Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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SIMONE BOCCANEGRA SIMPSON 455
G, iNSTElUafEKTAI. AXD ChAJIBEK MUBIC.
Pianoforte concerto {op. 19) ; clarinet concerto (op. 30) ; fantasia
for violoncello (op. 42) ; two pianoforte triofl (opp. 16and 25) ; string
qnartet (op. 24) ;
quartet for 2 comets-ft-piston and alto ajid tenor
trombones (op. 23) ; 22 ensemble pieces for wind instruments (op.
26) ; 4 septets ; 4 sextets. 6 quintets ; 8 quartets.
A considerable number of pieces for one and two pianos ;
pieces
for violin and pianoforte, including the popular ' Berceuse ' (op. 28)
a Mass (op. 22) ; three female choruses (op. 33) and upwards of 80
songs.
B,, jf.
SIMONE BOCOANEGKA. An opera in
three acts, with prologue ;
libretto by Piave,
music by VerdL Produced at the Fenice
Theatre, Venice, March 12, 1857 ; remodelled
and rescored, with a fresh libretto by Boito,
and reproduced at La Scala, Milan, March 24,
1881. . G.
SIMONETTI, AoHiLLB, violinist and composer,
was born at Turin, June 12, 1859. In
early youth he studied the violin under Signor
Gamba, and composition under Maestro Pedrotti,
late Principal of Rossini's Conservatorio in
Pesaro. Later, proceeding to Genoa, he placed
himself into the hands of CamiUo Sivori, who
took great interest in him, and whose clear-cut
style and Italian temperament are reflected in
his playing. After some successful appearances
in Marseilles and Lyons he went to Paris to
receive further tuition from Charles Dancla
(violin), and Massenet (counterpoint), passed
four winters at Nice, and then visited England
to fulfil an engagement to tour with the Marie
Roze Company and B. Schonberger the pianist.
His present headquarters are in London, where
he is fi-equently heard as soloist and member
of the so - called '
London Trio ' (Simouetti,
Amuia Goodwin, and W. E. Whitehouse), whilst
he occasionally visits Vienna and other continental
cities. Besides a series of graceful solos
for the violin, which have achieved considerable
popularity, he has written two sonatas for violin
and pianoforte and two string quartets. He
plays on a Carlo Bergonzi violin. w. w. c.
SIMOUTRE, Nicolas Eua'toE, a French
violin-maker, the patentee of certain inventions
by which he claims to improve the tone of
violins and instruments of that class—either of
defective or feeble timbre. The son of a luthier,
he was bom at Mirecourt, April 19, 1839, and
was first the pupil of his father, then of Darohe
in Paris, and lastly of Roth in Strasburg. He
began work as an independent maker at Basle
in 1859, and there published in 1883 his
brochwre entitled Aux Amateurs du Violon.
In 1886 a second brochure— Un Progris en
iMtherie appeared, a German edition being published
at the same time entitled Ein Fortschritt
in der Geigenbaukunst (Rixheim, 1886, 2nd
edition, 1887). In 1889 he brought out a small
' Supplement ' to the above pamphlets. The
two last-named works deal mainly with his
inventions. The principal of these, called Le
'
Support Harmonique,' was based upon Savart's
scientific discovery that the beUy of a violin
vibrates unequally. Testing the nodal lines
formed by sand distributed upon the belly of
a violin when in vibration, Mons. Simoutre
observed that the fibres of the wood vibrated
in alternate sections, i.e. one and three vibrated
in unison, likewise two and four, and that the
vibrations of one and two were as much in
opposition to one another, as were three and
four. Starting from this point, he applied
himself to the discovery of a system which
should stop the vibrations of alternate fibre
sections so as to allow the rest to vibrate in
unison, and this he claims to do with his patent
' Support Harmonique. ' Briefly, this invention
consists in glueing two small sections of wood
variable in form and dimensions according to
the effect required—upon the centre of the belly
and back of the violin transversely. This
method, he considered, concentrated the vibrations
Hear the sound-post—where they are most
numerous— and by so doing, increased the
sonority of the instrument so furnished, and at
the same time prevented the belly from sinking
under the pressure of the bridge. Various experiments
for ascertaining the best thickness
and forms of the Support Harmonique ' ' resulted
in the discovery that an innovation in the form
of the bass bar was necessary where the new
system was employed. A semi-detached bar
slightly scooped out at the centre, and glued
only at each end to the belly of the violin, was
patented by Mons. Simoutre, that form proving
most efficacious where the violin was free from
cracks, etc. A third patent applies to the
setting of the sound -post in one of the two
small circular grooves made for it in the lower
'Support Harmonique.' In 1890 this maker
settled in Paris at 38 Rue de I'Echicqmer, where
he worked for many years in partnership with
his son. — Von Lutgendorfl', Die Geigen und
Lautenmaeher, and Mons. Simoutre's works
already mentioned. E. h-a.
SIMPLIFICATION SYSTEM (Organ). This
refers to a method formerly in use of planting
all the pipes of an organ in semitonal or chromatic
order, to simplify the mechanism, but
now discontinued for various reasons. (See
VOGLEK.) T. B.
SIMPSON, Cheistophbk, a distinguished
17th century viola -da -gamba player, famous
in his day both as an executant and a
theoretic musician. Very little is known of
his life, and the exact date of his birth remains
problematical, but the few facts that have come
to light reveal him to have been the son of
a Yorkshire yeoman— a descendant of some
Nottinghamshire Simpsons, who spelt their
name with a y {vide Harl. MS. 5800)— a man
commended by his fellows for his' upright
habits, and a staunch upholder of the Cavalier
Party against the Parliament. He joined the
Royalist army under the command of William
Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, in 1643. He
alludes in a passing phrase to the hardships
and poverty he endured at this period in his