At Oxford the candidate for a degree of Mus. Doc. must compose and send in to the Professor a vocal composition secular or sacred, containing real eight-part harmony and good eight-part fugal counterpoint, with accompaniments for a full orchestra, of such a length as to occupy from forty to sixty minutes in performance. The exercise having been approved by the Professor, an examination follows, embracing the following subjects:—Harmony; Eight-part counterpoint; Canon, Imitation, etc. in eight parts; Fugue; Form in composition; Instrumentation; Musical History; A critical knowledge of the scores of the standard works of the great composers; and so much of the science of Acoustics as relates to the theory of Harmony. After duly passing this examination (which is entirely in writing) the candidate must have his exercise publicly performed in Oxford, with complete band and chorus at his own expense; and must deposit the MS. full-score in the Library of the Music School. The fees on taking this degree amount to about £20. The regulations at Cambridge and Dublin are almost identical with those of Oxford, and the amount of the fees much the same. Degrees in music are not conferred by the University of London.
An anomalous power of creating a Doctor of Music by diploma still vests in the Archbishop of Canterbury. The only regulation existing in connection with this strange prerogative is that the person for whose benefit it is exercised shall pay £63 in fees. [App. p.613 "see Degrees in Appendix."]
DÖHLER, Theodor, of a Jewish family, born April 20, 1814, at Naples; died Feb. 21, 1856, at Florence; an accomplished pianist, and composer of 'salon' music—a vendor of the sort of ware for which the epithet 'elegant' seems to have been invented. His Fantasias, i.e. operatic tunes embroidered with arpeggios; his 'Variations de concert,' or 'de salon'—similar tunes not necessarily operatic, but bedizened with the same cheap embroidery; his 'Transcriptions'—nondescript tunes bespangled after the selfsame fashion; his 'Nocturnes'—sentimental eau sucrée, made up of a tearful tune for the right hand propped upon undulating platitudes for the left, in D flat; his 'Etudes,' also 'de salon' or 'de concert'—some small piece of digital gymnastics with little sound and less sense,—are one and all of the same calibre, reprehensible from an artistic point of view, and lacking even that quaintness or eccentricity which might ultimately claim a nook in some collection of musical bric-à-brac. Döhler was an infant phenomenon, and as such the pupil of Benedict, then resident at Naples. In 1829 he was sent to Vienna, and became Carl Czerny's pupil. From Vienna, where he remained till 34, he went to Naples, Paris, and London—then travelled in Holland, Denmark, Poland, and Russia—as a successful fashionable virtuoso. He died of a disease of the spinal marrow which troubled him for the last nine years of his life. His works, if works they can be called, reach as far as opus 75.
DOLBY, Charlotte. See Sainton, Madame
DOLCE, i. e. sweetly; a sign usually accompanied by piano, softly—p dol., and implying that a sweet melodious feeling is to be put into the phrase. Beethoven (op. 59, no. 1) has mf e dolce; and Schumann begins the Finale of his E♭ Symphony with f dolce, which is difficult to realise.
DOMINANT is the name now given to the 5th note of the scale of any key counting upwards. Thus G is the dominant in the key of C, F in that of B♭, and F♯ in that of B. It is so called because the key of a passage cannot be distinguished for certain unless some chord in it has this note for root; for which reason also it is called in German 'Der herrschende Ton.' The dominant plays a most important part in cadences, in which it is indispensable that the key should be strongly marked; and it is therefore the point of rest in the imperfect cadence or half close, and the point of departure to the tonic in the perfect cadence or full close. [Modes.]
It also marks the division of the scale into two parts; as in fugues, in which if a subject commences with the tonic its answer commences with the dominant, and vice versa. In the sonata form it used to be almost invariable for the second subject to be in the key of the dominant, except when the movement was in a minor key, in which case it was optional for that part of the movement to be in the relative major. In lighter and simpler kinds of composition the harmonic basis of the music often alternates chiefly between tonic and dominant, and even in the most elaborate and deeply thought works the same tendency is apparent, though the ideas may be on so extended a scale as to make the alternation less obvious.
DOMINO NOIR, LE. Opéra comique in 3 acts, words by Scribe, music by Auber; produced Dec. 2, 1837. Translated by Chorley and produced in English (an earlier attempt had failed) Feb. 20, 1861, at Covent Garden.
DON CARLOS, (1) An opera seria in 3 acts, words by Tarantini, music by Costa; produced at Her Majesty's Theatre, London, June 20, 1844. (2) Grand opera in 5 acts, words by Demèry [App. p.617 "Mery"] and Du Locle, music by Verdi; produced at the Grand Opéra, Paris, March 11, 1867, and in London, at Her Majesty's Theatre, June 4 of the same year.
DON GIOVANNI—or, full title, Il dissoluto punito, ossia il Don Giovanni—opera buffa in 2 acts; words by Da Ponte; music by Mozart. Produced at Prague Oct. 29, 1787 (the overture written the night before); at Vienna May 7, 1788, with 3 extra pieces, 'In quall,' 'Mi tradi,' 'Dalla sua pace'; in London, King's Theatre, April 12, 1817. Autograph in possession of Mme. Viardot Garcia.
DON PASQUALE, opera buffa in 3 acts; music by Donizetti. Produced Jan. 4, 1843, at the Italiens, Paris; in London, Her Majesty's Theatre, June 30, 1843.
DON QUIXOTE, a comic opera in 2 acts; words by G. Macfarren, music by G. A. Macfarren; produced at Drury Lane, Feb. 3, 1846.
