A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Oginski

OGINSKI. A noble and distinguished Polish family, (1) Prince Michael Casimir, who died at Warsaw in 1803, resided at Slonim in Lithuania, where he maintained an establishment of orchestra and singers. He is said to have invented the addition of pedals to the harp, and to have proposed the Creation to Haydn as the subject of an oratorio. He formed a canal between two rivers at his own expense—a national work, which connected the Baltic with the Black Sea. (2) His nephew, Michael Cleopas, born Sept. 25, 1765, at Gutzow, near Warsaw, was grand treasurer of Lithuania and Senator of the Russian Empire. Of his diplomatic and literary achievements we need not speak. In the matter of music he was a pupil of Kozlowski's, and was known for his Polonaises. Of these 14 are published, one of which became very widely celebrated owing to its merit and to a romantic story attached to its origin. It is printed in the Musical Library, with the story referred to. Twelve others are printed in the Harmonicon of 1824. He also wrote songs to French words. During his residence in Paris in 1823 Prince Oginski was well known in the best musical circles. He died at Florence, Oct. 31, 1833, and is buried in Santa Maria Novella. (3) Prince Gabriel, born in 1788, though a musician and violin-player, left no compositions. He was driven from home by the revolutions of 1831, but was forced to rereturn by nostalgia, and died in Lithuania in 1843.

[ G. ]