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François-Joseph Fétis

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François-Joseph Fétis ( French: [fetis] ; 25 March 1784 – 26 March 1871) was a Belgian musicologist , critic, teacher and composer . He was among the most influential music intellectuals in continental Europe. His enormous compilation of biographical data in the Biographie universelle des musiciens remains an important source of information today.

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100-505: Fétis was born in Mons , Hainaut , eldest son of Antoine-Joseph Fetis and Elisabeth Desprets, daughter of a noted surgeon. He had nine brothers and sisters. His father was titular organist of the noble chapter of Saint-Waltrude . His grandfather was an organ manufacturer. He was trained as a musician by his father and played at young age on the choir organ of Saint Waltrude. In October 1806 he married Adélaïde-Louise-Catherine Robert, daughter of

200-463: A Conservatory at Leipzig in 1843 he was keen to attract his friend Moscheles there as a colleague, promising him ample time in his schedules for concertising and music-making. After several years, Moscheles gladly accepted the position in 1846. He became a longstanding and prominent member of the Conservatory faculty, teaching piano there for several decades. The Conservatory became in effect

300-437: A ballet and a symphony , all are scored for piano and orchestra: eight piano concertos (of which the last is in fragmentary form only, no orchestral parts having survived) and sets of variations and fantasias on folk songs. The main theme of the finale of his fourth piano concerto is based on the tune " The British Grenadiers ". Moscheles also left several chamber works (including a piano trio that has been recorded), and

400-483: A fireplace from the castle of Gouy-lez-Pedestrian, and another fireplace in 1603 from the Château d'Havré . On 23 April 2006 was inaugurated a bronze statuary group by Garouste Gerard, creator of a fresco for the wedding hall. The work, evoking the combat of St. George and the dragon, is in front of City Hall at the bottom of the stair-ramps providing access to one of the entrances to City Hall. These buildings surround

500-461: A large number of works for piano solo, including sonatas and the études that continued to be studied by advanced students even as Moscheles's music fell into eclipse. There are also some song settings. More recently, with the modest but noticeable revival of interest in compositions by this composer and those of his colleagues, more of Moscheles's works are being made accessible on compact disc, especially by small and independent record labels. All

600-414: A pupil." Thus began a relationship of extraordinary intensity which lasted throughout and beyond Mendelssohn's life (he died in 1847). Moscheles was instrumental in bringing Felix to London for the first time in 1829 – Abraham entrusted Felix to his care for this visit. Moscheles had carefully prepared for it. In London, apart from becoming a regular and successful performer as well as a musical adviser for

700-487: A result of the riot, but the event focused attention on prisons throughout Belgium. Today, the city is an important university town and commercial centre. The municipality consists of the following sub-municipalities : Ciply , Cuesmes , Flénu , Ghlin , Harmignies , Harveng , Havré , Hyon , Jemappes , Maisières , Mesvin , Mons proper, Nimy , Nouvelles , Obourg , Saint-Denis , Saint-Symphorien , Spiennes , and Villers-Saint-Ghislain . Tanks in town commemorates

800-503: A shrine to Mendelssohn's musical legacy. The critic and pianist Edward Dannreuther , who studied under Moscheles at Leipzig between 1859 and 1863, later wrote: [...] it was whispered that the two old Grands in the pianoforte-room of the Conservatorium were wont to rehearse Mendelssohn's D minor Concerto all alone by themselves, from 12.30 on Sunday night until cock-crow! Force of habit, probably. It thus fell to Moscheles to lead

900-477: A sinecure, which nevertheless confirmed his status. Child prodigy pianist Elizabeth Jonas , a student of Moscheles, played several command performances at Windsor Castle . Moscheles never ceased to promote the music of Beethoven and gave many recitals of his music: in 1832 he conducted the London premiere of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis , and he translated A.F. Schindler 's biography of Beethoven into English. He

1000-594: A small, irregularly shaped square, the Mayor's Garden, from which the Rue d'Enghien descends. The Ropieur Fountain, by sculptor Léon Gobert (1869–1935), can be found in the middle of the square. The ropieur symbolizes a young insolent resident of Mons, drenching passersby with water from the fountain. Although located in the heart of the old County of Hainaut, the Saint Waltrude Collegiate Church

1100-574: Is a city and municipality of Wallonia , and the capital of the province of Hainaut , Belgium. Mons was made into a fortified city by Count Baldwin IV of Hainaut in the 12th century. The population grew quickly, trade flourished, and several commercial buildings were erected near the Grand-Place. In 1814, King William I of the Netherlands increased the fortifications, following the fall of

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1200-402: Is a family the like of which I have never known. Felix, a boy of fifteen is a phenomenon. What are all prodigies compared with him? ... He is already a mature artist. His elder sister Fanny is also extraordinarily gifted." Shortly afterwards he wrote: "This afternoon ... I gave Felix Mendelssohn his first lesson, without losing sight for a moment of the fact that I was sitting next to a master, not

