Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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RSBSK EECITATIVE 33
seems to have been the sole author of a
Pastorale
heroique' (1730).]
From 1733 to 1744 Rebel and Franoceur
were joint leaders of the Aoademie orchestra,
and in 1753 were appointed managers. They
soon, however, retired in disgust at the petty
vexations they were called upon to endure.
Louis XV. made them surintendants of his
music, with the Order of St. Michel. In March
1757 these inseparable friends obtained the
privilege of the Opera, and directed it for ten
years on their own account, with gieat administrative
ability.
Rebel died in Paris, Nov. 7, 1775. He composed
some cantatas, a Te Deum, and a De
Profundis, performed at the Concerts Spirituels,
but all his music is now forgotten, excepting a
lively air in the first finale of Pyrame ' et Thisb^
which was adapted to a much-admired pas seul
of Mile, de Camargo, thence became a popular
contredanse—the first instance of such adaptation—and
in this form is preserved in the ' C\k
du Caveau,' under the title of 'La Camargo.'
[A very interesting siccount of the family, with
detailed notices of the music of G. F. Kebel,
appeared in the Sammelbande of the Int.
Mus. Ges. vol. vii. p. 253, by M. L. de la
Laurencie.] G. c.
KEBER, Napoleon -Henri, born at Miilhausen,
Oct. 21, 1807 pat twenty entered the
Paris Conservatoire, studying counterpoint and
fugue under Seuriot and Jelensperger, and composition
under Lesueur. Circumstances led him
to compose chamber -music, after the success
of which he attempted opera. His music to
'
the second act of the charming ballet Le
Diable amoureux' (Sept. 23, 1840) excited
considerable attention, and was followed at the
Op^ra-Comique by La Nuit de '
Noel,' three acts
(Feb. 9, 1848), 'LePfereGaillard,'threeaots(Sept.
7, 1852), Les ' Papillotes de M. Benoit,' one act
(Dec. 28, 1853), and 'Les Dames Capitaines,'
three acts (June 3, 1857). In these works he
strove to counteract the tendency towards noise
and bombast then so prevalent both in French
and Italian opera, and to show how much may
be made out of the simple natural materials of
the old French opera-eomique by the judicious
use of modem orchestration.
In 1851 he was appointed Professor of harmony
at the Conservatoire, and in 1853 the
well-merited success of Le ' Pere Gaillard ' procured
his election to the Institut as Onslow's
successor. Soon after this he renounced the
theatre, and returned to chamber-music. He
also began to write on music, and his TraiU
d'Harmmiie (1862) went through many editions,
and is without comparison the best work of its
kind in France. The outline is simple and
methodical, the classification of the chords easy
to follow and well connected, the explanations
luminously clear, the exercises practical and
well calculated to develop musical taste—in a
VOL. rv
word, everything combines to make it one of the
safest and most valuable of instruction-books.
The second part especially, dealing with 'accidental
notes— '
or, notes foreign to the constitution
of chords—contains novel views, and observations
throwing light upon points and rules of
harmony which before were obscure and confused.
In 1862 M. Reber succeeded HaUvy as
Professor of composition at the Conservatoire ;
since 1871 he was also Inspector of the
succwsales or branches of the Conservatoire.
He died in Paris, after a short illness, Nov. 24,
1880, and was succeeded as Professor by M.
Saiilt-Saens.
His compositions comprise four symphonies,
a quintet and three quartets for strings, one PF.
ditto, seven trios, duets for PF. and violin, and
PF. pieces for two and four hands. Portions of
his ballet ' Le Diable amoureux ' have been published
for orchestra, and are performed at concerts.
In 1875 he produced a cantata called
'Roland,' but 'Le Menetrier k la oour,' op^racomique,
and 'Naim,' grand opera in five acts,
have never been performed, though the overtures
are engraved. His best vocal works are his
melodies for a single voice, but he has composed
choruses for three and four men's voices, and
some sacred pieces. G. c.
RECITA (Ital.), 'performance.'
RECITAL, a term which has come into use
in England to signify a performance of solo
music by one performer. It was probably first
used by Liszt at his performance at the Hanover
Square Rooms, June 9, 1840, though as applying
to the separate pieces and not to the whole
performance. The advertisement of theconcert
says that *M. Liszt will give Recitals on the
Pianoforte of the following pieces.' The name
was afterwards adopted by Ha]l^ and others,
and is in the present day often applied to concerts
when two or more soloists take part.
The term Opera Recital is used for a concert
in which the music of an opera is sung without
costume or action. G.
RECITATIVE (Ital. Eecitativo ; Germ. Mecitativ
; Fr. EicAtatif ; irom the Latin Secitare).
A species of declamatory music, extensively
used in those portions of an Opera, an Oratorio,
or a Cantata, in which the action -of the drama
is too rapid, or the sentiment of the poetry too
changeful, to adapt itself to the studied rhythm
of a regularly constructed Aria.
The invention of Recitative marks a crisis in
the history of music, scarcely less important
than that to which we owe the discovery of
harmony; Whether the strange conception in
which it originated was first clothed in tangible
form by Jacopo Peri, Giulio Caccini, or Emilio
del Cavalieri, is a question which has never been
decided.
Thus first launched upon the world, for the
purpose of giving a new impetus to the progress
D