Scan 224
Groves Dictionary Of Music And Musicians,vol.4, Ed.3, 1908
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1side of the cane, and blowing through the open end; the slit edges fly apart and set up a rapid vibration. In many parts of rural England these, as well as the other reed-pipes, are commonly made by children, but the retreating-reed has been observed in Morocco and, in a more elaborate form, amongst the American Indians of the N.W. coast. It has recently found a place in the organ amongst the new methods of tone production. (See Organ.)
33. PIPES WITH CUP-MOUTHPIECES, in which the column of air is set in motion by the rapid vibration of the performer's lips. This well-known principle (see Horn, Trumpet) is in reality closely allied to the last-mentioned form, the retreating-reed; for although the usual shape of the cup-mouthpiece in Europe is circular, amongst the African tribes it is oval, and in the Chinese metal trumpet, 'Ah-tu,' approximates very nearly to the shape of the double reed, the thin edges of the lips providing the necessary vibration. In this way, too, the mediaeval cornetti and clarini were played, the resulting tone closely resembling that of a reed instrument. The distribution of instruments of this type is world-wide, and they are constructed not only of metal, but of the natural horns and tusks of animals, of sea-shells, stems of large plants, branches of trees, hollow gourds, leaves, paper, earthenware, and human bones. By some primitive peoples they have been invested with sacred attributes, as the 'Juruparis' and 'Botuto' of the South American Indians, whilst amongst the African tribes they serve not only as incentives to the battle and the dance, but as a recognised system of intercommunal telegraphy. Although the principle was known to the Aztecs, its use among the North American Indians is now practically unrecognised, but in South America horns of gourd, reed and baked clay are found. Throughout the Asiatic continent the trumpet is relegated to religious, civil and ceremonial observances, and remains in a far more primitive state than the reed-pipes, flutes and strings. In Europe, as shown by the fine 'Luren' of the Bronze age which have been discovered, the principle dates back to prehistoric ages. (Cf. the classification of European forms under Wind Instruments.)
5In addition to these three great groups of musical pipes there is another peculiar form which deserves notice. In the Indian 'Nyastaranga,' or throat trumpet the column of air is set in vibration by a thin skin or diaphragm placed over the small orifice at the end of the tube and completely closing it; this end is applied to the vibrating chords of the throat, and the note hummed by the performer is sympathetically reproduced by the diaphragm and transmitted to the trumpet. A vibrating skin is also found in the mediaeval 'Onion Flute,' in several forms of African wind instruments, and on many of the Chinese flutes; but in these and similar cases the note is formed by the player's voice or breath directed into the open hole of the tube the diaphragm merely adding a reedy timbre to the sound produced.
7BIBLIOGRAPHY.
8WILSON: Prehistoric Art (Smithsonian Instit. Report, 1896).
9WEAD: History of Musical Scales (Smithsonian Instit. Report, 1900)
10BALFOUR: The Old British Pibroch (Anthol. Journal, vol. xx.).
11GALPIN: The Whistles and Reed Instruments of the N.W. Coast of America (Trans. Musical Assoc. 1903)
12HERMANN SMITH: The World's Earliest Music, 1904.
13ANKERMANN: Die afrikanischen Musik-Instruments, Berlin, 1897; Annales du Musée du Congo (Ethnographical), vol. 1., Brussels, 1902. See also under Histories of Music.
15F. W. G.
17PIPO (PIPO), see MATTEI, FILIPPO.
19PIQUE, LOUIS FRANÇOIS (b. Roret, near Mirecourt, France, 1758; d. Charenton-Saint-Maurice, 1822), an excellent violin-maker. 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 Museum of the Paris Conservatoire reveals that he was living at the 'Rue Coquillière, 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 Coquillière, 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 (q.v.) 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 tables 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 lifetime, and are now valuable. Spohr, in his Méthode de violon, mentions Lupot and Pique as the best French makers of their time.
21BURL.—LAURENT GRILLET, Les Ancêtres du violon; VIDAL, Les Instruments à archet; HART, The Violin; GALLAY, Les Luthiers italiens; VON LÜTGENDORFF, Die Geigen und Lautenmacher; HAWKINS, Old Violins; FLEMING, The Fiddle Fancier's Guide.
23E. H.-A.
25PIQUE DAME (QUEEN OF SPADES), opera by Tchaikovsky; libretto (after Poushkin) by Modeste Tchaikovsky; produced St. Petersburg, Dec. 19, 1890; London Opera House (Rosing season), May 29, 1915.
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