1300-432: Is a great-grandfather of Admiral Gerald Charles Dickens and a great-great-great-great-grandfather of actor Harry Lloyd . Through his Roche descendants, he is great-great-grandfather to the musicologist Jerome Roche , and great-great-great-grandfather to historian Helen Roche and electronic musician Mike Paradinas . After his Viennese period there followed for Moscheles a sensational series of European concert tours – it

1400-572: Is attempting to show the "facts, errors, and truths" of previous theories and theorists, as he interprets them, in order to provide a solid grounding for other scholars and to prevent subsequent interpretive mistakes. Fétis' main theoretical work and the culmination of his conceptual frameworks of tonality and harmony is the Traité complet de la théorie et de la pratique de l'harmonie of 1844. This book has influenced later theorists and composers including Paul Hindemith , Ernst Kurth , and Franz Liszt . In

1500-482: Is derived from the biography, with selections from his diaries and correspondence, written after his death by his wife, Charlotte, and published in Germany in 1872; an English edition appeared the following year. The book also gives lively portraits of his era and of his musical contemporaries. The diaries themselves are lost. Another important source is the correspondence between Moscheles and Mendelssohn , preserved at

1600-515: Is devoted to explaining how tonalité organizes music. The primary factor of determining tonality is the scale. It sets out the order of the succession of tones in major and minor (the only two "tonal" modes which he recognizes), the distances which separate the tones, and the resultant melodic and harmonic tendencies. Tonality is not only a governed and conditioned state, but it is a socially conditioned one. Scales are cultural manifestations, resulting from shared experience and education. Nature provides

1700-460: Is expressed by a Latin cross sign. It measures 115 metres long, 32 metres wide and rises to 24.5 metres at the keystone. The chancel is surrounded by an ambulatory and 15 chapels. Also called El Catiau by Montois, it was built in the 17th century. The Belfry is the only Baroque style building in Belgium that reaches a height of 87 meters. In its top section it contains a 49 bell carillon. It

1800-635: Is forbidden to park in or drive through the centre. Together with the Czech city of Plzeň , Mons was the European Capital of Culture in 2015. The first signs of activity in the region of Mons are found at Spiennes , where some of the best flint tools in Europe were found dating from the Neolithic period. When Julius Caesar arrived in the region in the 1st century BC, the region was settled by

1900-725: Is in the Royal Conservatory Library in Brussels. In 1856, he worked closely with Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume in writing a fascinating treatise about Antonio Stradivari ( Antoine Stradivari, luthier célèbre ). It includes detailed chapters on the history and development of the violin family, old master Italian violin makers (including the Stradivari and Guarneri families) and an analysis of the bows of François Tourte . His interest in instruments can also be gathered from his very substantial collection, which includes

2000-475: Is located nearby for private aircraft. Mons has a typical Belgian oceanic climate with relatively narrow temperature differences between seasons for its inland 50° latitude, as a result of Gulf Stream influence. The town hosts a professional basketball team called Belfius Mons-Hainaut and a tennis tournament called the Ethias Trophy . It previously hosted the football club R.A.E.C. Mons , though

2100-417: Is one of the most characteristic churches and most homogeneous of Brabantine Gothic architecture . The collegiate was built in the 15th century on the orders of canons. Along with the nearby Belfry, it is considered as a major symbol of the city of Mons. It contains many works of Jacques du Broeucq . It is made of local materials like sandstone, blue stone and brick. It is designed in a classic form, which

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2200-622: Is used as commercial space, while other floors are used for housing. Generally behind the houses there is a small garden. The outskirts of the city are also generally made of brick terraced houses. They nevertheless have the largest green spaces in the front or rear. In more remote areas of the centre, there are four façades of the villas. After the Second World War the city experienced rather limited construction of buildings. Some public housing have been built in Ghlin, Hyon Jemappes and in

2300-592: The Conservatory . Moscheles was born 1794 in Prague , Bohemia , the son of Klara Popper (Lieben) and Joachim Moises Moscheles. He was from an affluent German-speaking Jewish merchant family. His first name was originally Isaac. His father played the guitar and was keen for one of his children to become a musician. Initially his hopes fixed on Ignaz's sister, but when she demurred, her piano lessons were transferred to her brother. Ignaz developed an early passion for

2400-665: The Curiosités historiques de la musique (Paris, 1850), and the Histoire générale de la musique (Paris, 1869—1876); and partly theoretical, such as the Méthode des méthodes de piano (Paris, 1840), written in conjunction with Moscheles . While Fétis's critical opinions of contemporary music may seem conservative, his musicological work was ground-breaking, and unusual for the 19th century in attempting to avoid an ethnocentric and present-centered viewpoint. Unlike many others at

