Uccelli [née Pazzini], Carolina Uccellini, Marco

Ursatz

(Ger.).

In Schenkerian analysis (see Analysis, §II, 4), the basic contrapuntal design that underlies the structure of a piece or movement; the final result of successive harmonic-contrapuntal ‘reductions’ in a Layer analysis, and thus the representation of its musical Background. The term is often rendered in English as ‘fundamental structure’.

The upper voice of the Ursatz, called the Urlinie (‘fundamental line’), consists of a diatonic stepwise descent to the tonic from the 3rd, 5th or octave; the interval it encompasses and the register in which it appears depend on the analysis, i.e. the content of the previous layers and, ultimately, the piece itself. The lower voice, which encapsulates the harmonic motion of the piece, consists of a tonic, followed by a dominant and a return to the tonic; this is called the Arpeggiation (ii) of the bass (Ger. Bassbrechung) since it involves movement between two notes belonging to the tonic triad. Thus the upper and lower parts of the Ursatz both exhibit a ‘horizontal’ unfolding of the tonic triad. Two common Ursatz forms in C major are given in ex.1.

While the Ursatz, seen from an analytical point of view, is the reduction of a piece to its simplest harmonic and contrapuntal terms, it may also be understood compositionally as the initial elaboration of the tonic triad, and thus the starting-point for the explanation of a piece in terms of growth and development. It is for this reason that Ursatz is the first concept developed in the definitive formulation of Schenker’s theories, Der freie Satz (1935), and also the starting-point – both graphically and verbally – of all his later analyses.

Like its companion term Urlinie, the meaning of Ursatz changed in the course of Schenker’s development as a theorist. In the early to mid-1920s it denoted something a little more elaborate: ex.2 shows the Ursatz of the first movement of Mozart’s G minor Symphony in Das Meisterwerk in der Musik, ii (1926). By the time of the ‘Eroica’ analysis (1930), this level of elaboration would have been called the ‘erste Schicht’ or ‘first [middleground] layer’.

WILLIAM DRABKIN

Ursillo, Fabio

(b Rome, late 17th century; d Tournai,1759). Italian composer and lutenist active in the south Netherlands. He was in Rome in 1720, and some time after that, probably at Rome or Naples, met Count François-Ernest of Salm-Reifferscheid, the future Bishop of Tournai, and in 1725 followed him to Tournai. He is said to have been a man of difficult character; he changed his employment several times, working for the Chevalier d’Orléans, grand prior of France (1730), then returning to the bishop’s service in 1733, moving to the Württemberg court in 1744, and finally settling in 1746 with the bishop; he also had opportunities to perform in Brussels, notably at the court. The bishop guaranteed him an annual income of 1200 livres as well as food, lodging, fuel, light and ten Spanish pistoles for clothing. In 1759 his widow, disregarding her husband’s periods of work elsewhere, claimed food and lodging for herself on the strength of the 34 years during which he had been in the bishop’s service. Fétis confused Ursillo with the Neapolitan composer Fabio.

WORKS

[6] Sonate da camera, fl, bc, op.1 (Paris, 1731)

6 sonates en trio, vn, fl, bc, op.2 (Paris, 1737)

6 sonates en trio, 2 vn, vc, op.3 (Amsterdam, ?1748)

6 sonates en trio, 2 vn, bc, op.5 (Paris, n.d.)

6 sonates, 2 vn, bc (London, 1756)

Sym., C, D-DS

Sonatas, fl (Amsterdam, 1748); concs., fl (Amsterdam, 1758): cited by Fétis and Warichez

Fl sonatas, concerti grossi, fantasies for archlute, gui conc.: all MS, cited by Fétis and Warichez

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Choron-FayolleD

EitnerQ

FétisB

MGG1 (F. Degrada)

Vander StraetenMPB, i

C. Piot: ‘La musique attachée à la maison du comte de Salm’, Bulletin de l’Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique, 2nd ser., xlix (1880), 693

J. Warichez: Les deux derniers évêques de Tournai sous l’ancien régime (Tournai, 1911), 15ff

J. Remacle: Jean-Marie Rousseau et la maîtrise de la cathédral de Tournai au 18e siècle (diss., U. of Leuven, 1974)

PHILIPPE MERCIER

Ursino, Gennaro

(b Roio del Sangro, nr Chieti, 1650; d Naples, in or after 1715). Italian composer. At the age of 12 he entered the Conservatorio della Pietà dei Turchini, Naples, where he was taught by Giovanni Salvatore. From 1675 he was chief assistant to Francesco Provenzale, director of this conservatory, whom he succeeded after his retirement in April 1701; he remained in this position until 1705. He was also assistant to Salvatore, then director of the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo, from September 1686; he was appointed his successor in 1688 and held this position until 1695. He served too as maestro di cappella of SS Annunziata (1701–15), S Maria in Portico and the Jesuit college. He composed music (now lost) for three dramatic works given at religious institutions in Naples: the comedy Pandora (1690), Il trionfo della croce nella vittoria di Costantino (a ‘scherzo drammatico’ to a text by Giacomo Badiale, 1690, revived 1701) and Iratus in coelos impetus (an ‘armonica fabula’, 1697). A few motets by him survive (in I-Nf); most are for small forces, sometimes with concertato violin parts, but three are for four choirs.

KEITH A. LARSON