DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

40 FINALE FINCK
Two of the finest specimens of this class form
large portions of Mozart's ' Nozze di Figaro.'
One of them—tliat to the second act—consists
of no fewer than eiglit movements, as various in
character as are the nine personages who are
concerned in it, and whose several accusations,
defences, protests, recriminations, and alterna-
tions of success and failure are wrought into
a work of musical art which, as has been well
said, ' begins on an eminence and rises to the
last note.'
The great concerted piece, whether introduced
at the end of an act or elsewhere, was not made
an essential feature of modern opera without
strong protest ; and this by the same writer
whose amusing designation of barytones and
basses has already been quoted. [Bass.] Lord
Mount-Edgcumbe (Musical lieminisanccs. Sect.
vii.) attributes its introduction to no other
cause than the decline of the art of singing, and
the consequent necessity for making compensation
to the musical hearer for a deliciency of
individual excellence by a superfluity of aggregate
mediocrity. ' Composers, ' he says, ' having
(now) few good voices, and few good singers to
write for, have been obliged to adapt their
compositions to the abilities of those who were
to perform in them ; and as four, five, or six
moderate performers produce a better elfect
jointly than they could by their single efforts,
songs have disappeared, and interminable quar-
tettes, quintettes, sestettos, etc., usurp their
place.' And again, * It is evident that in such
compositions each individual singer lias little
room for displaying either a fine voice or good
singing, and that power of lungs is more essen-
tial than either ; very good singers therefore
are scarcely necessary, and it must be confessed
that though there are now none so good, neither
are there many so bad as I remember in the
inferior characters. In these levelling days,
equalisation has extended itself to the stage
and musical profession ; and a kind of medio-
crity of talent prevails, which, if it did not occa-
sion the invention of these melodramatic pieces
is at least very favourable to their execution.'
The most extraordinary thing connected with
this passage is that it was written half a century
after theproduotion of Mozart's ' Nozze di Figaro,
with which the venerable critic was certainly
well acquainted. From the most recent form
of opera, that of Wagner, the finale, like the
air, the duet, the trio or other self-contained
movement, has entirely disappeared. Each act
may be described as one movement, from the
beginning to the end of which no natural pause
is to be found, and from which it would be impossible
to make a connected, or in itself com-
plete extract. It is difficult to conceive tliat this
' system ' should in its integrity maintain, or
attain, extensive popularity ; but itwill no doubt
more or less affect all future musical dramas.
[As a bright example of the set finale in modern
times, may be cited the infinitely humorous
fugue at the end of Verdi's ' Falstaff. J. H.
']
FINCH, Hon. and Rev. Edward [fifth son
of the first Earl of Nottingham, was born 1664,
took the degree of M. A. in 1679, became a Fellow
of ChristCoUege, Cambridge, represented the university
in Parliament in 1689-90, was ordained
deacon in 1700, and became rector of Wigan.
He was appointed prebendary of York in 1704,
and of Canterbury 1710]. He composed several
*
pieces of church music. Of these a ' Te Deuni
and an anthem, 'Grant, we beseech Thee,' are
included in Tudway's collection of church music
in the British Museum (Harl. MSS. 13.37-42).
[A MS. Grammar of Tlwroagh-Bass is in the
Euing Library, Glasgow. Brit. Mas. Biog.'] He
died Feb. 14, 1738, aged seventy-four. w. H. H.
FINCK, Heinrich (1482-1519), passed the
earlier years of his life in Poland, and received
liis education as one of the choristers of the
Warsaw Hol'capelle. Later on the King's liber-
ality enabled liim to continue his studies at a
university. There is a strong probability of his
being the ' Henricus Finck de Bamberga, a ' ' bonus
cantor,' who is entered as a student at Leipzig,
in the Universitats-Matrikelbuch(f 146) inl482
(Monatshefte, 1890, p. 139). He must have
returned to Poland, for he held the jiosition of
Musicus, perhaps also of Director in the Hofcapelle
under Johann Albert (1492), Alexander
(1501), andSigismund(1.506). Soonafterhewent
to Wiirtemljerg, as the records of Duke Ulrich's
Capelle at Stuttgart for the years 1510-11 state
that Capellmeister Henricus Finck, called the
' Singermeister,' received a yearly salary of sixty
gulden, etc. His name appears only until 1513,
but he probably remained there until 1519, when
Joh. Siesswas appointed Capellmeister (Sittard,
Zur Gescli. derMnsikam- IViirtternh. Hofc, 1890,
p. 8). Hedied June 9, 1527, at the Benedictine
Schottenkloster, Vienna (E. Bienenfeld, »S'a«!rrmlhand
of the Int. Mtts. Oes. vi. 96).
In Hermann Finck's Fradica Mi/sica, 1556,
there are the following references to his great
uncle, Heinrich :
' Extant melodiae, in quibus
magna artis perfectio est, compositae ab Henrico
Finckio, cuius ingenium in adolescentia in
Polonia excultum est, et postea Regia liberalitate
ornatum est. Hie cum fuerit patruus mens
magnus, gravissimam causam habeo, cur gentem
Polonicampraecipuevenerer, quia exeellentissimi
Regis Polonici Alberti, et fratrum liberalitate
hie mens patruus magnus ad tantum artis fasti-
' gium pervenit ' (p. 4 of dedication : There are
melodies composed by Heinrich Finck whicli
show great skiU. As a youth he received his
education in Poland, and by royal liberality
was afterwards enabled to continue it. Since
Heinrich Finck was my gieat-uncle, I have
very great cause to venerate the Polish nation,
for the height to which he attained in his art
was owing to the liberality of the most excellent
Polish King Albert and his brothers.')