Dizi, François-Joseph

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Dizi, François-Joseph

Dizi, François-Joseph, famous French harpist; b. Namur, Jan. 14,1780; d. Paris, Nov. 1847. He set out for London when he was only 16. He lost his harp on the way but went on without it, and introduced himself to Erard, who gave him a harp and obtained pupils for him. Besides winning fame as a concert player and as a harpist at the principal theaters, he invented the “perpendicular harp” (which was unsuccessful), and com-posed sonatas, romances, variations, studies, etc., for his instrument. He also publ. Ecole de Harpe, Being a Complete Treatise on the Harp (London, 1827). In 1830 he went to Paris, and established a harp factory with Pleyel, which did not do well. There he was appointed harp teacher to the royal princesses.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire