Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/742

* BULL. 660 BULLANT. the war with France. John Bull is well known in current comic periodicals as a burly country squire, impetuous, honest, narrow-minded, dog- matic, and easily imposed upon. This ligure ■was first gradually evolved in the pages of Punch. BULL, John (c.1563-1628). An English or- ganist and composer. He was appointed organist in the Cha])cl lioyul in l.iltl, and next year was made doctor of music by Oxford University. On the foundation of Gresham College he W'as ap- pointed lirst lecturer in music. Later he went to Belgium and became organist to the cathedral in Antwerp, where he died. The claim that he com- posed the English national anthem has not been sustained. BULL, OLE BORXEMANN (1810-80). A re- markable Norwegian violin virtuoso. Ue was born in Bergen. He showed remarkable musical pre- cocity. In the mountains he fiddled away for hours and hours, as his father would not tolerate the instrument in his house. .t 18 he appeared at a concert and aroused extraordinary enthusi- asm. He broke with his parents and went to Cas- sel (1829) to study under Spnlir (q.v.K but was so coldly received that he decided to forsake nuisic, and turned to jurisprudence in Giit- tingen. Soon, however, he returned to Ber- gen and prac'ticed assiduously at his instru- ment until 1831. Cholera was then raging in Paris, and Bull, who went there to give a concert, )iad to delay his appearance from montli to month. His savings were consumed, he fell ill, and thieves stole all his belongings, including his violin. In despair he threw himself into the Seine, but was saved, and a wealthy woman, Vil- leniinot, who took a great interest in him. pro- vided him with necessary comf(ut and a Guarneri instrument. His debut' (1833) was a triumph, Paganini being in the audience. A hearing of this master caused Bull to cultivate the Paganini method. His subsequent appearances were equal- ly .successful, but Italy received him coldly. Only in Florence, when acting as substitute for Bi'r'iot, he shared Uie honors with Alalibran. Similar ovations were accorded him in Naples, where he was ranked with Paganini. With imdiminished success he played throughout (Jeruiany, France, Russia, England, and Ire- land, but in 1839-40 fortune turned against him. Jlolique ovei-shadowed him in Paris: London and Gernumy were equally unkind. Disheart- ened, he went into relirement (1840-43), and then proceeded to America, where he won enthu- siastic recognition. N'ith the nu)ney earned here he returned to Norway, and built a national theatre in Bergen, but soon quarreled with the authorities and again went to the United States (1852). He amassed a fortune, bought 12.5,000 acres of land in Pennsylvania, and founded a Norwegian colony, hut was swindled out of his possessions and money, and in 181)0 re- crossed the Atlantic. His European tour in 1805-60 brought little money and evolctd scant enthusiasm, for Europe had ado|)ted new stand- ards of violin-playing. Subsequently he (estab- lished a violin school of his own, and repaired his fortune by several visits to the United States (1868-69, 1870-79), where he nuirricd. He bought a house in Cambridge, JIass., and during the last years of his life spent nmch of his time there. He died at his summer residence near Bergen, Norway. Bull was a rare phe- nomenon in the history of music. His tone was mellow and powerful ; in the matter of mere techni<iue he excelled even Paganini, and probably never had his equal ; all the difficulties of the violin, double and even quadruple stop- ping, were as mere child's play to him. And yet a critic could discern the self - taught mu- sician behind this prodigious technique. As a nmtter of cour.se. he ])articularly excelled in compositions putting the player's nimbleness of fingers to a severe test ; yet Joachim says of him : "No artist in our time has possessed Ole Bull's poetic power; no one has ever surpassed his playing of the adagio." Of all the masters, he jireferred to interpret the works of Mozart ; but his own compositions (chiefly fantasias on national themes, which he invested with a pe- culiar fire of his own) best exhibited his mas- tery over his instrument, and were the favorites with his audiences. As contributions to the literature of the violin they are of little value; snatches of genuine inspiration occur here and there, but otherwise they are but clever show- pieces. Consult: Sara C. Bull, Ole Bull: A Mcnwir (Boston, 1883) ; and a biography in Nonvegian by O. Vik (Bergen, 1890). BUL'LA (Lat., boss, knob). A collection of serous fluid, sitiuited immediately beneath the cuticle, and separating the latter from the true skin. BulliE ditl'er from vesicles only in size, and no veiy definite line can be drara between a large vesicle and a small bulla. Bullie usu- ally vary in diameter from a quarter of an inch to two inches. They ma.y be followed by cnists or by ulcerations. See Bleu, BULLACE, byl'lis (Gael, hulaistcar, bullace, sloe). A shrub or small tree {I'riinus insi- titia), larger and much less spiny than the sloe (I'riiinis spinosd), but very closely allied to it, as it is also to the plum, so that numy botanists regard them all as one species, an opinion con- firmed by the circumstance that the varieties pass into each other by imperceptible grada- tions. The bullace may be regarded as a form intermediate between the plum and the sloe. Its leaves, however, are generally broader in l)roportion to their length than those of either of these, and its fruit-stalks njore frequently in pairs; it differs also from both of them in its downy fruit-stalks-, and in having the under side of its leaves permanently downy. The flowers are rather larger than even those of the plum; the fruit is larger than the sloe, is gen- erally globose, and although it partakes in some degree both of the acidity and the roughness of the sloe, it is not unpleasant, especially after having been mellowed by frosts, and it makes excellent pics or tarts. The bullace is connuon in hedges, copi)iccs, and banks in England and in many parts of lOurope, but is rare in America. BULLANT, InriiiN', Jean (1575-78). A Frencli architect. He began his reproduction of the classic style at the Chateau of Ecouen (c.1550), and was then appointed supervisor of the royal buildings (1557), and worked on the Petit Chateau of Chantilly. As a designer of sculpture his masterpiece is the monument of the Jlontmorencys. He was architect of the Tuile- ries in 1570, after Philibert de rOrnic, and built the famous Hotel de Soissons for Catherine de' Medici (1572). He also wrote on architecture.