2500-831: The Eskeles family in Vienna, the Leo family in Paris, and the Rothschilds in England . He married Charlotte Emden, daughter of a Hamburg Jewish banker and a cousin of Heinrich Heine , in a Hamburg synagogue in 1825. Nonetheless, after he settled in England, Moscheles became a member of the Church of England . His children, two sons and three daughters, were all baptised at birth and he and his wife were baptised in 1832. They were parents to

2600-534: The First French Empire . The Industrial Revolution and coal mining made Mons a centre of heavy industry. In 1830, Belgium gained its independence and the decision was made to dismantle the fortifications, allowing the creation of large boulevards and other urban projects. In 1914, Mons was the location of the Battle of Mons . The British were forced to retreat by a numerically superior German force and

2700-509: The Musik-Lexicon of 1882, Hugo Riemann states that "to [Fétis'] meditations we are indebted for the modern concept of tonality…he found himself emancipated from the spirit of a particular age, and able to render justice to all the various styles of music." Though some other theorists, most notably Matthew Shirlaw , have had decidedly negative views, Riemann's assessment captures the two key features of Fétis' text. Though he did not coin

2800-777: The Nervii , a Belgian tribe. A castrum was built in Roman (Belgica) times, giving the settlement its Latin name Castrilocus . The name was later changed into Montes for the mountain on which the castrum was built. In the 7th century, Saint Ghislain and two of his disciples built an oratory or chapel dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul near the Mons hill, at a place called Ursidongus, now known as Saint-Ghislain . Soon after, Saint Waltrude (in French Sainte Waudru ), daughter of one of Chlothar II ’s intendants, came to

2900-537: The Revue musicale and in some lectures which had a profound impact on Liszt . Though music had not yet made it past the first phase, Unirhythm, by Fétis' time, he argues that composers may be able to "mutate" from one meter to another within the same melodic phrase. Though Liszt may have been an open disciple of the ideas of the Omnitonic and Omnirhythmic, the influence of such thinking can perhaps be seen most clearly in

3000-694: The (then revolutionary) piano music of Beethoven , which the Mozartean Bedřich Diviš Weber , his teacher at the Prague Conservatory , attempted to curb, urging him to focus on Bach, Mozart and Muzio Clementi . After his father's early death, Moscheles settled in Vienna in 1808. His abilities were such that he was able to study in the city under Albrechtsberger for counterpoint and theory and Salieri for composition. At this time he changed his first name from "Isaac" to "Ignaz". He

3100-533: The 82.7% who live in single family homes, only 26% (37.3% in Belgium) are separate houses, while 55.7% (44.4 in Belgium) are detached or terraced houses. That's pretty much a small town in Belgium. Large municipalities have in fact fewer single family homes, but many more apartments whereas the smallest towns have few apartments and a lot of single family homes. The figures show very clearly the strong presence of terraced houses rather than separate houses: it exemplifies

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3200-604: The French politician Pierre-François-Joseph Robert and Louise de Keralio, friend of Robespierre . They had two sons: the elder son Édouard Fétis (1812–1909) helped his father with the editions of Revue Musicale and became member of the Royal Academy. In 1866 his wife died, and he withdrew from the Brussels society and court. When his father died, Eduard inherited his complete library and collection of musical instruments. His talent for composition manifested itself at

3300-631: The Leipzig Conservatory had a high reputation amongst English musicians and amongst those who studied there during Moscheles's time were Arthur Sullivan and Charles Villiers Stanford . Moscheles died in Leipzig on 10 March 1870, nine days after attending his last rehearsal with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra . Among his 142 opus numbers, Moscheles wrote a number of symphonic works. Apart from an overture ,

3400-655: The Mendelssohns in Berlin and was impressed with both Felix and Fanny. This eventually led to Mendelssohn's invitation to conduct at the Society on his 1829 visit. In 1827, Moscheles acted as intermediary between the Philharmonic Society and the dying Beethoven. He helped persuade the Society to send Beethoven desperately needed funds during the composer's illness. In return, Beethoven offered to write for

3500-431: The Netherlands fortified the city heavily. In 1830, however, Belgium gained its independence and the decision was made to dismantle fortified cities such as Mons, Charleroi , and Namur . The actual removal of fortifications only happened in the 1860s, allowing the creation of large boulevards and other urban projects. The Industrial Revolution and coal mining made Mons a center of heavy industry, which strongly influenced

3600-418: The Society his (uncompleted) Tenth Symphony . Mendelssohn's great success in England from 1829 until the end of his life also reflected well on his friend. Although Moscheles's music was now being looked on as a little old-fashioned, he was heavily in demand as a music teacher and included amongst his pupils many children of the rich and aristocratic classes. He was also appointed "Pianist to Prince Albert ",

3700-500: The age of seven, and at nine years old he was an organist at Saint Waltrude, Mons. In 1800 he went to Paris and completed his studies at the Conservatory under such masters as Boïeldieu , Jean-Baptiste Rey and Louis-Barthélémy Pradher . In 1806 he undertook the revision of the Roman liturgical chants in the hope of discovering and establishing their original form. In this year he also began his Biographie universelle des musiciens ,

