ACHTEL ACOUSTICS
puntal treatment. A sketch is preserved in
the Imperial Library at Vienna of another
four-part arrangement of the chorale, which
still more closely resembles the passages in
Kirnberger's work. The autograph score of
the '
Zauberflote shows that the beginning
' The pitch of a note is easily proved to be
of the scene between Tamino and the two men
in armour has been carefully sketched. The
chorale itself is sung in octaves by the two
voices, accompanied by flutes, oboes, bassoons
and trombones, whilst the strings have an in-
dependent contrapuntal figure. vr. B. s.
ACHTEL (Ger.). A quaver.
ACIS AND GALATEA. A 'masque,' or
'serenata,' 'pastoral opera,' composed by
or
Handel at Cannons, probably in 1720 (date is
wanting on autograph) and performed there
; the ribs, and the faster the thumb is drawn
probably in 1721. "Words by Gay, with ad-
ditions by Pope, Hughes, and Dryden. Re-
scored by Mozart for Van Swieten, Nov. 1788.
Put on the stage at Drury Lane by Macready,
Feb. 5, 1842. 'Aci, Galatea, e Polifemo,' an
entirely different work, was composed in Italy
in 1708-9.
ACOUSTICS. Almost all the sounds with
which we are concerned in music have a definite
and steady pitch. The side-drum, the castanets,
and one or two other instruments, produce mere
noises without pitch, as is seen by the fact that
no attempt is made to tune them to the rest of
the orchestra but such instruments are of less
; let go it will oscillate about its equilibrium
importance than those which are capable of
giving something more than mere rhythm.
Very little observation is necessary to show
that sound is always caused by the vibration
of something or other. If a tuning - fork is
made to give out a sound it can often be seen
to be in a state of vibration by the hazy
appearance of the prongs ; and even though the
vibrations are too small to be visible they may
be felt by touching the fork with the finger.
If the pressure of the finger is so great as
to stop the vibrations the sound also stops.
Similar evidence that there is never sound
without vibration can be obtained from many
musical instruments, —
some part of the instru-
ments will be seen or felt to be in vibration so
long as sound is being emitted.
Moreover, it will be noticed that the loudness
of the sound is connected with the amplitude
of the vibrations, —
the greater the amplitude the
louder the resulting sound for a given pitch.
That the medium by which the sound is car-
ried from the vibrating body to the ear is, in
most cases, the air, is seen by the old experiment
of placing an alarum clock or electric bell under
the receiver of an air-pump and pumping out
the air. The sound grows fainter as the air ia
removed. It cannot be made to die away
altogether, for air is not the only medium that
will convey sound. The bell must be supported
on something, and the support will carry some
of the sound to the air-pump or bell-jar and
27
so to the external air. The result of the
experiment is more striking if the bell is
supported by some material that conducts
vibration badly, such as iudiarubber cords or
a pad of soft felt.
dependent on the rate at which the body
vibrates. Hold a card against the teeth of
a rotating cogwheel, and if the wheel is
rotating fast enough, the taps of the card on
the cogs will blend into a note of recognisable
pitch. —
Turn the wheel faster, that is, produce
—
more taps per second, and the pitch rises.
A still simpler experiment is to run the
thumb nail along a piece' of ribbed silk ribbon.
A note is produced by the taps of the nail on
over the silk the higher will be the pitch of
the note.
In the case of every musical instrument the
vibrations that give rise to the sound are due
to the elasticity of some part of the instrument
or of the air contained in it. Take the simple
case of a harp string. Pull the string aside
and it is felt to resist the displacement
with a force that is gi'eater, the gi'cater the
displacement, and whatever the direction of the
displacement the force is such as to tend to re-
store the string to the position in which it is in
equilibrium. If the string is drawn aside and
position until the energy that was given to it
by the finger is dissipated in the form of sound
or wasted by friction.
In the case of every elastic body the force
that resists a displacement is proportional
to the amount of displacement, provided the
displacement does not exceed a certain limit
that depends on the shape, size, and material
of the body. Thus to stretch an elastic cord
two-tenths of an inch requires just double the
force required to stretch it one-tenth.
This law, when applied to solid bodies, is
known as Hooke's Law, and is the fundamental
fact in the theory of elasticity.
Hooke's Law leads, by a line of argument
that cannot be given here, to the result that if
an elastic body vibrates in consequence of its
elasticity, the vibrations will be isochronous ;
that is to say, the time occupied by n single
vibration will be the same, whatever the ampli-
tude of the vibration, or the number of vibra-
tions per second will be the same whatever the
extent of the vibrations.
The oscillations of a pendulum afford a
familiar instance of isochronism. A pendulum
of the proper length will beat seconds indepen-
dently of the extent of the oscillation, provided
that extent be not very great. The vibrations
are, in this case, not due to elasticity, but the
law connecting the restoring force and the dis-
placement is the same.
The application of this law of isochronism