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THE MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW.
64
THE ATLANTA EXPOSITION.
PINE DISPLAY OP MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.
HHHE International Cotton Exposition at Atlanta,
_L Ga., which opens to-day, and closes December
31st, 1881, promises to give general satisfaction.
The condition of the exhibit of musical instruments
of all kinds is peculiarly favorable and encouraging.
Messrs. 0. M. Cady, General Manager of the Estey
Organ Co.; O. L. Braumiiller & Co., (branchhouse
of Messrs. Ludden & Bates); and Phillips & Crew,
music houses of this city, will exhibit a great
variety of excellent pianos, organs, and other in-
struments from the following manufactories, viz.;
Steinway & Son, Decker Bros., Weber, Haines,
Knabe, Chiokering, Hallet & Davis, Kranich &
Bach, Mason & Hamlin, Peloubet & Co., etc., etc.
The Raven Piano Works exhibit five .different
styles of their work. Knabe & Co. will send by
their agents eight Pianos of different styles. Chick-
ering will show one square, three uprights, and
two grand pianos. C. M. Stieff, of Baltimore, the
Diamond State Organ Co., Estey, Smith, Clough
& Warren, Schorringer, and other organs will be
on exhibition. Every space in the Industrial
Pavillion of the Exposition has been taken for a
month, and it is stated that every first-class manu-
facturer of musical instruments in the United
States will have specimens here exhibited. The
International Cotton Exposition must prove a suc-
cess in view of such a general manifestation of
interest and the expenditure of so much money and
careful labor.
October 5th, iS8t.
almost universal; indeed, we only remember to stringed instruments is very simple, and the word
have seen the correct form, oboa, used in one in- violincello, if it existed, would mean something ut-
stance, and that is in the score of "Vedrai, carino," terly different from what those persons who use it
think it means. Starting with the word viola (the
in Mozart's " Don Giovanni."
There is a single-reed wind instrument, now alto or tenor of stringed instruments), we added
obsolete, but corresponding nearly enough to the the Italian diminutive termination mo, getting
more modern alto clarinet in F, which used to be violino (i. e., a little viola, or violin). If we add
called the basset. A certain instrument maker, by the augmentative termination one, we get violone,
the name of Horn, introduced some valuable im- which is the Italian for double bass (i. e., a big
provements into the make of the instrument, and viola). Now, if we add to this last word the dim-
gave his new invention to the world under the inutive termination cello, we get violoncello (i.e., a
name of le basset Horn, (i. e., Horn's basset). The little double bass). "Violmcello would be a double
unlucky identity of the name of the maker with diminutive, and instead of meaning a little double
the English and German name for a familiar brass bass, it would mean, if anything, a little violin or
instrument misled musicians, and the new instru- dancing-master's kit. The spelling violmcello is
ment was soon known in Germany and England as even worse than clarionet; the latter is simply a
the basset-horn, which name was forthwith trans- barbarism, whereas the former is sheer nonsense.
lated into French and Italian as cor de basset and The correct English word clarinet is but an Angli-
corno di bassetlo. The instrument is, in reality, no cized form of the Italian clarinetto, which is in
turn the diminutive of clarino. First to trans-
more a horn than it is a jews-harp.
At one time the spelling violincello was quite late the Italian clarino, into English, as clarion,
common both here and in England. This mis- and then to this English word add a quasi-Italian
spelling of an Italian word is ridiculous; the more diminutive, is to form a hybrid word—a thing at
so that the etymology of the Italian names of which philologists ever look askant.
A WAR RELIC.
f"T^HEKE is in the possession of a Gettysburg
X (Pa.) family a relic of the war of the rebellion
which they have refused to part with although
they have been offered many times its value by
relic hunters among the piano trade. The relic in
question is a square piano made by Ernst Gabler,
of this city, which went through, and survived in
a playable condition, the great battle of Gettys-
burg. The house in which the family owning the
piano lived, was placed at some period of the
battle between the fire of the opposing forces, and
a conical ball from a rifled cannon, after passing
through the brick wall of the house,' entered one
end of the piano and had sufficient force left, after
passing through the wall of the house and the
thick frame of the piano, to penetrate to a point
between the iron frame and the sounding board,
where its force being spent it remained wedged.
The end of the piano has been repaired and in out-
ward appearance restored, while, as its owners de-
clare, the tone is as good as ever.
This is the only instance we have ever heard of,
in which a piano has been struck by a cannon shot
and has recovered, and almost justifies the reten-
tion of the word forte in connection with piano
which has been gradually becoming obsolete, only
in this case it should be spelled j>i&no-forl, not
pianoforte.
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.
SOME CURIOUS ERRORS IN THEIR NAMES.
O soon as a word has acquired a technical mean-
ing, one is liable to forget its original signifi-
S
cation. There are several names of musical instru-
ments which might well puzzle the etymologist,
were it not for certain historical facts which explain
their derivation more clearly than purely philo-
logical science can do. For instance, the little
wooden wind-instrument which used to be called
the hautboy is now generally known by its Italian
name of oboe. That hautboy is a phonetic spelling
of the English mispronunciation of the French
hautbois (which means high wood) is evident enough.
But how about oboe ? It is clear that of the Eng-
lish, French, and Italian names of the instrument,
the French alone has any real meaning. High wood
is a very fitting name for the most acute of the
double reed instruments. The word oboe has its
origin in a curious mistake. The Italians adopted
the French word, but spelled it phonetically, ac-
cording to the vowel sounds of their own language,
oboa. This word was admitted into the Italian
language as a masculine noun, as the original
French hautbois was masculine, and its plural was
regularly formed, making oboi. But, as composers
generally use the instrument in pairs, the plural
form was much oftener employed than the singular,
until people forgot what the singular originally
was.
At last, knowing that the plural was oboi,
they concluded that the most natural singular of
such a masculine plural would be oboe, masculine
nouns ending in a being comparatively rare in
Italian. The form oboe, wrong as it is, has become
N E W ENGLAND ORGAN CO.'S CATHEDRAL ORGAN. Case 30,