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

Four foot.

A term used in reference to organ stops, and by extension also to other instruments, to indicate that they are pitched an octave above the Eight foot or ‘normal’ pitch now based on c' = 256 Hz. A pipe of average Diapason scale and 4' (1·2m) in length would in fact speak somewhat lower than c = 128 Hz, but the foot too has changed in length since this terminology was first used in the 15th century (Delft Oude Kerk, 1458). In the classic Werkprinzip organ design, the Chair organ is of 4', the Great of 8', the Pedal of 16'.

PETER WILLIAMS

Four Freshmen, the.

American vocal group. It was formed in 1948 by Don Barbour (b Greencastle, IN, 19 April 1927; second voice), Ross Barbour (b Columbus, IN, 31 Dec 1928; third voice), Bob Flanigan (b Greencastle, IN, 22 Aug 1926; lead voice) and Hal Kratzch (bass), who were studying music in Indianapolis. They gained a recording contract with Capitol Records, aided by the bandleader Stan Kenton. Among their best-known recordings were In a Blue World (1952), It happened once before, Mood Indigo and Graduation Day (1956; later recorded in a similar style by the Beach Boys). The group made over 30 albums during the 1950s and 60s including The Four Freshmen and Five Trombones (1956) and The Four Freshmen and Five Guitars (1960). The group represented a modernizing force in the sphere of close harmony quartets in American popular music, moving away from the barbershop style to introduce elements of jazz. In doing so, they influenced younger groups such as the Hi-Los and the Beach Boys. Although the Four Freshmen continued to perform into the 1990s, there were frequent personnel changes and Flanigan was the only remaining founder member.

DAVE LAING

Fourmentin

(fl c1560). French composer. He wrote two quarillons, descriptive vocal pieces exploiting bell-like melodies (Réveillez vous tous plaisans amoureux, for four voices, in RISM 1559¹¹, and the five-voice Réveillez vous tous plaisans compaignons, 1562⁴). Their model was Janequin’s Chant des oiseaux which begins with the same clarion call ‘Resveillez-vous’. These chansons were popular enough to be frequently reprinted. Fourmentin also left one six-voice chanson, in the more conventional courtly style, Par trop amour me pourchasse (1559¹⁰). He may be identifiable with Philippe Fromentin, a singer from the diocese of Noyon, who was a vicar and maître des enfants of Reims Cathedral in 1558. (All three chansons are ed. in SCC, x, 1994.)

FRANK DOBBINS

Fourneaux.

French family of reed organ makers. Jean-Baptiste-Napoléon Fourneaux (b Leard, Ardennes, 21 May 1808; d Aubanton, Aisne, 19 July 1846) began his career as a clockmaker. In 1830 he settled in Paris and in 1836 bought the business of Chameroy, a maker of accordions and mechanical organs since 1829. Fourneaux became a significant maker of accordions at the exhibition of 1844 he received a silver medal for his orgues expressifs. He built another model of reed organ which he called the ‘Orchestrion’, and invented the percussion action in reed organs.

His sons Jean-Nestor-Napoléon Fourneaux and Jean-Louis-Napoléon Fourneaux (b Paris, 1830) expanded the business which was located in the 10e arrondissement of Paris: in 1860 they were employing 46 workers. Jean-Louis-Napoléon made further improvements to the orgues expressif, and was responsible for a number of inventions, including the ‘melodina’ (1855), the ‘pianista pneumatique’ (1863), the ‘orgue-violiphone’ (1879), and the ‘piano exécutant’ (a Piano player; 1883). Jean-Nestor-Napoléon was the author of the Petit traité de orgue expressif (Paris, 1863), Instrumentologie: traité théorique et pratique de l'accord des instruments à sons fixes … contenent une théorie complète du temperament musicale et des battements (Paris, 1867) and, with J.B.A.M.J. Déon, Methode simplifée pour l'accompagnement traditionel … plainchant sur l'orgue-harmonichordéon (Paris, 1864).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

C. Pierre: Les facteurs de l'instruments de musique (Paris, 1893)

P. Monichon: Petite histoire de l'accordion (Paris, 1958)

M. Haine: Les facteurs d'instruments de musique à Paris au 19e siècle (Brussels, 1985)

P. Monichon: L'accordéon (Paris, 1985)

M.C. CARR/ARTHUR W.J.G. ORD-HUME

Fournet, Jean

(b Rouen, 14 April 1913). French conductor. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire and made his début at Rouen in 1936. His first appointments were there (1938) and in Marseilles (1940), and from 1944 to 1957 he was music director at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. He taught conducting at the Ecole Normale, Paris, 1944–62, and was conductor of the Netherlands RPO 1961–8, and artistic director of the Rotterdam PO, 1968–73. Fournet has toured as a guest conductor in Europe, North and South America, Israel and Japan; he conducted the first performance in Tokyo (1958) of Pelléas et Mélisande. He made his début with the Chicago Lyric Opera in 1965, and at the Metropolitan in 1987 with Samson et Dalila. Admired for his meticulous and exacting craftsmanship, he has a wide repertory that lays particular emphasis on Berlioz, Debussy and Ravel, and he has been much praised for his performances of Dialogues des Carmélites on both sides of the Atlantic. His 1955 recording at the Opéra-Comique of Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, in French with spoken dialogue, was reissued on CD in 1988. Fournet’s other recordings include Les pêcheurs de perles, Berlioz’s Requiem, Martin’s Maria-Triptychon (of which he gave the première in Rotterdam in 1969) and works by Dukas and Henkemans.

CHRISTIANE SPIETH-WEISSENBACHER, NOËL GOODWIN