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(Lat. introiius, antiphona ad introitum, ingressa). An antiphon and psalm, sung by tho choir at the beginning of Mass. The words of the antiphon, or introit proper, come almost universally from Holy Scripture. The psalm has been curtailed until one verso only is sung, followed by the Gloria Patri. The antiphon is repeated in full at the conclusion of the Gloria, and, according to English custom, before it also. Proper introits are appointed for every day in the ecclesiastical y e a r ; and from the first words of these many Sundays derive the names by which they are familiarly known-as 4 Laetare Sunday,' the fourth Sunday in L e n t ; 4 Quasimodo Sunday,* the first Sunday after Easter (Dominica in Albis- th e 4 Low Sunday ' of the old English Calendar). The music to which the introit is sung forms part of the Gregorian chant (see G r e g o r i a n M u s i c ) and is to be found in the gradual. The psalms are sung to special forms of the Gregorian tones, more elaborate than those used for the Gospel canticles. The introit for the first Mass on Christmas Day is a remarkably fine specimen of the style. The First Prayer Book of King Edward VI. (1549) appointed for an introit an entire psalm, followed by tho Gloria Patri, but sung without an antiphon. At first sight the rubric, 4 Then shall he say a Psalm appointed for the Introit,* would lead to the supposition that the psalm in question was not intended to be sung by the choir : this idea, however, is disproved b y the fact that the music for it is supplied in Merbecke's 4 Booko of Common Praier Noted,' printed in 1550, and adapted, throughout, to King Edward's First Book. This provision of an introit ceased in the second Prayer Book 2 See also Haydn's ' Drum roll ' Symphony. and has not been renewed. But c? recent years tho use of an introit has been restored in many Anglican churches, and many of the plain-song introits have been adapted to English words. w . h . f .

(b. Budapest, c. 1890), operatic soprano. Her father was an officer in the Hungarian army ; her mother, Ida von Gunther, a well-known singer, from whose name she devised her nom d

(N o t e s ), ' unequal notes.' Tho expression represents a very curious peculiarity of notation in music of the French School between 1650 and 1800, where in each bar certain categories of notes w ritten as equal were in performance d otted in pairs : for example, in quadruple time or C, the group v |* would become very nearly * There are passages where the process makes the notes' extremely unequal, and others where they are, in fact, less so. The taste of the player is the ultimate judge of the extent of this inequality. The following table shows which notes are treated as inegales in each kind of time : In . time the crotchets are inegales. In 2, 3, J, f , time the quavers are inegales. In 4, C, f , b 1* V time the semiquavers are inegales. In T , -j, -}. time the demi-semiquavers are inegales. In duple time (([3), the quavers are sometimes equal, sometimes unequal, according to the character of the piece. If, however, the notes which ought to be inegales involve disjointed movement, or are intermixed with notes of lesser value, they are ordinarily made equal. To avoid all uncertainty, authors frequently made use of the expression notes egalcs or notes inegales. The notes become equal again if they have over them staccato marks (dashes), or if they are accompanied by the indication detachees. e . bl .

(1) 'Tragedie lyrique ' in 4 acts ; words by Guillard, music by Gluck. Produced at the Aeademie, May 18, 1779; St. James's Theatre, by a German company, 1840; New York, Metropolitan Opera House, Nov. 25, 1916. (2) Tragedy by Dubreuil, music by Piccinni, was produced at the Opera, Jan. 28, 1781. On the first night, the chief actress being obviously intoxicated, a spectator cried out, 1 Iphigenie en Tauride ! allons done, e'est Iphigenie en Champagne ! ' G.

(d . Venice, 1543), a Dominican friar of Altamura, Calabria. According to Fetis, he acquired at Venice a high reputation as maestro di cappella, and published 3 books of madrigals, 3-6 v . ; a book of motets, masses and vesper psalms ; and a book of lamentations and responsoria, 3-6 v., for Holy Week. He also left in MS. at his convent a t Altamura a treatise on plain chant and ' Ricercate con 1' intavolatura,' composed chiefly on the preparation and resolution of the fourth and seventh. e . v . d. s. * * Metrical fe"t-Lesson9 lor a boy.' Poetical Works, il. 145.

