Appendix B — Glossary of Terms
Absolute Music, music per se without relation to the arts, or to any presentation whatever outside of it.43
Chamber Music Pitch. Formerly absolute pitch did not exist. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the pitch was high. This we find according to the old organs, which are some of them a tone higher than our present French diapason. Chamber pitch in olden times differed from church pitch. The adoption of a uniform pitch is very much to be desired at the present time.
Divertimento, a kind of chamber music suite, or combination of pieces of a pleasing and diverting kind.
Gudok, a violin-like Russian instrument with drones.
Volte Subito, or Vide Sequens, written usually V.S. It means turn over quickly, or see what follows.
Violone, the Italian name for the double bass.
Musica da Camera, chamber music (Italian). The term came into use about the beginning of the seventeenth century.
Chrotta (Latin), Crwth (British), probably the oldest of European stringed instruments. Historically it is found mentioned so far back as the year 609. The word chrotta means literally “a bulging box.” The rebec was the same as the crwth, or nearly so. The geige is a like instrument.
Kit (French Pochette), a small violin which was carried in the pocket; used by teachers of dancing.
Early Instrumental Music. Brass instruments in the very early times were not used for musical purposes, but only as an accompaniment to military and other such affairs. At festivals and weddings of the middle ages stringed instruments came into use, and here we have the beginnings of instrumental music. The earliest traces of the use of violin-like instruments is found about the ninth century.
Baryton, an instrument of the violoncello type. Haydn wrote much for the instrument, which was played by his patron, Prince Esterhazy.
Chanterelle, the highest string on instruments of the violin family. Usually associated with the E string of the violin.
Concerto da Camera, chamber concerto. The title was introduced by Torelli, about 1686.
The String Quartett. The instruments which form this combination, viz.: the two violins, viola, and violoncello, are, as to their construction, the result of a slow development of probably 1000 years, the fully-developed violin dating from about the end of the fifteenth century. Music for the string quartett came into vogue about the middle of the eighteenth century. Earlier than this such music usually took the form of the sonata a tre, viz.: two violins and bass.
Arpeggione, an instrument after the kind of the gamba (a small ’cello). First made in Vienna, about the year 1823. Schubert wrote a sonata for this instrument.
Bassett, the old German name for the violoncello.
Modern Violins. In the year 1891 a certain Dr. Stelzner, a German, made public his method of constructing new violins, for which it was claimed that they would outstrip the old Italian instruments. Stelzner inserted vibrating tongues in the f holes, and made other so-called improvements. The claims made for these instruments have not, however, been sustained. Another attempt of this kind, called the “Stroh” violin, does not seem to have been successful.
Violin Tone. The players on the viol in England in the seventeenth century did not welcome the violin. Its stronger and, to their ears, harsh tone was said to destroy the delicate balance of the viols.
Alto Violoncello, a smaller instrument than the ordinary one. Boccherini directs, in some of his chamber music, that the ’cello part is to be played on this instrument. The unusual difficulty of some of his ’cello parts may be explained, in part, by this direction.
Viol. This instrument preceded the violin. Its shape, which is still in use as the ordinary double bass of the orchestra, has been thus described by Mr. Payne:—“It differs from the violin in having deeper ribs, and a flat back, which is sloped off at the top. The shoulders curve upwards, joining the neck at a tangent instead of at right angles, as in the violin. The neck is broad and thin, the number of strings being five, six, or seven. The viol was made in four sizes.”
Fiddle. This word has its origin in “fides,” the Latin name for any kind of string. Its diminutive is “fiducula.”
The Strings. By this is usually meant the violins, violas, ’cellos and double basses collectively. The Germans use the term “bowed instruments,” which is better than “the strings,” seeing that the guitar, harp, piano, etc., are stringed instruments. Another German authority claims that an accurate description is “bow-stringed instruments.”
The Violin is constructed of fifty-seven different pieces of wood, which are glued together, the most numerous of these parts being the linings and purfling. Its movable fittings (bridge, pegs, etc.) number thirteen, making in all seventy different parts.
