were the 'Musikalischer Hausschatz,' a collection of Lieder, &c. (Leipzig 1843), and 'Die deutsche Liedertafel' (ibid. 46). As an author he published various volumes and pamphlets, but none of which the names are worth preserving. Besides the Zeitung, he was a prolific contributor to the Conversations-Lexicons of Ersch and Gruber, and of Brockhaus, and to Schilling's 'Lexicon der Tonkunst.' He left in MS. a history of music, upon which he had been engaged for 20 years. Fink was at once narrow and superficial, and a strong conservative; and the Zeitung did not maintain under his editorship the position it held in the musical world under Rochlitz.
[ M. C. C. ]
FIORAVANTI, Valentino, composer, born in Rome 1770, studied under Sala at the 'Pietá de' Turchini' at Naples. His first opera 'Coi matti il savio si perde' produced at the Pergola in Florence 1791, was followed by at least 50 others, all comic. He was invited to Paris in consequence of the success of 'Le Cantatrici Villane' (1806 [App. p.636 "1803"]) and there wrote 'I virtuosi ambulanti' (1807). These two were on the whole his best operas, though all possessed a genuine vein of comedy, a freshness, and an ease in the part-writing, which concealed their triviality and want of originality, and made them very popular in their day. In June 1816 he succeeded Jannaconi as maestro di capella to St. Peter's at Rome, and while in that post wrote a quantity of church music very inferior to his operas. [App. p.636 "'Adelaida' was produced at Naples in 1817."] His character was gentle and retiring; and the last few years of his life were spent very quietly. He died at Capua, on his way to Naples, June 16, 1837. Like Paisiello and other considerable Italian composers of that date, Fioravanti was extinguished by Rossini.
His son Vincenzo, born 1810 [App. p.636 "born April 5, 1799, died March 28, 1877"], also composed operas with ephemeral success.
[ M. C. C. ]
FIORILLO, Federico, violin-player and composer, was born in 1753 at Brunswick, where his father Ignazio, a Neapolitan by birth, lived as conductor of the opera. He appears to have been originally a player of the mandoline, and only afterwards to have taken up the violin. In 1780 he went to Poland, and about the year 83 we find him conductor of the band at Riga, where he stayed for two years. In 85 he played with much success at the Concert Spirituel at Paris, and published some of his compositions, which were very favourably received. In 1788 he went to London, where he appears to have been less successful as a violinist, as we conclude from the fact that he played the viola part in Salomon's quartet-party. His last appearance in public in London took place in the year 1794, when he performed a Concerto on the viola at the Antient Concert. Of the rest of his life but little is known, except that he went from London to Amsterdam, and in 1823 was in Paris. Place and date of his death are not known. His numerous compositions are Duos for Violins, for Piano and Violin, and Violin and Cello; Trios for Flute, Violin, and Tenor, for 2 Violins and Bass; Quartets and Quintets for Stringed Instruments; Concertos for the Violin; Concertantes for a Violins, etc.). They were very favourably received in his time, and, although somewhat dry and old-fashioned, show him to have been a sound and earnest musician. There is however one particular work which has brought his name down to our time, and will probably long remain a standard. His 36 Caprices or Etudes are known and valued by every violin-player. They rank with the classical studies of Kreutzer and Rode, and, apart from their usefulness, are not without merit as compositions. They have been edited over and over again—most recently by Ferdinand David (Leipzig, Scuff). Spohr wrote and published an accompanying violin-part to them.
[ P. D. ]
FIORITURE, flowerets. The Italian term for ornaments—scales, arpeggios, turns, shakes, etc.—introduced by singers into airs. In the last century airs were often written plain, and were embroidered by the singers according to their taste and ability. Such songs as 'O dolce concento' and 'Nel cor piú' were seldom sung alike by two different singers. Rossini's early airs were written for the same treatment—witness 'Non piú mesta.' A remnant of it many will still remember in the long tasteless cadenzas indulged in at the close of Handel's airs. This was all very well as long as singers were also good musicians, and as long as the singing was more thought of than what was sung. But now these things are changed, and the composer writes exactly what he intends to be sung—notes, nuances, and expression.
The practice of 'fioriture' was not unknown to players in the orchestra as well as to singers. Spohr gives some amusing and almost incredible instances of such freaks of Horns and Clarinets in the Tutti of his 'Scena Cantante' Concerto, at Rome in 1816 (Selbstbiographie, i. 330).
[ G. ]
FIREWORK MUSIC. A series of pieces—Overture, Allegro, Lentement, Bourée, Largo alla siciliana, Allegro, and 2 Minuets, all in the key of D—written by Handel and performed at the Fireworks given in the Green Park, April 27, 1749 on the occasion of the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. The band—100 in all—contained 24 oboes, 12 bassoons, 9 trumpets, 9 horns, 3 timpani, besides strings.
[ G. ]
FIRING is pulling all the bells in a tower at once, so as to make them strike together. It is practised in England on specially joyful or mournful occasions—on the latter with the bells muffled.
[ C. A. W. T. ]
FIS and FISIS, the German terms for F♯ and F×. The equivalent French terms are Fa diése and Fa double diése.
FISCHER. A family of singers of the 18th and 19th centuries. The founder was Ludwig, a Bass, of whom Otto Jahn (Mozart, 2nd ed. i. 661, 630) speaks as 'an artist of extraordinary gift, for compass, power, and beauty of voice, and artistic perfection both in singing and playing, probably the greatest German bass-singer.' He was born at Mayence, 1745, and well known
