Unger M.P. Historical Dictionary of Choral Music
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122 • FALSOBORDONE
Mallorca, a transcription of a Fryderyk Chopin ballade (1933); Invo-
catio ad individuam trinitatem, for 4 vv. (1935), from the stage work
La vuelta de Egipto; and Himno marcial, for chorus, pf., and drums,
based on Felipe Pedrell’s Canto de los almogávares (1937).
FALSOBORDONE. Chordal recitation on root position triads fol-
lowed by a cadence, used especially for the harmonized chanting of
psalms. It originated in the late 1400s. After the mid-1600s it was
treated primarily as an archaic device, although it became the model
for harmonized Anglican chant in England, and was revived on the
Continent during the 1800s as part of the Cecilian movement.
FARMER, JOHN (BORN C. 1570; FLOURISHED 1591–1601).
English organist and composer. Extant works include a volume of
madrigals for four voices (1599) and contributions to Thomas East’s
1592 Psalter, including 7 harmonizations of psalm tunes and 13 other
pieces. Farmer is best remembered for the madrigal, Faire Phyllis I
Saw Sitting All Alone. His contribution to Thomas Morley’s Tri-
umphes of Oriana (1601) was Faire Nymphs I Heard One Telling.
FARRANT, RICHARD (BORN C. 1525–30; DIED 30 NOVEM-
BER 1580). English composer, choirmaster, playwright, and the-
atrical producer. Having served as a singer in the Chapel Royal, he
later worked there as Master of the Choristers. He served in a similar
capacity and as an organist at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. He
organized his choristers into a dramatic company, which produced
plays for the court as well as the general public. His extant choral
works include three anthems, and a service, of which two full an-
thems and the service appear to have been widely disseminated. He
was evidently one of the first composers to write verse anthems, of
which only one is extant: When as We Sat in Babylon.
FASCH, CARL FRIEDRICH CHRISTIAN (18 NOVEMBER
1736–3 AUGUST 1800). German conductor and composer, son of
Johann Friedrich Fasch. An accomplished keyboard player, he
was appointed second harpsichordist at the court of Frederick the
Great in 1756, advancing to first accompanist when Carl Philipp
Emanuel Bach left for Hamburg in 1767. In later years, as the place
of music at the court declined, he devoted himself to composing and
conducting choral music. A group of pupils under his direction grew
into a singing society of some 150 members. Known as the Berlin
FAURÉ, GABRIEL • 123
Sing-Akademie, the society played an important role in Berlin’s
musical life and led to the establishment of similar organizations
throughout Europe. It performed works by J. S. Bach and other Ba-
roque masters, sowing the seeds of the so-called Bach revival in the
19th century. A self-critical composer, Fasch destroyed many of his
own compositions. Extant are one oratorio, a handful of cantatas, a
dozen psalm settings, five masses (including one Requiem), and a
few secular pieces.
FASCH, JOHANN FRIEDRICH (15 APRIL 1688–5 DECEMBER
1758). German composer and Kapellmeister. He was a chorister in
Weissenfels, then studied at the Thomasschule in Leipzig under Jo-
hann Kuhnau. Later, at the University of Leipzig he founded a col-
legium musicum, which became prominent in the city’s musical life.
Although self-taught in composition, he soon achieved recognition.
After a study journey through Germany (which included a period of
study with Christoph Graupner in Darmstadt) he held music posi-
tions in various cities (including Prague) before settling in Zerbst,
where he was Kappelmeister from 1722 until the end of his life. As
a composer he was perhaps most significant for developing a new
musical language for instrumental writing, which relied on thematic
development rather contrapuntal construction, and his fame spread
to important centers such as Dresden, Prague, and Vienna. Many of
his choral works are lost, among them, 9 cantata cycles and more
than a dozen masses. Extant are 13 masses, some mass movements,
66 cantatas, a Passion, 7 psalm settings, and a Magnificat, among
a few others.
FAURÉ, GABRIEL (12 MAY 1845–4 NOVEMBER 1924). French
composer, organist, pianist, and teacher, renowned especially for his
songs and chamber music. He received his musical training in Paris
at the Ecole Niedermeyer (1854–65), where he studied primarily
church music until 1861, when Camille Saint-Saëns began teach-
ing there, introducing students to the music of progressive German
composers, including Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, and Richard
Wagner.
Upon leaving the school, he took an appointment as organist of
St. Sauveur at Rennes (1866–70). After military service during the
Franco-Prussian War, he worked in Paris, settling eventually at La
Madeleine. He attended the salon of Saint-Saëns, where he met leading
124 • FAURÉ, GABRIEL
musicians of the city. In early 1871, with several of his new friends he
founded the Société Nationale de Musique, at whose meetings many
of his new compositions were first performed.
