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Scan 138
Harvard Dictionary Of Music(1950), 1950
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1CENTITONE
3as tip, zip, G. zupfen, to pluck). Therefore the name does not point to a similarity of the sound of the instrument to that of bells, but to the plucking of the strings.
5Centitone. See under *Intervals, Calculation of, V.
7Cento [L.], centone [It., a patchwork quilt]. The term and its derivatives "centonization," "to centonize" are used with reference to literary and musical works formed by selections from other works. The liturgical book compiled by St. Gregory (c.670) was as early as the 9th century called "antiphonarius cento," on account of the theory (probably erroneous) that it was a combination of three earlier books written by Pope Gelasius [cf. P. Wagner, Einführung in die Gregorianischen Melodien, i, 199–214; O. Ursprung, Katholische Kirchenmusik, 21 ]. In poetry, cento denotes a poem consisting only of refrains [see *Refrain]. The term also applies to musical melodies pieced together from pre-existent fragments (a procedure not infrequent in Gregorian chant and in Oriental music) as well as to operas of the 18th century put together by several composers. See *Ballad opera and, in particular, *Pasticcio; also *Quod libet.
9Central America. Lit.: J. Castillo, "Autochthonic Music" [of Guatemala] (Bull. of the Pan American Union, vol. 62, no. 4); F. Densmore, Music of the Tule Indians of Panama (1926); N. Garay, Tradiciones y Cantares de Panamá (Brussels, 1930); R. González Sol, Datos históricos sobre el arte de la música en El Salvador (San Salvador, 1940); N. Slonimsky, "Viewing a Terra Incognita of Music" (Musical America, 1941). See also general bibliography under Latin American music. G. C.
11Cents. The unit of a scientific and exact method of measuring musical intervals which was introduced by A. J. Ellis (1814–90) and which has been widely adopted in acoustics as well as in *comparative musicology. The cent is one one-hundredth of the semitone of the well-tempered scale; thus, the semitone equals 100 cents, and the octave contains 1200 cents. The various tones of the chromatic scale are represented by the multiples of 100, as follows:
130 100 200 300 400 500 600
14c c# d d# e f f#
15700 800 900 1000 1100 1200
16g g# a a# b c
18This scale can be conveniently used for diagrams showing the exact position of other intervals, e.g., those of the Pythagorean scale, of just intonation, of exotic scales, etc. [see *Javanese music]. For readers familiar with the elements of arithmetic it may be remarked that cents are a logarithmic measurement; see *Intervals, Calculation of, IV.
20Cephalicus. See *Neumes.
22Cercar la nota [It., to seek the note] indicates in vocal technique a slight anticipation of the following note, e.g., d–(c)-c. It may also occur in the form of a passing note, e.g., e–(d)-c.
24Ces, ceses [G.]. See *Pitch names.
26Cesolfa(ut), ce sol fa (ut). See *Hexachord III.
28Cetera, cetra [It.]. (1) *Zither. — (2) Cittern [see *Guitar family].
30C.f. Abbreviation for *cantus firmus.
32Chace [F.]. See under *Caccia.
34Chaconne and passacaglia. Two closely related forms of Baroque music, each in the character of a continuous variation [see *Variation I] in moderately slow triple meter. An additional feature is a slow *harmonic rhythm, changing generally with the measure. The terms are interesting not only on account of the many futile attempts that have been made to explain their derivation and original meaning, but also on account of the attempts, equally numerous and futile, to make a clear distinction between them. As is shown subsequently, Baroque composers used the terms indiscriminately. This does not necessarily mean that they
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