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Scan 70
A dictionary of musical terms, 1889
36 lines. Read by computer on 12 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1The brawl and the bransle were the same dance. Douce gives an account of "le branle du bouquet," from "Deux dialogues du nouveau langage François, Italianize," Anvers, 1579, in which, kissing the whole of the ladies, by each of the gentlemen in turn, seems to have been one of the chief features in the dance.
3The following Braule from Delaborde's specimens (of the 15th or 16th century) shows the rhythm of this dance:
5Bratsche (Ger.) The Tenor Violin, Alto, or Viola. So called from the Viola da braccia, or viola held on the arm, as distinguished from the viola da gamba, or viola held between the legs, the precursor of the violoncello.
7Brava, fem. (It.)
8Bravi, pl. (It.)
9Bravo, mas. (It.)
10Bravura (It.) Dash, brilliancy. Con bravura, with dash or brilliancy. Aria di bravura, an air, distinguished from a simple melody by the introduction of florid passages. [Aria.]
12Break. (1) The point of junction in the quality of tenor, soprano, and alto voices. A genuine bass voice has no break. The lower range is called voce di petto, or chest voice; the upper, voce di testa, or head voice; and the place of junction is called the break. A properly-cultivated voice should have the break so under control, that the union of the two qualities should be imperceptible. [Larynx.]
14(2) In the clarinet the break in the tone of the instrument occurs between B flat and B natural,
16Hence, rapid passages containing frequent transitions from one register to the other are impossible on that instrument. In trumpets and horns, when from imperfect lipping, the note produced is other than the tone intended, such note is called a break. A similar result often occurs in imperfectly formed or unset voices.
18(3) Break, in an organ stop, is the sudden alteration of the proper scale-series of the pipes by returning to those of an octave lower in pitch. A break becomes necessary in the smaller compound stops, for, when proceeding far upwards in pitch, it is found that the pipes would be so small as to be inaudible. As mixtures, sesquialteras, and other stops of the same class, are generally formed of several ranks of high harmonics, breaks in them are frequent. The break generally takes place between C and C#, or F and F#; but organ-builders do not act with uniformity, either as to the position of the break, or the exact series of sounds to be produced on the return.
20Breast. (Old Eng.) The voice.
22"Trulye two degrees of men, which have the highest offices under the Kinge in all this realme, shall greatly lacke the use of singinge, preachers, and lawyers, because they shall not, withoute this, be able to rule their breastes for everye purpose."—Ascham's Toxophilite.
24"By my troth, the fool has an excellent breast."—SHAKESPEARE, Twelfth Night, ii., 3.
26"The better brest, the lesser rest,
27To serve the queer, now there, now heer,
28For time so spent, I may repent
29And sorrowe make."
31TUSSER (Five hundred points of good husbandry, 1540).
33Breit (Ger.) Broadly, largamente.
35Breve. In Mediæval music, the note equal to half the value of a long, and one quarter of the double long or maxima. Its shape was ■. "Quandocunque punctus quadratus invenitur, qui caret omni tractu brevis dicitur" (Franco, of Paris.) Breves like other notes in the early attempts at mensurable music, affected the length of other notes, and were in turn affected by other notes according to their relative position. A long "in modo perfecto" was reduced by one third or made imperfect by having a breve next to it on either side. A breve "in tempore perfecto" was made imperfect, that is, was reduced from three to two beats, by juxtaposition with a semibreve. A breve was also subject to "alteratio" that is, being made longer when between two longs. When so altered it was called alterata or shortly altera. All these laws and many others of a like character were drawn up by writers in the fifteenth century, in the dawn of "mensurable" music. Having discovered the utility of showing the relative length of notes by their shape, authors seem to have revelled in constructing new complications. These were gradually dropped by succeeding writers, until the breve became the unit of duration, a position which it held for nearly
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