Uccelli [née Pazzini], Carolina Uccellini, Marco

Ursinus [Ursus], Johann.

See Beer, Johann.

Urso, Camilla

(b Nantes, France, 13 June 1842; d New York, 20 Jan 1902). French violinist, active in the USA. She was a child prodigy and at the age of seven became the first girl admitted to the Paris Conservatoire, where she took the first prizes in all her subjects. She came to the USA in 1852, and made her début in New York on 29 October. She appeared in three concerts with the singer Marietta Alboni, then in a series of concerts in New England with the Germania Musical Society. In 1853 she toured with the Germanians and Henriette Sontag. In 1855 she withdrew from public life to Nashville, resuming her career in 1863 with extensive tours of Europe and the USA, as well as Australia (1879, 1894) and South Africa (1895). She appeared in chamber groups and as a soloist with leading orchestras, and was noted for her performances of the Beethoven and Mendelssohn concertos. She retired from concert life in 1895 and settled in New York, where she taught violin and helped to further the activities of the newly formed Women’s String Orchestra. She was an outspoken advocate of professional and economic equality for women as orchestral musicians.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

C. Barnard: Camilla: a Tale of a Violin (Boston, 1874)

A.R. Coolidge: ‘Urso, Camilla’, Notable American Women, ed. E.T. James, J.W. James and P.S. Boyer (Cambridge, MA, 1971)

S. Kagan: ‘Camilla Urso: a Nineteenth-Century Violinist’s View’, Signs, ii (1977), 727

A.F. Block: ‘Two Virtuoso Performers in Boston: Jenny Lind and Camilla Urso’, New Perspectives on Music: Essays in Honor of Eileen Southern, ed. J. Wright and S.A. Floyd (Warren, MI, 1992), 355–72

SUSAN KAGAN

Urspruch, Anton

(b Frankfurt, 17 Feb 1850; d Frankfurt, 7 Jan 1907). German composer, pianist and teacher. He studied composition with Ignaz Lachner and Joachim Raff, and in 1871 went to Weimar to complete his piano studies with Liszt, where his contact with the Weimar circle had a decisive effect on his subsequent development. He then devoted himself to composition, and became in 1878 teacher and, from 1883, professor of counterpoint and composition at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. Urspruch's compositions were only moderately influenced by the developments taking place at the end of the 19th century and little, if at all, by Wagner. He wrote three operas, Der Sturm (libretto by Pirazzi, after Shakespeare), and Das Unmöglichste von allem and Heilige Cäcilie, both to his own librettos (the orchestration of the last is complete only for Act 1, and sketched for Acts 2 and 3; a complete piano score survives); his other works comprise a large number of songs, both for chorus and for solo voice, a symphony, a piano concerto, a piano quintet and other chamber music, and piano works. His compositions (all in D-F) were popular in their day and are characterized by harmonic originality (including both unusual chromatic progressions and reminders of 16th-century vocal polyphony), ingenious contrapuntal treatment and progressive orchestral style (e.g. Die Frühlingsfrier, a setting of Klopstock's Ode for tenor, chorus and orchestra). He also worked for a revival of Gregorian chant, his extensive research resulting in his publication of Der gregorianische Choral und die Choralfrage (Stuttgart and Munich, 1901).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

R. Batka: ‘Die Oper “Das Unmöglichste von allem”’, Bohemia (3 Dec 1899)

‘Anton Urspruchs Frühlingsfeier’, Rheinische Musik-Zeitung, i/10 (1900), 109

F. Volbach: ‘Anton Urspruch: ein Gedenkblatt’, Die Musik, vi/2 (1906–7), 288–90

A. Rosser: ‘Anton Urspruch’, Neue Zürcher Zeitung (15 Feb 1907)

THEODORA KIRCHER-URSPRUCH

Ursprung, Otto

(b Gunzlhofen, Upper Bavaria, 16 Jan 1879; d Schondorf, nr Munich, 14 Sept 1960). German musicologist. He studied philosophy and theology at the Freising Hochschule and Munich University from 1899 to 1904, when he was ordained priest; after four years of pastoral work he began to study music, first privately with Gottfried Rüdinger and then with Sandberger and Kroyer at Munich University, where he took the doctorate in 1911 with a dissertation on Jacobus de Kerle. He was attached to St Cajetan's, Munich (1912–26), serving as an army chaplain during World War I, and then as honorary canon to the court church, All Saints, until its closure by the Nazis in 1940; he was honorary professor of music history at Munich University (1932–49).

