Scan 818
Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians Vol. 3, 1925
12 lines. Read by computer on 12 September 2026. Printed page 754. See the scan on archive.org.
1sides. It was shown by Wheatstone that a pipe of conical bore, while giving out a similar fundamental note to one of the same length of cylindrical shape, differs as regards the position of the nodes when emitting harmonic sounds. The first node in a conical pipe is not in the middle, but some distance towards the smaller end. It appears from modern observations that the laws of Bernouilli require correction. If an open pipe be stopped at one end, its note is not exactly an octave below that given by it when open, but about a major seventh. According to theory, the hypothesis is made that the change from constraint to a condition of no constraint takes place suddenly at the point where the wave-system leaves the pipe. This is not the case, and practically the open pipe is equivalent to one a little longer than its actual length, by about .635 of the radius of the pipe for the open end, and .59 for the mouth. Kundt has made some valuable researches on the influence of the diameter of a pipe on the velocity of sound within it, which are beyond our present limits. They are discussed in Lord Rayleigh's Theory of Sound, vol. ii. p. 55. (See Wind Instruments.) W. H. S.
3PIQUE, LOUIS FRANCOIS, an excellent violin-maker, born at Roret, near Mirecourt, France, in 1758, died in 1822 at Charenton-Saint-Maurice, where he owned a private residence. Reputed to have been a pupil of Saunier, a Lorraine violin- and guitar-maker, who settled in Paris in 1770, Pique became one of the best makers of his epoch. The date of his installation in the French capital is unknown, but the label in a Theorbo of his fabrication in the Musée of the Paris Conservatoire reveals that he was living at the 'Rue Coquilliére, au coin de la Rue Bouloy,' in 1779. Between 1787 and 1789 he made fiddles at the 'Rue Platrière, vis-à-vis l'hôtel de Bullon'; in 1791 at the 'Rue Coquilliére, vis-à-vis le Roulage de France,' and between 1809 and 1815, at No. 36 Rue de Grenelle-Saint-Honoré. As a copyist of Stradivarius, Pique approached his contemporary Nicolas Lupot (see that name) more closely than any other French maker of his period. Owing to this fact, it has been said that many of the instruments bearing Pique's name were made by Lupot and only varnished by Pique, but the dissimilarity of their workmanship disproves the suggestion. It is more than likely that the imputation has arisen from an inevitable rivalry which probably existed between the two makers. Pique's work was somewhat unequal, but his best instruments show skilled manipulation of a high order. The qualities of the materials chosen are excellent; the backs—sometimes whole—are well selected, and the bellies are of particularly fine wood. The scroll is well executed, without exaggeration, the sound-holes cut with precision, the varnish red-brown. Pique's labels were both autograph and lithograph. His instruments were highly esteemed during his life-time, and are now valuable. Spohr, in his Méthode de Violon, mentions Lupot and Pique as the best French makers of their time.—Laurent Grillet, Les Ancêtres du Violon; Vidal, Les Instruments à Archet; Hart, The Violin; Gallay, Les Luthiers Italiens; Von Lütgendorff, Die Geigen und Lautenmacher; Haweis, Old Violins; Fleming, The Fiddle Fancier's Guide. E. H-A.
5PIRATA, IL. Opera in two acts; libretto by Romani, music by Bellini. Produced at the Scala, Milan, Oct. 27, 1827; in Paris at the Théâtre Italien, Feb. 1, 1832; in London, at the King's Theatre, April 17, 1830. G.
7PIRATES OF PENZANCE, THE. A comic opera in two acts; words by W. S. Gilbert, music by Arthur Sullivan. Produced at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York, Dec. 31, 1879; and at the Opera-Comique, London, April 3, 1880. G.
9PIROUETTE. A perforated cap adjusted so as partly to cover the double reed of old instruments of the shawm and pommer classes, corresponding with modern oboes and bassoons. The length of the pirouette was regulated so as to allow of the projection of the proper length of the reed for vibration, and the rim or table afforded some support to the lips of the player, which was probably of value in days when reeds were hard and unmanageable. The pirouette, now unused, indicated a stage of development between the completely enclosed reed of the cromorne and bagpipe, and the open reed of modern instruments, which is peculiarly sensitive, and entirely under the control of the lips of the player. D. J. B.
11PISARI, PASQUALE (called Pizari in Santini's catalogue), eminent church composer, and, according to Padre Martini, 'the Palestrina of the 18th century,' son of a mason, born in Rome in 1725. A musician named Gasparino, struck by his beautiful voice as a child, urged him to devote himself to music. His voice developed afterwards into a fine bass, but he took less to singing than to composition, which he studied under Giovanni Biordi. In 1752 he was admitted into the Pope's chapel as supernumerary, and remained a member till his death in 1778. His poverty was extreme, and many, perhaps apocryphal, stories are told of his writing his compositions with ink made from charcoal and water, etc. His finest work is a 'Dixit' in sixteen real parts, written for the papal jubilee in 1775 and sung by 150 performers. A Kyrie and Gloria in forty-eight parts by Ballabene were performed on the same occasion. Burney was in Rome the same year, and speaks with astonishment of the learning displayed in the 'Dixit' (Present State, France and Italy, p. 370). It was composed for the court of Lisbon, together with a service for every day in the year, but the payment was so long delayed that by the time
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