Uccelli [née Pazzini], Carolina Uccellini, Marco

Ulfung, Ragnar (Sigurd)

(b Oslo, 28 Feb 1927). Norwegian tenor. He studied at Oslo and Milan, making his stage début in 1952 at Oslo as Magadoff (The Consul). He sang Faust at Bergen and in 1955 went to Göteborg, where he sang Jeník, Don Ottavio, the Duke of Mantua, Fra Diavolo and Don José. In 1958 he was engaged at the Royal Opera, Stockholm, where he created the Deaf Mute in Blomdahl’s Aniara (1959) and sang Canio, Hoffmann, Alfredo, Cavaradossi, Tom Rakewell, Lensky and Gustavus III, which he also sang in Edinburgh (1959) and on the company’s visit to Covent Garden (1960). There he returned as Don Carlos (1963), Mime and Herod, and created the title role in Taverner (1972). At Hamburg he sang Turiddu, Erik and Števa in Jenůfa (also on the company’s visit to New York in 1967) and created Christopher in Werle’s Resan (1969). He made his San Francisco début as Chuck (Schuller’s The Visitation), returning for Riccardo, Valzacchi and Mime, the role of his Metropolitan début (1972). Ulfung’s repertory included Fatty (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny), Captain (Wozzeck), Loge, Aegisthus (1972, La Scala), Otello (1983, Stockholm) and Jadidja (American première of Penderecki’s Die schwarze Maske at Santa Fe, 1988). A brilliant actor with an incisive voice, he excelled as Herod and Mime. He has also directed many operas, including a Ring cycle in Seattle.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

N. Benvenga: ‘Ragnar Ulfung’, Opera, xxvi (1975), 837–42

ALAN BLYTH

Ulhart [Ulhard], Philipp

(d Augsburg, 1567 or 1568). German printer. In 1522 he began printing in Augsburg, using the typefaces of Sigmund Grimm, who had in turn acquired them from Erhard Oeglin. Ulhart’s first efforts in publishing, as Schottenloher showed, were devoted almost exclusively to promoting the cause of various Reformed sects then active in Augsburg, particularly that of the Anabaptists, whose leaders included his friends Jacob Dachser and Sigmund Salminger. On 7 March 1523 in an attempt to curb sectarianism, the city council required Ulhart and seven other Augsburg printers to swear a formal oath that they would not publish anonymously. The order was rescinded shortly afterwards, and almost 200 anonymous pamphlets can be traced from typographical evidence to Ulhart’s press from the period 1523–9. In connection with the vigorous persecution of the Anabaptists he was imprisoned for eight days in 1526 and arrested again in 1528, but released for lack of evidence. In 1548 he became a citizen of Augsburg, though his reputation as a printer had been established long before. After his death the business was continued by his son, also called Philipp (d 1579 or 1580), and was bought in 1581 by Valentin Schönig, son-in-law of the Augsburg printer Melchior Kriesstein.

As well as religious publications, which included the writings of Luther and other Reformation leaders, Ulhart printed various theoretical works and school plays, many of which contain religious songs. In music, however, he is known principally for issuing collections edited by Sigmund Salminger; the volume of 1537 contains settings of hymns and psalms. The two volumes of 1545 and 1548 contain works for the Catholic liturgy, many of them unica, by well-known Netherlandish composers.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MGG1 (T. Wohnhaas)

P. Wackernagel: Bibliographie zur Geschichte des deutschen Kirchenliedes im XVI. Jahrhundert (Frankfurt, 1855/R)

P. Wackernagel: Das deutsche Kirchenlied von der ältesten Zeit bis zu Anfang des XVII. Jahrhunderts, i (Leipzig, 1864/R), 389, 407–8

K. Schottenloher: Philipp Ulhart, ein Augsburger Winkeldrucker und Helfershelfer der ‘Schwärmer’ und ‘Wiedertäufer’ (1523–1529) (Munich, 1921/R1967) [incl. list of pubns]

