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Scan 67
A dictionary of musical terms, 1889
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1reed; the oboe and bassoon double vibrating reeds.
3Bombardon. A brass instrument, in tone not unlike an ophicleide. It is not capable of rapid execution. The compass is
5Music for it is written without transposition, although it is in F.
7Bombaulius, βομβαίλιος (Gk.) A facetious name for a bag-piper. A pun on the words ἀνλητής, a flute-player, and βομβύλιος, a buzzing insect, whence our word, bumble-bee; c.f., Latin, Bombus.
9Bombyx (Gk.) βόμβυξ. A Greek flute, perhaps so named from its supposed resemblance to the silk-worm. It was probably a reed-instrument of powerful tone. The following illustration is given by Burney from a sarcophagus in the Capitoline Museum, at Rome.
11Bones. Four pieces of the ribs of horses or oxen, held in the hands and struck together for the purpose of marking time, in accompaniment to the voice or an instrument. The bones are of ancient use in England, and are alluded to by Shakespeare in the fourth act of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," as forming one means of rustic music. And in figures designed by Inigo Jones for the Court Masques one is represented playing upon knicky-knackers of bone or wood. The word knicky-knackers, by which the bones are known to the country people, may have its origin from the word "nakeres." In Strutt's "Sports and Pastimes," a payment is recorded as being made to Janino le Nakerer, among the minstrels of King Edward II. The nakerer was probably the drummer; but, as the minstrels frequently indulged in burlesque music, Janino may have been the performer on that primitive or rustic instrument, the bones.
13Bon temps de la mesure (Fr.) The accented portion of the bar.
15Bordone (It.) [Bourdon.] [Viola di Bardone.]
17Boulou. A harp used by the negroes of Senegambia and Guinea, in shape like the Oriental harp. Its strings are of fibre.
19Bourdon (Fr.) (1) A drone bass, a burden such as that produced by a bagpipe, or a hurdy-gurdy. [Burden.] (2) An organ stop, consisting of stopped wooden pipes, generally of 16 ft. tone. Sometimes, but rarely, the upper part is of metal. It is found on manuals as a "double" stop, and also on the pedal organ as a soft foundation-stop. It was formerly made of a large scale in England, but from a better knowledge of scientific principles organ builders are now able to produce a strong and pure body of tone from a pipe of moderate scale. As a rule, it is important that it should be free from a preponderance of harmonics or overtones, but sometimes they are purposely produced with the fundamental note, in which case the stop is called quintaton, because the first harmonic or over-tone of a stopped pipe is its twelfth, or octave fifth. Hence a Bourdon was sometimes said to be fifthy.
21Bourrée (Fr.) A dance tune in common time, said by Hawkins to come from Auvergne. Other writers give Biscay as its birthplace. The earliest mention of it is probably about 1580. It is still popular with the peasants of Lower Brittany. It often forms one of the movements of the earlier Sonata.
23Boutade (Fr.) A dance which was supposed to be impromptu.
25Bow. An instrument of wood and horse-hair, employed to set the strings of the violin, &c., in vibration. The bow, originally curved, as its name implies, has been subject to many changes of shape from time to time, from a large curve to an almost flat form.
27Fig. 1.
29Fig. 2.
31Fig. 3.
33Fig. 4.
35Fig. 5.
37The bow shown in fig. 1 is that still used with the rebab of Algeria. Fig. 2 is given by Gerber from a MS. of the 8th or 9th century. The bow now used for the violin is about 29 inches in length (almost straight, but with a slight curve inwards, not outwards, as in the older bows), the violoncello bow being a little shorter, fig. 5. Christopher Simpson (1676)
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