Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 2.djvu/628

Pope Benedict XIV. Their authenticity as faithful copies, made from original MSS. during the lifetime of Palestrina and the other great Masters whose works they contain, is indisputable; and, in common with the volumes in the Collegio Romano, they possess an additional interest from the fact that the Accidentals demanded by the laws of Cantus fictus are supplied in them throughout. [See Music ficta.] It is impossible to ascertain by whose hand those Accidentals were inserted. In all probability they were introduced for the convenience of the Ducal Choir. But it is certain that they date from a time when Cantus fictus was much more generally studied than it is now; and on this account they are invaluable authorities on disputed points.

Cardinal Otthoboni died, as we have said, in 1740. In the March number of the 'Gentleman's Magazine' for that year, the obituary contains the following account of his honours and liberality. 'Cardinal Ottoboni died on Feb. 17, aged 72. He advanced to the Purple at the age of 22. He died possessed of nine Abbeys in the Ecclesiastical States, five in Venice, and three in France, which last only amounted to 56,000 livres per annum. He was Dean of the Sacred College, and, in that quality, Bishop of Velletri and Ostia, Protector of France, Archpriest of S. John Lateran, and Secretary of the Holy Office. He had a particular inclination, when young, to Music, Poetry, and Classical Learning—composing Airs, Operas, and Oratorios. He made the greatest figure of any of the Cardinals; or, indeed, of any other person in Rome, for he had the soul of an Emperor, nor was there any princely notion but what he endeavoured to imitate, entertaining the people with Comedies, Operas, Puppet-shows, Oratorios, Academies, etc. He was magnificent in his alms, feasts, and entertainments at festivals. In the Ecclesiastical Functions he likewise showed great piety and generosity, and his Palace was the refuge of the Poor, as well as the resort of the Virtuosi. In his own Parish, he entertained a physician, surgeon, and apothecary, for the use of all that needed their assistance.'

[ W. S. R. ]

OTTO, Ernst Julius, born at Königstein Sept. 1, 1804; though always musical, was not educated exclusively for music. On the contrary, he passed his 'maturity examination' at Dresden in 1822 with honour, and studied theology for three years at Leipzig. While doing this he worked at music with Schicht and Weinlig. His compositions are of a solid character—oratorios; masses; an opera ('Schloss am Rhein') performed at Dresden 1838, and another at Augsburg; sonatas; cycles of songs for men's voices, etc. In 1830 he was appointed Cantor at Dresden, a post which he held with honour to himself up till his death, March 5, 1877.

His brother Franz, a bass singer (born 1806), and another brother a tenor, came to England in 1833 as directors of a Part-singing society.

[ G. ]

OULIBICHEFF, Alexander von, Russian nobleman, and enthusiastic amateur, born 1795 at Dresden, where his father was Russian ambassador. From his earliest years he was devoted to music, and studied the violin sufficiently to become a good quartet-player. He served first in the army, and then as a diplomatist, but retired on the accession of the Emperor Nicholas, and lived on his estates near Nijni-Novgorod till his death on January, 24, 1858. Mozart was his idol, and he re-awakened attention to his works at a time when Germany at least was entirely pre-occupied with Meyerbeer and Spontini. Oulibicheff's great work 'Nouvelle biographie de Mozart,' 3 vols. (Moscow, 1844), contains much valuable matter, biographical and æsthetical, and has been largely used by Otto Jahn. His admiration for Mozart however led him to depreciate Beethoven, and for this he was attacked by Lenz. In his reply, 'Beethoven, ses critiques et ses glossateurs' (Leipzig and Paris, 1857), he expressed with even greater vehemence his opinion on the extravagance of Beethoven's later works, and drew down a storm of abuse and controversy with which he was little fitted to cope, and which is said to have hastened his end. It is but just to admit that his views, less caustically expressed, were held by many eminent musicians, including Ries and Spohr.

[ F. G. ]

OU PEUT-ON ÊTRE MIEUX QU'AU SEIN DE SA FAMILLE? 'Where can one be better than in the bosom of one's family?' A quartet^[1] in Grétry's 'Lucile' (1769), which has become historical from its having been sung on several occasions—as for instance at Versailles, July 15, 1789; at Carlton House at the first visit of George III. and Queen Charlotte to the Prince of Wales, Feb. 3, 1795; and at Korythnia, on the retreat from Moscow, Nov. 15, 1812.^[2] The air is as follows:—

It was adopted by the Bourbons after the Restoration as a loyal air.

[ G. ]

OURS, L'—The Bear. A name sometimes given to one of the six symphonies composed by Haydn in 1786 for the Society of the 'Loge Olympique' in Paris. [See vol. i. p. 721.] The

1. Not a duet, as stated under Grétry, vol. i. 628a.
2. See Veillons au salut [App. p.737 "in Appendix"].