LARGE (Lat. Maxima, Old Eng. Maxim). The longest note used in measured music. In ancient MSS., the Large appears as an oblong black note, corresponding with the Double-Long described in the Ars Cantus Mensurabilis of Franco of Cologne. Franchinus Gafforius, writing in 1496, figures it as an oblong white note, with a tail descending on the right hand side; which form it has retained, unchanged, to the present day.[1]
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In the Great Mode Perfect, the Large is equal to three Longs: in the Great Mode Imperfect, to two. [See Mode.] The Rest for the Perfect Large stretches, in a double line, across three spaces; that for the Imperfect Large, across two.
In Polyphonic Music, the final note is always written as a Large: and, in that position, its length is sometimes indefinitely prolonged, in the Canto fermo, while the other voices are elaborating a florid cadence. In Plain Chaunt, the Large—or, rather, in that case, the Double-Long—is sometimes, but not very frequently, used, to indicate the Reciting-Note.
[ W. S. R. ]
LARGHETTO, partaking, of the broad style of Largo, but about the same pace with Andante. Well-known instances of its use are the slow movements in Beethoven's 2nd Symphony and Violin Concerto.
[ G. ]
LARGO, i.e. broad, an Italian term meaning a slow, broad, dignified style. Handel employs it often, as in the Messiah in 'Behold the Lamb of God,' 'He was despised,' and 'Surely.' Haydn uses it for the Introduction and first Chorus in the 'Creation,' as well as in the Introduction to the 3rd Part. Beethoven employs it only in P.F. works, and it is enough to mention some of the instances to show what grandeur and deep feeling he conveyed by this term,—op. 7; op. 10, no. 3; op. 37; op. 70, no. 1; op. 106. He often accompanies it with passionato, or some other term denoting intense expression. Mendelssohn uses it for 'broad' in the Andante of his [App. p.697 "Quartet in E♭"] op. 12.
The term Largamente has recently come into use to denote breadth of style without change of tempo. Largo implies a slow pace, but the very varying metronome marks applied to it show conclusively that style and not pace is its principal intention.
[ G. ]
LARIGOT (from an old French word, l'arigot, for a small flute or flageolet, now obsolete), the old name for a rank of small open metal pipes, the longest of which is only 1½ ft. speaking-length. Its pitch is a fifth above that of the fifteenth, an octave above the twelfth, and a nineteenth above the unison. It is first met with, in English organs, in those made by Harris, who passed many years in France, and who placed one in his instrument in St. Sepulchre's, Snow Hill, erected in 1670.
[ E. J. H. ]
LAROCHE, James, better known as Jemmy Laroch, or Laroche, was a popular singer in London, though probably French by origin or birth, at the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries. He played, as a boy, the part of Cupid in Motteux's 'Loves of Mars and Venus,' set to music by Eccles and Finger, in which the part of Venus was played by Mrs. Bracegirdle, in 1696. He was, therefore, born probably about 1680–2. His portrait appears on a very rare print, called 'The Raree Show. Sung by Jemmy Laroch in the Musical Interlude for the Peace, with the Tune Set to Musick for the Violin. Ingraved Printed Culred and Sold by Sutton Nicholls next door to the Jack, etc. London,' fol. It was afterwards published by Samuel Lyne. There are 33 verses beginning 'O Raree Show, O Brave Show' below the engraving, which represents Laroche with the show on a stool, exhibiting it to a group of children; and at foot is the music. The Peace of Utrecht was signed in April, 1713, and this interlude was played in celebration of it, at the Theatre in Little Lincoln's Inn Fields, the music being written by John Eccles. The portrait of Laroche was also engraved by M. Laroon in his 'Cries of London.'
[ J. M. ]
LAROON, J., a foreigner who sang in opera in the first years of the last century in London, and was, perhaps, the son of M. Laroon, the artist (born at the Hague 1653, died 1705), who engraved the 'Cries of London,' etc. J. Laroon played, among other parts, that of Sylvander (tenor) in 'The Temple of Love,' by G. F. Saggione (1706), not (as Burney incorrectly says) by Greber. [See Gallia.]
[ J. M. ]
LASSEN, Eduard, though a native of Copenhagen, where he was born April 13, 1830, is virtually a Belgian musician, since he was taken to Brussels when only 2, entered the Conservatoire there at 12, in 1844 took the first prize as P.F. player, in 47 the same for harmony, and soon afterward the second prize for composition. His successes, which were many, were crowned by the great Government prize, which was adjudged to him in 1851, after which he started on a lengthened tour through Germany and Italy. Disappointed in his hopes of getting his 5-act opera, 'Le Roi Edgard' performed at Brussels, he betook himself to Weimar, where in 57 it was produced under the care of Liszt, with great success. A second, 'Frauenlob,' and a third, 'Der Gefangene,' were equally fortunate. When Liszt retired from Weimar, Lassen took his place, and had the satisfaction to produce 'Tristan and Isolde' in 1874, at a time when no other theatre but Munich had dared to do so. He there published a Symphony in D, a Beethoven overture, and a Festival ditto, music to Sophocles' Œdipus, to Hebbel's Nibelungen, and Goethe's Faust, Parts 1 and 2, a Fest-Cantate, a Te Deum, a large number of songs, and other pieces. His latest work is a set of 6 songs (op. 67).
[ G. ]
- ↑ In modern reprints, the tail is sometimes made to ascend; but it is indispensable that it should be on the right hand side. See innumerable examples in Proske's Musica Divisa.
