Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

—
;
'
478 SIXTH SIXTH
London, and appeared at the Musical Union
and elsewhere. [In 1869 Sivori appeared at
some of the Monday Popular Concerts in London,
and in 1870 toured in France, after which he
returned to Genoa and there led a quiet life
until he passed away at his house in the Via
Giulia, on Feb. 19, 1894.]
As a man he was always liked—
' little, goodtempered,
warm-hearted, intelligent Camillo
Sivori ' is the description of him by an English
journalist. He was the only direct pupil of
Paganini, and his playing was that of a virtuoso
of the Paganini school, with a prodigious command
of diflioulties, especially of double-stopping,
second only to his master. His tone was
silvery and clear, but rather thin. His style
judged by a classical standard—was cold and
affected, and had little real feeling.
[nis compoBitioua include two Concertos for Violin in B flat
and A ; CappTiccio, La (^noise ; op. 12, Tarantelle Napolitaine,Violin
and orchestra, or piano ; Deax duos concertants for Pianoforte and
Violin ; Duet for Violin and Double Ba«8, written with Bottesini
Fantaisie Caprice in E ;
Fantaisie Etude, op. 10 ; Fantaisie, Fleurs
de Naples ; Souvenir de Norma ; Carnaval de Chili ; Carnaval de
Cuba ; Carnaval Amiricain ; Tempest Music (Mibin, 1860) ; Folies
Espagnoles ; Variations on
'
Nel cor
'
non pin ml sento ' and Le
Firate ' ; Three Fantasias upon airs from
' '
La Sonnambula,' I
Puritani.' Zapateado * ' ; Fantasia
'
on airs from Un Ballo in
'
Maschera,' II Trovatore,' 'Lucia di Lammermoor'; Andante
'
Spianato ; Trois Romances sans paroles,' with pianoforte accompaniment.]
[Heron -AUen, Oamillo Sivori, The Violin
Times, March 15, 1894, No. 5, vol. i. ; James, E.
(Ph. and Lit. D.), Oamillo Sivori, a Sketch of
his Life, etc. ; Benedit, G., C Sivori (reprinted
from the Simaphore, Marseilles, March 7, 1854) ;
Pierrottet, Adele, Oamillo Sivori(yn.Va. pictures)
Fino, G. da, O. Sivori and F. SomMni; Phipson,
T. L., Sketches and Anecdotes of Celebrated
Violinists ; Lahee, H. 0., Famous Violinists,
Musical Standatrd, Feb. 24, 1894 ; Figaro,
Paris, April 1, 1894 ; Journal des Dihats,
Feb. 28, 1828 ; Sitxle, Paris, Feb. 6, 1843 ;
Moniteur Universel, Paris, Feb. 13, 1843
British Minstrel, vol. ii. pp. 165-6 ; Fetis,
Biog. des Mus."] G. ; with additions in square
brackets by E. h-a.
SIXTH. The interval which embraces six
degrees of the scale. There are three forms—the
major, the minor, and the augmented. (1) The
major sixth, as OA, contains 9 mean semitones,
and the ratio of its limiting sounds in the true
scale is 5 : 3. It is a concord, and in harmony
is regarded as the first inversion of the minor
common chord. (2) The minor sixth, as OAl>
or EC, contains 8 semitones, and the ratio of its
limiting sounds is 8 : 5. It is also a concord,
and in harmony regarded as the first inversion
of the major common chord. (3) The augmented
sixth, which is arrived at by flattening the
lower. or sharpening the upper extreme sound
of a major sixth, as D|> B, or Ab Fj, contains
10 semitones, and the ratio of the limiting
sounds is 125 : 72. The augmented sixth is a
discord, and is usually resolved by moving each
note a semitone outwards to the octave, the
sharpening or flattening of one of the extreme
sounds already implying a straining in that
direction. [See Hakmony.] Three forms of
the augmented sixth are distinguished by special
names : when it is accompanied by the major
third it is called ' Italian' (see a) ; when to this
is added the augmented fourth, it is called
'
French
' (see 6) ; and when the major third
and fifth are present (c) it is called German.
'
(6) (c) (d)
The Neapolitan Sixth is the name by which
a chord consisting of a minor sixth and minor
third on the subdominant has long been known ;
as (d) in the key of C minor.
Theorists, starting from difierent radical assumptions,
suggest different derivations for this
chord. Some, taking the major and minor scales
to comprise all the notes which can be used for
essential harmonies, except in the cases where
important root notes in those scales bear fundamental
harmonies on such principles as they
accept, derive the chord from a combination of
two roots ; so that the dominant is the root of
the two lower notes which are respectively its
seventh and minor ninth, and the tonic of the
upper, which is its minor ninth. Others, accepting
the unquestionably frequent use of some
chromatic harmonies in relation to an established
Tonic, by many great masters, indicate the
major concord on the minor or flat supertonio
(as the major common chord of Db in relation
to the Tonic 0) as one of them, and hold the
'
Neapolitan sixth ' to be its first inversion.
Others, again, hold this sixth to be found in the
minor scale of the subdominant ; and others,
yet further, that it is merely produced by the
artifieial lowering of the sixth for artistic purposes,
similar to the artificial sharpening of the fifth
which is commonly met with ; and that its
object may either be to bring the supertonic
melodically nearer the Tonic in downward progression,
or to soften the harshness which results
from the augmented fourth in the chord of the
sixth and minor third on the subdominant of
the usual minor scale. In the theory which
explains some chromatic combinations as reflections
of the old ecclesiastical modes, this chord
would spring from the use of the ecclesiastical
Phrygian, which was the same as the Greek
Doric mode. c. H. H. p.
[Concerning one chord of the sixth, that on
the supertonic of the key, a good n
deal of doubtfully authoritative ^
'
f^ .H
teaching has been made public, in '^ ^
regard to its use mainly in contrapuntal work.
There is no doubt that the motion of all
three
parts is unimpeded ; though the B may usually
proceed to C, the keynote, the F moves quite
as often up to G as down to E. Yet a certain
school of theorists still maintain that the chord
is the second inversion of the dominant seventh
with the root left out. (See Front, Warmony,