Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 1.djvu/85

ANTHEM. Sir John Goss [App. p.523 "omit from the list of living composers"], and the facile yet masterly art of Sir Frederick Ouseley, not to particularise other well-known names, we may be well content with the present fortune of the anthem, as well as hopeful for its future.

While many fine examples of eight-part writing exist among the anthems of Gibbons, Purcell, and various later composers, it is much to be desired that the plan of writing for two choirs, treated antiphonally, were more cultivated among us, than has hitherto been the case. The ample spaces and acoustical properties of our cathedrals and huge churches are eminently suited to enhance the effects belonging to such a disposition of voices; while the attendance of trained and self-dependent bodies of singers would ensure all necessary point and firmness of attack in performance. In this direction, and in the employment of an independent obbligato accompaniment for organ, orchestra, or both combined, probably lie the most promising paths to 'fresh fields and pastures new' for the rising school of musicians who aspire to distinction as composers of the anthem. [ E. G. M. ]

ANTICIPATION is when a part of a chord about to follow is introduced beforehand. Thus it has been very customary in a perfect cadence at the end of a strain, to anticipate, before the conclusion of the dominant harmony, one of the notes of the tonic or following chord. This is very common in the old masters, as in the following example from the 'Messiah':—

It is considered a grace of style by modern singers to give the anticipated note with peculiar deliberation and emphasis.

The following passage from Handel's 'Funeral Anthem' contains an anticipation of two notes in the closing chord.

Professor Ouseley ('Harmony,' p. 204) is of opinion that the third note, G, of the first soprano is also a sort of anticipation of the succeeding chord.

Beethoven has many striking examples of anticipation of a quite different and bolder kind. Thus, in a well-known passage in the last movement of the C minor Symphony, the basses, first with the drums alone and then with the stringed instruments, anticipate the harmony of the great crash of the Allegro four bars before it breaks in (see the original 8vo score, p. 150).

There is a similar anticipation of four bars at the beginning of the last movement of the Pastoral Symphony.

In the first movement of the 'Sinfonia Eroica,' just before the reprise of the principal subject, there is an anticipation of four bars of a melody, still more daring because it is more completely separated from the part anticipated.

This is a musical illustration of the adage, 'Coming events cast their shadows before,' and it is difficult to explain it on any other principle. (See .) [ W. P. ]

ANTIGONE of Sophocles. Mendelssohn in Sept. 1841 composed music—Introduction and seven numbers (Op. 55)—to Donner's version. First performance at New Palace, Potsdam, Oct. 28, 1841; first public do. at Berlin opera, Nov. 6.

ANTINORI,, was born at Bologna about 1697. He was one of the best tenor singers of the beginning of the 18th century, being gifted with a voice of pure and penetrating quality, and having acquired an excellent method of using it. He came to London in 1725 and sang in 'Elisa,' an anonymous opera; and in 'Elpidia,' by Vinci and others, a pasticcio given by Handel, in which Antinori took the place of Borosini, who sang in it at first. In the season of 1726 he appeared in Handel's 'Scipio' and 'Alessandro.' After that season his name does not appear again. [ J. M. ]

ANTIPHON (from the Greek αντιφωνέω, to raise the voice in reply), a short piece of plainsong introduced before a psalm or canticle, to the Tone of which it corresponds, while the words are selected so as specially to illustrate and enforce the evangelical or prophetic meaning of the text.

The following is the antiphon which opens the service of Lauds (corresponding to the English Morning Prayer) on Easter Day, and supplies the evangelical comment on the Psalm which follows it. The same Psalm is sung at the beginning of Lauds every Sunday, but with a different antiphon, suggesting a different application of its contents.

