A bagatelle is a short, lightweight instrumental piece in music, usually for keyboard: a meretrifle. The term is first found in 1717 in one of Couperin's keyboard suites. Ludwig van Beethoven's three sets of keyboard bagatelles (not all of which are 'trifling') gave the term greater currency. Webern wrote Six
Bagatelles for string quartets in 1913. Research Bagatelle
The bagpipe is a musical wind-instrument of very great antiquity, having been used among the ancient Greeks, and being a favourite instrument over Europe generally in the 15th century. It still continues in use among the country people of Poland, Italy, the south of France, and in Scotland and Ireland. Though now often regarded as the national instrument of Scotland, especially Celtic Scotland, it is only Scottish by adoption, being introduced into that country from England. It consists of a leathern bag, which receives the air from the mouth, or from bellows; and of pipes, into which the air is pressed from the bag by the performer's elbow. In the common or Highland form one pipe (called the chanter) plays the melody; of the three others (called drones) two are in unison with the lowest A of the chanter, and the third and longest an octave lower, the sound being produced by means of reeds. The chanter has eight holes, which the performer stops and opens at pleasure, but the scale is imperfect and the tone harsh. The Highland bagpipe is a powerful instrument, and calls for great exertion of the lungs in order that the air may be supplied in sufficient quantity. There are several other species of bagpipes, as the soft and melodious Irish bagpipe, supplied with wind by a bellows, and having several keyed drones and a keyed chanter; the old English bagpipe (now no longer used); the Italian bagpipe, a very rude instrument, etc. The Irish bagpipe is, musically speaking, the most perfect of all. Research Bagpipe
The term ballad is loosely applied to various poetic forms of the song type, but in its most definite sense it is a poem in which a short narrative is subjected to simple lyrical treatment. It was, as indicated by its name, which is related to the Italian ballare and Old French bailer, to dance, originally a song accompanied by a dance. The ballad is probably one of the earliest forms of rhythmic poetic expression, constituting a species of epic in miniature, out of which by fusion and remoulding larger epics were sometimes shaped. As in the folk-tales, so in the ballads of different nations, the resemblances are sufficiently numerous and close to point to the conclusion that they have often had their first origin in the same primitive folk-lore or popular tales. But in any case, excepting a few modern literary ballads of a subtler kind, they have been the popular expression of the broad human emotions clustering about some strongly outlined incidents of war, love, crime, superstition, or death. It is probable that in the Homeric poems fragments of older ballads are embedded; but the earliest ballads, properly so called, of which we have record were the ballistea or dancing-songs of the Romans, of the kind sung in honour of the deeds of Aurelian in the Sarmatic war by a chorus of dancing boys. In their less specialized sense of lyric narratives, their early popularity among the Teutonic race is evidenced by the testimony of Tacitus, of the Gothic historian Jornandes, and the Lombard historian Paulus Diaconus; and many appear to have been written down by order of Charlemagne and used as a means of education. Of the ballads of this period, however, only a general conception can be formed from their traces in conglomerates like the Niebelungenlied; the more artificial productions of the Minnesanger and Meistersanger overlying the more popular ballad until the fifteenth century, when it sprang once more into vigorous life. A third German ballad period was initiated by
Burger under the inspiration of the revived interest in the subject shown in Great Britain and the publication of the Percy Reliques; and the movement was sustained by Herder, Schiller, Goethe, Heine, Uhland, and others. The earlier German work is, however, of inferior value to that of Scandinavia, where, though comparatively few manuscripts have survived, and those not more than three or four centuries old, a more perfect oral tradition has rendered it possible to trace the original stock of the twelfth century.
Of the English and Scottish ballads anterior to the thirteenth century there are few traces beyond the indication that they were abundant, if indeed anything can be definitely asserted of them earlier than the fourteenth century. Among the oldest may be placed The Little Gest of Robin Hood, Hugh of Lincoln, Sir Patrick Spens, and the Battle of Otterbourn. In the fifteenth century specimens multiply rapidly: ballad-making became in the reign of Henry VIII a fashionable amusement, the king himself setting the example; and though in the reign of Elizabeth I ballads came into literary disrepute and ballad singers were brought under the law, yet there was no apparent check upon the rate of their production. Except perhaps in the north of England and south of Scotland, there was, however, a marked and increasing tendency to vulgarization as distinct from the preservation of popular qualities. The value of the better ballads was lost sight of in the flood of dull, rhythmless, and frequently scurrilous verse. The modern revival in Britain dates from the publication of Ramsay's Evergreen and Tea-table Miscellany (1724-27) and of the selection made by Bishop Percy from his seventeenth-century manuscripts (1765), a revival not more important. for its historic interest, than for the influence which it has exercised upon all subsequent poetry.
