DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

568 KETTEN KEY
Holland, with Ferdinand David at the Leipzig
Conservatorium (1871), with Wieniawski at the
Brussels Conservatoire, and finally (1876) with
Joachim at Berlin. But his career has been rather
that of conductor than violinist. For several
years he divided his time between his native
to-mi and Amsterdam, accepting in the latter
city the post of conductor of tlie Park Orchestra,
and ' Feli.i: meritis ' Society (1876), the ' Park-
schouwburg' Concerts (1883), and the 'Concert
gebouw ' Concerts (1890), directing also the
'Society' Concerts at Dordrecht. In 1895 he
undertook the conductorship of the ' Scottish
Orchestra' in Glasgow, and in 1898 was appointed
conductor of the Moscow Philharmonic
Society and director of the Moscow Conserva-
toire. He returned to Leipzjg in 1904 for a
few months, and now lives at Blasewitz, near
Dresden. Besides being a violinist, he is an
accomplished pianist, though he does not make
public appearances in that capacity. He has
the all-round gifts which make the capable
conductor. w. w. c.
KETTEN, Henki, born at Baja in Hungary,
March 25, 1848, attained a rapid success as a
pianist, being trained in Paris by Marmontel
and Halevy. His compositions enjoyed a great
vogue in their day, but are of essentially trivial
quality. He died in Paris, April 1, 1883. M.
KETTERER, EuGiiXE, born at Rouen in
1831, entered the Paris Conservatoire, obtaining
a second prize for solfege in 1847, and a premier
accessit in 1852, under Marmontel. From that
time until his death, which took place during
the siege of Paris, Dec. 18, 1870, he appeared
constantly as a pianist, and ^vrote multitudes
of brilliant fantasias and drawing-room pieces,
which obtained an immense and ephemeral
popularity. M.
KETTLE-DRUMS are copper or brass basins,
with a skin or head that can be tuned to a true
musical note. Used by the bands of cavalry
regiments, and in orchestras. [Drum, vol. i.
pp. 730-732.] V. DE p.
KEUCHENTHAL, Johannes, described as
' Pfarrherr auf dem St. Andreasberge, ' published
at Wittenberg in 1573 a comprehensive
collection of liturgical music for the use of the
Lutheran Church {Kirchcngesang latcinisch unci
deutsch). It contains Plain - song melodies
of the Introits, Sequences, Antiphons, Responsoria,
and other parts of the mass and other
offices of the Church for all Sundays and
Holydays, besides some Deutsche Lieder, and a
German Passion-Musio with the 'Turbae' set
in falsobordone style for four voices. Otto Kade
(Vie aeltere PassionscoTnposiiionen^ 1893) has
proved this Passion to be based on an older
arrangement by Johann Walther. Tucher
(Schatz des evangel isch en Kirchengesangs, ii. p.
322) mentions that this Keuchenthal Passion
continued to be used at Nuremberg, down to
1806. J. R. M.
KEY. A word of manifold signification. It
means the scale or system in which modern
music is written ; the front ends of the levers
by which the piano, organ, or harmonium are
played ; the levers which cover or uncover the
holes in such instruments as the flute and oboe ;
lastly, an instruction-book or ' Tutor.' English
is the only language in which the one term has
all these meanings.
I. The systems of music which preceded the
modern system, and were developed by degrees
into it, were characterised by scales which not
only differed from one another in pitch but also
in the order of succession of the various intervals
of which they were coniposed. In modern
music the number of notes from which a scale
can begin is increased by the more minute
subdirision of each octave ; but each of these
notes is capable of being taken as the startingpoint
of the same scale, that is to say, of either
the major or minor mode, which are the only
two distinct scales recognised in modern music.
This forms a strong point of contrast between
the ancient and modern styles. Tlie old was a
system of scales, which differed intrinsically,
and thereby afl'orded facilities for varying
qualities of melodic expression ; the modern is
essentially a system of keys, or relative trans-
position of identical scales, by wliich a totally
distinct order of effects from the old style is
obtained.
The standard scale called the major mode is a
series in which semitones occur between the third
and fourth and between the seventh and eighth
degrees counting from the lowest note, all the
other intervals being tones. It is obvious from
the irregularity of this distribution that it is
not possible for more than one key to be constructed
of the same set of notes. In order to
distinguish practically between one and another,
one series is taken as the normal key and all
the others are severally indicated by expressing
the amount of difference between them and it.
The normal key, which happens more by
accident than design to begin on C, is constructed
of what are called Naturals, and all such notes
in the entire system as do not occur in this
series are called Accidentals. In order to
assimilate a series which starts from some other
note to the series starting from C, it is necessary
to indicate the notes alien to the scale of C,
which will have to be substituted for such notes
in that scale as could not occur in the new
series— in other words, to indicate the accidentals
which will serve that purpose ; and from their
number the musician at once recognises the note
from which his series must start. This note,
therefore, is called the Keynote, and the arti-
ficial series of notes resulting from the arrangement
is called the Key. Tlius to make a series
of notes starting from G relatively the same
as those starting from C, the F immediately
below G will have to be supplemented by an