Books › A dictionary of musical terms, 1889 › scan 56
Scan 56
A dictionary of musical terms, 1889
28 lines. Read by computer on 9 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1of their loyal subjects, and the exaltation of the exercise in which they indulged; but the "improvements" of De la Motte introduced an element which was at once the cause of its glory and of its shame, its culmination and contempt. [Dance.]
3Balletto (It.) A ballet, a dance.
4Ballet-master. One to whom is entrusted the direction of the motions of the ballet, and the order of the performers.
5Balli Inglesi (It.) English dances.
6Balli della Stiria (It.) Styrian dances.
7Balli Ungaresi (It.) Hungarian dances. Dances in the Hungarian style.
8Ballo (It.) A dance, a ball.
9Ballonchio (It.) [Passamezzo.]
10Ballonzare (It.) To dance wildly, recklessly, without rule.
11Band (Ger.) A part, a volume, any thing sewn together.
12Band. Instrumentalists collected together for the performance of music.
13(1) Brass Band. A collection of players on brass wind-instruments.
14(2) String Band. (a) That portion of an orchestra which consists of players on stringed-instruments of the violin family. (b) A band consisting only of instruments played with a bow.
15(3) Wind Band. Stromenti di fiato (It.) That portion of an orchestra which consists of players on flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns; but not on trumpets, trombones, and other loud brass instruments, these being included only under the sign "tutti."
16(4) Wood Band. The players on the wood wind-instruments, flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons; but not on the serpent, which is usually classified with brass instruments.
17(5) Military Band. A number of musicians belonging to a regiment in the service of the King or Queen of a country. In England, those who perform upon instruments provided by the officers of the corps to which they belong, the military regulations only recognising side drums, fifes, bugles, and trumpets, as necessary; these are supplemented by clarinets, flutes, cornets, bassoons, horns, trombones, ophicleides, bombardons, triangles, cymbals, big drums, &c., and the combination is known as a military band. The band is conducted by some one skilled in directing and arranging, who is usually a civilian, but the bandsmen over whom he presides are in every other respect the same as private soldiers. Military bands are sometimes used upon the opera stage, for the purpose of gaining an increased effect.
18Banda (It.) A military band. [Band § 5.]
19Bandora (Fr.) [Bandore.]
20Bandore. An English form of the ancient Greek Pandoura, having twelve strings of steel-wire. The Bandore is said to have been invented by John Rose, of London, in 1561.
21Bandurria (Sp.) A form of guitar, strung with wire instead of cat-gut.
22Banja or Banjo. A stringed instrument of supposed African origin, popular with the negroes of America, and one of the most important musical instruments employed by troupes of fictitious negroes. The instrument consists of a handle, which, running the whole length, serves at once as finger-board, as support for the hoop, over which a skin, acting as sounding board, is stretched, and also as a hold for the pegs which tighten and keep the strings in tune. The banjo is strung with five strings, so arranged that they may be stopped in the ordinary way to vary the melody or harmony, together with an octave string which is never stopped. The tuning, which may be in any key, is generally according to the following plan:
24Octave string.
26The character of banjo music is sprightly and well adapted for dancing, for which it is as often used as it is for accompanying the voice.
27Bar. A line drawn from the top to the bottom of the stave to denote the division of the time in a piece of music, and the place of the strong accent. Each portion comprised within two of these lines is also called a bar. In mediæval music the bar, also called the lesser bar, to distinguish it from the greater or double bar, was often used solely for the purpose of showing the end of a line or sentence of the words, hence it was said "to give time for the whole choir together to draw breath" (Nievers, sur le Chant Gregorien); whereas the two great bars or the double bar is "the most efficacious contrivance that can be thought on to remedy all the cacophonies and contrarieties in the voices of the singers, who without them could not guess when to rest." (Ibid.) Mr. Chappell ("Popular Music of the Olden Time") remarks that the Tunes in the "Dancing Master," printed in 1651 in only a single part, have no bars, but that the score of the moral play, "The four elements" (to which Dr. Dibdin has ascribed the date 1510), is barred. He further adds, that so far as he has observed, all music in the ordinary notation, even for one voice or one instrument, was barred after 1660. It is probable, however, that the regular barring of music had its origin in the system of Tablature, in which its efficacy as a means of pointing out the position of accent must have been generally observed. But for a considerable period after the introduction of the bar, its use in ecclesiastical music was very irregular, two, four,
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.