Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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490 SMITH SMYTH
In 1828 he brought out his ' Sacred Harmony
of the Church of Scotland," by which he is now
best known. His health was at no time robust,
and he suffered from dyspepsia, under which he
linally sank, Jan. 3, 1829. He was buried in
St. Outhbert's churchyard.
' Smith,' says the late George Hogarth,
'
was
a musician of sterling talent. . . . His compositions
are tender, and tinged with melancholy
simple and unpretending, and always graceful
and unaffectedly elegant. ... He had the admirable
good sense to know how far he could
safely penetrate into the depths of counterpoint
and modulation without losing his way ; and
accordingly his music is entirely free from scientific
pedantry.' His most popular pieces are
the songs, 'Jessie, the Flow'r o' Dunblane,' and
'
Bonnie Mary Hay ' ; the duet, Row ' weel, my
boatie ' ; the trio Ave ' Sanctissiraa ; '
and the
anthems, Sing unto God,' and How ' ' beautiful
upon the mountains ' ; although m^ny more
might be named which are yet frequently sung.
Owing to the modem alterations in congregational
singing, the introduction of German
chorales and ancient ecclesiastical melodies, and
the change from florid to syllabic tunes, Smith's
'Sacred Harmony' is to a great extent superseded.
But it still has its value, even at a
distance of eighty years from its publication.
[An excellent memoir of Smith is attached to an
edition of Tannahill's poems edited by Philip
Kamsay, Edinburgh, 1851.] D. B. ; additions in
square brackets by F. K.
SiVIITH, Samuel. See under Smith, Geoegb
TOWNSHEND.
SMOLEJrSKY, Stephen Vassilievich, a
leading authority on Russian church music,
born at Kazan, 1848. Having had unusual
opportunities of gaining an insight into the
customs and peculiarities of the sect known as
'
Old Believers, ' who have preserved the church
music in its primitive forms, Smolensky was
led to make a special study of the old manuscripts
of the Solovetsky library, preserved in
the Clerical Academy at Kazan. In 1889 he
became director of the Synodal School and
Choir in Moscow, and in the same year was
appointed successor to the ecclesiastic Razoumovsky,
as professor of the history of church
music at the Moscow Oonservatorium. While
working at the Synodal School, Smolensky has
formed a unique collection of manuscripts from
the loth to the 19th century, including many
rare chants and other examples of sacred music.
In 1901-3 he directed the Imperial Court
Chapels. Among his numerous contributions
to the abstruse and complicated subject on
which he is an authority the principal are : A
Course of Ohurch-Ohant Siiiging (Moscow, 1900,
5 th edition) ; Old Choral Manuscripts in the
Synodal School, Moscow (St. Petersburg, 1899) ;
AiKyiemt Notation of the Russian Chii/rch-Oha'iiis
(1901). R. N.
SMORZANDO (Ital., 'fading away'). A
tei-m with the same meaning as Morendo, but
used indiscriminately in the course of a piece.
[See Morendo.]
SMYTH, Ethel Mary, born in London,
April 23, 1858. Daughter of General J. H.
Smyth, late of the Royal Artillery. For a short
time in 1877 she studied at the Leipzig Conservatorium,
and under Heinrich von Herzogenberg
after leaving that institution. At Leipzig
a quintet for strings was performed with success
in 1884, and a sonata for piano and
violin in 1887. This latter is numbered
op. 7, opp. 3 and 4 being books of songs. After
her student days, she does not appear to have
used opus-numbers. A serenade for orchestra
in four movements, in D, was given at the
Crystal Palace, April 26, 1890 ; and an overture,
'Antony and Cleopatra,' on Oct. 18 of
the same year, the latter being repeated at one
of Heuschel's London Symphony Concerts in
1892. A far more important work, a Solemn
Mass, in D, was performed at the Albert Hall,
under Barnby's direction, Jan. 18, 1893. This
work definitely placed the composer among the
most eminent composers of her time, and easily
at the head of all those of her own sex. Tlie
most striking thing about it was the entire
absence of the qualities that are usually associated
with feminine productions ; throughout it
was virile, masterly in construction and workmanship,
and particularly remarkable for the
excellence and rich colouring of the orchestration.
Miss Smyth did not, however, come
into her own until she was recognised as an
operatic writer. Her Tantasio' (libretto
founded by herself on De Musset) was produced
at Weimai in 1898 in unfortunate conditions,
and it was not until its revival at Carlsruhe
in February 1901 that it could be properly
judged. The one-act Der Wald ' ' was given
at Dresden in September 1901 ; it was produced
at Covent Garden, July 18, 1902, with
very great success, given again at the Metropolitan
Opera -House, New York, in March
1903, and again at Covent Garden on June 26,
1903. The distinction of its being revived in
the year after its first production is significant
of its success, to all who know the singular
methods followed by English operatic managers.
It was evident that here was a work of highly
romantic character (the treatment of the spirits
of the wood as the primary agents in the drama
is full of suggestive beauty), by one who had
mastered not only all the secrets of stage effect,
butwho understoodhow to makeherclimaxes impressive,
and how to differentiate her characters.
The German libretto of this, like that of her
former work, was written by the composer
herself. Her crowning achievement so far, is
the three-act opera, 'Les Naufrageurs ' ('The
Wreckers'), produced at Leipzig as 'Strandrecht'
on Nov. 11, 1906. The libretto, by