de Rosen). This was the turning-point in Glinka’s life,—for the work was not only a great success, but in a manner became the origin and basis of a Russian school of national music. The story is taken from the invasion of Russia by the Poles early in the 17th century, and the hero is a peasant who sacrifices his life for the tsar. Glinka has wedded this patriotic theme to inspiring music. His melodies, moreover, show distinct affinity to the popular songs of the Russians, so that the term “national” may justly be applied to them. His appointment as imperial chapelmaster and conductor of the opera of St Petersburg was the reward of his dramatic successes. His second opera Russlan and Lyudmila, founded on Pushkin’s poem, did not appear till 1842; it was an advance upon Life for the Tsar in its musical aspect, but made no impression upon the public. In the meantime Glinka wrote an overture and four entre-actes to Kukolnik’s drama Prince Kholmsky. In 1844 he went to Paris, and his Jota Arragonesa (1847), and the symphonic work on Spanish themes, Une Nuit à Madrid, reflect the musical results of two years’ sojourn in Spain. On his return to St Petersburg he wrote and arranged several pieces for the orchestra, amongst which the so-called Kamarinskaya achieved popularity beyond the limits of Russia. He also composed numerous songs and romances. In 1857 he went abroad for the third time; he now wrote his autobiography, orchestrated Weber’s Invitation à la valse, and began to consider a plan for a musical version of Gogol’s Tarass-Boulba. Abandoning the idea and becoming absorbed in a passion for ecclesiastical music he went to Berlin to study the ancient church modes. Here he died suddenly on the 2nd of February 1857.
GLINKA, SERGY NIKOLAEVICH (1774–1847), Russian
author, the elder brother of Fedor N. Glinka, was born at
Smolensk in 1774. In 1796 he entered the Russian army, but
after three years’ service retired with the rank of major. He
afterwards employed himself in the education of youth and in
literary pursuits, first in the Ukraine, and subsequently at
Moscow, where he died in 1847. His poems are spirited and
patriotic; he wrote also several dramatic pieces, and translated
Young’s Night Thoughts.
Among his numerous prose works the most important from an historical point of view are: Russkoe Chtenie (Russian Reading: Historical Memorials of Russia in the 18th and 19th Centuries) (2 vols., 1845); Istoriya Rossii, &c. (History of Russia for the use of Youth) (10 vols., 1817–1819, 2nd ed. 1822, 3rd ed. 1824); Istoriya Armyan, &c. (History of the Migration of the Armenians of Azerbijan from Turkey to Russia) (1831); and his contributions to the Russky Vyestnik (Russian Messenger), a monthly periodical, edited by him from 1808 to 1820.
GLOBE-FISH, or Sea-Hedgehog, the names by which some
sea-fishes are known, which have the remarkable faculty of
inflating their stomachs with air. They belong to the families
Diodontidae and Tetrodontidae. Their jaws resemble the sharp
beak of a parrot, the bones and teeth being coalesced into one
mass with a sharp edge. In the Diodonts there is no mesial
division of the jaws, whilst in the Tetrodonts such a division
exists, so that they appear to have two teeth above and two
below. By means of these jaws they are able to break off
branches of corals, and to masticate other hard substances
on which they feed. Usually they are of a short, thick, cylindrical
shape, with powerful fins (fig. 1). Their body is covered with
thick skin, without scales, but provided with variously formed
spines, the size and extent of which vary in the different species.
When they inflate their capacious stomachs with air, they assume
a globular form, and the spines protrude, forming a more or less
formidable defensive armour (fig. 2). A fish thus blown out
turns over and floats belly upwards, driving before the wind
and waves. Many of these fishes are highly poisonous when
eaten, and fatal accidents have occurred from this cause. It
appears that they acquire poisonous qualities from their food,
which frequently consists of decomposing or poisonous animal
matter, such as would impart, and often does impart, similar
deleterious qualities to other fish. They are most numerous
between the tropics and in the seas contiguous to them, but a
few species live in large rivers, as, for instance, the Tetrodon
fahaka, a fish well known to all travellers on the Nile. Nearly
100 different species are known.
Fig. 1.—Diodon maculatus. | Fig. 2.—Diodon maculatus (inflated). |
GLOBIGERINA, A. d’Orbigny, a genus of Perforate
Foraminifera (q.v.) of pelagic habit, and formed of a conical spiral
aggregate of spheroidal chambers with a crescentic mouth. The
shells accumulate at the bottom of moderately deep seas to form
“Globigerina ooze” and are preserved thus in the chalk.
Hastigerina only differs in the “flat” or nautiloid spiral.
GLOCKENSPIEL, or Orchestral Bells (Fr. carillon; Ger.
Glockenspiel, Stahlharmonika; Ital. campanelli; Med. Lat.
tintinnabulum, cymbalum, bombulum), an instrument of percussion
of definite musical pitch, used in the orchestra, and made in
two or three different styles. The oldest form of glockenspiel,
seen in illuminated MSS. of the middle ages, consists of a set
of bells mounted on a frame and played by one performer by
means of steel hammers. The name “bell” is now generally
a misnomer, other forms of metal or wood having been found
more convenient. The pyramid-shaped glockenspiel, formerly
used in the orchestra for simple rhythmical effects, consists
of an octave of semitone, hemispherical bells, placed one above
the other and fastened to an iron rod which passes through the
centre of each, the bells being of graduated sizes and diminishing
in diameter as the pitch rises. The lyre-shaped glockenspiel,
or steel harmonica (Stahlharmonika), is a newer model, which has
instead of bells twelve or more bars of steel, graduating in size
according to their pitch. These bars are fastened horizontally
across two bars of steel set perpendicularly in a steel frame in
the shape of a lyre. The bars are struck by little steel hammers
attached to whalebone sticks.
Wagner has used the glockenspiel with exquisite judgment in the fire scene of the last act of Die Walküre and in the peasants’ waltz in the last scene of Die Meistersinger. When chords are written for the glockenspiel, as in Mozart’s Magic Flute, the keyed harmonica[1] is used. It consists of a keyboard having a little hammer attached to each key, which strikes a bar of glass or steel when the key is depressed. The performer, being able to use both hands, can play a melody with full harmonies, scale and arpeggio passages in single and double notes. A peal of hemispherical bells was specially constructed for Sir Arthur Sullivan’s Golden Legend. It consists of four bells constructed of bell-metal about 1 in. thick, the largest measuring 27 in. in diameter, the smallest 23. They are fixed on a stand one above the other, with a clearance of about 34 in. between them; the rim of the lowest and largest bell is 15 in. from the foot of the stand. The bells are struck by mallets, which are of two kinds—a pair of hard wood for forte passages, and a pair covered
- ↑ See “The Keyed Harmonica improved by H. Klein of Pressburg,” article in the Allg. musik. Ztg., Bd. i. pp. 675-699 (Leipzig, 1798); also Becker, p. 254, Bartel.