Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/195

ROUSSELOT. in 1848 or 1849 he returned to Paris, where he has since led a very retired life. While in London he started a musical publishing business in Regent Street, but it did not succeed. His brother,, a horn-player of great note, was born Feb. 6, 1803. He also was a pupil of the Conservatoire, specially under Daupret, and obtained the first prize in 1823. He has belonged to all the principal orchestras of Paris, lived for many years at Argenteuil, and died there in Sept. 1880. [ G. ]

ROVEDINO, CARLO, an excellent bass-singer, born in 1751, appears on the Italian Opera stage in London as early as 1778, and remained there, distinguished in serious and comic opera alike, for many years. He was also greatly in request for concerts, and his name is frequent in the best bills of the last decade of the century, both in town and country. He sang at Haydn's last benefit concert, May 4, 1795. He is said to have sung in Paris in 1790, and he probably divided his time between the two capitals. England, however, was his home; he died in London, Oct. 6, 1822, and was buried in the churchyard of Chelsea New Church.

One of his daughters married C. Weichsel, brother of Mrs. Billington, and leader of the orchestras at the Italian Opera and Philharmonic. [ G. ]

ROVELLI. A family of eminent Italian musicians. was first violin in the orchestra of the church of S. Maria Maggiore of Bergamo, at the beginning of this century. , his son, was a cellist, born at Bergamo in 1753, and died at Parma, Nov. 12, 1806. Of we only know that he was at one time director of the orchestra at Weimar, and that he was the father of, who was born at Bergamo, Feb. 6, 1793, and received his first lessons, both in violin-playing and the general science of music, from his grandfather. By an influential patron he was sent to Paris to study under R. Kreutzer, and his playing attracted much attention there. On his father's appointment to Weimar he joined him for a time. At the end of 1814 we find him at Munich, playing with great applause. He remained there for some years, and was made 'Royal Bavarian chamber-musician,' and 'first concerto-player.' In Feb. 1817 he was playing at Vienna; there he married Micheline, daughter of E. A. Forster, and a fine PF.-player, and in 1819 went on to Bergamo, took the place once occupied by his grandfather, and seems to have remained there, suffering much from bad health, till his death, Sept. 8, 1838. The writer in the Allg. mus. Zeitung for Dec. 26, 1838, from whom the above facts have been mainly taken, characterises his play as 'simple, expressive, graceful, noble; in a word, classical—a style which takes instant possession of the heart of the hearer.' In other notices in the same periodical, he is said to have inherited the pure, singing, expressive style of Viotti, and practised it to perfection. Molique was his pupil at Munich. [ G. ]

ROVESCIO, AL. A term used, in instrumental music, to express two different things, (1) An imitation by contrary motion, in which every descending interval in the leading part is imitated by an ascending one, and vice versa; see Moscheles's Etude 'La Forza,' op. 51. (2) A phrase or piece which may be played backwards throughout. It is then synonymous with. An interesting example occurs in the minuet of a Sonata for PF. and violin by Haydn, in which, on the repetition after the Trio, the minuet is played backwards, so as to end on the first note, Haydn's indication being Menuetto D.C. wird zurückgespielt. [See .]

[ F. T. ]

ROWLAND,, born at Trinidad, W. I., Jan. 1, 1826. His father served as bandmaster through the Peninsular campaign, was a fine clarinet player, and good practical musician. The lad was brought to London at a very early age, in 1831 began to learn the violin and side-drum, and in 1833 entered the orchestra of the Queen's Theatre, as player on both instruments, and soon became known for his solos at the Lent Oratorios, the Promenade and other Concerts, and other occasions. In 1839 he had the honour of some special hints from Spohr as to the drum part in his Concertino 'Sonst und Jetzt,' at the Norwich Festival. (See Spohr's Autobiography, part i. p. 220.) From 1842 to 1846 he was a member of Jullien's band,