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Scan 135
The New Encyclopedia Of Music And Musicians, 1929
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1Picardie, Tierce de. A major third in the final chord of a piece or period in a minor key. G (Tierce).
3The custom of making such a close began early in the polyphonic period, but the exact reason for the name is not known. Probably it is connected with the derivation of the style and forms of the time from the region of Flanders and northern France.
5Picco-pipe. A very small flageolet or direct flute, used with extraordinary skill by a blind Sardinian peasant named Picco who appeared in London in 1856. G.
7The pipe is only 3½ inches long, with a whistle-mouthpiece that occupies nearly half of the length, a very short tube with 3 fingerholes and a small bell. Picco secured a scale of over two octaves, with chromatics, by using the pipe sometimes open and sometimes closed with the hand and by overblowing.
9Piccolo. The octave-flute; see Flute. G.
11Piccolo may be added as a diminutive to the name of any other instrument, as oboe piccola, violino piccolo and violoncello piccolo. It has also been applied to the smallest member of certain groups of brass-wind instruments.
13Pick. See Plectrum.
15Piece. A loosely-applied term for a composition, usually instrumental, or for a movement or number taken from an extended work. Also an instrument regarded as a member or part of an orchestra (often plural, as an orchestra or band of 25 pieces). G.
17Piffero. A small oboe or flageolet, used by strolling players in Italy and the Tyrol. G.
19Such pifferari in many places play melodies at Christmas-time before pictures of the Virgin in imitation of the shepherds at the Nativity. These airs are usually in a pastoral style like a siciliano.
21Pin. See Tuning-pin.
23Pipe. In general, any small tubular instrument, usually of wood, such as a whistle or oboe. Pipes of simple form are among the most universal of primitive and rustic instruments; from them have been evolved several families of woodwind instruments, including flutes, oboes and clarinets, with all their relatives.
25Specifically, one of the tubes of metal or wood from which the tones of a pipe-organ are produced; an organ-pipe. It is by its use of pipes, usually of considerable size, that the pipe-organ is distinguished from the reed-organ. G.
27Organ-pipes are made either of carefully-selected wood or of metals like tin, zinc or lead (sometimes pure, sometimes combined in the alloy known as pipe-metal). Wooden pipes are usually square in section (occasionally triangular), while metal-pipes are cylindrical. They vary greatly in size, the largest being 32 feet long and perhaps 2 feet across, the smallest somewhat like an elongated lead-pencil. The total number in a single organ varies with the size of the instrument, in rare cases rising to over 10,000.
29Organ-pipes belong to two main classes: flue-pipes and reed-pipes. The principle of the former is that of the whistle or flageolet, the tone being produced by the impact and fluctuation of a flat stream of air driven against a sharp edge, while the principle of the latter is that of the clarinet, the tone being produced by the vibration of a metal-tongue or reed under the impulse of a stream of air. In both cases the quality, pitch and volume of the tone are principally determined by the shape and dimensions of the pipe itself. Quality depends mainly on material, shape and scale (the proportion between length and width). Pitch depends mainly on length. But both quality and pitch are much affected by whether the top of the pipe be open or closed. Volume depends on details in the tone-production, on the size of the pipe and the amount of air admitted.
31Flue-pipes consist of two main parts, the foot and the body, at the bottom of the latter being the mouth, which is an opening in the side of the tube. The foot serves as the passage-way through which compressed air enters the pipe. Its top is a block or shelf called the language or languid (a corruption of languet), which closes it save for a narrow slit in front called the flue or wind-way. This, with the shaped surface below it, forms the lower lip of the mouth. The slit-like flue is so made as to direct a flat stream of air against the sharp edge of the mouth's upper lip and thus throw the air into vibration. The action of this stream is further controlled by projecting ears on the sides of the mouth. The variation started in the mouth is taken up by the whole volume of air in the pipe. The character of the tone is greatly influenced by delicate adjustments in the mouth. Its pitch depends on the effective length of the air-column and whether the top of the pipe be open or stopped with a plug (an open pipe giving a tone an octave higher than a stopped one of the same length). An open pipe about 8 feet long gives the tone c₂, one 4 feet long the tone c₁, etc., so that a set of pipes of the same sort ranges (for a keyboard of five octaves) from 8 feet to 6 inches. Precision in tuning is secured by devices at the top of the pipe for increasing or diminishing its effective length. Adjustable flaps or tongues for this purpose are called tuners. Stopped pipes are tuned by raising or lowering the plug or tampion at the top.
33Reed-pipes consist of two main parts, the boot and the body, separated by a circular block of metal. In the center of this is set the reed or shallot (projecting into the boot below), which is a tube, at the top opening into the upper part of the pipe, at the bottom forming a box-like end, one side of which has an oblong opening that is covered or filled by a metal tongue. This tongue is fixed at its upper end, but free and slightly curved outward below. The compressed air in the boot causes it to vibrate over or in the opening and thus produces tone. The pitch of the tone depends on the effective vibrating-length of the tongue, which can be adjusted by means of a sliding tuning-wire in the block. (For the distinction between free and beating reeds, see Reed.) The body above the block varies greatly in shape and size, according to the quality of tone desired. The pitch of the tone can be somewhat modified by similar adjustments to those in flue-pipes.
35Normally, there is a pipe for every key of the keyboard in each set or kind of pipes included in the instrument (in some cases 2–5 pipes to the key). Such a set of similar and graduated pipes is called a stop or register. The several sets of pipes or stops belonging to any one division of the organ are ranged in rows across the wind-chest of that division, the top of which is pierced with holes to receive them. For further details, see Organ and Organ-stop.
37When a pipe is sounded, it is said to speak and the character of its tone is called its speech. If it sounds improperly or when not wanted, it is said to cipher.
39Pirouette. A conical cup of ivory or wood found in some old instruments of the shawm-and pommer-families, designed to cover the lower part of the double reed and afford a brace for the player's lips. G.
41Piston. In brass-wind instruments, see Valve. In the pipe-organ, a knob or plunger by which some change in registration is effected either pneumatically or electrically; often called a combination-piston.
43Pitch. As a physical characteristic of tones, see Acoustics. Differences of pitch and the relations of different pitches constitute a large part of the artistic resources of music. They underlie all scales, intervals and the applications of these in melody and harmony. For both practical and theoretic purposes it early became cus-
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