3800-455: The alliance in 1967. The relocation of SHAPE to this particular region of Belgium was largely a political decision, based in large part on the depressed economic conditions of the area at the time with the view to bolstering the economy of the region. A riot in the prison of Mons took place in April 2006 after prisoner complaints concerning living conditions and treatment; no deaths were reported as

3900-448: The authorship of the piece is now typically attributed to Fétis himself. The original Italian text for the song (Se i miei sospiri) was found set to different music by Alessandro Scarlatti in his 1693 oratorio "The Martyrdom of St. Theodosia". Mons, Belgium Mons ( French: [mɔ̃s] ; German and Dutch : Bergen , Dutch pronunciation: [ˈbɛrɣə(n)] ; Walloon and Picard : Mont )

4000-557: The brow of Jupiter, Hercules' arm, or the breast of Jupiter, strut and preen as though they have laid a golden egg. Not one to be outdone, Fétis may have had the last word in this debate. In the 1845 edition of his treatise La musique mise à la porte de tout le monde , he describes the word "fantastique" saying that "this word has even slid into music. ‘Fantastique' music is composed of instrumental effects with no melodic line and incorrect harmony." Although known primarily for his contributions to musicology and criticism, Fétis had effects on

4100-482: The central pavilion was built by architect Joseph Hubert in tavern style. Ignaz Moscheles Isaac Ignaz Moscheles ( German pronunciation: [ˈɪɡnaːts ˈmɔʃələs] ; 23 May 1794  – 10 March 1870) was a Bohemian piano virtuoso and composer. He was based initially in London and later at Leipzig , where he joined his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as professor of piano in

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4200-417: The centre. Each year, the square is used as an action theatre called Lumeçon to stage a battle between Saint George and Dragon . The Grand-Place is also equipped with a fountain, which opened on 21 March 2006. It also hosts a Christmas market and sometimes an ice rink during the winter holiday period. The façade of the building called "au Blan Levrie" shows the care with which the city attempted to unite

4300-427: The chaste muse could have a more noble mission; especially these desecrators who dare lay hands on original works, subjecting them to horrible mutilations that they call corrections and perfections, which, they say, require considerable taste. Curses on them! They make a mockery of art! Such are these vulgar birds who populate our public gardens, perching arrogantly on the most beautiful statues, and, when they have soiled

4400-820: The city became the target of various occupations, starting in May 1572 with the Protestant takeover by Louis of Nassau , who had hoped to clear the way for the French Protestant leader Gaspard de Coligny to oppose Spanish rule. After the murder of de Coligny during the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre , the Duke of Alba took control of Mons in September 1572 in the name of the Catholic King of Spain . This spelled

4500-542: The city was heavily bombed. During the Battle of the Mons Pocket US Army forces encircled and took 25,000 Germans prisoner in early September 1944. After the war, most industries went into decline. NATO 's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) was relocated in Casteau , a village near Mons, from Rocquencourt on the outskirts of Paris after France's withdrawal from the military structure of

4600-569: The completed piano concerti and fantasias for piano and orchestra are available on the Hyperion Records label, played by Howard Shelley , who also conducted the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra ; they have also issued the complete piano studies, played by Piers Lane . Ian Hobson has also recorded the first six and included a pair of variations not recorded by Shelley. Much of what is known about Moscheles's life

4700-768: The counter-attack on Wagner after the latter's snide attack on Mendelssohn (and Meyerbeer) in his notorious article Das Judenthum in der Musik ("Jewry in Music"), which he did by requesting the resignation from the Conservatory's board of Wagner's editor, Brendel. Like Mendelssohn, Moscheles believed that music had reached its Golden Age during the period Bach to Beethoven, and was suspicious of (although not necessarily antagonistic towards) new directions such as those shown by Wagner, Liszt and Berlioz. Nevertheless, his personal relations with all of these (except perhaps Wagner) remained cordial. The Mendelssohn legacy in Britain meant that

4800-520: The counts mentioned the House of Peace, located in the Rue Nimy. Other documents of the same time let one suppose that there existed two Houses of Peace, the one in the Rue Nimy and the other in the market area. It was in 1323 that Count William I gave permission to build the House of Peace on the location of the current City Hall. This is called a "Town House" built of stones and bricks at the base, while

4900-541: The culture and image of the Borinage region as a whole. It was to become an integral part of the sillon industriel , the industrial backbone of Wallonia . On 17 April 1893, between Mons and Jemappes , seven strikers were killed by the civic guard at the end of the Belgian general strike of 1893 . This general strike was one of the first general strikes in an industrial country. The proposed law on universal suffrage

5000-739: The elements of tonalité, but human understanding, sensibility, and will determine particular harmonic systems. This concept was called a " Metaphysical principle" by Fétis, though Dahlhaus argues that the term is used in this case to denote an anthropological , culturally relative sense in his 1990 book Studies on the Origin of Harmonic Tonality, and theorist Rosalie Schellhous posits that the Kantian term "transcendental" might be more appropriate. In his comparative work, Fétis attempted "a new method of classifying human races according to their musical systems" following contemporary trends of social darwinism in

