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Scan 107
The New Encyclopedia Of Music And Musicians, 1929
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1art; often called a conservatory, though in some cases the latter term is reserved for large, well-organized and often state-supported institutions.
3The name is often taken by a mere association of private teachers, working independently.
5Music-Supervisor. In the United States, one who has charge of music-instruction in a public school, usually with one or more under-teachers, or in the school-system of a town, city or district; cf. music-director.
7Music-teacher. One who gives instruction in music, especially in the playing of some instrument, in singing or in elementary composition.
9Music-type. Type suitable for printing the various characters and signs of musical notation.
11A font of such type includes at least 400 different characters. See Printing.
13Music-wire. Steel wire such as is used in pianos and some other instruments; piano-wire.
15Such wire represents the highest achievement of modern wire-making.
17Musico. See Castrato.
19Musicography. The art and science of writing music in correct and intelligible notation.
21It properly includes not only the mechanical formation of the characters, but also the choice of the best or the accepted ways of indicating the desired effect. There are many points on which usage is confused or divided, calling for the exercise of judgment and experience. See Orthography.
23Musicology. A recent word, equivalent to the German Musikwissenschaft or the French musico-logic. Its accepted meaning is the scientific pursuit of musical research, especially on the historical side, as in the investigation of documents, the editing and publication of sources, the discussion of disputed questions of fact or critical opinion, the codifying of scattered or neglected data, etc. The emphasis is frequently laid upon archaeological investigation or upon the exercise of highly-specialized editorial skill. It is possible that the term may become more inclusive of the whole range of music in its scientific and philosophical aspects. It properly includes acoustics, composition (as a science), instrumentalities, vocalics, aesthetics, etc., as well as historical research.
25Mutation. In medieval solmization, the act or process of shifting from one hexachord to another, involving the use of another syllable for the same tone. Also, in violin-playing, same as shift. Also the change that takes place in the boy's voice at puberty. G.
27For mutation-stop, see Organ and Organ-stops.
29Mute. Any device used in connection with an instrument to deaden or reduce its sound, especially, in the violin and similar instruments, the metal-clip that can be slipped over the bridge to check its free vibration, or, in the horn or trumpet, the cone of leather, paper or other material that can be more or less inserted into the bell so as to muffle the tone (and also modify the intonation); a sordino. An instrument with a mute in service is said to be muted, and the tone then produced is a muted tone. G (Sordino).
31Mysteries. A general term for various forms of medieval dramatic play or pageant. Properly, three types are distinguished: mysteries or mystery-plays, dealing with the more solemn of Biblical topics, especially those relating to Christ, miracles or miracle-plays, dealing with the lives of the saints or similar persons, and moralities, allegories on moral and religious subjects, in which qualities or abstract conceptions are personified. In all of these representations, which were originally devised and carried out by ecclesiastics, music was apt to be used in some simple forms, though only incidentally. From them, through gradual steps of transfer and transformation, were derived the street-plays that in the 16th century were common in Italy. These were one of the main sources of derivation for the modern theater. They also furnished types of drama for the early experiments with opera and oratorio.
33It is impossible to trace fully the growth of the medieval religious plays. They may have had a basis or suggestion from the post-classical drama of Byzantium. They may have been an instinctive amplification of Biblical suggestions to match liturgical symbolism. While their original purpose was religious edification, they tended from the 14th century to escape from church-control, to magnify the exciting, the humorous and the grotesque, and thus to supply the craving for social amusement. What music they may have contained had little influence upon dramatic music as such. But their naive adaptation of themes and narratives to the exigencies of stage-presentation was directly imitated in the mythological tales used in the first operas and the allegorical or didactic topics of the first oratorios. It was not long before the opera set out upon paths of its own that differentiated it from the theater, but the oratorio long remained subject to the spirit and methods of medieval pageantry.
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