he rendered to musical instruction and literature. Had he been a little less one-sided, and a little more disinterested and fair, he would have been a model critic and littérateur.
[App. p.635–636 "in 1829 he came to England for the purpose of giving a course of lectures on musical history. The season was too far advanced to allow of his doing so, and the plan was abandoned, a single lecture being given at Sir George Warrender's, on May 29, when illustrations were given by Camporese, Malibran, Mme. Stockhausen, Donzelli, Begrez, Labarre, De Bériot, etc. In 1828 he had been for three months in England. See the Harmonicon for July, 1829."]
His eldest son, Edouard, born at Bouvignes in Belgium, May 16, 1812, at an early age assisted his father, and edited the 'Revue musicale' from 1833 to 35. He is now art critic of the 'Indépendance Belge,' has edited the 5th vol. of 'Histoire générale de la Musique,' and has published 'Légende de Saint Hubert' (Brussels 1847), 'Les Musiciens Beiges' (Brussels 1848), a useful work, and a 'Catalogue raisonné' (1877) of his father's valuable library purchased by the Government for the 'Bibliothèque Royale' of which E. Fétis is librarian. He is also professor of æsthetics to the Brussels Académie des Beaux Arts and member of the Académie Royale in Brussels.
FEVIN, Antoine, composer of the 16th century, whose works entitle him to a position amongst his contemporaries second alone to that of Josquin Deprés. We have only a few vague conjectures as to the actual circumstances of his life. Burney mentions Orleans as his birthplace, and later historians have accepted his statement. Indeed, there is little reason to dispute it, unless the existence of Fevin's compositions in MS. in the cathedral at Toledo, and the opinion of Spanish musicians, can make him a Spaniard, as Gevaert and Eslava would have him to be. There are some books of masses in the Vienna library containing three by 'Anthonius Fevin, pie memorie.' Ambros, in his History of Music (iii. 274) shows that the date of these books lies between 1514 and 1516, and assuming that Fevin died about this time, and moreover (as Glarean leads us to infer) that he died quite young, places his birth about 1490. We may, at any rate, accept these dates as approximately true, and at once see that it is scarcely correct to call Fevin a contemporary of Josquin. Although he died a few years before the great master, he was probably born 40 years after the date of Josquin's birth. Had it not been for his premature death, might not the 'Felix Jodoci æmulator,' as Glarean calls him, have lived on to work by the side of Lassus and share with him the glory of a brighter period? Surely there was in 'that noble youth, whose modesty was equal to his genius ' (again we quote Glarean), every element of greatness, except perhaps physical strength, requisite for making his name stand with those of Clement and Gombert in the gap between Josquin and Lassus. But although Fevin can never be the hero of any chapter in musical history, there is little doubt that when the compositions of his time become once more generally known, the few works which he has left behind him will find favour as soon as any, on account of the peculiar charm which veils his most elaborate workmanship, and the simplicity of effect which seems to come so naturally to him, and so well agrees with the personal character for which Glarean admired him. We give the following list of his works, and the various collections in which they appear:—(1) 3 masses, 'Sancta Trinitas,' 'Mente tota,' and 'Ave Maria,' from a book of 5 masses (Petrucci, Fossombrone 1515). The only known copy of this work, with all the parts, is in the British Museum. Burney has given two beautiful extracts from the 1st mass in his History. (2) 3 masses, 'Ave Maria,' 'Mente Tota,' and 'De Feria,' in 'Liber quindecim Missarum' (Andreas Antiquis, Rom. 1516), a copy of which is in the Mazarin Library at Paris. (3) 6 motets from the 1st book of the 'Motetti della corona' (Petrucci, Fossombrone 1514). (4) A motet, 'Descende in hortum meum,' and a fugue, 'Quæ es ista,' from the 'Cantiones selectae ultra centum' (Kriesstein, Augsburg 1540). (5) 2 lamentations, 'Migravit Juda' and 'Recordare est,' from the collection by Le Roy and Ballard, Paris 1557. (6) Detached movements from masses in Eslava's 'Lira-sacro-Hispana.' (7) 1 magnificat from Attaignant's 5th book for 4 voices, and 2 motets from his 11th book (Paris 1534). (8) 1 piece in the 'Bicinia Gallica, etc.' (Rhau, Wittenberg 1545). (9) 3 masses, 'O quam glorifica luce,' 'Requiem,' and 'Mente tota,' in the 'Ambraser Messen' at Vienna, and 3 MS. motets in same library. (10) A mass, 'Salve sancta parens,' the only copy of which is in the Royal Library at Munich. There is a song of his, 'Je le l'airray,' in the Harleian MSS. 5242; and fragments of two masses in Burney's musical extracts, Add. MSS. 11,581-2—both in the British Museum.
FIALA, Joseph, eminent oboist, born 1749 at Lobkowitz in Bohemia. He taught himself the oboe, for which he had a perfect passion, but being a serf was compelled to menial labour in the Schloss. He ran away, and was recaptured, upon which his mistress, the Countess Lobkowitz, ordered his front teeth to be pulled out that he might be incapable of playing: but some of the nobility of Prague interceded for him with the Emperor, who commanded him to be set free. He first entered Prince Wallerstein's band, and in 1777 that of the Elector at Munich. He was afterwards in that of the Archbishop of Salzburg, where he made the intimate acquaintance of the Mozarts. In 1785 he was suddenly discharged by the Archbishop, with a loss of 200 florins, on which Mozart not only urged him to come to Vienna, but offered him a good engagement. After a residence of some years in Russia he became in 1792 Capellmeister to Prince Fürstenberg at Donauschingen, where he died in 1816. He published two sets of quartets (Frankfort and Vienna, about 1780–86), 'Six duos pour violon et violoncello' (Augsburg 1799), and two sets of trios for flute, oboe, and bassoon (Ratisbon 1806), besides MS. concertos for flute, oboe, and cello. He played several other instruments well, especially the cello and double bass, and was evidently a man of mark.
FIASCO (a flask). 'Faire fiasco,' 'to make a fiasco,' i.e. a complete failure—a phrase of somewhat recent introduction. The term, though Italian, is not used by the Italians in this sense, but first by the French and then by ourselves.
