Books › Grove's dictionary of music and musicians;, 1904 › scan 184
Scan 184
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians;, 1904
15 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 138. See the scan on archive.org.
1conducted the Alderley Edge, Fallowfield, and Rochdale Orpheus Glee Societies, the last named being one of the most successful choirs in Lancashire, and was organist to St. Stephen's, Chorlton on Medlock. Besides a few musical trifles, Mr. Towers has published a chronological list of Beethoven's works (Musical Directory, 1871), an interesting pamphlet on the Mortality of Musicians, a List of Eminent Musicians, etc. etc. He was also a more or less regular contributor to the press. [He went to America, and in 1890 was appointed director of the vocal department in the School of Music at Indianapolis, and two years afterwards to Utica Conservatorium. Brit. Mus. Biog.]
3TOY SYMPHONY (Ger. Kindersinfonie; Fr. La Foire des Enfants, or Symphonie Burlesque). The English name by which a certain work of Haydn's is known. A tradition which there is no reasonable cause for doubting says that the composer got seven toy instruments at a fair at Berchtesgaden, and taking them to Esterház, summoned some of his orchestra to an important rehearsal. When they found that they were expected to play a new symphony upon these toys (the only real instruments in the score are two violins and a double bass) the most experienced musicians in the band failed to keep their time for laughing. The original parts are entitled 'Sinfonia Berchtolsgadensis'; the toy instruments employed are a 'cuckoo' playing E and G, a trumpet and drum in G, a whistle, a triangle, and a 'quail' in F. There are three movements, the last of which is played three times over, faster and faster each time. The symphony is in C major, and was written in 1788. [See Pohl's Haydn, vol. ii. p. 226, etc.] Andreas Romberg wrote a symphony for much the same instruments, with the addition of a pianoforte duet, a rattle, and a bell. He attempts more elaborate modulations than Haydn ventures to use, but his symphony lacks the fun and freshness of the older master's work, although his slow movement, an Adagio lamentabile, is very humorous. Mendelssohn wrote two—the first for Christmas 1827, for the same orchestra as Haydn's, the second for Christmas 1828. Both seem to have vanished. [See vol. iii. pp. 119, 120.] Mr. Franklin Taylor has written one for piano and toys which is not infrequently played.
5TRABACI, GIOVANNI MARIA, a Neapolitan by birth, appears in 1603 as organist to the Royal Chapel at Naples, and somewhat later as Magister Capellae. His publications consist of several books of masses, psalms, motets, and madrigals, hardly any of which, however, seem to be preserved complete; but they also include two books of organ pieces, one described in the title as containing Ricercate, Canzone francese, Capricci, Canti fermi, Gagliarde, Partite diverse, Toccate didurezze e ligature, Consonanze Stravaganti, opere tutte da Sonare a 4 v., Lib. 1, 1603; the other, Ricercate ed altri vari Capricci con 100 versi sopra li otti finali ecclesiastici, Napoli, 1615. From the first of these organ books L. Torchi in 'L'Arte Musicale in Italia' vol. iii. has reprinted some short pieces, two of which serve to illustrate the somewhat crude attempts of the time in the employment of dissonances and chromatic harmony. The first piece, 'Terzo tono con tre Fughe,' which is diatonic enough, hardly appears to be transcribed or at least printed correctly. The answers and the theme do not correspond. J. R. M.
7TRACKER. A thin flat strip of wood used in the mechanism of an organ for the purpose of conveying motion from one portion of the instrument to another. A tracker differs from a sticker in the fact that a tracker pulls, while a sticker pushes; while therefore a tracker can be flat and thin, a sticker is round and rigid. For example, if, when one end of a key is pressed down it raises a sticker at its other end, it is clear that the sticker will push up a lever at a higher level; but the other end of the lever at the higher level will of course descend, and to this therefore must be attached a tracker. It will be evident also that a sticker, having only to remain in an upright position, can be kept in its placesimply by means of a bit of wire inserted at each end and passing loosely through holes in the ends of the levers. But a tracker having to pull and be pulled is provided at each end with a tapped or threaded wire which when passed through the hole in the lever is secured by a leather button. In all cases noisy action is prevented by the insertion of a layer of cloth or some other soft material. Trackers are generally made of pine-wood about one-eighth of an inch in thickness and from one-third to a half of an inch in width. The length of trackers varies of course according to circumstances; in long 'actions' or extended 'movements' (as for example, when mechanism is taken under a floor or up a wall) they are sometimes twelve or more feet in length; in such cases they are formed of two or more parts joined together by wire. In order to prevent long trackers from swinging about laterally when in use they are often made to pass through a register or thin board containing holes of suitable size lined with cloth. A tracker may convey motion from any part of an instrument to another, but its final function is to lower the pull-down and let air pass through the pallet into the pipe. [Modern trackers are sometimes round in section.] J. S. one of two readings
8TRACKER. A thin flat strip of wood used in the mechanism of an organ for the purpose of conveying motion from one portion of the instrument to another. A tracker differs from a sticker in the fact that a tracker pulls, while a sticker pushes; while therefore a tracker can be flat and thin, a sticker is round and rigid. For example, if, when one end of a key is pressed down it raises a sticker at its other end, it is clear that the sticker will push up a lever at a higher level; but the other end of the lever at the higher level will of course descend, and to this therefore must be attached a tracker. It will be evident also that a sticker, having only to remain in an upright position, can be kept in its places simply by means of a bit of wire inserted at each end and passing loosely through holes in the ends of the levers. But a tracker having to pull and be pulled is provided at each end with a tapped or threaded wire which when passed through the hole in the lever is secured by a leather button. In all cases noisy action is prevented by the insertion of a layer of cloth or some other soft material. Trackers are generally made of pine-wood about one-eighth of an inch in thickness and from one-third to a half of an inch in width. The length of trackers varies of course according to circumstances; in long 'actions' or extended 'movements' (as for example, when mechanism is taken under a floor or up a wall) they are sometimes twelve or more feet in length; in such cases they are formed of two or more parts joined together by wire. In order to prevent long trackers from swinging about laterally when in use they are often made to pass through a register or thin board containing holes of suitable size lined with cloth. A tracker may convey motion from any part of an instrument to another, but its final function is to lower the pull-down and let air pass through the pallet into the pipe. [Modern trackers are sometimes round in section.] J. S. one of two readings
10TRACKER, PNEUMATIC ACTION. See vol. iii. p. 550.
12TRACTULUS. The Guidon or Sign used at the end of a Stave to indicate the note with which the next Stave begins. (In English it is called a Direct.) W. S. R.
14TRACTUS. The position of the Tract in the Latin service has already been indicated (see GREGORIAN MUSIC). In character it differs
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