his studies, the care of the Academy of Ancient Music, and the instruction of a Few favourite pupils. His wife is commonly said to have died in 1740, but an entry in a MS. diary kept by Benjamin (afterwards Dr.) Cooke, then a pupil of Pepusch, proves her death to have taken place in or about August 1746. Cooke writes, under date 'Sunday, Aug. 10, 1746,'—'I was at the (Surrey) Chapel in the morning, but in the afternoon went to Vauxhall with the Doctor, Mrs. Pepusch being dead.' Pepusch lost his only child, a son, a youth of great promise, some short time before. He wrote a paper on the ancient Genera, which was read before the Royal Society, and published in the 'Philosophical Transactions' for 1746, and for which he was elected F.R.S. He died July 20, 1752, and was buried in the chapel of the Charter House, where a tablet was placed to his memory in 1757. Besides the compositions before named he produced odes to the memory of the Duke of Devonshire, 1707 (sung by Margarita de l'Epine and Mrs. Tofts) and for the Princess of Wales's birthday, March 1, 1715–16; airs, sonatas, and concertos for various combinations of string and wind instruments, and some Latin motets. He also edited Corelli's Sonatas in score. In 1751 he dictated 'A Short Account of the Twelve Modes of Composition and their Progression in every Octave,' never published. He bequeathed his library to John Travers and Ephraim Kelner, on whose deaths it was dispersed. A portrait of him is in the Music School, Oxford. Another portrait, by Hudson, has been engraved. Although Pepusch was somewhat pedantic, he was profoundly skilled in musical science, and the musicians he formed (of whom it is only necessary to mention Travers, Boyce, and Cooke) sufficiently attest his skill as a teacher.
[ W. H. H. ]
PERABO, Ernst, born at Wiesbaden, Nov. 14, 1845, one of 10 children, all followers of music. His talent showed itself very early, and when only nine he is said to have played Bach's 'Well-tempered Clavier' by heart. In 1852 his parents took him to New York, and after a time arrangements were made to send him back to Germany for education. He left the United States Sept. 1, 1858, and after nearly four years at Hamburg entered the Leipzig Conservatorium Oct. 22, 1862. After going successfully through the course there under Moscheles, Richter, etc., he returned to New York in Nov. 1865, and after some hesitation settled at Boston, where he is well known and much esteemed as a teacher, a pianoforte player, and a composer and arranger of music for that instrument. He plays at the Harvard Musical Association, and at recitals of his own. His repertoire is good and wide, and his style of playing is highly spoken of. Amongst other things he has played the whole of Schubert's PF. Sonatas in public. His compositions embrace a Scherzo, op. 2, an Introduction and Andante, op. 45, and 3 Studies, op. 9.
[ G. ]
PERCUSSION. The treatment of a large proportion of discords is divided into three stages—Preparation, Percussion, and Resolution. The Preparation is the sounding of a discordant note in a previous chord, Percussion is the actual sounding of the discord, and Resolution the particular mode of its release, or passage into concordance. In the following example, where E in the treble of the second chord is the discordant note, (a) is the preparation, (b) the percussion, and (c) the resolution. [See Preparation, and Resolution.]
[ C. H. H. P. ]
PERCY, John, was a composer of ballads which were in favour in the latter part of the last century, but which have now passed out of remembrance, with the single exception of 'Wapping Old Stairs.' He died Jan. 24, 1797.
[ W. H. H. ]
PERDENDOSI, PERDENDO LE FORZE, 'losing strength.' A direction like 'morendo,' nearly always used at the end of a movement or section of a movement. It denotes a gradual diminuendo, and in the later modern masters, a slight rallentando as well. Beethoven uses 'perdendo le forze, dolente' in the third movement of the Pianoforte Sonata op. 110, where the slow time of the movement (Adagio ma non troppo) is resumed after the interruption by the fugue. It is used as an Italian version of 'Ermattet, klagend,' which is written above it. He also employs 'sempre perdendo' in the slow movement of the Symphony in B♭ (No. 4), in bars 12 to 10 from the end. 'Perdendosi' is used by Weber frequently, for instance in the slow movement of the pianoforte sonata in C, op. 24, etc., and by Chopin in the second of the two Polonaises op. 40, just before the return to the first subject.
[ J. A. F. M. ]
PEREZ, Davide, son of a Spaniard, born in Naples 1711, was admitted in 1718 to the Conservatorio of Sta. Maria di Loreto, where he studied the violin under Antonio Gallo, and counterpoint under Francesco Mancini. His first opera 'Siroe'[1] was composed for San Carlo in 1740. At the invitation of Prince Naselli he went to Palermo, and became master of the Real Cappella Palatina. Here he remained till 1748, and produced 'L'Eroismo di Scipione' (1741), 'Astartea,' 'Medea,' and 'L'Isola incantata.' After 'La Clemenza di Tito' (1749), given at San Carlo in Naples, and 'Semiramide' (1750) at the Teatro delle Dame in Rome, he composed operas for all the principal towns in Italy. In 1752 he accepted an invitation to Lisbon, where he composed 'Demofoonte' for Gizziello and the tenor Raaff (Mozart's Munich friend), the success of which was so great that the King bestowed on him the Order of Christ, and the post of 'maestro at the Real Cappella,' with a salary of 30,000 francs. The new theatre in Lisbon was opened in 1755 with Perez's opera 'Alessandro nelle
- ↑ The score, dated 1740, is in the Real Collegio of Naples.
