Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 4.djvu/637

DUNSTABLE. epitaphs, made merry that a 'person of such perfection' should be so unknown. The epitaphs are worth reprinting. The first was on his tombstone in St. Stephen's, Walbrook. Stow says it was inscribed on 'two faire plated stones in the Chancell, each by other.' It runs as follows:— Claudit hoc tumulo, qui Cœlum pectore clausit Dunstaple I. juris, astrorum conscius illo Judice novit hiramis abscondita pandere cœli. Hic vir erat tua laus, tua lux, tua musica princeps, Quique tuas dulces per mundum sperserat onus, Anno Mil. Equater, semel L. trias jungito Christi. Pridie natale sidus transmigrat ad astra, Suscipiant proprium civom cœli sibi cives.

The other epitaph is preserved in Weever's 'Funerall Monuments' (1631), where it is quoted from a MS. in the Cottonian Library, containing a number of poetical epitaphs written by John of Whethamstede, Abbot of St. Alban's:—

Upon John Dunstable, an astrologian, a mathematician, a musitian, and what not. Musicus hic Michalus alter, novnsque Ptholomeus, Junior ac Athlas supportans robore celos, Pausat sub cinere; melior vir de muliere Nunquam natus erat; vicii quia labe carebat, Et virtutibus opes possedit vincua omnes. Cur exoptetur, sic optandoque precetur Perpetuis annis celebretur fama Johannis Dunstapil; in pace requiescat et hie sine fine. [ W. B. S. ]  DUPONT,, born at Ensival near Liège, Feb. 9, 1828, was educated at the Liège Conservatoire, and after several years spent in successful travel as a pianist was appointed a professor of the Brussels Conservatoire. His works for the pianoforte are numerous, and show a thorough knowledge of the instrument. They are cast in a popular mould, and may be said to belong to the class of drawing-room music, but they are free from all that is meretricious. A 'Concertstück' (op. 42) and a Concerto in F minor (op. 49) both with orchestral accompaniment, are his most ambitious works. Among his solo pieces the best are 'Roman en dix pages' (op. 48), a set of short pieces showing the influence of Schumann in their structure, and 'Contes du Foyer' (op. 12). A set of songs called 'Poeme d'amour,' contains much that is pleasing and original. His younger brother,

, born at Ensival, Jan. 3, 1838, educated at Liége and Brussels, has attained great distinction as an operatic conductor. He has held posts of this kind successively at Warsaw, Moscow, and Brussels, where he has been professor of harmony at the Conservatoire, and conductor at the Théâtre de la Monnaie, and at the Association des Artistes Musiciens since 1872. In the following year he succeeded Vieuxtemps as director of the Concerts Populaires. During the final seasons of Mr. Gye's management of Italian Opera, M. Dupont conducted many of the most important performances given at Covent Garden. [ M. ]  DUPORT,. Add date of death, Dec. 31. Add that made his début at the Concert Spirituel in 1768, and died Sept. 7, 1819.

DUPUIS,. Correct date of birth to 1730, and add day of death, July 17.

DURANTE,. Line 17, for not £20 read about £55.

DUSSEK, J. L. P. 477 b, in catalogue of works, add that 'The Captive of Spilburg' was written in collaboration with Michael Kelly. It should of course be spelt Spielberg.

DUSSEK, SOPHIA. Line 11, for 1810 read 1812.

DVOŘÁK,, born Sept. 8, 1841, at Mühlhausen (Nelahozeves) near Kralup in Bohemia. His father, Franz Dvořák, the butcher and innkeeper of the place, destined him for the first of these trades. The bands of itinerant musicians who used to come round on great occasions and play in the inn, roused his musical ambition, and he got the village schoolmaster to teach him to sing and play the violin. His progress was so remarkable that before long he was promoted to singing occasional solos in church, and to playing the violin on holidays. During one such performance, in Passion tide, he broke down from nervousness. In 1853 his father sent him to a better school at Zlonitz, putting him under the care of an uncle. Here his musical studies were superintended by the organist, A. Liehmann, who taught him the organ and pianoforte, as well as a certain amount of theory, such as would enable him to play from a figured bass, modulate, or extemporize with moderate success. Two years afterwards he was sent to learn German, and so to finish his education, at Kamnitz, where the organist Hancke taught him for a year, after which he returned to Zlonitz, his father having in the meanwhile removed there. He prepared a surprise for his relations in the shape of an original composition, a polka, which he arranged to have performed on some festive occasion. The musicians started, but a series of the most frightful discords arose, and the poor composer realised too late the fact that he had written the parts for the transposing instruments as they were to sound, instead of writing them as they were to be played! By this time his intense desire to devote himself to music rather than to the modest career marked out for him by his father, could no longer be disguised, but it was not until many months had been spent in discussions, in which the cause of art was materially helped by the organist, who foresaw a brilliant future for his pupil, that the father's objections were overcome, and permission given for Anton to go to Prague and study music, in the hope of getting an organist's appointment. In Oct. 1857 he went to the capital and entered the organ school supported by the 'Gesellschaft der Kirchenmusik in Böhmen.' At the beginning of the three years' course he received a modest allowance from his father, but even this ceased after a short time, and the boy—for he was little more—was thrown on his own resources. His violin-playing came in most usefully at this time, and indeed without it it is difficult to see how 