5100-581: The emerging fields of ethnology and anthropology. However, if one wishes to interpret Fétis' metaphysical theory, one of his unique theoretical ideas is laid out in book 3 of the Traité complet , that of harmonic modulation . Fétis argues that tonality has evolved over the course of time through four distinct phases, or ordres : Fétis later applied this same system of ordres to rhythm, "the least advanced part of music...[where] great things remain to be discovered." Though he did not publish these theories in any of his treatises, they appear in several articles for

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5200-454: The end of his manuscript, before presenting it to Beethoven, Moscheles wrote the words Fine mit gottes Hülfe ("Finished with God's help"). Beethoven approved Moscheles's version, but appended the words O Mensch, hilf dir selber ("O Man, help thyself!"). Moscheles's good relations with Beethoven were to prove important to both at the end of Beethoven's life. Moscheles was still a practising Jew in Vienna in 1814–15. His wife noted that he

5300-521: The end of the 13th century. Mons succeeded Valenciennes as the capital of the county of Hainaut in 1295 and grew to 8,900 inhabitants by the end of the 15th century. In the 1450s, Matheus de Layens took over the construction of the Saint Waltrude church from Jan Spijkens and restored the Town Hall. In 1515, Charles V took an oath in Mons as Count of Hainaut. In this period of its history,

5400-421: The floor and various stone ornaments. In its current state, the Town Hall consists of a remarkable collection of various buildings housing a large proportion of municipal services. These buildings have undergone many changes over the centuries, restorations and additions of elements from other buildings, such as a Gothic style fireplace from castle Trazegnies, carved doors of the 16th century saved from demolition,

5500-941: The foundation for what would later be termed comparative musicology . Fétis died in Brussels . His valuable library was purchased by the Belgian government and presented to the Royal Library. His historical works, despite many inaccuracies, remain of great value for historians. His pupils included Luigi Agnesi , Jean-Delphin Alard , Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga , Friedrich Berr , Louise Bertin , William Cusins , Julius Eichberg , Ferdinand Hérold , Frantz Jehin-Prume , Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens , Adolphe Samuel , and Charles-Marie Widor . See: List of music students by teacher: C to F#François-Joseph Fétis . Some of his criticisms of contemporary composers have become quite famous, as well as

5600-460: The great capitals of Europe, making his first appearance in London in 1822, and there securing the friendship of Muzio Clementi and Johann Baptist Cramer . Moscheles was also a student of Muzio Clementi. In March 1823, Moscheles paid a long visit to Bath in Somerset and started work on his Piano Concerto No. 4 (Op. 64). On an excursion to Bristol , Coleridge says that, "Moscheles delights in

5700-504: The harmonic theories of M. Fétis. Troupenas did in fact remove Fétis' editorial marks, but Berlioz was still unsatisfied. He went on to criticize Fétis in one of the monologues of Lélio, ou le Retour à la vie , the 1832 sequel to Symphonie Fantastique : These young theorists of eighty, living in the midst of a sea of prejudices and persuaded that the world ends with the shores of their island; these old libertines of every age who demand that music caress and amuse them, never admitting that

5800-425: The introduction in 1828 of city gas to illuminate new avenues and streets. These two changes are made possible by the demolition of the fortifications, which releases the land, and the diversion of Trouille including the strategic role of supply ditches was then passed. The "water machine" was restored in the early 1990s, and the building now hosts various cultural events. The machinery was dismantled. Waux Hall park

5900-878: The liberation of Belgium during World War II by the American 3rd Armored Division , and is one of the world's largest gatherings of WWII tanks. There are several public educational facilities in Mons: Mons is located along the N56 road . It is also accessed via European route E42 , which is a continuation of French Autoroute A2 , linking the British WW1 battlefields of Mons with the Somme Battlefields, Mons railway station opened on 19 December 1841. A small, general aviation airfield Saint-Ghislain Airport

6000-668: The most important of his works, which did not appear until 1834. In 1821 he was appointed professor at the Paris Conservatory . In 1827 he founded the Revue musicale , the first serious paper in France devoted exclusively to musical matters. Fétis remained in the French capital till 1833, when at the request of Leopold I , he became director of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and the king's chapelmaster. He also

6100-430: The music of Brahms , where hemiola and mixing of time signatures is a common occurrence. The Italian art song, "Se i miei sospiri", appeared in a Paris concert organized by Fétis in 1833. Fétis published the piece for voice and strings in 1838 and then again in 1843 for voice and piano with alternate lyrics ("Pietà, Signore"). It is these alternate lyrics with which the piece is now typically associated. Fétis attributed

