Nabokov, Nicolas [Nikolay]

Noli, Fan [Theofan] Stilian

(b Ibrik-Tepe, nr Adrianople, 6 Jan 1882; d Fort Lauderdale, FL, 13 March 1965). Albanian composer, writer and politician. His early energies were directed towards the Albanian independence movement. He championed its cause first in Egypt and then in the USA, where he became a priest (1908) and later a bishop (1919) in the Albanian Orthodox Church. In 1920 he headed the delegation which successfully gained admittance for Albania to the League of Nations. He served briefly as foreign minister in the Albanian government of Xhafer Ypi in 1922 and, after the overthrow of the Ahmed Zogu regime in 1924, was prime minister for six months. After Zogu’s return to power, he went into exile, settling in 1932 in the USA, where he became head of the Albanian Orthodox Church. In 1935–7 he studied composition at the New England Conservatory.

Although Noli’s literary output has been amply studied, his work as a composer is less well known: his secular compositions were not performed or recorded in Albania until the 1980s. Nonetheless, works such as Skënderbeu and Gaspari i varfër (‘Poor Gaspar’), more neo-classical than late Romantic in style, reveal him as one of the most technically accomplished Albanian composers active in the first half of the 20th century. His colourful and intelligent essay on Beethoven drew praise from George Bernard Shaw, Sibelius and Thomas Mann among others.

WORKS

(selective list)

Skënderbeu, sym. poem, orch, 1938; Sonata, vn, pf, c; Uvertura bizantinase [Byzantine Ov.]; Gaspari i varfër [Poor Gaspar] (P. Verlaine), T, orch; Buzë lumenjve të Babilonisë [By the Rivers of Babylon] (Ps cxxxvi), mixed chorus

Edns: Hymnore [Hymnal] (Boston, 1936); Eastern Orthodox Hymnal (Boston, 1951); Byzantine Hymnal (Boston, 1959)

WRITINGS

Beethoven and the French Revolution (New York, 1947)

Vepra të plota [Complete works] (Pristina, 1968)

ed. A. Buda and others: Vepra [Works] (Tirana, 1987–)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

K.I. Soulis: ‘Fan Noli’, Megali Elliniki engyklopaedheia [Great Greek encyclopedia] (Athens, 1933), 818–20

S. Pollo and A. Pluto, eds.: L’histoire de l’Albanie (Paris, 1974), 250–53; Eng. trans. (London, 1981)

Z. Shuteriqi: ‘Fan S. Noli: Musicologist and Composer’, New Albania, ii (1982), 28

S. Pollo and V. Bala: ‘Noli’, Fjalozi enciklopedik shqiptar (Tirana, 1985), 760–61

GEORGE LEOTSAKOS

Nollet [Noleth, Nolet, Noletto, Nolletto]

(fl 1538–46). North European composer, active in Italy. His works, all madrigals, were included in anthologies published from about 1538 to 1546. One four-voice madrigal, S'io potessi mirar, is printed at the beginning of the second part of Antonfrancesco Doni's Dialogo della musica (RISM 1544²²); Doni remarked via the interlocutor Claudio Maria Veggio that he was ‘delighted with this quite perfect little madrigal’, swearing ‘that it is the work of Nolet’.

WORKS

Il dolce sonno, 5vv, 1542^16; Io non so dir parole, 5vv, 1542^16; Le donne antiche, 5vv, 1542^16; Non ress'al colp'il core, 5vv, 1538^20; Partomi donna, 6vv, 1541^16; Qual anima ignorante, 4vv, 1542^17 (probably by Berchem), ed. in CMM, lxxiii/1 (1978); Quant'in mill'ann'il ciel, 6vv, 1546^19; S'io potessi mirar, 4vv, 1544^22, ed. in Monterosso Vacchelli

BIBLIOGRAPHY

J. Haar: ‘The note nere Madrigal’, JAMS, xviii (1965), 22–41

A.M. Monterosso Vacchelli: L'opera musicale di Antonfrancesco Doni (Cremona, 1969)

DON HARRÁN

Nomura, Yosio (Francesco)

(b Tokyo, 8 Oct 1908; d Tokyo, 4 Feb 1994). Japanese musicologist. After his graduation from Tokyo University in 1932 he spent two years as a postgraduate student and at the same time studied music privately under Kiyosuke Kanetsune and Shōhei Tanaka. He began lecturing at Sophia University, Tokyo, in 1934, later becoming professor (1946–59); he also taught musicology at Tokyo University (1949–69), Ueno Grakuen College, Tokyo, and Hiroshima University. He served as the chairman of the musicology department at the Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku (Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music) (1959–72) and became director of the college’s art museum in 1972. He later became the president of Tōhō College of Music (1984–93). A specialist in aesthetics, the comparative study of religions and religious music, he was particularly interested in Gregorian chant and its history. He was an active member of the Japanese Musicological Society, of which he was president from 1971 to 1976.

WRITINGS

Ongaku bigaku [Musical aesthetics] (Tokyo, 1943, 6/1976)

Seishinshi to shite no ongakushi [History of music as history of spirit] (Tokyo, 1946, 12/1975)

‘Roman-ha to ongaku’ [Romanticism and music], Bigaku, no.1 (1950), 33–52

‘Musicology in Japan since 1945’, AcM, xxxv (1963), 47–53

‘On Zen and Musical Aesthetics’, Congrès d'esthétique V: Amsterdam 1964, 843–6

Sekai shūkyō ongakushi [World history of religious music] (Tokyo, 1967, 2/1973)

Sekaishi no naka no ongaku [Music in world history] (Tokyo, 1971)

‘Mani-kyō to ongaku’ [Manicheism and music], Nihon ongaku to sono shūhen: Kikkawa Eishi sensei kanreki kinen ronbon-shū (Tokyo, 1973), 323–40 [arabic nos.]

‘Der religiöse Aspekt der japanischen Musikgeschichte’, Musicae scientiae collectanea: Festschrift Karl Gustav Fellerer, ed. H. Hüschen (Cologne, 1973), 409–14

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Oto to shisaku: Nomura Yosio sensei kanreki kinen ronbun-shü [Musical sound and philosophic thoughts: articles to celebrate the 60th birthday of Professor Yosio Nomura] (Tokyo, 1969) [incl. biography and list of writings]

MASAKATA KANAZAWA