Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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418 SERAPHINE SEEENATA
of graceful curving strokes, while the upper side
is formed of two fern leaves and elegant curves.
On either side there are respectively some rolls
of music and a violin. Representations of this
ticket are given by M. Laurent Grillet in his
AncStres du Violon and also in Herr von
Lutgendorff's Die Geigen und Lwuten/macher.
One of the finest known examples of this maker's
work was a violoncello lent to the South
Kensington Special Loan Exhibition by its
owner Mr. H. B. Heath in 1872.]
George Seraphin followed his uncle's later
model with such precision that it is difficult to
find any point of difference. Like his uncle,
he finished his instruments to a degree of perfection
which amounts to a fault, depriving them,
as it does, of character and individuality. Like
his uncle, he used a large copper-plate label
(nearly all the Italian makers used letterpress
labels) bearing the inscription Georgius Seraphin
Sancti nepos fecit Venetiis (1743).' Both
'
makers branded their instruments at tlie tailpin.
Their works are not common in England,
and specimens in good preservation realise from
£50 upwards.
[A superb violin of Sanctus Seraphin which
belonged to Messrs Barr^ and Bayly's collection
realised £280, at a sale by auction in 1894,
while a violoncello by the same maker, the
property of James Goding, Esq., was sold in a
like manner for £56 :14s. in 1867. According
to Von Lutgendorff, George Seraphin was not
Sanctus Seraphin's nephew but his grandson.
Von Lutgendorff, Die Geigen und Lavienmacher
; Charles Reade, A Lost Art Sevi/ved ;
Alberto Bachmann, Le Violon ; J. M. Fleming,
Old Violins ; Laurent Grillet, Les AiwHres du
Violon ; G. Hart, The Violin ; A. Vidal, Zes
Instruments a Archet.'] B. j. p. ; with additions
in square brackets, by E. h-a.
SERAPHINE. In vol. ii. p. 303a reference is
made to the seraphine as a precursor of Debain's
Harmonittm. It was anEnglish free-reedinstmment
resembling the German Physharmonica,
which latter was brought to England by the
Schulz family in 1826. In 1828 a similar
instrument, but named Aeol- harmonica, was
played by young Schulz at a Philharmonic
Concert (Concertante for Aeol-harmonica and
two guitars, April 28). In 1833, John Green,
who had been dementi's traveller, and had a
shop in Soho Square, brought out the Seraphine.
Green engaged Samuel Wesley to give weekly
performances upon the seraphine at his shop,
and managed for some time to dispose of his
instruments at 40 guineas each. But the seraphine
was harsh and raspy in tone, and never
found favour with sensitive musicians. The
wind apparatus, similar to the organ, was a
dead-weighted bellows giving a uniform pressure,
and a swell was produced by opening
a shutter of a box placed over the reeds.
In the year 1841, Mr. W. E. Evans invented
the Oi'gano Harmonica,' the improvements on
'
the seraphine consisting of thin steel reeds artistically
voiced, and coiled springs in the reservoir
to enable the player to produce a rapid articulation
with a small wind pressure, and to
increase the power of tone as the reservoir
filled. Eminent musicians publicly pronounced
Mr. Evans's instrument more valuable than the
seraphine as a substitute for the organ, but
neither the one nor the other was capable of
dead expression.'
what is now known as '
Patents for various improvements of the seraphine
were taken out by Myers and Storer in
1839, by Storer alone in 1846, and by Mott in the
same year. There is further reference to it in
patents of Pape 1850, and Blackwell 1852.
About the last-named date it was entirely superseded
by the hannonium. A. J. H.
SERENADE (Ital. Serenata ; Fr. Sirinade ;
Germ. Stdndchen). Evening song, from the
Italian sera. Hence the word has been applied,
indiscriminately, to many different kinds of
music intended to be sung or played at night
in the open air ; and so generally has this connection
of ideas been accepted that, by common
consent, the term Serenade ' ' has identified
itself in many languages with the song sung by
a lover standing beneath his mistress's window,
or the concert of instrumental music substituted
for it by an admirer with ' no voice for singing.'
To be true to nature, a serenade of this kind
should be simple, melodious, sensuous in expression,
and accompanied by some kind of instrument
which the lover might carry in his hand.
All these conditions are fulfilled in the most
perfect example of the style that ever has been,
or is ever likely to be written—
' Deh vieni
alia finestra, ' in Don ' Giovanni. ' The melody
of this is as artless as a folk-song, yet capable
of breathing the very soul of voluptuous
passion.
[If Mozart created the perfect type of vocal
serenade in the song just mentioned, such things
as his Hafner ' Serenade ' have served as the
model of the instrumental serenade, which, like
the divertimento, is generally in a large number of
short movements. The two Serenade trios of
Beethoven (opp. 8 and 25) are illustrious specimens
of the forms in which each section is of
the most concise structure and built upon
melodic themes that are easily recognisable by the
untutored ear. Two serenades by Brahms are
among his earlier works ; the first, op. 11, is for
full orchestra, in D ;
and the second, op. 16 in
A, has no violins. It does not appear that the
German equivalent, Stdndchen, has found much
favour with the composer of instrumental
Serenades.] w. s. k.
SERENATA (Ital. Sereiuda ;
Fr. Sirinade
;
Germ. Serenade). Though the terms Serenata
and Sei'euade are generally regarded as interchangeable—
so nearly synonymous, that we
have no choice but to give the one as the trans-