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6200-543: The old and the modern. It is the first authorised building in the main square which was made of stone to avoid fire incidents. It was originally built in 1530 in the Gothic style, for the Malaperts, a wealthy local family. In 1975, the architects A. Godart and O. Dupire were assigned to design a bank. They proceeded to gut the interior and conduct a precise survey of the whole before beginning the restoration project. The façade

6300-444: The oldest surviving Arab oud . Fetis had the privilege to have Paganini, Schumann and Berlioz as contemporaries and to work with the violin maker and dealer, Jean Baptiste Vuillaume. Fetis's work provides a unique window into the times and as such is a particularly valuable reference for the modern researcher, dealer and player. More important perhaps than his compositions are his writings on music. They are partly historical, such as

6400-439: The oratory and was proclaimed a saint upon her death in 688. She was canonized in 1039. Like Ath , its neighbour to the north-west, Mons was made a fortified city by Count Baldwin IV of Hainaut in the 12th century. The population grew quickly, trade flourished, and several commercial buildings were erected near the Grand-Place. The 12th century also saw the appearance of the first town halls. The city had 4,700 inhabitants by

6500-420: The painters Felix (1833–1917), their second son, and Serena Anna Moscheles (1830–1902), their second daughter and wife of Georg Rosen . Rosen was an orientalist like his brother of Friedrich August Rosen , another friend of Mendelssohn, like Moscheles. His granddaughter Jelka Rosen , also a painter, married the composer Frederick Delius . Another granddaughter, Marie-Thérèse, married Henry Fielding Dickens ,

6600-511: The performance. The work is attributed NOT to the Alsascian lutenist Valentin Strobel, but to Jean (Johann) Strobach, a member of a prominent Bohemian family of musicians. This Strobach (fl. 1650–1720) served Leopold I, and there is no evidence that Fetis's score is a hoax. The composition was published in 1698, although no copy is known to have survived, except Fetis' manuscript score, which

6700-411: The plan (which was not found) was not completed, including the abandonment of the second floor, which was still intended for construction. The Renaissance campanile was added in the 18th century. It contains a bell dating from 1390, the Bancloque, and carries a clock dial overlooking the Grand-Place and a light clock. The 19th century saw various modifications of the façade, the removal of stone mullions to

6800-452: The publisher Troupenas , commented that [Fétis had altered Beethoven's harmonies] with unbelievable complacency. Opposite the E flat which the clarinet sustains over a chord of the sixth (D flat, F, B flat) in the andante of the C minor symphony, Fétis had naively written ‘This E flat must be F. Beethoven could not have possibly made so gross a blunder.' In other words, a man like Beethoven could not possibly fail to be in entire agreement with

6900-450: The realm of music theory as well. In 1841 he put together the first history of harmonic theory, his Esquisse de l'histoire de l'harmonie . Assembled from individual articles that Fétis published in the Revue et Gazette musicale de Paris around 1840, the book predates Hugo Riemann 's more well known Geschichte der Musiktheorie by fifty years. The Esquisse , as the title implies, is a general outline rather than an exhaustive study. Fétis

7000-478: The responses that they engendered. He said of Berlioz , "...what Monsieur Berlioz composes is not part of that art which we distinguish as music, and I am completely certain that he lacks the most basic capability in this art." In the Revue musicale issue of 1 February 1835 he wrote of the Symphonie Fantastique : I saw that melody was antipathetic to him, that he only had a faint notion of rhythm; that his harmony, formed by an often monstrous accretion of notes,

7100-406: The ruin of the city and the arrest of many of its inhabitants; from 1580 to 1584, Mons became the capital of the Southern Netherlands . On 8 April 1691, after a nine-month siege, Louis XIV ’s army stormed the city, which again suffered heavy casualties. From 1697 to 1701, Mons was alternately French or Austrian. After being under French control from 1701 to 1709, the Dutch and British armies gained

7200-449: The sanitary and hygiene concerns which arose in Mons in 1865-1870 and marks the transition from medieval water supply wells, springs and hand pumps, to operation of pumps suction and force. This progress at domestic level transformed the townspeople's way of life and changed the boundaries of Mons and Spiennes. They used to get water from wells or fountains, sometimes over a hundred yards from their homes. Soon followed another urban project:

7300-552: The soirées of the Rothschilds, he had become an invaluable aid for Sir George Smart and the Philharmonic Society, advising them of the talents of European musicians he encountered on his own concert-tours. When Smart himself toured Europe in 1825 looking for new music and musicians for the Society, Moscheles furnished Smart with a list of contacts and letters of introduction, including both Beethoven and Mendelssohn. In Prague, Moscheles's brother acted as Smart's guide. Smart visited

7400-548: The son of author Charles Dickens . Moscheles travelled extensively in Europe as a pianist and conductor, eventually settling in London (1825–1846) where he became co-director of the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1832. He never disavowed his Jewish origins and frequently took his family to visit his relatives in Prague, all of whom had retained their Jewish allegiances. Through his Dickens descendants, he