François Francœur (1715). This French composer and violinist is said to have used the thumb in playing the violin, so as to produce certain chords, as is done in ’cello playing.
Lute. An old instrument whose descendants are the guitar and mandoline. The chiterna (citerne) was of the same order.
Theorbo belongs to the lute family. It was a bass instrument, and had a double neck with two sets of strings.
Taille. An alto oboe (J.S. Bach). Sometimes used to describe the viola.
Urh-heen. The Chinese violin. It differs very much from the European instrument, has a different bow, and no fingerboard.
Viola-pomposa. A kind of small violoncello, invented by J.S. Bach.
Rebec. Probably the oldest stringed instrument played with a bow. Whether Spain got it from Arabia, or vice versâ, is a yet unsettled historical point.
Footnotes
1 Article “Music,” in the Encyclopædia Britannica.
2 Sir Hubert Parry, The Art of Music, p. 50.
3 How to Listen to Music, p. 45.
4 Such parchments as the “Angelus ad Virginem Hymn” (No. 284 Arundel MSS., Brit. Mus.); Hymn to St. Augustine (No. 572 Bodleian MSS., Oxford); and “Sumer is icumen in” (No. 678 Harleian Collection, Brit. Mus.), indisputably prove that in the tenth and eleventh centuries English musicians were hundreds of years in advance of Continental composers in polyphonic composition.—Ed.
5 Sir Hubert Parry, Summary of Musical History, p. 54.
6 Macfarren, article “Music,” Encyclopædia Britannica.
7 Rimbault, Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Grove).
8 British Musical Biography, p. 62.
9 Monthly Musical Record, June 1902; article by C. Struthers.
10 Preface to Musical Works of Frederick the Great. Breitkopf and Härtel.
11 Half a Century of Music in England, p. 17.
12 W.W. Cobbett, Musical News, May 24, 1902.
13 At the fifty-fifth bar of the finale of Brahms’s A minor Quartett there is a hint of this kind of effect; also at the opening of Schumann’s A major Quartett.
14 Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Grove), vol. i. p. 713.
15 The Art of Music, Sir Hubert Parry.
16 A mechanical arrangement producing the effect of so-called “musical glasses,” that is, thin tumbler glasses whose edges were rubbed with the moistened finger.
17 Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Grove), vol. ii. p. 398.
18 Prose Works, vol. v. p. 88.
19 How to Listen to Music (H.E. Krehbiel).
20 The dates are according to Nottebohm’s Catalogue.
21 As an isolated note this dominant minor 9th (like that above) sounds strangely and out of the key.
22 History of Music (Ritter).
23 Studies of Great Composers (C. Hubert H. Parry).
24 Analytical Programme (Ernst Pauer).
25 Studies in Modern Music (W.H. Hadow).
26 Songs and Song-writers, p. 155.
27 The “explanation” (erklärung) with regard to the new and the old schools of musical composition, which Brahms and Joachim published in 1860, conclusively shows that neither of these artists was “a violent enemy” of Wagner or of his art.
[28] The Overture for June 1892; review of Brahms’s op. 115.
29 W.J. Henderson, How Music Developed.
30 The Art of Music, p. 333.
31 Studies in Modern Music, p. 251.
32 Masters of German Music, p. 20.
33 The String Quintett in E♭, op. 97, may also be mentioned in this connection.
34 Das Wohltemperirte Clavier (The Well-tempered Clavichord).
35 Notes on Modern Russian Music (Edwin Evans).
36 Notes on Modern Russian Music (Edwin Evans).
37 Most of these works and others of the Russian School are published in cheap miniature scores, similar to the well-known Payne edition.
38 Biographical Dictionary (Baker).
39 This was written early in 1902.
40 There would seem some mistake here, as Bruckner was born at Ansfelden in Upper Austria.
41 Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Grove), vol. i. p. 226.
42 Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Grove), vol. ii. p. 497.
43 Riemann’s Dictionary of Music.