Nabokov, Nicolas [Nikolay]

Neck

(Fr. manche; Ger. Hals; It. manico).

An essential feature of all string instruments classified as lutes, open harps or harp-lutes, serving to extend the length of the strings beyond the resonating body of the instrument. It may be fitted with a fingerboard (as in the case of the violin family). Distinctions are made between ‘long-necked lutes’, particularly those of the Arabic and Persian regions and India, and ‘short-necked lutes’ such as the Arabic ‘Ūd, the European classical lute and instruments of the violin and viol families. The former type tend to carry only one or two melody strings (e.g. the Turkish saz and the Indian sitār) and have a playing technique involving only one or two fingers and much linear movement of the hand along the neck. Short-necked lutes are characterized by a ‘tiered array’ of strings, calling for wide necks and little linear hand movement but considerable lateral finger movement across the neck.

The necks or handles of spike lutes (e.g. the Indonesian rebab and the Japanese shamisen), sometimes little more than sticks in the case of folk instruments, pass diametrically through the body of the instrument, projecting from the lower end as a spike or stub which in turn serves usually as an attachment point for the strings. Other necks are joined to the body with nails or glue or both (as on the violin), while yet others are made by extending and tapering the body of the instrument (e.g. the rebec, the Greek lyra, the Bulgarian gadulka and the sitār). Some necks are hollow and continue into a deep pegbox, allowing sympathetic strings to be threaded under a fingerboard (if present) and attached to lateral pegs on the pegbox or along the side of the neck itself (e.g. the Indian sārangī).

The zoomorphism and anthropomorphism implicit in the term ‘neck’ is emphasized in some instrument types by carving the end of the neck into the shape of a human or animal head. Particularly striking examples of these are 19th-century ivory-necked harps of the Zande and Mangbetu peoples of Central Africa (see Congo, Democratic Republic of the), the South Indian sarasvatī vīnā (see Vīnā, fig.5), the Mongolian morin khuur and a number of 18th-century viols and violas d'amore.

See also Fingerboard and Pegbox.

PETER COOKE

Nectoux, Jean-Michel

(b Le Raincy, 20 Nov 1946). French musicologist. After studying law at the University of Paris (1964–8), he studied musicology with Yves Gérard and musical aesthetics with Vladimir Jankélévitch at the Sorbonne (1968–70). He subsequently took a course in librarianship at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Bibliothéques (1969–70). He has successively held the post of head librarian at the Bibliothéque Municipale de Versailles (1970–72), the music department of the Bibliothéque Nationale de France (1972–85), the Musée d'Orsay (1985–97) and from 1999 the newly created Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art. Additionally, from 1997 to 1999 he was deputy music director of Radio France.

Nectoux was secretary of the Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale (RILM) for France (1972–85) and assistant editor of the Revue de musicologie (1979–82). In 1980 he founded the musicological series Harmoniques. He has undertaken research mainly in French music, literature and the arts from 1850 to 1925, studying in particular Proust, Mallarmé, Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, the Ballets Russes and Stravinsky. He is considered to be the foremost authority on Fauré, the subject of his doctoral thesis (1980).

WRITINGS

‘Proust et Fauré’, Bulletin de la Société des amis de Marcel Proust et des amis de Combray, no.21 (1971), 1101–20

ed.: ‘Correspondance Saint-Saëns Fauré’, RdM, lviii (1972), 65–89, 190–252; lix (1973), 60–98; repr. as Camille Saint-Saëns and Gabriel Fauré: correspondance soixante ans d'amitie (Paris, 1973, 3/1994)

Fauré (Paris, 1972, 3/1995)

‘Les orchestrations de Gabriel Fauré: légende et vérité’, SMz, cxv (1975), 243–9

‘Ravel, Fauré et les débuts de la Société musicale indépendante’, RdM, lxi (1975), 295–318

‘Notes pour une esthétique de Maurice Ravel’, Revue musicale de Suisse romande, xxix (1976), 150–57

‘Maurice Ravel et sa bibliothèque musicale’, FAM, xxiv (1977), 199–206

‘Works Renounced, Themes Rediscovered: éléments pour une thématique fauréenne’, 19CM, ii (1978–9), 231–44