7500-432: The song to Alessandro Stradella and claimed to possess an original manuscript of the work but never produced it for examination. As early as 1866, musicologists were questioning the authenticity of the song, and when Fétis' library was acquired by the Royal Library in Brussels after his death, no such manuscript could be found. Owing to this and the fact that the style of the piece is inconsistent with Stradella's own period,

7600-450: The suburbs of the city. Since the late 1990s and especially since the arson which took place in one of these buildings, the city undertook a policy of deconstruction of these houses which is still in progress at the moment. A whole series of social buildings are evenly dispersed in the downtown and surrounding suburbs. 16,5% of the city's population lives in apartments (17% in Belgium) and 82.7% in single-family homes (82.3% in Belgium). Of

7700-462: The superstructure is of wood. This building underwent various changes during the 15th century until 1477, when the nearby shop in the arsenal exploded. The destroyed buildings were rebuilt and benefitted from new changes and additions over the centuries. The architect of the City Hall, Matthew Layens of Leuven, was called to draw up plans. It was to be a building in Gothic style, but it seems that

7800-407: The team has since disbanded. There is also a horse racing venue at Hippodrome de Wallonie in Mons. The centre consists largely of red brick houses. Although there are few old buildings and rarely new blue stone buildings, its use is generally limited to parts of the decorative walls. Much of the centre is made up of houses which are two or three storeys high. In commercial areas, the ground floor

7900-400: The term "tonality," Fétis developed the concept into its present-day form. He claimed that "tonalité" is the primary organizing agent of all melodic and harmonic successions and that the efforts of other theorists to find the fundamental principle of music in "acoustics, mathematics, aggregations of intervals, or classifications of chords have been futile." The majority of the Traité complet

8000-426: The three-harpsichord concerto were given, on one occasion with Thalberg at the third keyboard, on another with Clara Schumann . Moscheles often appeared as a conductor, especially of Beethoven. Although throughout this period Moscheles continued to write music and travel on concert tours, he depended heavily on teaching for income, and this placed him under considerable stress. When therefore Mendelssohn established

8100-489: The time, he did not see music history as a continuum of increasing excellence, moving towards a goal, but rather as something which was continually changing , neither becoming better nor worse, but continually adapting to new conditions. He believed that all cultures and times created art and music which were appropriate to their times and conditions; and he began a close study of Renaissance music as well as European folk music and music of non-European cultures. Thus Fétis built

8200-596: The town remained occupied by the Germans until its liberation by the Canadian Corps during the final days of the war. There are several memorial placards related to the WW1 battles. Today, the city is an important university town and commercial centre. The main square is the centre of the old city. It is paved in the manner of old cities and is home to many cafes and restaurants, as well as the Town Hall and Belfry . It

8300-602: The upper hand in the Battle of Malplaquet and the Siege of Mons in 1709. In 1715, Mons returned to Austria under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht (1713). But the French did not give up easily; Louis XV besieged the city again in 1746. After the Battle of Jemappes (1792), the Hainaut area was annexed to France and Mons became the capital of Jemappes . Following the fall of the First French Empire in 1814, King William I of

8400-459: The urbanization of downtown, but also urban cores such as Jemappes et Cuesmes . The Grand-Place is the centre of the old city. It is situated near the shopping street (pedestrian) and the Belfry. It is paved in the manner of old cities and is home to many cafes and restaurants, as well as the Town Hall. The outskirts of the square are accessible by car, but it is forbidden to park or drive through

8500-669: The view of the Bristol Channel and adds, "What can be finer than the first view of the Welsh mountains from Clifton? an enchanting panorama? The very place to write an adagio; the blue mountains form such a grand background to this bright channel." The piano concerto had its first performance, in London, shortly afterwards, on 16 June. Before that, however, in 1824, he had accepted an invitation to visit Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Berlin to give some lessons to his children Felix and Fanny . His comments on meeting them were: "This

8600-497: The war. Within the front entrance to the City Hall, there are several memorial placards related to the First World War battles and in particular, one has the inscription: MONS WAS RECAPTURED BY THE CANADIAN CORPS ON THE 11th NOVEMBER 1918: AFTER FIFTY MONTHS OF GERMAN OCCUPATION, FREEDOM WAS RESTORED TO THE CITY: HERE WAS FIRED THE LAST SHOT OF THE GREAT WAR. During the Second World War, as an important industrial centre,

8700-462: The way of which was treated at the entrance gate.[?]" Originally its communal organization, Mons was a City Hall called "House of Peace." Earlier the deputy mayors were on the castle of the Counts of Hainaut, and now it is only the conciergerier, Saint-Calixte chapel and some underground rooms and the chamber. This place is now Castle Park, where we can also see the Belfry. Already in the 13th century,

