Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/56

44 with the stern realities of life, but by dint of patience and perseverance he overcame all obstacles. His first performance in public was at a concert with Thalberg, whose style he imitated, and the success of his fantasia on 'Lucia di Lammermoor' (op. 8) established him with the public. He then made constant excursions in France, and occasional trips abroad, but his home continued to be in Paris, and there he composed and produced his new pieces. His compositions, about 70 in number, include a trio for PF., violin, and cello; a concerto-symphonie 'Les trois Rêves' (op. 67); several brilliant and pleasing morceaux de genre, such as 'Les Bois,' and 'La Danse des Fées'; fantasias on opera-airs, or themes by classical composers; transcriptions with and without variations, cleverly calculated to display the virtuosity of a pianist; and finally 'Etudes de genre,' also intended to show off manual dexterity. His music is clear, melodious, and correct; pleasing the ear without straining the attention. Prudent is no fiery or original genius, but an artist with a real love for his instrument, and a thorough understanding of its resources, and a musician of taste and progress. From Thalberg to Mendelssohn is a long way to traverse, and Prudent was studying the latter composer with enthusiasm when he was carried off after 48 hours' illness, by diphtheria, on May 14, 1863. His kind and generous disposition caused him to be universally regretted. He was a good teacher, and formed several distinguished pupils, especially ladies; among these Mlle. Louise Murer, who took the first piano prize at the Conservatoire in 1854, was the best interpreter of his works. In England he was well known. He played a concerto in B♭ of his own composition at the Philharmonic, May 1, 1848; returned in 1852 and introduced his elegant morceau 'La Chasse,' which he repeated at the New Philharmonic Concert June 1, 1853. [ G. C. ]

PRUME,, violinist, was born in 1816 at Stavelot near Liège. Having received his first instruction at Malmédy, he entered in 1827 the newly opened Conservatoire at Liège, and in 1830 that at Paris, where he studied for two years under Habeneck. Returning to Liège he was appointed professor at the Conservatoire, although only seventeen years of age. In 1839 he began to travel, and visited with much success Germany, Russia, and the Scandinavian countries. He died in 1849 at Stavelot. Prume was an elegant virtuoso, with most of the characteristic qualities of the modern Franco-Belgian school. He is chiefly remembered as the composer of 'La Melancholie' a sentimental pièce de salon which for a time attained an extraordinary popularity, without however possessing the artistic worth of the rest of Prume's compositions. [ P. D. ]

PRUMIER,, born in Paris July 2, 1794, learned the harp from his mother, and afterwards entered the Conservatoire, and obtained the second harmony prize in Catel's class in 1812. After this however he was compelled by military law to enter the Ecole polytechnique; but in 1815 he gave up mathematics, re-entered the Conservatoire, and finished his studies in counterpoint under Eler. He then became harpist in the orchestra of the Italiens, and, on the death of Nadermann in 1835, professor of the harp at the Conservatoire. In the same year he migrated to the Opéra Comique, but resigned his post in 1840 in favour of his son, the best of his pupils. Prumier composed and published about a hundred fantasias, rondeaux, and airs with variations for the harp—all well written but now antiquated. He received the Legion of Honour in 1845, and was vice-president of the Association des Artistes Musiciens for 17 years consecutively. He died from the rupture of an aneurism at a committee meeting of the Conservatoire, Jan. 21, 1868. He had retired on his pension the year before, and been succeeded by Labarre, at whose death (April 1870) the professorship devolved upon

, born in Paris, Jan. 5, 1820, and lauréat in 1838. Like his father he writes well for the instrument, and is considered a skilled performer and a musician of taste. [ G. C. ]

PSALTERY (Old English Sautry; French Psalterion; Ital. Salterio; Ger. Psalter). A dulcimer, played with the fingers or a plectrum instead of by hammers. The French have adopted the Greek name without change. There exists a classic sculptured representation of the Muse Erato, holding a long ten-stringed lyre, with the name cut on its base. From this it has been inferred that the strings of this lyre were touched by the fingers without the usual plectrum of ivory or metal. Chaucer's 'sautrie' in the Miller's Tale came direct from the East, perhaps imported by returning Crusaders, its kinship to the Persian and Arabic santir and kanun being unmistakable. The psaltery was the prototype of the spinet and harpsichord, particularly in the form which is described by Praetorius in his 'Organographia,' as the 'Istromento di porco,' so called from its likeness to a pig's head.

The illustration is drawn from a 15th-century painting by Filipino Lippi in the National Gallery, and represents a 'stromento di porco' strung vertically, a mode less usual than the horizontal stringing, but more like that of a harpsichord or grand piano. Notwithstanding the general use of keyed instruments in 1650 we read in the 'Musurgia' of Athanasius Kircher, that the psaltery played with a skilled hand stood second to no other instrument, and Mersenne, about the same date, praises its silvery tone in preference to that of any other, and its purity of intonation, so easily controlled by the fingers.

No 'Istromento di porco' being now known to exist, we have to look for its likeness in painted or sculptured representations. The earliest occurs in a 13th-century MS. in the library at Douai. It is there played without a plectrum. From