‘Debussy et Fauré’, Cahiers Debussy, no.3 (1979), 13–30

Gabriel Fauré: 1900–1977 (Paris, 1979) [discography]

ed.: Gabriel Fauré: correspondance (Paris, 1980; Eng. trans., 1984)

Gabriel Fauré et le théâtre: de la musique de scène au drame lyrique (diss., U. of Paris IV-Sorbonne, 1980; partially pubd. as ‘Gabriel Fauré et l'esthétique de son oeuvre théâtral’, Revue musicale de Suisse romande, xxxiii (1980), 50–59

‘Musique, symbolisme et art nouveau: notes pour une esthétique de la musique française fin de siècle’, Art nouveau, Jugendstil und Musik, ed. J. Stenzl (Zürich, 1980), 13–30

‘Le Pelléas de Fauré’, RdM, lxvii (1981), 169–90

with J.-J. Eigeldinger: ‘Edouard Ganche et sa collection Chopin’, Revue de la Bibliothèque Nationale, no.7 (1983), 10–26

‘Music in the Archives of Paris Churches’, 19CM, vii (1983), 100–03

‘Stravinsky par lui-même: premiers enregistrements parisiens’, Revue musicale de Suisse romande, xxxviii (1985), 103–10

‘Trois orchestres parisiens en 1830: l'Académie royale de musique, le Théâtre Italien et la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire’, Music in Paris in the Eighteen-Thirties/La musique à Paris dans les années mil huit cent trente, ed. P. Bloom (New York, 1987), 471–505

‘Debussy et Mallarmé’, Cahiers Debussy, nos.12–13 (1988–9), 54–66

ed.: Nijinsky, Prélude à l'Après-midi d'un Faune (Paris, 1989) [incl. ‘Portrait de l'artiste en faune’, 7–42]

Gabriel Fauré: les voix du clair-obscur (Paris, 1990; Eng. trans., 1991) [incl. catalogue of works and bibliography]

‘Debussy et Nijinsky’, Ecrits sur Nijinsky, ed. F. Stanciu-Reiss and J.-M. Pourvoyeur (Paris, 1992), 57–64

‘Gabriel Fauré au Conservatoire de Paris: une philosophie pour l'enseignement’, Le Conservatoire de Paris, 1795–1995, ed. A. Bongrain and Y. Gérard (Paris, 1996), 219–34

‘Voix, style, vocalité: les premiers interprètes de Fauré’, D'un opéra l'autre: hommage à Jean Mongrédien, ed. J. Gribenski (Paris, 1996), 133–40; Eng. trans., in Regarding Fauré, ed. T. Gordon (Amsterdam, 1999), 369–402

ed., with M.-C. Mussat and J. Mongrédien: Echos de France et d'Italie: liber amicorum Yves Gérard (Paris, 1997) [incl. ‘Texte et musique chez Fauré: un art de la sonorité’, 291–302]

‘Portrait of the Artist as Roderick Usher’, Debussy Studies, ed. R.L. Smith (Cambridge, 1997), 108–38

‘“Tous écoutent la parole du maître”: Gabriel Fauré et ses élèves’, Deux cents ans de pédagogie au Conservatoire, ed. A. Poirier (Paris, forthcoming)

EDITIONS

Gabriel Fauré: Pièces pour violoncelle et piano (Leipzig, 1980)

with J.-J. Eigeldinger: Frédéric Chopin: Oeuvres pour piano: fac-similé de l'exemplaire de Jane W. Stirling avec annotations et corrections de l'auteur (ancienne collection Edouard Ganche) (Paris, 1982)

with R. Delage: Gabriel Fauré: Messe de Requiem op.48, pour soli, choeur et orchestre de chambre, version 1893 (Paris, 1994)

Gabriel Fauré: Messe de Requiem op.48, version symphonique de 1900 (Paris, 1998)

Gabriel Fauré: Messe basse et motets, i (Stuttgart, 1999)

JEAN GRIBENSKI