Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 1.djvu/364

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
352
CHORAL FANTASIA.
CHORLEY.

the fact that Beethoven speaks of the finale of the Symphony as 'in the same style as the Fantasia but far more extended' (Letter to Probst, March 10, 1824). It was first performed by Beethoven himself, at the Theatre an der Wien, Dec. 22, 1808; published July 1811; dedicated to the King of Bavaria. Its first appearance in the Philharmonic programmes is May 8, 1843—repeated on 22nd—Mrs. Anderson pianist both times. Sketches for the Fantasia are said to exist as early as 1800, with those for the 6 Quartets (op. 18), and the C minor Symphony (Thayer, Chron. Verzeichniss, no. 142).

[ G. ]

CHORAL HARMONIC SOCIETY. The members of this amateur society met at the Hanover Square Rooms for the practice of concerted vocal and instrumental music. In 1837 Mr. Dando was the leader, Mr. Holderness the conductor, and Mr. Bevington the organist. The programmes usually included a glee or madrigal with symphonies, overtures, and vocal solos.

[ C. M. ]

CHORAL HARMONISTS' SOCIETY. An association of amateurs devoted to the performance of great choral works with orchestral accompaniments; held its first meeting at the New London Hotel, Bridge Street, Blackfriars, Jan. 2, 1833, and the subsequent ones at the London Tavern until the last Concert, April 4, 1851, twelve months after which the Society was dissolved. It had a full band (containing, in 1838, 14 violins, 6 violas, 3 cellos, 3 basses, with complete wind) and chorus. The solo singers were professionals—Clara Novello, Miss Birch, Miss Dolby, Mr. J. A. Novello, etc. Its conductors were Messrs. V. Novello, Lucas, Neate, and Westrop; leader Mr. Dando. The programmes were excellent. Among the works performed were Beethoven's Mass in D (April 1, 1839, and again April 1, 1844), Haydn's Seasons, Mendelssohn's Walpurgisnight, etc.

The Choral Harmonists were a secession from the City of London Classical Harmonists, who held their first meeting April 6, 1831, and met alternately at Farn's music shop, 72 Lombard Street, and the Horn Tavern, Doctors' Commons. Mr. T. H. Severn was conductor, and Mr. Dando leader, and the accompaniments were arranged for a septet string band. Among the principal works thus given were—Oberon, Spohr's Mass in C minor, and 'Letzten Dinge,' a selection from Mozart's Idomeneo, etc. The name 'City of London' was intended to distinguish it from the Classical Harmonists, a still older society, meeting at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, Strand, of which Mr. Griffin and Mr. V. Novello were conductors.

[ C. M. ]

CHORAL SYMPHONY. The ordinary English title for Beethoven's 9th Symphony (op. 125) in D minor, the Finale of which is a chain of variations for solos and chorus. Fr. 'Symphonie avec Choeurs.' Beethoven's own title is 'Sinfonie mit Schluss-Chor über Schiller's Ode An die Freude.' The idea of composing Schiller's Ode to Joy 'verse by verse,' occurred to Beethoven as early as 1792 (see p. 166 a); but no traces remain of music to it at that date. In 1811 we find a sketch for an 'Ouverture Schiller,' with the opening words of the ode set to notes (Thayer, Chr. Verz. no. 238), but no further mention of it has been discovered till 1822. The first allusion to the Symphony in D minor is as the third of three which he projected while writing nos. 7 and 8 in 1812 (p. 186 b). The first practical beginning was made in 1817, when large portions of the first movement and the Scherzo are found in the sketch-books. The Finale was settled to be choral, but Schiller's Ode is not named till after the revival of Fidelio, in Nov. 1822. It then appears in the sketch-books. After inventing with infinite pains and repetitions the melody of the Finale, and apparently the variations, a mode had to be discovered of connecting them with the three preceding movements. The task was one of very great difficulty. The first solution of it was to make the bass voice sing a recitative, 'Let us sing the song of the immortal Schiller.' This was afterwards changed to 'friends not these tones' (i. e. not the tremendous discords of the Presto 3-4—which follows the Adagio—and of the Allegro assai), 'Let us sing something pleasanter and fuller of joy,' and this is immediately followed by the Chorus 'Freude, Freude.' The whole of this process of hesitation and invention and final success is depicted in the most unmistakeable manner in the music which now intervenes between the Adagio and the choral portion of the work, to which the reader must be referred.

The Symphony was commissioned by the Philharmonic Society (Nov. 10, 1822), for £50, and they have a MS. with an autograph inscription, 'Grosse Sinfonie geschrieben fur die Philharmonische Gesellschaft in London von Ludwig van Beethoven.' But it was performed in Vienna long before it reached the Society, and the printed score is dedicated (by Beethoven) to Frederic William III, King of Prussia. The autograph of the first 3 movements is at Berlin, with a copy of the whole carefully corrected by Beethoven.

The first performance took place at the Kärnthnerthor Theatre, May 7,1824. First performance in London, by the Philharmonic Society, March 21, 1825. At the Paris Conservatoire it was played twice, in 1832 and 34, half at the beginning and half at the end of a concert. At Leipzig, on March 6, 1826, it was played from the parts alone; the conductor having never seen the score!

[ G. ]

CHORD is the simultaneous occurrence of several musical sounds, producing harmony, such as the 'common chord,' the chord of the sixth, of the dominant, of the diminished seventh, of the ninth, etc., etc.

CHORLEY, Henry Fothergill, journalist, author, and art critic, was born Dec. 15, 1808, at Blackley Hurst, in Lancashire. Sprung from an old Lancashire family, he had a self-willed,