Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

SALIMBENE SALMON 213
pupil. ' 1 As regards Mozart, Salieri cannot
escape censure, for though the accusation of
having been the cause of his death has been
long ago disproved, it is more than possible that
he was not displeased at the removal of so
formidable a rival. At any rate though he had
it in his power to influence the Emperor in
Mozart's favour, he not only neglected to do so,
but even intrigued against him, as Mozart
himself relates in a letter to his friend Puchberg.2
After his death, however, Salieri befriended
his son, and gave him a testimonial,
which secured him his first appointment.
His works were too much in accordance with
the taste, albeit the best taste, of the day to
survive. He drew up a catalogue of them in
1818. They comprise five Masses, a Eequiem,
three Te Deums, and several smaller church
works ; four oratorios (including ' La Passione
di Gesu Cristo,' performed by the Tonkiinstler
Societat in 1777); one French, three Italian,
and two German cantatas, and five patriotic
part-songs ; several instrumental pieces ; two
operas to French, and thirty-seven to Italian
words ; one German Singspiel, three German
operas, and numerous vocal pieces- for one or
more voices, choruses, canons, fragments of
operas, etc. [See the Quellen- Lexilcon for
detailed list.] c. F. p.
SALIMBENE, Fra, a Minorite monk, of
Parma, who began his life early in the 13th
century, and seems to have lived through the
greater part of the same century (achieving a
good deal of distinction in his order) and whose
extremely curious Cronaca or Diary, throws
considerable interesting side-light on musical
afiairs in his time. He was a skilled and
passionate music-lover. He gives us our accounts
of two or three distinguished monkish
composers and singers of his day, including the
once-famous Fra Enrico da Pisa, and Fra Vita
da Lucca, who were in great demand during
their careers. The Oronaca was found in the
Vatican Library in the middle of the 19 th
century. It has been printed (though never
completely) in the original Latin, and in a
translation into Italian made by Cantarelli, and
published by Battei, at Parma in 1882. The
Latin version is now extremely rare ; and even
the Italian text long out of print. But the
book deserves the attention of zrmsicia,ns,passim,
in much the way that Pepys's Diary does, on
account of its intelligent references to the art
of music at a period so early, and not too
clearly depicted by contemporaries. A new
and complete edition is about to be published
(1907). E. I. P. s.
SALMON, Mks., whose maiden name was
Eliza Munday, wsis born at Oxford in 1787.
Her mother's family had produced several good
musicians ; her uncle, William Mahon (bom
1753, died at Salisbury, May 2, 1816), was
1 See Mofitiheles'B Lf/e, i. 10. ^ Ifottebolim'B Moiartiana, p. 64.
the best clarinettist of his day ; her aunts,
Mrs. Warton, Mrs. Ambrose, and Mrs. Second,
were excellent singers of the second rank.
She was a pupil of John Ashley, and made her
first appeai-ance at Covent Garden in the Lenten
concerts given by him under the name of
' oratorios,' March 4, 1803. On Feb. 11, 1806,
she married James Salmon, and went to reside
at Liverpool, where she became distinguished
as a concert singer, occasionally appearing in
London, and rapidly attaining the highest
popularity. In 1812 she sang at the Gloucester
Festival, and in 1815 at the Antient Concerts.
From that time to the close of her career her
services were in constant request at nearly all
the concerts, oratorios, and festivals in town
and country. Her voice was a pure soprano of
the most beautiful quality, of extensive compass,
very brilliant tone, and extraordinary flexibility.
She excelled in songs of agility, and was unsurpassed
for the rapidity, neatness, and certainty
of her execution,, and the purity of her taste
in the choice of ornament. In the higher and
more intellectual qualities of singing, expression
and feeling, she was wanting. But she extorted
admiration, even from those most sensible of
her deficiencies, by the loveliness of her voice
and the ease with which she executed the most
difiicult passages. She unfortunately gave way
to intemperance, which eventually occasioned
derangement of the nervous system, and in
1825 she suddenly lost her voice. She endeavoured
to gain a livelihood by teaching
singing, but, although she was well qualified
for it, the ignorant public concluded that, as
she herself had lost the power of singing, she
was incapable of instructing others. She remarried
a Rev. Mr. Hinde, who died leaving
her totally destitute. A concert was given for
her relief, June 24, 1840, which proved a
complete failure. She gradually sank into a
state of the greatest poverty ; in 1845 an eflfort
was made to raise a fund to purchase an annuity
for her, but it was only partially successful.
She died at No. 33 King's Eoad East, Chelsea;
June 5, 1849. Her death was registered in the
names of Eliza Salmon Hinde.
Her husband, James Salmon, son of James
Salmon (gentleman of the Chapel Royal, Nov.
30, 1789, vicar choral of St. Paul's, and lay
clerk of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, died
1827), received his early inusical education as
a chorister of St. George's, Windsor. In 1805
he was appointed organist of St. Peter's, Liverpool,
and was in much esteem as a performer.
In 1813, having fallen into embarrassed circumstances
(by some attributed to his wife's
extravagance, and by others to his own
irregularities), he enlisted, and went with his
regiment to the West Indies, where he died.
William, another son of James Salmon, sen.,
bom 1789, was also a chorister of St. George's.
He was admitted a gentleman of the Chapel