DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

LAEOCHE LASSALLE 637
vatoire. He returned to St. Petersburg in 1871,
and most of his life has since been spent in this
town. Laroche has been a voluminous contributor
to many of the leading Russian newspapers
and periodicals, and is regarded as the cliief representative
of conservative principles in music.
His writing is distinguished for its excellency of
style, erudition, and Hashes of original thouglit ;
but his work as a whole lacks system, and shows
more personal bias than reasoned conviction.
Laroche translated Hanslick's Voni ntusihalisch
Schiincn into Russian. He was one of the first
to appreciate the genius of Tchaikovsky, and
devoted many articles to his personality and his
works. R. X.
LAROCHE, James, better known as Jemmy
Laroch, or Laroche, was a popular singer in
London, though probably French by origin or
birth, at the end of the 17th and beginning of
the 18th centuries. He played, as a boy, the
part of Cupid in Motteux's ' Loves of Mars and
A'enus, ' set to music by Eccles and Finger, in
which the part of Venus was played by Mrs.
Bracegirdle, in 1696. He was, therefore, born
probably about 1680-82. His portrait appears
on a very rare print, called ' The Raree Show.
Sung by Jemmy Laroch in the Musical Interlude
for the Peace, with the Tune Set to Musick for
the Violin. Ingraved Printed Culred and Sold
by Sutton Nicholls next door to the Jack, etc.
London,' fol. It was afterwards published by
Samuel Lyne. There are thirty-three verses
beginning ' Raree Show, Brave Show ' below
the engraving, wdiich represents Laroche with
the show on a stool, exhibiting it to a group of
children ; and at foot is the music. The Peace
of Utrecht was signed in April 1713, and this
interlude was played in celebration of it, at the
Theatre in Little Lincoln's Inn Fields, the
music being written by John Eccles. The portrait
of Laroche was also engraved by M. Laroon
in his Cries of London. J. M.
LA RUE, Pierre de, also known as Pierchon,
Perissou, Pierson, Pierzon, Pierozon, and Petrus
Platensis, born in Picardy about the middle of
the loth century and fellow- pupil of Josquin
des Pres in the school of Okeghem. State
records prove that he was in the service of the
court of Burgundy in the j'ears 1477, 1492,
1496, 1499, 1500, and 1502. In 1501 he was
a prebend of Courtrai, and later held a similar
benefice at Xamur, which he resigned in 1510.
[He was in the service of Charles V. until 1512,
when he entered that of jMargaret of Austria,
gouvernante of the Netherlands. He died at
Courtrai, Nov. 20, 1518.] Most writers on
music accord him a position as a contrapuntal
composer scarcely second to that of Josquin,
and tlie magnificent copies of his masses made
b}' order of the Princess Margaret of Austria,
and now in the libraries of Vienna and Brussels,
testify to the value set upon his works by those
he served. Indeed, considering his gi-eat repu-
tation, it is somewhat surprising that so little
is known of the events of his Hie, and that so
little of liis nmsic has l)een ]>rinted. Of the
thirty-six masses now existing Petrucci printed
five in the composer's lifetime (' Misse Petri de
la Rue' ; Venetiis, 1503), and a few more in
later collections. Of motets only twenty-five,
and of secular pieces no more than ten, are to
be found in the publications of the 16th century
—a small result compared to the long catalogue
of Josquin's printed works. Burney, Forkel,
and Kiesewetter give short examples from Pierre
de la Rue's compositions. [See the Quellen-
Lexikon for list of works in MS.] j. R. s. -B.
LASSALLE, Je.a.x, was born Dec. 14, 1847, at
Lyons, the son of a silk-merchant there, was
intended for the same business, and studied industrial
design at the Beaux-Arts, Lyons, and
later in Paris. He abandoned the idea of a
mercantile career, and for a time studied painting
in Paris, but renounced art in turn for sing-
ing. For this purpose he studied for a time at
the Conservatoire, but making little progress
under an indift'ereut master he left the school
and studied firivately under NoveUi(Lavessiere).
In Nov. 1869 he made his debut on the stage
at Liege as St. Bris. He sang next at Lille,
Toulouse, the Hagiie, and Brussels, where on Sept.
5, 1871, he made his debut, with great success,
as De Nevers, and was heard during the season
as Ash ton in 'Lucia,' Nelusko, Telramund, etc.
On June 7; 1872, he made a successful debut at
the French ojiera as Tell. With the exception
of visits, on leave of absence, to London, Russia,
Madrid, ililan, Vienna, Prague, AVarsaw, etc.,
the United States, etc., M. Lassalle remained at
the Opera for twenty-three years, and became
principal baritone singer on the retirement of
Faure. His parts included Don Juan, played
by him in 1887 at the centenary performance ;
Pietro ('La Muette ') ; Lusignan (' Reine de
Chypre'); Hamlet, 1885; Bigoletto on produc-
tion of Verdi's opera there. He created the parts
of Scindia (Massenet's ' Roi de Lahore '), April
27, 1877 ; Severe (Gounod's 'Polyeucte'), Oct.
7, 1878; Ben Said (76. 'Tributde Zamora'),
April 1, 1881 ; Lanciotto Malatesta (Thomas's
'Francoisede Rimini'), April 14, 1882 ; Henry
VIII. '(Saint-Saens), March 5, 1883 ; Gunther
(Reyer's 'Sigurd'), June 12, 1885; De Rysoor
(Paiadilhe's ' Patrie '), Dec. 20, 1886; Benvenuto
Cellini ('Ascanio'), March 21, 1890 ; the
High Priest (' Samson and Dalila '), Nov. 23,
1892; these last two both by Saint-Saens. On
May 5, 1876, on leave of absence he played
at the Lyrique as the Count de Lusace in
Joncieres's 'Dimitri.' On Dec. 11, 1890, he
played Escamillo in ' Carmen ' at the Opera
Comique with Mesdames Galli-Marieand Melba,
and M. J. de Reszke, in aid of the Bizet memo-
rial. On June 14, 1S79, he made his debut at
Covent Garden Theatre, under Gye, as Nelusko,
and played there for three seasons with great