CURWEN

curwen, john (1816-1880), english nonconformist minister and founder of the tonic sol-fa system of musical teaching, was born at heckmondwike, yorkshire, of an old cumberland family. his father was a nonconformist minister, and he himself adopted this profession, which he practised till 1864, when he gave it up in order to devote himself to his new method of musical nomenclature, designed to avoid the use of the stave with its lines and spaces. he adapted it from that of miss sarah ann glover (1785-1867) of norwich, whose sol-fa system was based on the ancient gamut; but she omitted the constant recital of the alphabetical names of each note and the arbitrary syllable indicating key relationship, and also the recital of two or more such syllables when the same note was common to as many keys (e.g. "c, fa, ut," meaning that c is the subdominant of g and the tonic of c). the notes were represented by the initials of the seven syllables, still in use in italy and france as their names but in the "tonic sol-fa" the seven letters refer to key relationship and not to pitch. curwen was led to feel the importance of a simple way of teaching how to sing by note by his experiences among sunday-school teachers. apart from miss glover, the same idea had been elaborated in france since j. j. rousseau's time, by pierre galin (1786-1821), aime paris (1798-1866) and emile cheve (1804-1864), whose method of teaching how to read at sight also depended on the principle of "tonic relationship" being inculcated by the reference of every sound to its tonic, by the use of a _numeral_ notation. curwen brought out his _grammar of vocal music_ in 1843, and in 1853 started the tonic sol-fa association; and in 1879, after some difficulties with the education department, the tonic sol-fa college was opened. curwen also took to publishing, and brought out a periodical called the _tonic sol-fa reporter_, and in his later life was occupied in directing the spreading organization of his system. he died at manchester on the 26th of may 1880. his son john spencer curwen (b. 1847), who became principal of the tonic sol-fa college, published _memorials of j. curwen_ in 1882. the sol-fa system has been widely adopted for use in education, as an easily teachable method in the reading of music at sight, but its more ambitious aims, which are strenuously pushed, for providing a superior method of musical notation generally, have not recommended themselves to musicians at large. curzola (serbo-croatian _korcula_ or _karkar_), an island in the adriatic sea, forming part of dalmatia, austria; and lying west of the sabionicello promontory, from which it is divided by a strait less than 2 m. wide. its length is about 25 m.; its average breadth, 4 m. curzola (_korcula_), the capital and principal port, is a fortified town on the east coast, and occupies a rocky foreland almost surrounded by the sea. besides the interesting church (formerly a cathedral), dating from the 12th or 13th century, the _loggia_ or council chambers, and the palace of its former venetian governors, it possesses the noble mansion of the arnieri, and other specimens of the domestic architecture of the 15th and 16th centuries, together with the massive walls and towers, erected in 1420, and the 15th-century franciscan monastery, with its beautiful venetian gothic cloister. the main resources of the islanders are boat-building (for which they are celebrated throughout the adriatic), fishing and sea-faring, the cultivation of the vine, corn and olives, and breeding of mules. pop. (1900) of island, 17,377; of capital (town and commune), 6486. prehistoric grave-mounds are common on the hills of the interior, and in later times curzola may have been a phoenician settlement. its early history is very obscure, but it was certainly colonized by greeks from cnidus. the present name is a corruption of the gr. [greek: kerkyra melaina], or lat. _corcyra nigra_, "black corcyra"; and is perhaps due to the dark pines which still partly cover the island. in 998 curzola first came under venetian suzerainty. during the 12th century it was ruled by hungary and genoa in turn, and enjoyed a brief period of independence; but after 1255 its hereditary counts again submitted to venice. the roman catholic see of curzola, created in 1301, was only suppressed in 1806. curzola surrendered to the hungarians in 1358, was purchased by ragusa (1413-1417), and finally declared itself subject to venice in 1420. in 1571 it defended itself so gallantly against the turks that it obtained the designation _fidelissima_. from 1776 to 1797 it succeeded lesina as the main venetian arsenal in this region. during the napoleonic wars it was ruled successively by russians, french and british, ultimately passing to austria in 1815.