The threefold wave discernible in German, if not in British, ballad history, is equally to be traced in Spain, which alone among the Latinized countries of Europe has songs of equal age and merit with the British historic ballads. The principal difference between them is, that for the most part the Spanish romance is in trochaic, the British ballad in iambic metre. The ballads of the Cid date from about the end of the twelfth and beginning of the thirteenth century; and then followed an interval of more elaborate production, a revival of ballad interest in the sixteenth century, a new declension, and finally a modern and still persisting enthusiasm.
The French poetry of this kind never reached any high degree of perfection, the romance, farce, and lyric flourishing at the expense of the ballad proper. Of Italy much the same may be said, though Sicily has supplied a great store of ballads; and nearly all the Portuguese poetry of this kind is to be traced to a Spanish origin. The Russians have lyrico-epic poems, of which some, in old Russian, are excellent, and the Servians are still in the ballad-producing stage of civilization. Modern Greece has also its store of ballads, published in several collections. In Greece, Russia, and elsewhere the old habit of improvising song as an accompaniment to dance still exists. Professor Child's is the best collection of English and Scottish ballads. Research Ballad
Ballet is a dramatic representation, consisting of dancing and pantomime, regulated by the strains of music, and generally accompanied by scenery and decoration. The ballet was introduced into France from Italy about 1580 by Baltasarini under the patronage of Catherine de Medici, and improved by Rinuccini. Originally a ballet was a light part song, or madrigal, with a fa la burden or chorus common with the Elizabethanmadrigal composers.
Early ballet in England usually formed an interlude in theatrical performances, principally confined to opera. Its object was to represent, by mimic movements and dances, actions, characters, sentiments, passions, and feelings, in which several dancers perform together. The early dances frequently introduced into operas in England seldom deserved the name ballet, as they usually did not represent any action, but were destined only to give the dancers an opportunity of showing their skill, and the ballet of the 19th century was in general, from an artistic point of view, a very low-class entertainment. During the early part of the 20th century ballet evolved rapidly into a high class art form. Research Ballet
The banjo is a stringed musical instrument. It is an American development of African origins related to the Kora etc., but with a guitar type neck. Found with 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 or more strings, popular types are the 5 string, Tenor (4 string), Plectrum (long neck 4 string), Banjolele (Ukulele Banjo), Banjolin (Mandolin Banjo).
The banjo evolved among the negro slaves of North America and was originally a six-stringed instrument with a body like a tambourine and a neck like a guitar. The banjo is played by stopping the strings with the fingers of the left hand and twitching or striking them with the fingers of the right. The upper or octave string, however, is never stopped. Research Banjo
In music a bar is a vertical line across the staff. Bars divide the staff into spaces which represent measures, and are themselves called measures. A double bar marks the end of a strain or main division of a movement, or of a whole piece of music; in psalmody, it marks the end of a line of poetry. The term bar is very often loosely used for measure, i.e., for such length of music, or of silence, as is included between one bar and the next; as, a passage of eight bars; two bars' rest. Research Bar
Barber-shop (also erroneously called 'barbershop') is a style of music, usually a male quartet but also choruses, who sing in close harmony without supporting musical instruments. Research Barber-Shop
A barcarolle is a popular song or melody sung by Venetian gondoliers. The term is also applied to a piece of music composed in imitation of such a song. Research Barcarolle
In music, baritone is a male voice, the compass of which partakes of the common bass and the tenor, but which does not descend as low as the one, nor rise as high as the other. Research Baritone
A barrel-organ is a musical instrument usually carried by street musicians, in which a barrel studded with pegs or staples, when turned round, opens a series of valves to admit air to a set of pipes, or acts upon wire strings like those of the piano, thus producing a fixed series of tunes. Research Barrel-organ
In music, bass (from the Italian basso, meaning deep) is the lowest part in the harmony of a musical composition, whether vocal or instrumental. According to some it is the fundamental or most important part, while others regard the melody or highest part in that light. Next to the melody, the bass part is the most striking, the freest and boldest in its movements, and richest in effect. Research Bass
A basset horn (corno dibassetto) is a musical instrument blown with a reed, and resembling a clarinet, but of much greater compass, embracing nearly four octaves, and with a curved and bell-shaped metal end. Mozart has several pieces written for the basset-horn. Research Basset Horn
In music, basso describes the bass or lowest part, hence the term is applied to someone who sings the lowest part. Basso is also a name for the double bass, or contrabasso. Research Basso
In music, a basso continuo is a bass part written out continuously, while the other parts of the harmony are indicated by figures attached to the bass. Research Basso Continuo
