Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/465

SCOTTISH MUSICAL SOCIETY.  list of Vice-Presidents was announced, in addition to a Council with the Earl of Rosebery as chairman. The Society is still (1882) not sufficiently advanced to begin practical work, but according to the prospectus, its purpose will be to promote music in Scotland by maintaining professional orchestras, conferring scholarships, organising concerts, and aiding poor musicians and their families. [ W. B. S. ]

SCRIBE,, the most prolific of French dramatists, and the best librettist of the 19th century, born in Paris Dec. 25, 1791. He lost his parents early, and the well-known advocate Bonnet urged him to take to the bar, but he was irresistibly drawn to the stage, and from his début at 20 at the Théâtre du Vaudeville till his death, he produced for the different theatres of Paris a rapid succession of pieces which have served as models to a host of imitators. He originated the comédie-vaudeville, and attained to high comedy in 'Une Chaine'; but it is in opéra-comique and lyric tragedy that he has given the most striking proofs of his imagination and knowledge of the stage. For half a century he produced on an average 10 pieces a year, many it is true written conjointly with various authors, but in these 'mariages d'esprit' Scribe was always the head of the firm.

We are not concerned here with his novels, nor with his opéras-comiques, further than in saying that they abound in ingenious surprises, piquant situations, and scenes admirably adapted for musical treatment; it is in lyric tragedy that his invention, originality, dramatic force, and genius for the stage, are most conspicuous. As a writer, especially as a versifier, he was often at fault, but this defect was overlooked by the composers who anxiously secured him for the sake of his poetical conception. Of his librettos, over 100 in all, only the principal can be specified here:—

[App. p.792 "correct date of 'La Fiancée' to 1829."]

As will be perceived, his favourite composers were Meyerbeer and Auber, especially Auber.

Scribe died suddenly in Paris, Feb. 21, 1861. He had been a member of the French Academy since 1836, and had acquired a large fortune. His complete works have not been published, but there are several editions of his stage-pieces. That of 1855 comprises 2 vols. of operas, and 3 of opéras-comiques, and the latest (Paris, Calmann Lévy, 1874 to 81), 6 vols. 12mo. of ballets and operas, and 20 of opéras-comiques. A perusal of these gives a high idea of his fertility and resource. [ G. C. ]

SCUDO,, born June 6, 1806, at Venice, but brought up in Germany. Some circumstance led him to Pans, and in 1816 he entered Choron's school, and studied singing there at the same time with Duprez. He never became a good singer, and after taking a secondary part in Rossini's 'Il Viaggio a Reims' left the boards, returned to Choron's school, and there picked up a slender knowledge of music. After the revolution of 1830 he played second clarinet in a military band. Returning to Paris he made his way into society, set up as a teacher of singing, and a composer of romances, one of which, 'Le fil de la Vierge,' was very successful. His knowledge of harmony and the elementary laws of musical accent was but slight, as is evident from his songs 'Le Dante,' 'La Baigneuse,' and 'Souvenir; indeed he himself admits the fact, in spite of his vanity. Continuing his career as a professor of singing, he took to writing, and published 'Physiologie du rire' and 'Les Partis politiques en province' (1838). He gradually restricted himself to musical criticism, but as long as he wrote only for the 'Revue de Paris,' the 'Réforme,' and the 'Revue indépendante,' he was unknown outside certain cliques in Paris. As musical critic to the 'Revue des deux Mondes' he became a man of mark, though he was never more than a laborious writer, who made good use of German and Italian books, and managed by means of certain dogmatic formulæ and fine writing to conceal his want of knowledge and ideas. Scudo's articles are worth reading as specimens of French musical criticism before Berlioz was known, and while Fétis occupied the field without a rival. They have been mostly republished under the following titles:—'Critique et littérature musicale' (1850, 8vo; 1852, 12mo), 2nd series (1859, 12mo); 'La Musique ancienne et moderne' (1854, 12mo); 'L'Année musicale,' 3 vols. (Hachette, 1860, 61, and 62), 'La Musique en 1862' (Hetzel, 1863), and 'Le Chevalier Sarti' (1857, 12mo), a musical novel taken from Italian and German sources, of which a continuation, 'Frédérique,' appeared in the 'Revue des Deux Mondes,' but was not republished. All his works were printed in Paris.

Scudo finally became insane, and died Oct. 14, 1864, in an asylum at Blois.[ G. C. ]

SEASONS, THE—Die Jahreszeiten—Haydn's last oratorio. The book was compiled in German from Thomson's Seasons by Van Swieten, who induced Haydn to undertake its composition