ghemaect ter eeren Gods' (Pure Songs made to the honour of God), Antwerp,[1] 1540; in Utenhove's Dutch Psalter ('Hondert Psalmen Davids '), printed in London by John Daye in 1561; in Este's Psalter,' 1592, and elsewhere.[2]
The Genevan tune soon found its way to England, where it was set to Kethe's version of the 100th psalm, 'All people that on earth do dwell,' with which it has since remained indissolubly connected.
The name 'Old Hundredth' is peculiar to England.[3] The psalm was originally known as the 'Hundredth, but after the appearance of the New Version by Brady and Tate in 1696, the word 'Old' was added to the titles of the tunes continued in use from the preceding Psalter of Sternhold and Hopkins, to which no special names had been given. The name 'Savoy,' sometimes applied to the Old Hundredth in the last century, was derived, not, as Mr. Havergal supposes, from a vague fancy respecting its Savoyard origin, but from its use by the French congregation established in the Savoy, London, in the reign of Charles II. The original form of the Old Hundredth is as follows.
Several variations of the tune are found in English and German tune-books, but chiefly in the value of the notes, the melody remaining unchanged. The version most commonly adopted in England in the present century is that in which all the notes, except the final note of each strain, are of equal length. This form however tends to produce monotony, and necessitates too slow a time, the tune being essentially jubilant in character. Its original form is in all respects the best, with perhaps a slight modification in the fourth strain for the sake of symmetry,[4] as in Ravenscroft's 'Booke of Psalmes,' 1621:
An interesting monograph on the history of the Old Hundredth psalm-tune was published in 1854 by the Rev. W. H. Havergal, with an appendix of 28 specimens of the tune as harmonised by different composers from 1563 to 1847. In the light of our present knowledge, however, several of Mr. Havergal's conjectures and statements must now be regarded as obsolete.
See also the works of Bovet and Douen already cited.
O'LEARY, Arthur, was born in 1834 near Killarney in the south of Ireland. He received his early instruction in music at home. When between 7 and 8 years old, his pianoforte playing attracted the attention of Mr. Wyndham Goold, through whose instrumentality he was sent to the Leipzig Conservatorium in the year 1847. At Leipzig he studied the piano with Moscheles and Plaidy, counterpoint with Hauptmann, and composition with Julius Rietz. He lived in the house of Herr Preusser, where he became acquainted with Mendelssohn, Robert and Clara Schumann, and many other musical celebrities. After a five years' stay at Leipzig, Mr. O'Leary returned to London and entered at the Royal Academy of Music, studying under Cipriani Potter and Sterndale Bennett. In 1856 Lord Westmoreland appointed him Professor at the Academy, and on the opening of the National Training School for Music, he was appointed to that institution. Mr. O'Leary's compositions include songs, dance-music, transcriptions and original pieces for the pianoforte, etc. He has also edited Bach's Christmas Oratorio, Bennett's Pianoforte works, and Masses by Hummel, Sechter, and Schubert.
His wife, Rosetta, is the daughter of Mr. W. S. Vinning, and was married to Mr. O'Leary in 1860. She was elected King's Scholar at the Academy in 1851, and is known as the composer of several successful songs.
OLE BULL. [See Appendix, Bull, Ole Borneman.]
OLIMPIADE. An opera of Metastasio's, written to celebrate the birthday of the Empress Elizabeth, wife of Charles VI, Emperor of Germany in 1733. It supplies a good instance of the persistent adherence of the composers of the last century to one libretto, having been composed no less than 31 times, by the following composers—Caldara (1733), Pergolesi, Leo, Duni, Scolari. Latilla, Perez, Sarti, Hasse, Piccinni (2), Bernasconi, Gassmann, Bertoni, Jomelli, Cafaro, J. C. Bach, Traetta, Arne, Anfossi, Mysliwecz, Andreozzi, Schwanberg, Gatti, Borghi, Paisiello-Federici, Reichardt, Tarchi, Perrino, Conti (1829), as given in Clement's Dict. Lyrique.
OLIPHANT, Thomas, born 1799, was in 1830 admitted a member of the Madrigal Society, and soon afterwards became its Honorary Secretary. He adapted English words to many Italian madrigals, some of which have become exceedingly popular, notably 'Down in a flow'ry Vale,' to Festa's 'Quando ritrovo.' In 1834 he published 'A Brief Account of the Madrigal
- ↑ In this, the earliest Flemish Psalter, all the psalms (excepting the 116th and the 118th, and also the Song of Simeon) are set to popular Flemish and French tunes. Psalm xix, which begins with the same strain as the Old Hundredth, is to the melody of—
'Ick had een boelken utuercoren, die Ick met Herten minne,'
I had chosen a lover whom I heartily loved. - ↑ The tune adapted to Psalm xxv in the Genevan Psalter of 1551, replacing the melody to which that Psalm had been set in the previous editions, commences with a similar melodic progression—
- ↑ In America the tune is commonly called 'Old Hundred'; probably an English provincialism imported by some of the early colonists. In fact the writer has some recollection of hearing that this name was in use in some parts of England not many years since.
- ↑ The old psalter tunes being originally unbarred, strict symmetry between the strains was sometimes disregarded for the sake of effect.