A bassoon is a wooden double-reed wind musical instrument invented in the 16th century by Afranio. It is furnished with holes, which are stopped by the fingers, and by keys, as in flutes, and forms the natural bass to the oboe, clarinet, etc. The bassoon covers three octaves and for convenience of carriage is divided into two parts; whence it is also called a fagot. Research Bassoon
A baton is the stick with which the conductor of a choir or orchestra beats the time. In early times the bandmaster beat time with his foot, and Lulli knocked on the floor with a six foot stick. Spohr was the first to employ the baton in England, at a philharmonic concert in 1820. Research Baton
The bawoo is a Chinese wind instrument. It is comprised of a bamboo tube with a rectangular hole carved in the side near the closed end, with a reed fastened across and finger and thumb holes. Research Bawoo
In music the beat is the beating or pulsation resulting from the joint vibrations of two sounds of the same strength, and all but in unison. The term is also applied to a short shake or transient grace-note struck immediately before the note it is intended to ornament. Research Beat
In musical acoustics, a beat frequency is the fluctuation produced when two notes of nearly equal pitch or frequency are heard together. Beats result from the interference between the sound waves of the notes, the frequency of the beats equals the difference in frequency of the notes. Musicians use the effect when tuning their instruments. A similar effect can occur in electrical circuits when two alternating currents are present, producing regular variations in the overall current. Research Beat frequency
A bina or vina is an Indian guitar with a long finger-board and a gourd attached to each end. seven strings or wires wound around pegs in the usual way are attached to the finger-board, four on the surface and three at the sides. The instrument has about twenty frets. In performance, one gourd is rested on the left shoulder and the other on the right hip. Research Bina
The bodhran is an Irish single-headed frame drum. It comprises a membrane of animal skin, usually nailed to a frame. The drum is hand-held using a criss- cross system of cord, wire or sticks over the open end. Research Bodhran
The bolero is a Spanish dance of the ballet class for couples or a single female dancer dating from the end of the 18th century. The music, which is in triple measure, is generally marked by rapid changes of time, and the dancers mostly accompany the music with castanets. The interest of these dances largely depends upon the pantomime of passion, which forms an essential part of them. Research Bolero
The bombardon is now a large musical instrument of the saxhorn family, the lowest of the saxhorns, in tone resembling the ophicleide. The bombardon was originally, a deep-toned instrument of the oboe or bassoon family and then the term was also applied to a bass reed stop on the organ. Research Bombardon
The bourree is a dance of French or Spanish origin. As a musical form,
bourree is always in alla- breve time, and is frequently found in the works of the older composers such as the suits of Johann Sebastian Bach. Research Bourree
Brabanconne is the national song of the Belgians, written during the revolution of 1830 by Jenneval an actor at the theatre of Brussels, and set to music by Campenhout. Research Brabanconne
In music, a bravura is a florid, brilliant style of music, written for effect, to show the range and flexibility of a singer's voice, or the technical force and skill of a performer. A form of virtuoso music. Research Bravura
In music, a breve is the longest form of a note, originally considered the whole note by the 20th century it had been replaced as the whole note by the semi-breve, which is half it's duration. The breve was formerly represented by a square, but is now represented by an oval shape, with a line perpendicular to the stave on each of its sides. Research Breve
In music, a bridge is the small arch or bar at right angles to the strings of a violin, guitar, etc. which serves to raise them and transmit their vibrations to the body of the instrument. Research Bridge
The buccina was a Roman musical instrument. Roman sailors used a buccina derived from a shell, the Roman army a buccina made of brass and either C-shaped or straight. Research Buccina
A bugle is a brass wind instrument with a cup-mouthpiece and made from coiled brass or copper tubing with a wide conical bore and flaring bell. Having no valves, it produces only natural harmonics of the tubing's fundamental pitch: c 0 , c 1 , g 1 , c 2 , e 2 , g 2 , b-flat 2 , c 3 (c 1 = middle C; c 0 = the C below); the B-flat bugle sounds a tone lower. Some bugles have a single valve that lowers the pitch by a fourth.
A semicircular bugle, one of various European signal horns, was adopted about 1800 by German and English infantry units. Soon after, the coiled shape became common. In the 19th century the bugle developed several derivatives. The keyed bugle, or Kent bugle, with key-controlled finger holes, was the first treblebrass instrument with a full scale. It was popular in bands until displaced by the cornet. The bass keyed bugle, or ophicleide, was the common brass bass before the tuba. The flugelhorn is a German valved bugle. Research Bugle
A bull-roarer is an instrument consisting of a small flat strip of wood, or sometimes bone, through a hole in one end of which a piece of string is passed. When whirled rapidly round a loud moaning hum or 'roar' is produced.
Bull-roarers are mainly viewed as toys in Europe, but are important mystical articles used by many indigenous and primitive peoples in acts of worship. Research Bull-Roarer
A burletta is a light, comic species of musical drama, which derives its name from the Italian burlare, to jest. It originated in Italy, from whence it passed to the Transalpine countries. Research Burletta
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Music
Research Bagatelle