8800-469: The year when the river Trouille was diverted. Designed by the architect Hubert and the engineer Celi Moullan, this impressive machinery of pipes and mains was built in metal and glass and forced the water from the valley level up to the town water tanks in the castle place yard. To source the water, Mons purchased two springs known as the "Mouse Hole" and "La Vallière," and the water was transported via hydraulic motor. The "water machine" still bears witness to

8900-468: Was a member of the congregation in Vienna, and that he wrote for the Vienna Jewish community an oratorio celebrating the peace. Throughout his life, like many other musicians of Jewish origin, he remained close to other musicians of similar descent such as Felix Mendelssohn , Anton Rubinstein , Joseph Joachim and Ferdinand Hiller . He also remained in contact with patrons of Jewish origin such as

9000-614: Was after hearing Moscheles play at Carlsbad that the boy Robert Schumann was fired to become a piano virtuoso himself. But Moscheles found an especially warm welcome in London, where in 1822 he was awarded an honorary membership of the London Academy of Music (later to become the Royal Academy of Music ). At the end of the year he wrote in his diary, "I feel more and more at home in England", and he had no hesitation in settling there after his marriage. Moscheles visited most of

9100-413: Was also familiar with Hummel and Kalkbrenner . Among the virtuosi of the 1820s, Hummel, Kalkbrenner, Cramer , Herz and Weber were his most famous rivals. While in Vienna, Moscheles was able to meet his idol Beethoven, who was so impressed with the young man's abilities that he entrusted him with the preparation of the piano score of his opera Fidelio , commissioned by his publisher Artaria . At

9200-722: Was an early exponent of the piano recital – the concert of music for piano alone, the innovation of which is disputed between Liszt and Moscheles. Moscheles gave the first fully public performance of Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata in London on 14 March 1839, three years after Liszt had performed it for an invited audience in Paris. Moscheles notably reintroduced the harpsichord as a solo recital instrument. He also often performed in concert with Mendelssohn in London (and elsewhere) – one great favourite of both musicians were Bach 's concerti for multiple keyboard instruments. On these occasions Mendelssohn and Moscheles were renowned for vying with each other in impromptu cadenzas . Performances of

9300-651: Was approved the day after by the Belgian Parliament. On 23–24 August 1914, Mons was the location of the Battle of Mons —the first battle fought by the British Army in World War I . The British were forced to retreat with just over 1,600 casualties, and the town remained occupied by the Germans until its liberation in the Second Battle of Mons by the Canadian Corps during the final days of

9400-455: Was built in the 19th century (1862–1864) at the initiative of the Society of Waux Hall created for this purpose by members of the bourgeoisie. It is therefore the source of a private park. It is located at the site of Fort said that the Dutch formed an outwork the last fortification (1815–1864). Remnants of the fort still exist under the current pavillon. The gardens were designed by Louis Fuchs and

9500-478: Was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 1 December 1999, as part of the Belfries of Belgium and France site. Victor Hugo described the Belfry in a letter to his wife as "a coffeepot flanked by four smaller teapots." The Press House dates back to the 16th century and is a rare example of a house in traditional Spanish style in Mons. It is made in a simple architectural way using brick. This material

9600-399: Was completely restored, sometimes (as below) by extending the design of mouldings, but the fenestration proved impossible to restore as there were not enough clues from the remains of the original to do so. Therefore, "The choice was directed towards a contemporary discrete [style], appearing in second test [?]: they are steel frame whose profiles are thinner. » Impression yet reinforced by

9700-486: Was economical and used after the fire in 1548, because when it was rebuilt, the cost of stone had increased. In 1548, the deputy mayor had prohibited the use of flammable materials. The buildings were restored in 1919–1920, on the plans of the communal architect E. Bertiaux and are occupied by the Maison de la Presse. This industrial hall is all that remains of the "machine" that supplied Mons with drinkable water from 1871,

9800-440: Was nevertheless flat and monotonous; in a word I saw that he lacked melodic and harmonic ideas, and I judged that he would always write in a barbarous manner; but I saw that he had the instinct for instrumentation, and I thought that he could fulfil a useful vocation in discovering certain combinations that others would put to better use than he. Berlioz, who had proof-read Fétis' editions of the first eight Beethoven symphonies for

9900-443: Was one of the leading virtuosi resident in Vienna during the 1814–1815 Congress of Vienna , and it was at this time that he wrote his enormously popular virtuosic Alexander Variations , Op. 32 for piano and orchestra, which he later played throughout Europe. Here, too, he became a close friend of Giacomo Meyerbeer , at that time still a piano virtuoso, not yet a composer; their extemporized piano-duets were highly acclaimed. Moscheles

10000-512: Was the founder, and, until his death, the conductor of the celebrated concerts attached to the conservatory of Brussels, and he inaugurated a free series of lectures on musical history and philosophy. Fétis produced a large quantity of original compositions, from the opera and the oratorio to the simple chanson , including several musical hoaxes , the most famous of which is the "Lute concerto by Valentin Strobel", premiered with Fernando Sor as soloist. Carcassi, as well as Sor, participated in

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