Travels to Germany, England, and Switzerland during the late 1870s
and early 1880s gave him first-hand acquaintance with the music of
Liszt and Wagner. However, his busy schedule at La Madeleine left
him little time to compose except during the summers, and success
came slowly. His Requiem, op. 48, for S, Bar., chorus, chbr. orch.,
and org. (1888), was well received, and widespread fame began to
come in the 1890s. In October of 1896 he succeeded Jules Massenet
as teacher of composition at the Conservatoire, where his innovative
harmonic style had a significant impact on the next generation of com-
posers, including Maurice Ravel and Nadia Boulanger. His influence
increased when he became director of the conservatory in 1905 (suc-
ceeding Théodore Dubois), a position he retained until 1920. Now
famous, he continued to compose, despite declining health.
Of Fauré’s 20-plus choral works, most were written in the three de-
cades from 1870 to 1890. Cantique de Jean Racine, op. 11, for chorus
and organ (for which he had been awarded the first prize in composition
in 1865 at the Ecole Niedermeyer), provides an early demonstration of
his lyric gift. Other than the Requiem, Fauré’s choral works are mostly
small in scale. They include numerous Latin motets (e.g., a handful of
Ave Maria settings for two and three voices, which may be performed
chorally, and three Tantum ergo settings), the Messe basse, for solo
voices, female chorus, harmonium, and violin; as well as a few secular
works, which include Pavane, op. 50 (1887), and a concert version of
his stage work, Caligula, op. 52, for female vv. and orch. (1888).
Fauré was very self-critical, and therefore did not compose many
large-scale works. Even the Requiem continued to evolve in stages
after its first performance in 1888. Originally it comprised five
movements: Introit and Kyrie, Sanctus, Pie Jesu, Agnus Dei, and In
Paradisum. Fauré subsequently expanded the instrumentation with
brass and a solo baritone, and added two movements: Offertoire
and Libera me (an earlier composition from 1877). He premiered
this version in 1893. Eventually, he (or perhaps one of his students)
completed a fully orchestrated version in 1900. Interestingly, none
of the three versions contain a setting of the Dies irae. Of particular
interest in the two original versions is the omission of violins (with
the exception of a solo violin).
FERRABOSCO, ALFONSO • 125
FAUXBOURDON. A technique of harmonization used during the late
Middle Ages and early Renaissance, especially by Burgundian com-
posers. It consists essentially of a melody (cantus firmus) and two
accompanying parts lying a sixth and a fourth below. The result may
be described in modern terms as a series of parallel chords in first
inversion. Guillaume Dufay often used fauxbourdon in his chant
harmonizations.
FAVORITI [IT. “FAVORED”]. A term designating the members of
the solo choir in concerted music, as opposed to those of the larger
choir (cappella). To emphasize the contrast between favoriti and cap-
pella, the latter was often reinforced with doubling (ripieno) instru-
ments. See also GABRIELI, GIOVANNI; SCHÜTZ, HEINRICH;
VIADANA, LODOVICO.
FAYRFAX, ROBERT (23 APRIL 1464–C. 24 OCTOBER 1521).
English composer, who spent his career in the Royal Household Cha-
pel of Henry VII and VIII, where he evidently received increasing
recognition. His surviving vocal works include six cyclic masses (for
five voices) two settings of the Magnificat (for five voices), a hand-
ful of motets (mostly for five voices) plus some fragments, and eight
secular songs (almost all for three voices), one of which is fragmen-
tary. His masses have no Kyrie movements (following English prac-
tice of the time), and all but one are based on a chant cantus firmus.
Formal articulation is achieved by means of contrasting meters and
textures. Evidently highly esteemed, his music continued to be cop-
ied long after his death; consequently more of his works survive than
by any of his contemporaries. Three early works (one Magnificat and
two motets) appear in the Eton Choirbook. In general, his music is
more carefully planned and less florid than works by his contempo-
raries (emphasizing balance and clarity over technical display), and
his handling of harmony is more modern sounding.
FERRABOSCO, ALFONSO (BAPTIZED 18 JANUARY 1543;
DIED 12 AUGUST 1588). Italian composer. In the 1550s his fam-
ily evidently moved to France, where he and his brothers spent their
adolescent years, establishing a reputation as singers. He then settled
in England, where he served the royal court from 1562 until 1578,
with intermittent stays in Italy (1563–64 and 1569–71). Because
he had close relationships with powerful figures in Italy, France,
126 • FERRETTI, GIOVANNI
and England, Ferrabosco found himself caught between competing
demands for his allegiance from Protestant and Catholic forces. He
was suspected of serving as a spy for Elizabeth I, and in 1578 he was
imprisoned in Rome for apostasy and defection. After his release
in 1580, he entered the employ of the Duke of Savoy, where he re-
mained for the rest of his life.
