Books › Pronouncing dictionary of musical terms, giving the meaning, derivation, and pronunciation … of Italian, German, French, and other words; the names with date of birth and death and nationality of the leading musicians of the last two centuries; English vocabulary, with equivalents in Italian, Germ, 1896 › scan 76
Scan 76
Pronouncing dictionary of musical terms, giving the meaning, derivation, and pronunciation … of Italian, German, French, and other words; the names with date of birth and death and nationality of the leading musicians of the last two centuries; English vocabulary, with equivalents in Italian, Germ, 1896
38 lines. Read by computer on 24 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 72. See the scan on archive.org.
1Pietoso (It.) (pe-eh-to'-so), Pietosamente (pe-eh-to-sa-men'-teh). Tender; pitiful; tenderly.
2Pifferaro (It.) (pif-feh-rah-ro). A player on the piffero.
3Piffero or Piffaro (It.). Old form of the hautboy, still used in Italy. The same form of instrument exists all through Asia,—probably the "aulos" of the Greeks.
4Pincé (Fr.) (pang-seh'). (1) Pinched. See Pizzicato. (2) A mordent.
5Pipe. The tubes of wood or metal in the organ. They are classified as follows:—Open pipes, open at the top; closed or stopped pipes, with a movable plug; flue pipes, those constructed on the principle of the whistle or flageolet; reed pipes, those in which a beating reed is combined with the pipe. Pipes are also classified by length, the open diapason being the standard. An open pipe must be eight feet long to sound
7A closed pipe four feet long gives the same sound; both are said to have an 8-foot tone. If a pipe has a 4-foot tone, its sound is an octave higher than the diapason; if a 2-foot tone, it is two octaves above the diapason.
8Piqué (Fr.) (pee-keh'). A manner of bowing the violin, indicated by combined slur and dots:
10Piquieren (Ger.) (pik-ee'-ren). To play piqué.
11Piston (Fr.), Ventil (Ger.). Valve; a device used in brass instruments to lengthen the tube, thus depressing the pitch.
12Pitch. Relative pitch is the interval between a given sound and some other sound. Absolute pitch is the number of vibrations per second necessary to produce a given sound. Standard pitch is the number of vibrations per second adopted as the pitch of a given sound. The standard (now almost universal) is 435.
14(no line here) one of two readings
15which is known as the French "diapason normal." Between 1699 and 1859 the standard rose from 404 to 455.
16Pitch Pipe. A wooden pipe used to give the keynote. A small tube containing a free reed is now generally used.
18Piu (It.). More; as, Piu forte, louder.
19Piva (It.) (pee-vah). A bagpipe; also a piece of music in imitation of the bagpipe.
20Pizzicato (It.) (pits-e-cah'-to), Pincé (Fr.), Gekneipt (Ger.). Lit., "pinched." A direction in music for bow instruments to pluck the strings with the finger, as in the guitar. (Abbr., Pizz.)
21Placidamente (It.) (plah-chee-dah-men'-teh). Placidly; quietly.
22Placido (It.) (plah-chee'-do). Placid; quiet.
23Plagal Cadence. From subdominant to tonic:
25Plagal Scales or Modes. In the ecclesiastical system, those scales beginning a fourth below the authentic scales, but ending on the keynotes of their related authentic scales. They are distinguished by the prefix hypo [Gr., ὑπο, below], as Dorian (authentic) D–D, ending on D; hypo-Dorian (plagal) A–A, ending on D.
26Plain Chant. Plain song. Cantus planus, or Cantus choralis (Lat.), the early music of the church, written in the ecclesiastical modes (also called Ambrosian) and Gregorian scales. In the 12th century the unrhythmic melodies of the early forms of plain song were largely superseded by the rhythmic cantus mensurabilis, or measured song, which came into existence upon the invention of notes by Franco of Cologne. Before this invention the musical rhythm depended entirely on the rhythm of the words to which it was sung.
27Plainté (Fr.). Elegy; lament.
28Plaisanterié (Fr.) (play-zong'-te-ree): A lively fantasia in which various dance-tunes are introduced.
29Planxtiés. Laments; music of Irish harpers to celebrate the departed.
30Plectrum [Gr., plectron]. A small rod of metal, bone, ivory, etc., or a flat strip of wood or tortoise shell, or a ring with a projecting piece, used to strike the strings of the lyre, Japanese guitar, mandolin, zither, etc.
32Piccini, L. (pit-cheel'-nee) (son of N.). Composer; Italy. B. 1766; d. 1827.
33Pinsuti, Ciro (pin-sool'-tee, chee-ro). Composer; Italy. B. 1829; d. 1888.
34Plaidy, Louis (play'-dee). Pianist, writer; Germany. B. 1810; d. 1874.
35Pleyel, Ignaz J. Composer; Germany. B. 1757; d. 1831.
36Pleyel, Marie F. D. M. (wife of above). Pianist; France. B. 1811; d. 1875.
37Pole, Will. Author, theorist; England. B. 1814.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.