A. Dresler: Augsburg und die Frühgeschichte der Presse (Munich, 1952), 23–4

J. Benzing: Die Buchdrucker des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts im deutschen Sprachgebiet (Wiesbaden, 1963, 2/1982)

C.P. Clasen: Anabaptism: a Social History, 1525–1618 (Ithaca, NY, 1972)

K. Ameln, M. Jenny and W. Lipphardt, eds.: Das deutsche Kirchenlied: kritische Gesamtausgabe der Melodien, i: Verzeichnis der Drucke von den Anfängen bis 1800, RISM, B/VIII/1 (1975)

S.D. Jacoby: The Salminger Anthologies (diss., Ohio State U., 1985)

MARIE LOUISE GÖLLNER

Ulïbïshev [Oulibicheff], Aleksandr Dmitryevich

(b Dresden, 13 April 1794; d Lukino, nr Nizhniy-Novgorod, 24 Jan/5 Feb 1858). Russian writer on music. He was the son of the Russian ambassador at Dresden, and received his early musical education in Germany. In an autobiographical sketch he described himself as being ‘a musician since the age of seven, a passable violinist, a singer when necessary, and acquainted with the principles of composition’. In 1810 he moved to Russia and in 1812 entered the civil service. He worked as a translator in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1816 and later was responsible for editing the journal Le conservateur impartial and the Journal de St Pétersbourg. After resigning from his post in 1830, he retired to his estate at Lukino.

Ulïbïshev is known principally for his articles on music, many of which were published in the Journal de St Pétersbourg, and for two important books. In 1830 he began work on a comprehensive biographical and musical study of Mozart. He had known and admired Mozart’s works since his early years in Dresden, and did much to encourage their popularity in Germany. His book, written in French, was complete by June 1840, and its three volumes were published in Moscow in 1843 under the title Nouvelle biographie de Mozart, suivie d’un aperçu sur l’histoire générale de la musique et de l’analyse des principales oeuvres de Mozart. Wilhelm von Lenz, a Russian of German descent who lived in St Petersburg, in his book Beethoven et ses trois styles (St Petersburg, 1852) severely attacked Ulïbïshev for the denunciatory judgment on the works of Beethoven's last period which he had expressed in the ‘Aperçu’. Ulïbïshev answered with Beethoven, ses critiques et ses glossateurs (Paris, 1857, German version by Ludwig Bischoff, Leipzig, 1859), in which he stoutly defended his previous position, exciting general indignation.

Ulïbïshev was Balakirev's most important early patron. His well stocked music library, which included all the recent works of Russian composers, especially those of Glinka whom he greatly admired, was of incalculable importance to the boy, who lived in nearby Nizhniy-Novgorod. He avidly absorbed the music of most of the composers represented in the library, including, besides Russian composers, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and the late string quartets of Beethoven. Impressed by his piano playing as well as his precocious compositional ability, Ulïbïshev encouraged him and took him in late 1855 to St Petersburg, where he introduced him to Glinka, Dargomïzhsky, the Stasov brothers and others of importance in the musical world. His death early in 1858 was a blow to Balakirev since the financial support he had hitherto discreetly received from Ulïbïshev ceased after his death.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

H. Laroche: ‘O zhizni i trudakh Ulïbïsheva’ [About the life and works of Ulïbïshev]: introduction to the Russ. trans. of his Nouvelle biographie de Mozart, suive d'un aperçu sur l'histoire générale de la musique et de l'analyse des principales oeuvres de Mozart (Moscow, 1890)

Yu. Kremlyov: Russkaya mïsl' o muzïke [Russian thinking on music] (Leningrad, 1954)

S.M. Lyapunov and A.S. Lyapunova: ‘Molodïye godï Balakireva’ [Balakirev's Youth], E. Frid and others, eds.: Miliy Alekseyevich Balakirev: vospominaniya i pis'ma [Reminiscences and letters] (Leningrad, 1962), 7–71

E. Garden: Balakirev: a Critical Study of his Life and Music (London, 1967), 21–46

GEOFFREY NORRIS/EDWARD GARDEN