Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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390 SCOTCH SYMPHONY, THE SCOTT
which has a short note after it—in the snap the
short note comes first and is followed by the long
one. Inasmuch as it is a national peculiarity
of Scottish music, it is characteristic of the slow
Strathspey reel, rather than of vocal music,
though as Bums and others wrote songs to
some of these dance-tunes, it is not infrequently
found in connection with words.
'
Green grow
the rashes,' 'Eoy's wife,' and 'Whistle o'er the
lave o't,' contain examples of the snap. It
was in great favour with many of the Italian
composers of the 18th century, for Burney
who seems to have invented the name—says in
his account of the Italian Opera in London, in
1748, that there was at this time too much of
the ' Scots catch or cutting short of the first of
two notes in a melody.' He blames Cooohi,
Perez, and Jommelli ' all three masters concerned
in the opera "Vologeso"' for being lavish of
the snap. [In the hands of Hook and the
other purveyors of the pseudo-Scottish music,
which was in vogue at Vauxhall and elsewhere
in the 18th century, it became a senseless
vulgarism, and with the exception of a few
songs, such as those mentioned above, and the
Strathspey reel in which it is an essential
feature, its presence may generally be accepted
as proof that the music in which it occurs is
not genuine.] An example of it will be found
in the Musette of Handel's Organ Concerto in
G minor (1739) ; he also uses it occasionally in
his vocal music.
f fep^^fe^^^^
^^^^^p-^^-i
J. M. W.
SCOTCH SYMPHONY, THE. Mendelssohn's
own name for his A minor Symphony
(op. 56), one of the works in which he recorded
the impressions of his Scotch tour in 1829.
Other results of that expedition are the
'Hebrides' overture, the PF. Fantasia in Fs
minor (op. 28), originally entitled by its
author Sonate ' foossaise,' the PF. Fantasia in
A minor, op. 16, No. 1, and the two-part song
'
wert thou in the cauld blast.
The subject of the opening Andante of the
Symphony dates from his visit to Holyrood in
the evening of July 30, 1829, when it was
written down. The Symphony was planned
and begun during his residence in Italy in
1831, but was not finally finished till Jan. 20,
1842, the date on the finished score. It was
first performed at a Gewandhaus Concert on
March 3 of the same year, again at the
Gewandhaus Concert next following. He then
brought it to England, conducted it at the Philharmonic
Concert, June 13, 1842, and obtained
permission to dedicate it to Queen Victoria.
The passage for flutes, bassoons, and horns.
connecting the end of the first movement with
the scherzo, was, on the authority of G. A. Macfarren,
put in after the rehearsal (under Stemdale
Bennett) at the Philharmonic, and added by
Goodwin, the copyist, to the Leipzig MS. parts.
The score and parts were published (as Symphony
No. 3) by Breitkopf & Hartel in March
1851.
The work is peculiar among Mendelssohn's
symphonies from the fact that it is not separated
by the usual pauses. This is especially enjoined
in a preface by the author prefixed to the score,
in which the titles and tempi are given differently
from what they are at the head of the movements
themselves. g.
SCOTT, CyrilMeir, born at Oxton, Cheshire,
Sept. 27, 1879, studied the pianoforte until he
was seventeen, years old, when he went to the
Hoch Oonservatorium at Frankfort, and studied
composition, etc. under Prof. Iwan Knorr.
Finding himself hampered by the limitations
of musical conventions, he threw himself into
the ultra-modern school of composition, and all
his works show a remarkable homogeneity of
style. He shares (with a good many other
people in the present day) the -coiudetion that
melody-.sluuild_be_cQiitinupus, rather than cut
up into separate strains, that .tomjily is an
unnecessary limitation, and that the ,£hi2matic
scale is as satisfactory a basis for composition
as the diatonic. His works aim at the portrayal
of 'atmosphere.' rather than definite
beauty ; and they occasionallyreach their object.
Mr. Scott may best be described as the English
counterpart to Debussy, whose vagueness of
melody and far-fetched harmonies are reproduced
in the works of the younger man. An
'aubade ' for small orchestra, a symphony, two
rhapsodies, an 'arabesque,' a 'Christmas overture'
; overtures to ' Aglavaine et Selysette,'
' Princesse Maleine,' and
'
PelUas et Mflisande,'
are among his orchestral works ; a setting of
'
La Belle Dame Sans Merci ' is for soprano,
baritone, and orchestra, and ' Helen of Kirkconnel
' is for baritone and orchestra. A sextet
for piano and strings, op. 26, and a string
quartet, op. 28, are among his earlier pieces
of chamber music, and op. 57, one of his
latest, is a quintet for piano and strings. It
is beyond question that the later works show
more consideration for the hearer's pleasure
than do some of the earlier. His setting of
'
the old English lyrics, Lovely kind and
kindly loving ' and Why ' so pale and wan,
making up his op. 55, are among the most
pleasing and original of his songs, though My
'
Captain,' to Whitman's words, and 'AReflection'
'
are very striking. Afterday, ' and the three
songs which make up op. 52, are interesting,
and in some ways effective. There are a good
many pianoforte pieces, which in name and
style fulfil the Debussy ideal of landscapepainting
in music. M.