Ferrabosco’s most significant contribution was to bring the Italian
madrigal to England. His works (which were more restrained than
the madrigals of Luca Marenzio and his Italian contemporaries)
were regarded highly by English composers (including William
Byrd and Thomas Morley) and were often given new English texts.
His influence in England continued after his permanent return to Italy
in 1578, and many of his 60-plus madrigals (for five or six voices)
survive solely in English sources. Two books of madrigals for five
voices were published in Italy shortly before his death, but it is not
possible to determine when these were actually composed. A handful
of chansons also survive. His Latin motets (some 40 in all, mostly
for five or six voices) were apparently intended for devotional rather
than liturgical use. Among them are many psalm settings. About
one-third of the motets are in two parts; two of them (Benedic anima
mea Domino and the fragmentary Inclina Domine aurem tuam) are
unusually large in scale, with 11 and six parts, respectively. Fer-
rabosco also wrote four settings of Lamentations and at least one
six-voice English anthem: O Remember Not Our Old Sins.
FERRETTI, GIOVANNI (C. 1540–AFTER 1609). Italian composer.
He worked as maestro di cappella at the cathedral in Ancona, then in
northern Italy, and later at the Santa Casa in Loreto. He was known
for his seven volumes of canzoni alla napolitana: five books for five
voices (1567–85) and two books for six voices (1573 and 1575) were
reprinted in Antwerp, Nuremberg, and especially England (where
they influenced Thomas Morley and other English madrigal com-
posers).
FESTA, COSTANZO (BORN C. 1485–90; DIED 10 APRIL 1545).
Italian composer, who worked in the Sistine Chapel (1517–45), and
was one of the first native Italians to rival Franco-Flemish com-
posers of polyphony in Italy. He was one of the earliest madrigal
composers; some 100 works survive, the vast majority of these for
three or (more often) four voices. Much of his sacred music was evi-
FINE, IRVING • 127
dently written for the papal chapel. Extant are 4 masses (mostly for
four voices, one of these employing secular tunes as cantus firmus),
12 four-voice Magnificats (including one cycle on each of the eight
tones), 8 Lamentations for four to seven voices, some 60 motets for
three to eight voices (most of them for four to six voices), and some
12 vesper hymns.
FÉVIN, ANTOINE DE (C. 1470–1511/12). French composer who
worked at the court of Louis XII. Like Josquin des Prez, he laid out
his works in contrasting imitative and homophonic sections, and fre-
quently articulated their formal designs with passages for paired voices.
Although several of his works are also attributed to others, he was
evidently a progressive composer. In his masses he favored parody
technique over the older cantus firmus style, and his motets, too, sel-
dom rely on cantus firmi for their structure. Among his extant work are
some 10 masses and 18 motets (mostly for four voices), and nearly 20
chansons (mostly for three voices), which often incorporate a preexist-
ing popular tune in the tenor. See also FÉVIN, ROBERT DE.
FÉVIN, ROBERT DE (FLOURISHED 1500–15). French composer,
apparently the brother of Antoine de Févin. His three extant masses
(all for four voices) show contrapuntal skill; two of them are based
on works by Josquin des Prez.
FINCK, HEINRICH (1444/45–9 JUNE 1527). German composer
who worked at the royal court in Poland, then spent his senior years
(from 1510) in Stuttgart, Salzburg, and Vienna. Many of his works
are lost or survive in fragmentary form; nevertheless, it is clear from
the works that remain that he was willing to adapt to new stylistic
trends over the course of his long career. Extant complete works
include 4 masses (in widely ranging styles, utilizing three to seven
voices), 2 Magnificat settings, a variety of motets, including 4 motet
cycles for the Proper of the Mass, 24 hymns, and at least 28 poly-
phonic German songs (Tenorlieder). The songs and hymns survive
in such great number because they were printed by Hieronymus
Formschneider (1536) and Georg Rhaw (1542), respectively.
