Faà di Bruno, Giovanni Matteo [Horatio, Orazio] 83

Ferandini, Giovanni Battista.

See Ferrandini, Giovanni Battista.

Ferber, Albert

(b Lucerne, 29 March 1911; d London, 11 Jan 1987). Swiss pianist. He studied with Hirt in Berne, Leimer and Gieseking in Hanover, Ching in London and Marguerite Long in Paris. He toured extensively and played with most major orchestras. His recital programmes were often enterprising, including many comparatively unfamiliar works from both past and present – Balakirev’s Sonata, for instance. It became apparent early that his cool yet sensitive approach was particularly suited to French music, particularly Fauré and Debussy, in which he specialized and was at his best. Among his recordings are the complete piano works of Debussy and a representative selection from Fauré. Ferber settled in England shortly before World War II, and was highly regarded as a teacher.

FRANK DAWES

Ferchault, Guy

(b Mer, Loir-et-Cher, 16 Aug 1904; d Paris, 14 Nov 1980). French musicologist. He studied at the Sorbonne from 1935 with Charles Lalo, Pirro and Masson and took the Diplôme d’Etudes Supérieures in philosophy in 1942. He was co-editor with Robert Bernard of the journal L’information musicale (1940–44). He was professor of the history of music at the Versailles Conservatoire (1943–67), and also gave lectures in the provinces and at the Sorbonne. In his musicological research he dealt with many subjects, concentrating on music drama (particularly Wagner’s) and taking a largely aesthetic approach. Among his shorter works are contributions to La musique des origines à nos jours (Paris, 1946) and La musique: les hommes, les instrments, le oeuvres (Paris, 1965), both edited by Norbert Dufourcq, and J. Porte's Encyclopédie des musiques sacrées (ii–iii, Paris, 1969-70) as well as articles in numerous journals.

WRITINGS

Les créateurs du drame musical (Paris, 1944)

ed.: Henri Duparc: une amitié mystique (Paris, 1944) [correspondence with Francis Jammes]

Introduction à l’esthétique de la mélodie (Gap, 1946)

‘Chopin’, ‘Schumann’, Les grands musiciens, ed. O. Lesourd (Paris, 1946–7), i, 276–93; ii, 5–32

Claude Debussy, musicien français (Paris, 1948)

Faust: une légende et ses musiciens (Paris, 1948)

‘Jean Sébastien Bach et l’esthétique de son temps’, Bach-Gedenkschrift, ed. K. Matthaei (Zürich, 1950), 35–41

‘Présence du classicisme français’, Almanach de la musique 1951, 157–61

‘La musique religieuse française de la mort de César Franck à nos jours’, ReM, no.222 (1953–4), 121–37

‘Considérations sur l’esthétique mozartienne et l’origine de ses affinités françaises’, ReM, no.231 (1956), 219–24

BIBLIOGRAPHY

M. Chimènes: ‘L'information musicale: une parenthèse de La revue musicale?’, La revue des revues, no.24 (1997), 91–110

CHRISTIANE SPIETH-WEISSENBACHER/JEAN GRIBENSKI

Ferdinand III

(b Graz, 13 July 1608; d Vienna, 2 April 1657). Austrian emperor, patron of music and composer. He was the son of Ferdinand II and became Roman king in 1636 and Holy Roman Emperor in 1637; he was succeeded by his son Leopold I. He was not only, like his father, an enthusiastic patron of music but an admired and respected composer too. His teacher was giovanni Valentini (i), with whom he continued to have close personal ties until Valentini’s death. Under Ferdinand II (who became emperor in 1619) the long-established Netherlandish influence on the music of the Viennese Hofkapelle had come to an abrupt end. From then on the Italians set the tone, and besides Valentini such prominent Italian composers as Bertali and Sances held important posts there for many years. Several Italian composers wrote operas for Vienna during the reign of Ferdinand III, and Monteverdi’s eighth book of madrigals (1638) is perhaps the most notable of the numerous publications dedicated to him. Ferdinand played an active part in the preparation of the great court festivities, especially stage works of various kinds, which were produced with the utmost magnificence in Vienna and elsewhere in his Habsburg domains; one such notable occasion was the wedding of his daughter Maria Anna to Philip IV of Spain at Brussels in 1650, when Gioseffo Zamponi’s Ulisse all’isola di Circe was given. Distinguished German composers such as Froberger and Ebner – the latter a particular favourite – also worked in his court. During the last years of his life Ferdinand founded a literary academy on the Italian model in Vienna.

Ferdinand’s own allegorical Drama musicum (in A-Wn; extracts ed. in Adler, ii) was highly praised by Athanasius Kircher, who declared (Musurgia universalis, 1650) that Ferdinand had ‘no equal among sovereigns’. Some secular pieces, including settings of Italian texts, and a number of sacred works by him survive. The latter include two masses, four motets, ten hymns, litanies, a Stabat mater and a Miserere (all in manuscripts in A-Wn, except for an eight-part mass, which is in A-KR; an Italian madrigal ed. in Adler, ii, and Miserere, Litaniae Lauretanae and a hymn ed. in Adler, i. A further 11 sacred works are in the Ratsbücherei, Lüneburg (D-Lr KN 28). Ferdinand’s music shows the influence of Valentini, but at its best, for example in the Miserere, it shows too that he was a composer of some individuality and imagination, with a sure technique.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

G. Adler: Introduction to Musikalische Werke der Kaiser Ferdinand III, Leopold I und Joseph I (Vienna, 1892–3)

R. Haas: Die Wiener Oper (Vienna, 1926)

H.V.F. Somerset: ‘The Habsburg Emperors as Musicians’, ML, xxx (1949), 204–15

O. Wessely: ‘Habsburger Kaiser als Komponisten’, Unica austriaca, Notring Jb 1959, 53–4

H. Seifert: Die Oper am Wiener Kaiserhof im 17. Jahrhundert (Tutzing, 1985)

N. Hammerstein: “‘Recreationes … principe dignae”: Überlegungen zur adeligen Musikpraxis an deutschen Höfen und ihren italienischen Vorbildern’, Claudio Monteverdi: Festschrift Reinhold Hammerstein, ed. L. Finscher (Laaber, 1986), 213–35

T. Antonicek: ‘Die italienischen Textvertonungen Kaiser Ferdinands III’, Beiträge zur Aufnahme der italienischen und spanischen Literatur in Deutschland im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert, ed. A. Martino, Chloe: Beihefte zum Daphnis, no.9 (1990), 209–33

S. Saunders: ‘New Discoveries Concerning Ferdinand III’s Musical Compositions’, SMw, xlv (1996), 7–31

JOSEF–HORST LEDERER