Ottoni
(It.).
See Brass instruments.
Ottósson, Róbert Abraham
(b Berlin, 17 May 1912; d Lund, 10 March 1974). Icelandic musicologist, conductor and composer of German birth. The son of the musicologist Otto Abraham, he studied in Berlin at the Hochschule für Musik (1932–4) and privately with Sachs. After leaving Germany in 1934, he continued his studies with Scherchen in Paris and then moved to Iceland in 1935, becoming an Icelandic citizen in 1947. He gained the doctorate from the University of Iceland in 1959 with a dissertation on a 14th-century rhymed office for St Thorlakur, the patron saint of Iceland. He taught musicology, theory and conducting at the Reykjavík College of Music, and was appointed docent at the theological faculty of the University of Iceland in 1966. He served as music director of the Icelandic Lutheran church (1961–74) and prepared a thoroughly revised edition of the Lutheran hymnal (first ed. 1972).
Ottósson was an active conductor both in Iceland and abroad. He conducted the State Radio Choir (1947–9), led the Iceland Symphony Orchestra in its first concert under that name (9 March 1950) and served as assistant conductor of the Berlin SO (1956–7). In 1959 he founded the Philharmonia Choral Society, which introduced a number of major works to Icelandic audiences under his direction, including a legendary series of performances of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in 1966. As a scholar, his research on medieval Icelandic church music earned him an outstanding reputation. He was a prolific arranger of hymns and plainchant melodies, and his publications of music for liturgical use prompted a renewed interest in the use of chant-based melodies in Lutheran services. His choral arrangements of Icelandic folk songs have also enjoyed great popularity, and a rare example of an original composition, Miskunnarbean (‘Prayer for Mercy’, SATB, str, 1967) combines chant-like melodic writing with modern choral techniques.
‘Antifon’, ‘Diskant’, ‘Koral, gregoriansk’, ‘Rímur-melodier’, ‘Tvesang’, Kulturhistoriskt lexikon för nordisk medeltid fran vikingatid till reformationstid, ed. J. Granlund (Malmö, 1956–78)
Sancti Thorlaci episcopi officia rhythmica et proprium missae in AM 241 A folio (diss., U. of Iceland, 1959; Copenhagen, 1959)
Tuttugu og tveir helgisöngvar fyrir kóra og söfnui (Reykjavík, 1967)
‘Ein føgur Saung Vijsa’, Afmaelisrit Jóns Helgasonar, ed. J. Benediktsson and others (Reykjavík, 1969), 251–9
‘Das musiktheoretische Textfragment im Stockholmer Homilienbuch’, Opuscula, iv, Bibliotheca arnamagnaeana, xxx (Copenhagen, 1970), 169–76
‘Ein Prozessionsgesang der Mönche zu Thingeyrar’, Scientia Islandica, no.2 (1970), 3–12 [incl. facs.]
‘Iceland’, §II, 1, 2, Grove6
G. Morin, C.-A. Moberg and E. Sundström, eds.: Sohlmans musiklexikone (Stockholm, 1948–52, rev. 2/1975–9 by H. Åstrand)
J. Gudnason and P. Haraldsson: Íslenzkir samtíðarmenn (Reykjavík, 1965)
A. Burt: Iceland’s Twentieth-Century Composers and a Listing of their Works (Annandale, VA, 1975, 2/1977)
ÁRNI HEIMIR INGÓLFSSON
Ouchard.
French family of bowmakers. Emile François Ouchard (1872–1951) was apprenticed to Eugene Cuniot-Hury from 1884; after 1912 he continued running this shop with his master’s widow, assuming complete management in 1926. His bows, while not elegantly finished, are well made and show ample evidence of a clearly developed style, though remaining fairly conservative throughout his career. Their box-like heads have rather straight chamfers, while the frogs are fairly low, with rounded heels. The buttons are either silver-capped or banded. They are branded emile ouchard, though some of his work doubtless appears under Cuniot-Hury’s brand.
Emile François’ son, Emile A. Ouchard (1900–1969), who became the most important member of the family, appears to have learnt the craft from his father in Mirecourt. He went to Paris in 1941 and soon afterwards emigrated to the USA, working in New York and later in Chicago. In the mid-1950s he returned to France and set up shop in the provinces. His bows, while similar in appearance to those of the Voirin-Lamy school, have quite different playing qualities; many players find his sticks rather stiff. The frogs, of conventional design, are usually mounted in a recessed track which is carved into the three lower facets of the butt. The buttons are either capped or banded and are often threaded to the screwshaft. He used various forms of his name as his brand; some bows of the 1940s are also stamped with the year of manufacture under the frog.
Bernard Ouchard (1925–79), son and pupil of E.A. Ouchard, accompanied his father to Paris in 1941. During World War II he enlisted with the French army and in 1949 joined the workshop of Pierre Vidoudez in Geneva. He remained there as a bowmaker until 1971, when he was appointed professor of bowmaking at the Mirecourt school. His bows, whose sticks are mostly octagonal, are of elegant proportions and are apparently based on a kind of Peccatte model. They are branded with his surname only, although much of his work bears the Vidoudez brand.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. Roda: Bows for Musical Instrumems of the Violin Family (Chicago, 1959)
E. Vatelot: Les archets français (Nancy, 1976)
C.C. Brown: ‘The Ouchards and their Bass Bows’, The Strad, cii (1991), 134–43 [incl. illustrations]
JAAK LIIVOJA-LORIUS
Oud.
See ‘Ūd.
Oudenaerde, Iacobus de.
See Jacobus of Liège.
Oudin, Eugène (Espérance)
(b New York, 24 Feb 1858; d London, 4 Nov 1894). American baritone of French descent. He studied with Moderati in New York, where he made his début in 1886 at Wallack’s Theatre with the M’Caul Opéra-Comique Company as Montosol in an English version of Roger’s Joséphine vendue par ses soeurs. He was engaged by Sullivan to create the part of the Templar in Ivanhoe at the Royal English Opera House, London, in 1891. He sang the title role in the English première of Yevgeny Onegin (1892) at the Olympic Theatre, and in 1893 he sang the High Priest in the first performance in England (a concert version) of Samson et Dalila, in his own translation. Oudin sang with notable success in 1893 and 1894 at St Petersburg as Wolfram, Telramund and Albert (Werther).
HAROLD ROSENTHAL/R
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