Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/229

SAINTON. during his long career as Professor of the Violin at the Royal Academy may be mentioned H. Weist Hill [see ], F. Amor, A. C. Mackenzie, A. Burnett, Miss Gabrielle Vaillant, W. Sutton, and many more good players. His works comprise 2 Concertos for the violin with orchestra; a Solo de Concert; a Eondo mazurka; 3 Romances; several airs with variations; and numerous Fantasias on operas. In 1860 Mr. Sainton married Miss Dolby the well-known English contralto singer. [ G. ]

SAINTON-DOLBY,, was born in London in 1821, and gave signs of possessing decided musical talent when still young. Her earliest instructress was a Mrs. Montague, from whom she received pianoforte lessons. On the death of her father Miss Dolby determined to adopt the musical profession, and in 1832 entered the Royal Academy of Music, where she first studied under Mr. J. Bennett and Mr. Elliott, and then under Signor Crivelli. In 1837 so great was her promise that she was elected a King's Scholar, although her voice was still weak and not fully developed. She remained at the Academy for five years, and after leaving was elected an honorary member of the institution. Almost from the date of her first appearance in public, until her retirement in 1870, Miss Dolby remained unrivalled as a singer of oratorio and English ballads. The admirable skill with which she controlled a powerful contralto voice, the exquisite intonation, perfect enunciation, and noble declamation which distinguished her singing, caused her to take a very high place, not only among English, but among European artists of the present century. She made her first appearance at the Philharmonic in a quartet, June 14, 1841, and in a solo, April 14, 1842. In the winter of 1846–7, Mendelssohn, who had been delighted by her singing in 'St. Paul,' obtained for her an engagement at the Gewandhaus Concerts at Leipzig, where she appeared with as great success as she had done in England. About this time Mendelssohn dedicated to her his Six Songs (op. 57), besides writing the contralto music in 'Elijah' with the special view to her singing it. Her success in Leipzig was followed by several concert tours in France and Holland, in both of which countries Miss Dolby established her reputation as a singer of the first rank. In 1860 she married M. Prosper Sainton, the eminent violinist, and ten years later she retired from public life. In 1872 Mme. Sainton opened her Vocal Academy, at which she has successfully trained many excellent artists in the admirable school of pure vocalisation, of which she is herself so distinguished an example. Besides her labours in connection with this Academy, Mme. Sainton has of late years appeared before the world as a composer. Her cantatas 'The Legend of St. Dorothea,' and 'The Story of the Faithful Soul,' produced respectively at St. James's Hall on June 14, 1876, and Steinway Hall on June 19, 1879, have been performed in the provinces and the colonies with unvaried success. Mme. Sainton has also written many ballads and songs, and is (1881) engaged upon a work of more importance than she has yet attempted. [App. p.779 "Add that she died at the age of 64 at her residence, 71 Gloucester Place, Hyde Park, Feb. 18, 1885, and was buried at Highgate Cemetery, the great concourse of persons assembled testifying to the estimation in which this singer was held. M. Sainton's farewell concert, June 1883, at the Albert Hall, was the occasion of his wife's last appearance in public. 'Florimel,' a fairy cantata for female voices, written during the last few months of Madame Sainton-Dolby's life, has since been published by Novello. The Royal Academy of Music founded, shortly after her death, a scholarship in memory of the eminent singer, once a student within its walls."] [ W. B. S. ]

SALA,, born at a little village near Benevento, Naples, in 1701, and brought up in the Conservatorio della Pietà de' Turchini under Fago, Abos, and Leo. He died in 1800, and devoted the whole of a long life to his Conservatorio, in which he succeeded Fago as second master, and Cafaro, in 1787, as first master. The great work to which all his energies were devoted was his 'Regole del contrappunto prattico,' in 3 large volumes, containing methodical instruction in the composition of fugues, canons, etc., which was published in 1794. During the disturbances in Italy the engraved plates vanished for a time and were supposed to be lost. Choron then reprinted the work (Paris 1808), but the plates were afterwards discovered. Both editions are in the Library of the Sacred Harmonic Society. Sala wrote little besides this work. Three operas, 'Vologero,' 1737; 'Zenobia,' 1761; and 'Merope,' 1769; an oratorio, 'Giuditta,' 1780; 3 'Prologues' on the births of kings of Naples; a Mass, a Litany, and a few smaller pieces, are mentioned by Florimo (Cenno storico, 562). [ G. ]

SALAMAN,, born in London, March 3, 1814; began music early—violin, PF., and composition. In 1824 was elected student of the Royal Academy of Music, but soon left it and became pupil of Mr. Neate, the friend of Beethoven. He made his first public appearance at Blackheath, in 1828, as a PF. player; then went to Paris and took lessons of Herz, and in the following summer returned to London and began teaching, playing, and writing.

In 1830 he composed an ode for the Shakespeare commemoration, which was performed at Stratford-on-Avon April 23, and was repeated in London. From 1833 to 1837 he gave annual orchestral concerts in London, at one of which he played Mendelssohn's G minor Concerto for the third time in England—the former two performances having been by the composer himself. In 1846, 7, and 8 he resided at Rome, and while conducting Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 (for the first time in Rome), the concert was interrupted by the news of Louis Philippe's flight from Paris. On March 18, 1850, he played at the Philharmonic. In 1855 he began a series of lectures on the History of the Pianoforte, and other musical subjects, which he continued both in London and the country for several years. In 1858 he was one of the founders of the, and acted as secretary to it until the year 1865. He is now one of the Committee of the. Mr. Salaman has been for many years a well-known professor and teacher of music in London. He has composed many songs, some to words by Horace, Catullus, and Anacreon; Psalms (the 84th, 29th); and