Books › Grove's Dictionary of music and musicians, 1927 › scan 533
Scan 533
Grove's Dictionary of music and musicians, 1927
24 lines. Read by computer on 4 September 2026. Printed page 467. See the scan on archive.org.
1BRIARD
3symphonic poem, 'In Memoriam,' at Edinburgh (Landon Ronald), and the third 'English Suite' at Bournemouth (Dan Godfrey). The first London performance of the 'Festal Dance' was given by Thomas Beecham in June 1915, and this work and 'Doctor Merryheart' were included in Henry J. Wood's repertory at Queen's Hall.
5A number of songs and short choral works by Havergal Brian have been published, and the following are among his MSS.:
7Opera, 'The Grotesques'; Psalm for chorus and orchestra; Ballad for chorus and orchestra, 'Die Wallfahrt nach Kevlaar' (Heine); a Symphony; two Symphonic Dances, 'Lacryma' and 'Green Pastures'; works for small orchestra; songs and part-songs.
9E. B.
11BRIARD, ÉTIENNE (b. Bar-le-Duc towards end of 15th cent.), an engraver of music who settled at Avignon in 1530.
13He replaced the square characters hitherto in use by round ones, and devised a simple means of expressing the duration of a note, instead of the complicated system of ligatures. Peignot, in his Diction. de la bibliologie, supp. p. 140, claims priority in these inventions for Granjon, also a printer; but Briard's characters are certainly better formed and easier to read. A facsimile of them may be seen in Schmidt's Ottaviano Petrucci. He furnished the printer, Jean de Channey, with the types used in the printing of the works of Eleazar Genêt called 'Il Carpentrasso.' The Liber primum missarum Carpentras appeared in 1532. It is in the library of the Conservatoire, Paris. A descendant of his was Jean Baptiste Briard (b. Paris, May 15, 1823), a violinist and composer.
15F. G.; rev. M. L. P.
17BRIDGE, the wooden support on the table of stringed instruments across which the strings are extended. The bridge was first used on the Greek MONOCHORD (q.v.), on which it was moved as might be required for changing the pitch; and the bridge remains in most instruments a movable fitting, though those of the guitar and lute are fixed. (See CRWTH and TROMBA MARINA for the peculiarities of the bridges of these instruments.)
19In bowed instruments the bridge is an essential part of the tone-producing apparatus, its complement being furnished by the sound-post placed within the instrument.
21Uniform in design as the bridge of modern stringed instruments appears outwardly, its two halves, each terminating in a foot resting on the table, perform two entirely different functions. The treble or fixed foot rests firmly upon the table, a fraction of an inch above the sound-post, a cylinder of resonant wood inserted between the back and table of the instrument. The bass, or freely vibrating foot, agitates the elastic table of the instrument, and through it the internal air. The point of maximum vibration of the table of a violin is near the bass foot of the bridge under the G string; that of minimum vibration is exactly over the top of the sound-post, behind the treble foot. It is easy to trace the development of the violin bridge, the most advanced type, the oldest form, which is also the simplest, having been preserved in the common double-bass bridge. The wings were extended, the heart or central hole was cut out, and these features were fixed by experiment so as to favour as much as possible the transmission to the table, through the feet, of such vibrations as are efficient in producing musical tone, and to exclude useless vibrations—those, for example, which would tend to give a rocking motion to the bridge being counteracted by the greater elasticity given to the upper part of the bridge as compared with the lower. The violin bridge was reduced to nearly its present form in the time, and probably by the ingenuity, of the brothers Antonio and Geronimo Amati.
23The height of the bridge differs in the various instruments, being proportionate to the depth of the ribs and the length of the sound-post. Thus the bridge of the violin and tenor is mounted on feet not surmounted by legs, the body of the bridge being very slightly elevated above the table of the instrument. The viol model, in all its sizes, like the violoncello, requires a bridge having not only feet but legs of variable length, the body of the bridge being thus elevated on a well-defined arch. Bridges are usually made of maple, and in order to bring out the tone in different instruments the thickness and the amount of cutting out require careful examination and expert judgment. It is a mistake to cut the heart or central hole too large, and the feet or legs of the bridge too thin; but repairers often do this to save themselves trouble, as by a liberal use of the knife in these respects almost any instrument can be made to yield a more or less liquid tone. Some instruments require broader and others narrower bridges. The feet must exactly fit the table of the instrument, the centre of the bass foot should be over the centre of the bass-bar, and the centre of the treble foot over those fibres of the table which pass over the top of the sound-post (the sound-post itself standing a little in the rear). The width of the bridge, as a rule, should not exceed the width between the sound-holes, and it should stand on a line exactly bisecting the superficial area of the table, and precisely at right angles to the axis of the violin. Violin makers make two nicks in the middle of each sound-hole which are supposed to indicate
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