(b. Monopoli, near Naples, between 1740 and 1744; d. Naples, c. 1795), a Neapolitan composer, called also Monopoli from his birthplace. Ho was a pupil of the Conservatorio of Sant' Onofrio, where he studied with Cotumacci, being appointed second professor of tho school in 1774. Besides masses, psalms, a setting of the Passion, and several motets, he wrote about 15 operas (list in Florimo and Fetis), of which the following are 1 B.M. Add. MSS. 30,513. See Davey's History of English Mu&H (ed. 1921), p. 100, e x ta n t : ' Didone abbandonata ' (1772), * AriannaeTeseo * (1773), ' Adriano in Siria ' (1773), ' Le astuzie per amore' (1777), ' Medonte ' (1779), ' Calipso * (1782), and * Lo funnaco revotato,' the undated score of which is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Insanguine also wrote part of an opera, ' Eumene,' with Majo (1771). (Q.-L.) m .

(b. Mosul, 767 ; d. Baghdad (?), 8 4 9 - 5 0 ) , a famous Persian musician immortalised in The Arabian Nights. His father, Ibrahim al-Mawsili, also a singer and poet, came from Kufa, but emigrated to Mosul, where his son was educated. Ishaq established himself at Baghdad at the court of the Caliph Harun ar-Rashid (786-809). His performances on the lute and his powers of memory have been the subject of numbers of Arabic stories ; his voice is said to have had a compass of four octaves. His best pupil was Z i r y Ab , whom he found to bo a serious rival and persuaded to leave Baghdad for Spain. He compiled a book of 900 airs partly collected by his father, but no MS. of it has survived. The stories about him in The Arabian Nights, Yaquts' 1 D .S .B . Dictionary of Learned Men, and elsewhere, often have considerable interest as musical historical documents, and throw light on the tuning of instruments and the methods of composition practised in those times. J. b. t .

Originally no doubt the name for an extempore piece ; but as no piece can be extempore when written down, the term is used for pianoforte compositions which have (or aim at) the character of extempore performances. The most remarkable are Chopin's, of which there are 4- opp. 29, 36, 51, and 66 (Fantaisie- Impromptu in Cj minor). The two sets of pieces by Schubert known as impromptus- op. 90, Nos. 1 to 4, and op. 142, Nos. 1 to 4, mostly variations-were, the first certainly and the second probably, not so entitled by him. The autograph of the first exists. I t has no date, and no title to either of the pieces, the word ' Impromptu ' having been added by the publishers, the Haslingers, one of whom also took upon himself to change the key of the third piece from Gb to G. The autograph of the second set is at present unknown. I t was to these latter ones that Schumann devoted one of his most affectionate papers (Gesamm. Schriften, iii. 37). He doubts Schubert's having himself called them impromptus, and would have us take the first, second and fourth as the successive movements of a sonata in F minor. The first does in fact bear the stamp of a regular * first movement.* Schumann himself has impromptus on a theme of his wife's, op. 5, and another impromptu among his Albumblatter. Neither Beethoven, Weber, nor Mendelssohn ever used the word. G.

A term used by J. S. Bach, and probably by him only, for fifteen small pianoforte pieces-each in two parts, and each developing a single idea. Tho companion pieces in three parts are, for some not very obvious reason, called ' Symphonien.' G.

(b. Beaune, Feb. 4, 1829 ; d. Hyeres, Dec. 18, 1903), was an enthusiastic amateur composer, whose works obtained more general recognition than generally falls to the lot of dilettante musicians. After various essays in operatic composition ( ' Fatma,' ' Quentin Matsys,' ' La Maison du docteur,' ' Omphale et Penelope ') he wrote his best work, ' Les Amants de Verone,' in 1864, and brought it out under the nom de plume of * Richard Yrvid ' in 1867. Unluckily the opera of Gounod on the same subject, though written later, was performed in public before the Marquis D'lv r y 's, and it was through the interest of Capoul, who was then director of the Salle Ventadour, that it was eventually presented in public, at that theatre, on Oct. 12, 1878. Capoul sang the principal part, and introduced the work to the English public at Covent Garden, on May 24, 1879. The composer made various improvements in the score for the purpose of the public production, thus showing that he had some power of selfcriticism. A lyric comedy, * Perseverance d'amour * was composed long after the other opera, and was in course of publication when the composer died. M.