Ursprung's dissertation on Kerle's part in the reforms of the Council of Trent led to his major work, a comprehensive and fundamental survey of Catholic church music, in which he combined his knowledge as a theologian and music historian. His other writings, developing from this primary concern, dealt with the aesthetic bases of church music, the relationship between Gregorian and ancient music, the growth of liturgical music drama, and early Spanish music. He wrote an important book on Munich's musical history and produced editions of works by Kerle and Senfl.

WRITINGS

Jacobus de Kerle (1531/2–1591): sein Leben und seine Werke (diss., U. of Munich, 1911; Munich, 1913)

‘Spanisch-katalanische Liedkunst des 14. Jahrhunderts’, ZMw, iv (1921–2), 136–60

‘Die Gesänge der hl. Hildegard’, ZMw, v (1922–3), 333–8

‘Vier Studien zur Geschichte des deutschen Liedes’: ‘“Mein traut Gesell, mein liebster Hort”: ein Neujahrslied aus ca.1300’, ‘Die Mondseer Liederhandschrift und Hermann “der Münch von Salzburg”’, ‘Wolflin von Lochammer's Liederbuch: ein Denkmal Nürnberger Musikkultur um 1450’, ‘Der Weg von den Gelegenheitsgesängen und dem Chorlied über die Frühmonodisten zum neueren deutschen Lied’, AMw, iv (1922), 413–19; v (1923), 11–30, 316–26; vi (1924), 262–323

‘Der vokale Grundcharakter des diskantbetonten figurierten Stils’, Musikwissenschaftlicher Kongress: Basle 1924, 364–74

Restauration und Palestrina-Renaissance in der katholischen Kirchenmusik der letzten zwei Jahrhunderte (Augsburg, 1924)

‘Der Hymnus aus Oxyrhynchos (Ende des III. Jahrhunderts: ägyptischer Papyrusfund)’, Theologie und Glaube, xviii (1926), 387–419

‘Palestrina und Deutschland’, Festschrift Peter Wagner, ed. K. Weinmann (Leipzig, 1926/R), 190–221

‘Der kunst- und handelspolitische Gang der Musikdrucke von 1462–1600’, Beethoven-Zentenarfeier: Vienna 1927, 168–74

Münchens musikalische Vergangenheit von der Frühzeit bis zu Richard Wagner (Munich, 1927)

‘Alte griechische Einflüsse und neuer gräzistischer Einschlag in der mittelalterlichen Musik?’, ZMw, xii (1929–30), 193–219, 375–8

‘Die Chorordnung von 1616 am Dom zu Augsburg: ein Beitrag zur Frage der Aufführungspraxis’, Studien zur Musikgeschichte: Festschrift für Guido Adler (Vienna, 1930/R), 137–42

Die katholische Kirchenmusik (Potsdam, 1931)

‘Musikkultur in Spanien’, Handbüch der Spanienkunde, ed. P. Hartig and W. Schellberg (Frankfurt, 1932), 329–57

‘Des Johannes Werlin aus Seeon grosses Liederwerk (1646–7) als praktisch durchgeführte Poetik’, ZMw, xvi (1934), 321–43, 426 only

‘Um die Frage nach dem arabischen bzw. maurischen Einfluss auf die abendländische Musik des Mittelalters’, ZMw, xvi (1934), 129–41, 355–7, 427 only

‘Celos usw., Text von Calderón, Musik von Hidalgo: die älteste erhaltene spanische Oper’, Festschrift Arnold Schering, ed. H. Osthoff, W. Serauky and A. Adrio (Berlin, 1937/R), 223–40

‘Das Sponsus-Spiel’, AMf, iii (1938), 80–95, 180–92

‘Die Ligaturen: ihr System und ihre methodische und didaktische Darstellung’, AcM, xi (1939), 1–16

‘Die antiken Transpositionsskalen und die Kirchentöne’, AMf, v (1940), 129–52

ed.: K. Huber: Musikästhetik (Ettal, 1954)

‘Hildegards Drama Ordo virtutum: Geschichte einer Seele’, Miscelánea en homenaje a Monseñor Higinio Anglés (Barcelona, 1958–61), 941–58

EDITIONS

Jacobus de Kerle: Ausgewählte Werke, 1. Teil: die Preces speciales etc. für das Konzil von Trent (1562), DTB, xxxiv, Jg.xxvi (1926/R)

with E. Löhrer: Ludwig Senfl: Sieben Messen, EDM, 1st ser., v (1936)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Obituaries: NZM, Jg.121 (1960), 373 only; W. Zentner, Musica, xiv (1960), 740 only

H. Schmid: ‘Otto Ursprung zum Gedächtnis’, Mf, xiv (1961), 131–8 [incl. complete list of pubns]

KARL GEIRINGER