Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 1.djvu/427

CRAMER & CO. solos and duets, many of the popular songs of C. Horn, the operas 'Oberon' and 'Freischütz,' the oratorio of 'Palestine' by Dr. Crotch, and a large number of Italian songs and duets by Gabussi, Meyerbeer, Mozart, Pacini, Paer, Rossini, Vaccaj, and others, thus giving the house a very strong position in the music trade. Upon this followed the English operas of Balfe, Benedict, and Barnett, the glees of Horsley and Calcott, the songs of Neukomm, pianoforte works of Dohler, Moscheles, Thalberg, Leopold de Meyer, etc. Between 1830 and 40 Mr. Cramer was much abroad, and in 1843 Mr. Addison retired from the business and was succeeded by Mr. W. Chappell, when the firm became Cramer, Beale, and Chappell. In 1845 Vincent Wallace returned from America, and Cramer & Co. secured his 'Maritana,' publishing also, as years went on, his other successful works. In 1861 Mr. Chappell retired, and was succeeded in the firm by Mr. George Wood. Mr. Beale dying in 1863 the whole of the business fell into the hands of Mr. Wood, who still carries it on with great success, giving, however, more attention to pianoforte manufacturing than to publishing, having introduced and very extensively carried out a novel mode of supplying pianofortes on a hiring system, which seems to have become very general. [ C. H. P. ]

CRANG & HANCOCK, organ builders. John Crang, a Devonshire man, settled in London and became a partner with Hancock, a good voicer of reeds. The latter added new reeds to many of Father Smith's organs. Crang altered the old echoes into swells in many organs, as at St. Paul's Cathedral, St. Peter's, Cornhill, etc. There appear to have been two Hancocks, John and James, probably brothers; both are mentioned in the contract for an organ at Chelmsford in 1772. John died in 1792, and James was living in 1820, and probably later. Crang appears to have given his name to Crang Hancock, a pianoforte maker. [ V. P. ]

CREATION, THE. Haydn's first oratorio, written at the suggestion of Salomon. The book of words was selected—originally for Handel—from Genesis and Paradise Lost by Mr. Lidley or Liddell, and translated into German, as 'Die Schöpfung,' with modifications, by Baron van Swieten. The music occupied Haydn from 1796 to April 1798, and was produced by a body of Dilettanti at the Schwartzenberg Palace, Vienna, April 29 [App. p.601 "2"], 1798. 500 ducats were subscribed for Haydn. In 1800 it was published in score at Vienna with German and English words, the latter re-translated by Van Swieten; 510 copies were subscribed for, of which nearly half were for England. It was first performed in London at Covent Garden, March 28, 1800, and in Paris Dec. 24, 1800, when Napoleon I. escaped the infernal machine in the Rue Nicaise. A great performance by the same society as before took place at the University Hall, Vienna, on March 27, 1808, in Haydn's presence, a year and two months before his death. Its popularity in England dates from March 17, 1813, and reached its climax some 20 years ago.

CREDO is the first word of the Nicene Creed in Latin, and is the name by which it is well known to musicians by reason of the magnificent music to which it has been set by the greatest composers for the use of the Roman Church in the Service of the Mass. The traditional figure to which the first sentence is given out by the priest is

and upon this Bach developed the stupendous contrapuntal chorus to those words in his B minor Mass. [ C. H. H. P. ]

CREED. There are three creeds in use in the services of the English church—the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene, and that known by the name of St. Athanasius.

The first of these is the most ancient, and of unknown origin, and was probably used in early times. It is found in the ancient breviaries of the churches of England, such as those of Sarum and York, in much the same position as it now occupies. In the first Prayer Book of Edward VI it was ordered to be said or sung like the other creeds, but in later revisions the word 'sung' has been removed [App. p.601 omits "but … removed"] and it has become the custom only to intone it, and in some churches the intonation is supported by harmonies on the organ, but it has not been definitely set to music for English use.

The Nicene Creed is distinguished in the English church by an extensive musical treatment. It cannot be ascertained when it came into use in the ancient English offices. It is in the breviaries of Sarum, York and Hereford, for use on feasts and solemn occasions. It was looked upon to some extent as a hymn, whence its universal musical treatment. Marbeck's setting of it in the 'Book of Common Praier noted' of 1552 for the use of the English reformed church follows the Roman originals much less closely than most of the other parts of his setting of the service, and is consequently much more free and melodious. Tallis's setting of it is said to resemble the Gregorian Descants of the creed in the Missa de Angelis. Further settings of it both ancient and modern are extremely numerous. Among the ancient ones may be mentioned settings by Bird (in 6 parts), Farrant, Gibbons, Child, Aldrich, Blow, Purcell, Rogers and Bevin. Attempts have been made with very fair success to adapt it to a kind of free chant form, which renders it more available for musical performance by parish choirs and general congregations.

The Athanasian Creed, as it is now called, was formerly known very generally as the Psalm 'Quicunque vult'—the first two words of its Latin form. It was sung at Prime after certain other psalms, and the custom of singing it as a psahn has continued in the Roman church to the present day, it being pointed and divided into paragraphs after the manner of psalms, and