FINE, IRVING (3 DECEMBER 1914–23 AUGUST 1962). American
composer, conductor, educator, and writer. After studies at Harvard
University, he taught there (1939–50), before settling at Brandeis Uni-
versity, where he continued until his death. He also taught composition
128 • FINN, WILLIAM JOSEPH
at the Berkshire Music Center (1946–57). These activities brought him
into close association with Leonard Bernstein, Igor Stravinsky, and
Aaron Copland. Although he later experimented with serialism, much
of his work followed neo-Classical models. His choral works include
two sets entitled Three Choruses from Alice in Wonderland: Series 1
for 3–4 vv. and pf. (1942; arranged with orch. 1949), Series 2 for SSA
and pf. (1953); The Choral New Yorker, for S, A, Bar., 3–4 vv., and
pf. (1944); A Short Alleluia, for SSA (1945); The Hour Glass, a song
cycle for SATB (1949); McCord’s Menagerie, for TTB (1957); and
choral arrangements of Copland’s Old American Songs, for 2–4 vv.
and pf. (1952).
FINN, WILLIAM JOSEPH (7 SEPTEMBER 1881–20 MARCH
1961). Irish-American choral conductor who specialized in the sa-
cred polyphony of the 16th century. A Catholic priest, Finn founded
the Paulist’s Choristers of Chicago (an ensemble of men and boys) in
1904. In 1918 he founded the Paulist Choristers of New York. He au-
thored The Art of the Choral Conductor (Evanston: Summy-Birchard,
1960); his ideas on choral tone—specifically, that individual voices
can be matched with the color of particular orchestral instruments
and should be developed accordingly—are summarized in Howard
Swan, “The Development of a Choral Instrument,” Choral Conduct-
ing: A Symposium, 2nd ed., Harold Decker and Julius Herford, eds.
(Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1988).
The report of his distaste for conductors who browbeat their sing-
ers (reported in a Times Magazine article of 24 July 1944), is humor-
ous enough to merit a lengthy quotation:
Father Finn attributes his transcendent choral effects to the cajoling
rather than the browbeating of his talent. His rehearsals are continu-
ously good-humored. He is a genius at making singers relax. For mar-
tinet choirmasters Father Finn has nothing but contempt. Writes he,
in his effulgent Hibernian prose: ‘Sometimes [these conductors] seem
content to fabricate their figures in ice, hankering to muse in tempera-
tures below zero, phrasing frozen notations with icicle-batons. From
the arctics and antarctics which they explore, they bring a refrigeration
that benumbs artistic sensibilities. Many an auditorium is converted
into a “thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice,” the loges and stalls be-
coming igloos of inadequate shelter during sequences of gelid motets,
sleet-sheeted symphonies, and polar-cold oratorios.”
FINNISSY, MICHAEL • 129
FINNEY, ROSS LEE (23 DECEMBER 1906–4 FEBRUARY 1997).
American composer and educator. A man of broad musical interests,
he played cello, piano, and guitar, and studied with several influen-
tial composers, including Nadia Boulanger, Alban Berg, and Roger
Sessions. His early eclectic style was replaced during the 1940s with
a more pronounced Americanism. In 1949 he was appointed com-
poser-in-residence at the University of Michigan, after which time
he increasingly employed serial techniques (applying these even to
elements other than pitch). He composed in all genres. He was partic-
ularly fascinated with memory as a significant factor in musical per-
ception and experience. His experiments led to the composition of a
trilogy for chorus and orchestra: Earthrise, a Trilogy Concerned with
the Human Dilemma: Still Are New Worlds, for Bar., chorus, tape,
and orch. (1962); The Martyr’s Elegy, for high voice, chorus, and
orch. (1967); and Earthrise, for solo vv., chorus, and orch. (1978).
Other choral works include Pilgrim Psalms, for chorus and orch. or
org. (1945); Words to be Spoken: Modern Canons (1946); Spherical
Madrigals (1947); Immortal Autumn, for T and chorus (1952); Edge
of Shadow, for chorus and insts. (1959); and The Remorseless Rush
of Time, for chorus and orch. (1969).
FINNISSY, MICHAEL (17 MARCH 1946– ). English composer and
virtuoso pianist. His manner of using avant-garde techniques has
linked him with the “new complexity,” a term used to characterize
music in which all musical dimensions are simultaneously treated to
developmental processes, expressed in complex notation. However,
not all of his works are formidable to the performer. His eclectic style
draws on widely divergent sources (especially folk materials), then
transforms them in proliferating detail. His music is forceful, and
direct in expression—often espousing social causes.
Choral works include Cipriano, for T, 9 vv., and SATB (1974);
Australian Sea Shanties, set 1, for SAB (1983); Ngano, for Mez.,
T, double SATB, fl., and 2 perc. (1984); Haiyim, for SATB, and
2 vc. (1984); Maldon, for Bar., SATB, 2 trbn., 2 perc., and org.
