Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 1.djvu/467

'Wir glauben all'; 'Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam'; 'Christ lag in Todesbanden.' For longer compositions see Orlando Lasso's 5-part motet 'Animam meam,' in Commer's 'Musica sacra,' viii. No. 20, and the fugue in Bach's well-known Toccata (Dörffel, No. 818), marked 'Dorisch.'

DORN, Heinrich, Ludwig, Edmund, a very considerable musician of modern Germany, born at Königsberg, Prussia, Nov. 14, 1804. His turn for music showed itself early, and was duly encouraged and assisted, but not so as to interfere with his general education. He went through the curriculum of the Königsberg University, and after visiting Dresden (where he made Weber's acquaintance) and other towns of Germany, fixed himself at Berlin in 1824 or 25, and set seriously to work at music under Zelter, Klein, and L. Berger, mixing in the abundant intellectual and musical life which at that time distinguished Berlin, when Rahel, Heine, Mendelssohn, Klingemann, Marx, Spontini, Devrient, Moscheles, Reissiger, and many more, were among the elements of society. With Spontini and Marx he was very intimate, and lost no opportunity of defending the former with his pen. At Berlin he brought out an opera, 'Die Rolandsknappen,' with success. In 1817 he left Berlin, and after travelling for some time returned to his native place as conductor of the theatre. In 1829 he went to Leipzig in the same capacity, and remained there till 32. During this time he had the honour of giving instruction in counterpoint to Schumann. After leaving Leipzig, his next engagements were at the theatres of Hamburg and Riga, in the latter place succeeding Wagner. During the whole of this time he added much teaching to his regular duties, and exercised an excellent influence on the musical life of the places in which he lived. At Riga he remained till 1843, when he was called to succeed C. Kreutzer at Cologne. During the five years of his residence there he was fully occupied, directing the Festivals of 44 and 47, founding the Rheinische Musikschule (1845), and busying himself much about music, in addition to the duties of his post and much teaching. In 47 [App. p.617 "49"] he succeeded O. Nicolai as conductor of the Royal Opera in Berlin, in conjunction with Taubert. This post he retained till the end of 68, when he was pensioned off in favour of Eckert, and became a 'Königlicher Professor.' Since then he has occupied himself in teaching and writing, in both which capacities he has a great reputation in Berlin. Dorn is of the conservative party, and a bitter opponent of Wagner. He is musical editor of the Post, and writes also in the Gartenlaube and the Hausfreund. His account of his career, 'Aus meinem Leben' (Berlin, 1870, 2 vols.) and 'Ostracismus' (Ib. 74), are both valuable books. A paper of his on Mendelssohn appeared in 'Temple Bar' for February 1872. His compositions embrace 10 operas, of which 'Die Nibelungen' (1854) is the most remarkable; a requiem (1851); many cantatas; symphonies and other orchestral works; many pianoforte pieces, songs, etc. As a conductor he was one of the first of his day, with every quality of intelligence, energy, tact, and industry, to fill that difficult position.

[ F. G. ]

DORUS-GRAS, Julie Aimée. See Gras.

DOT (Fr. Point; Ger. Punkt; Ital. Punto). A point placed after a note to indicate that its length is to be increased one half; a semibreve with the addition of a dot being thus equal to three minims, a minim with a dot to three crotchets, and so on.

So far as regards rhythm, this is at the present time the only use of the dot, and it is necessitated by the fact that modern notation has no form of note equal to three of the next lower denomination, so that without the dot the only way of expressing notes of three-fold value would be by means of the bind, thus

instead of

,

instead of

, which method would greatly add to the difficulty of reading. The sign itself is however derived from the ancient system of 'measured music' (musica mensuralis, about A. D. 1300), in which it exercised various functions, and where it is met with in four forms, called respectively 'point of perfection,' 'point of alteration,' 'point of division,' and 'point of addition.' The different uses of these points or dots was as follows.

The rhythm of the measured music was at first always triple; that is to say, the accent fell upon the first beat of every three (the division of music into bars is of later date, see Bar), and each note was of the value of three of the next lower denomination, the long being equal to three breves and the breve to three semibreves , and so on. But whenever a long note was followed or preceded by one of the next shorter kind, and the latter sung to an unaccented syllable, it became necessary to shorten the long note by one third, in order to preserve the triple character of the rhythm. Thus Ex. 1 would be sung as Ex. 2, and not as Ex. 3, notwithstanding the breve under other circumstances would be worth three semibreves:—

The note thus shortened was termed imperfect.

Cases often arose, however, in which the long note was required to be perfect, i.e. worth three beats, in spite of its being followed by a shorter note; in these cases a dot called the 'point of perfection,' and written either as a simple dot or a dot with a tail [symbol] (punctus caudatus), was introduced after the note, the function of which was to preserve the long note from being made imperfect by the next following short note, thus—

Another kind of dot, the 'point of alteration,' written like the foregoing, but placed either