Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 1.djvu/367

formation. M. Chouquet has been keeper of the museum of the Conservatoire since 1871, and has made large additions to it. [App. p.591 adds that "from 1840 to 1856 he was teaching in New York, and that he died Jan. 30, 1886."]

[ G. ]

CHRISMANN, Franz Xavier, secular priest, eminent organ-builder, date and place of birth unknown. He worked chiefly in Upper and Lower Austria and in Styria. His name first appears in connection with a monster organ at the monastery of St. Florian, near Linz, begun in 1770, but left unfinished in consequence of a quarrel with the provost. The fame of this organ spread far and wide, though it wae not completed till 1837. He also built organs at the abbey Spital-am-Pyhrn, and in the Benedictine monastery at Admont, both organs destroyed by fire. The latter he considered his best work. Mozart and Albrechtsberger were present in 1790 at the opening of an organ built by Chrismann in the church of Schottenfeld, one of the suburbs of Vienna, and both pronounced it the best organ in Vienna. Though little known it is still in existence, and in spite of its small dimensions the workmanship is admirable, particularly the arrangement and voicing of the stops. Chrismann died in his 70th year, May 20, 1795, when engaged upon an organ for the church of the small town of Rottenmann in Styria, where there is a monument to his memory. The date and place of his death have only recently been ascertained.

[ C. F. P. ]

CHRISTMANN, Johann Friedrich, born at Ludwigsburg 1752, died there 1817; Lutheran clergyman, composer, pianist, flutist, and writer on the theory of music. He was educated at Tübingen, and in 1783 was appointed minister in his native town. His great work 'Elementarbuch der Tonkunst' is in two parts (Spire, 1782 and 1790) with a book of examples. He was joint editor of the Spire 'Musikalische Zeitung'; in which among other articles of interest he detailed a plan (Feb. 1789) for a general Dictionary of music. This scheme was never carried out. He was also a contributor to the Musikalische Zeitung of Leipsic. Christmann composed for piano, violin, and flute, and with Knecht arranged and edited a valuable collection for the Duchy of Würtemberg, entitled 'Vollständige Sammlung … Choral-melodien.' Many of the 318 hymns were his own composition. He was a friend of the Abbé Vogler.

[ M. C. C. ]

CHRISTUS, an oratorio projected by Mendelssohn to form the third of a trilogy with 'St. Paul' and 'Elijah.' The book of words was sketched by Chevalier Bunsen, and given to Mendelssohn at Easter 1844, before he had begun 'Elijah.' He made great alterations in it, and in 1847, his last year, after 'Elijah' was off his hands, during his visit to Switzerland, made so much progress with the work that 8 numbers of recitatives and choruses—3 from the first part, 'the birth of Christ,' and 5 from the second part, 'the sufferings of Christ,'—were sufficiently completed to be published soon after his death (op. 97; No. 27 [App. p.591 "26"] of the posthumous works). The fragments were first performed at the Birmingham Musical Festival, September 8, 1852.

[ G. ]

CHRISTUS AM OELBERGE. The original title of Beethoven's Mount of Olives.

CHROMATIC is a word derived from the Greek χρωματίκος, the name of one of the ancient tetrachords, the notes of which were formerly supposed to be similar to the scale known as 'chromatic' in modern times. It is applied to notes marked with accidentals, beyond those normal to the key in which the passage occurs, but not causing modulation. A scale of semitones does not cause modulation, and is called a chromatic scale, as in the following from the Andante of Mozart's symphony in D—

which remains in the key of G throughout; and various chords, such as that of the augmented sixth, and the seventh on the tonic, are chromatic in the same manner. The following example, from Beethoven's sonata in B♭ (op. 106), is in the key of D:—

With regard to the writing of the chromatic scale, the most consistent practice is obviously to write such accidentals as can occur in chromatic chords without changing the key in which the passage occurs. Thus taking the key of C as a type the first accidental will be D♭, as the upper note of the minor 9th on the tonic; the next will be E♭, the minor 3rd of the key, the next will be F♯, the major 3rd of the super-tonic—all which can occur without causing modulation—and the remaining two will be A♭ and B♭, the minor 6th and 7th of the key. In other words the twelve notes of the chromatic scale in all keys will be the tonic, the minor 2nd, the major 2nd, the minor 3rd, the major 3rd, the perfect 4th, the augmented 4th, the perfect 5th, minor 6th, major 6th, the minor 7th and the major 7th.

Thus in Mozart's Fantasia in D minor, the chromatic scale in that key, beginning on the dominant, is written as follows—