(1990); Anima Christi, for Ct/C, SATB, and org. (1991); Seven Sa-
cred Motets, for SATB/4 solo vv. (1991); The Cry of the Prophet
Zephaniah, for Bar., TB, 2 tpt., 2 trbn., and 2 vc. (1992); Vertue,
for SA and pf. (1993); and Golden Sleep, for T, Bar., and SATB
(1996).
130 • FINZI, GERALD
FINZI, GERALD (14 JULY 1901–27 SEPTEMBER 1956). English
composer, remembered especially for his song cycles and choral mu-
sic. Having experienced the deaths of his father, several brothers, and
a teacher during his formative years, he became introspective, seek-
ing solace in the works of such poets as Thomas Hardy, whose texts
he began to set with great sensitivity. The elegiac tone of most of his
works can be traced to his consciousness of the transience of life (he
himself was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease in 1951). In many
respects he was a lyrical pastoralist, following in the path of Ralph
Vaughan Williams, Edward Elgar, Hubert Parry, and Charles
Villiers Stanford. Thus his music was not progressive for its time;
nevertheless its substance (especially Finzi’s masterful handling of
language and poetic imagery) has increasingly been recognized.
A pacifist and prodigious collector of music and books, Finzi
viewed the creative artist as civilization’s most important represen-
tative. He was influential in reviving 18th-century English music,
making it available in published editions. Although born to Jewish
parents and himself an agnostic, he wrote church anthems for cho-
rus and organ: Lo, the Full, Final Sacrifice (1946, with orch. 1947),
My Lovely One (1948), God Is Gone Up (1951), Welcome Sweet
and Sacred Feast (1953); a Magnificat (with org., 1952; arr. with
orch., 1956); and the longer Christmas cantata, In terra pax, for S,
Bar., chorus, str., hp., and cymbals (1954, arr. with full orch., 1956).
Other large-scale works include For St. Cecilia, for T, chorus, and
orch. (1947); and Intimations of Immortality, for T, chorus, and orch.
(1938, 1950). Among his shorter secular works are Seven Partsongs
for unaccompanied chorus (1934–37).
FISCHER, JOHANN KASPAR FERDINAND (?6 SEPTEMBER
1656–27 AUGUST 1746). German composer born in Bohemia,
known especially for Ariadne Musica, a published collection of 20
preludes and fugues for organ in 18 different keys. He wrote in a
mixed style: his vocal works are Italianate, his organ works Ger-
manic, and his orchestral and other keyboard works influenced by
Jean-Baptiste Lully.
Fischer began his career as Kapellmeister in Schlackenwerth (Bo-
hemia). In the early 1690s he was evidently appointed to the court of
Margrave Ludwig Wilhem of Baden, which was located for a time in
Schlackenwerth (the hometown of the margrave’s wife). In 1705 the
FLORENTINE CAMERATA • 131
court moved to Rastatt (Germany). However, Fischer did not receive
an official appointment there until 1715, after which he retained the
position until his death.
Unfortunately, vocal works survive only from his Schlackenwerth
years. Among them are eight masses (mostly for soloists, chorus,
instruments, and continuo, and demonstrating considerable contra-
puntal skill), six offertories (most of them with instruments), three
introits, psalm settings (published in 1701), and a set of litanies
(published in 1711), among a few others. Most of these works are
accompanied by chamber ensemble.
FISK JUBILEE SINGERS. A black American vocal ensemble of Fisk
University in Nashville, Tennessee, an educational institution founded
in 1866 for newly freed slaves. The original ensemble of nine musi-
cians was formed in 1871 by George L. White to raise money for the
university. Named after the biblical “Year of Jubilee,” during which
all slaves were set free, the group soon achieved worldwide renown
for their artistic performances of traditional black spirituals.
FISSINGER, EDWIN (15 JUNE 1920–16 OCTOBER 1990). Ameri-
can choral composer and conductor. Having received degrees from
the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago (specializing in
composition), he taught there before moving on to doctoral studies
at the University of Illinois. From 1957 until 1967 he taught at the
University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, serving as chair of the music
department and directing choral ensembles. He subsequently taught
and served as chair of the music department at North Dakota State
University (Fargo) until his retirement in 1985.
Fissinger achieved national recognition as a composer and editor
of choral music, with reportedly 170-plus choral compositions and
arrangements to his credit. An ongoing publishing project dedicated
to making Fissinger’s music available has begun at North Dakota
State University, where his papers reside.
FLORENTINE CAMERATA [CAMERATA OF COUNT GIO-
VANNI DE’ BARDI]. An academic salon in Florence during the
latter half of the 1500s, whose members were particularly interested
in replicating the theatrical impact of music in ancient Greece. This
interest led to the invention and cultivation of recitative style by
composers such as Jacopo Peri (1561–1602).