, born in Paris, Dec. 16, 1847, of Irish
parents, and naturalised in France in 1879, was,
in fact, a composer of French music, for, being a
member of the advanced school of Franck, she
only wrote music to French words. Her parents
were strongly opposed to her musical propensities,
and she began her career as a prodigy, playing
the piano at concerts and in drawing-rooms, and
singing airs of her own composition signed with
the iiom de plmne of Hermann Zenta. She
studied harmony and counterpoint with H.
Lambert, organist of the cathedral at Versailles,
where she was then living, and received excellent
advice as to instrumentation from Klose, bandmaster
of the Artillerie de la Garde Imperiale,
and professor of the clarinet in tlie Conservatoire.
In reality, however, Mile. Holmes, whose character
was one of great independence, worked
alone both at her musical and literary studies,
for between the time of her debut and her
intimacy with M. CatuUe Mendes she always
but in 1875 she became
serious study under Franck's direction, she produced
at the Concerts du Chatelet (.Jan. 14,
1877) an Andante Pastorale from a symphony
on the subject of Orlando Furioso, and in the
following year she gained a second place after
Dubois and Gotlard (bracketed together) at the
musical competition instituted by the city of
Paris. Her p)rize composition, a symphony entitled
' Lutece, ' was afterwards played at the
concerts at Angers (Nov. 30, 1884). In 1880
jnie. Hoi Dies again entered the second competition
opened by the city of Paris, and though
she only gained an honourable mention she was
fortunate enough to attract the attention of
Pasdeloup, who performed the entire score of her
work, ' Les Argonautes,' at the Concerts Popu-
laires (April 24, 1881), and this unexpjected test
proved to be entirely to her credit, and to the
'
' discoratiture of Duvernoy, whose Tempete had
been preferred to Mile. Holmes's work by eleven
judges against nine. On March 2, 1882, Mile.
Holmes produced at the Concerts Populaires a
Poeme Symphonique entitled ' Irlande' ; another
symphony, ' Pologne,' after its production at
Angers, was played at the same concerts on Dec.
9, 1883 ; and a symphonic ode for chorus and
orchestra with recitative, entitled ' Ludus
pro
patria,' was given on March 4, 1888, at the
Concerts of the Conservatoire. The above, with
a collection of songs called ' Les Sept I\Tesses,'
are the works by which Mile. Holmes's vigorous
and far from effeminate talent may be judged.
'We see the influence of Wagner, but only in the
general conception ; we do not light upon whole
bars and passages copied literally from him, such
as are found in the case of some compiosers.
Certain portions of Mile. Holmes's work, as the
opening of ' ' Irlande (1885), her most complete
work, and the third part of ' Les Argonautes,'
although they contain serious faults in prosody
and in the union between the words and the
music, are nevertheless creations of great worth,
evincing by turns a charming tenderness, ardent
passion, and masculine spirit. It is true that the
author did not always measure her effects ; she
gave rather too much prominence to the brass
instruments, and in seeking for orginality and
grandeur she was sometimes affected and pompous
; but this exuberance was at least a sign of
an artistic temperament, and of a composer who
had something to say and tried to give it a litting
expression. This virtue, rare enough amongst
men, is exceptional in women, and is therefore
worthy of the highest praise. [An ' Ode triomphale,
' for solos, choir, and orchestra, was
played at the Paris Exhibition of 1889 ; a
wrote her own librettos ;
aware of the necessity for more serious studies
under a master, and enrolled herself as a pupil 'Hymne a la Paix,' for the same, at Florence in
of Cesar Franck. "With the exception of an May 1890, at the fetes in honour of Dante ; and
opera, ' Hero et Leandre, ' submitted to the
' Au pays bleu,' a symphonic suite, was played
directors of the Opera Populaire, and of the in 1891. Her four-act opera, 'La Montague
Psalm 'In exitu, ' performed by the Societe noire
Philharmonique inl873, her compositions nearly
all date from tliis time. After two years of
' was produced at the Grand Opera in Paris,
Feb. 8, 1895, and had a considerable success.
Two more operas, ' Astarte,' and 'Lancelot du
Lac,' remain in MS. She died in Paris, Jan.
28, 1903. On July 13, 1904, a monument to
her memory was unveiled in the St. Louis
Cemetery, A^ersailles. c;. F.] A. J.
HOLMES, EnwARD, born in 1797, schoolfellow
and friend of Keats, was educated for
the musical profession under V. Novello, and
became a teacher of the pianoforte. He was
engaged as musical critic of the Atlas newspaper.
In 1827, he made a tour in Germany,
and wrote a volume entitled, A liamble among
the Musicians of Ger7na7iy, etc. 1828. It
reached a third edition. In 1845 he published