Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 2.djvu/766

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754
PINSUTI.
PIPES, VIBRATION OF AIR IN.

kingdom, and was decorated with the order of SS. Maurice and Lazarus. In 1878 King Humbert further created him a knight of the Italian crown. In 1871 he was selected to represent Italy at the opening festival of the International Exhibition, and contributed a hymn in A♭ to words by Lord Houghton, beginning, 'people of this favoured land."

In London Mr. Pinsuti is well and widely known. Since 1856 he has been professor of singing at the Royal Academy of Music. In addition to a large circle of pupils of all ranks, many eminent artists have profited by his counsels, as Grisi, Bosio, Patti, Ronconi, Graziani, Mario, etc. His works are largely diffused, and his charming part-songs, full of melody and spirit, are great favourites with the singing societies of England. The list of his published compositions embraces more than 230 songs, English and Italian, 35 duets, 14 trios, 45 part-songs and choruses, and 30 PF. pieces, the Te Deum and the opera 'Il Mercante di Venezia' already mentioned. [App. p.749 "date of death, March 10, 1888."]

[ G. ]

PINTO, Thomas, son of a Neapolitan of good family, born in England, at 11 played Corelli's concertos, and led the concerts in St. Cecilia's Hall in Edinburgh. His reading at sight was marvellous; he would even turn the book upside down, and play correctly from it in that position. His great gifts inclined him to carelessness, from which he was fortunately roused by the appearance of Giardini. After 1750 he played frequently as leader and soloist in benefit concerts, at the Worcester and Hereford Festivals, at Drury Lane Theatre, and, after Giardini, at the King's Theatre. His first wife was Sibilla Gronamann, daughter of a German pastor; after her death he married (1766) Miss Brent, the celebrated singer, who died in 1802. [See Appendix.] A speculation with regard to Marylebone Gardens, into which he had entered with Dr. Arnold, failed, and he took refuge in Scotland, and finally in Ireland, where he died in 1773. A daughter by his first wife married a Londoner named Sauters, and had a son

George Frederic, born Sept. 25, 1786, at Lambeth, who took his grandfather's name. He early showed a decided talent for music, and the education and progress of the pretty and lively boy were watched over with the greatest interest by his gifted grandmother. His first teachers were soon outstripped, and then Salomon proved a first-rate master and true friend. From 1796 to 1800 the young Pinto frequently appeared at Salomon's concerts, and afterwards under his wing at Bath, Oxford, Cambridge, Winchester, and specially in Scotland. A second and longer tour extended to Paris. Besides playing the violin, he sang with taste, and made considerable progress on the pianoforte, for which he composed, among other music, a sonata dedicated to his friend John Field. In 1805 his health, never strong, suddenly broke down, having been undermined by excesses, and he died at Little Chelsea, March 23, 1806. His remains lie in St. Margaret's, Westminster, beneath the same monument with those of his grandmother. Pinto's technique was perfect, and his tone full, powerful and touching. Salomon, a shrewd observer, declared that if he had only been able to control his passions, he might have been a second Mozart.

[ C. F. P. ]

PIOZZI, Gabriel, a Florentine of good birth, who, prior to 1781, had established himself in Bath as a music master. He numbered among his pupils the daughters of Henry Thrale, the opulent brewer, and whilst engaged in instructing them won the heart of their widowed mother, whom he married in 1784, a proceeding which drew down upon the lady the wrath of Dr. Johnson, who had been for 20 years the cherished guest of Thrale and herself. After his marriage Piozzi visited Italy with his wife, and, returning to England, lived with her in uninterrupted happiness until his death, which occurred at his residence, Brynbela, Denbighshire, in March, 1809. A Canzonet of his composition for a soprano voice, called 'La Contradizzione,' is printed in the Musical Library, vol. iv.

[ W. H. H. ]

PIPE and TABOR. The pipe formerly used with the tabor was of the old English pattern, somewhat larger than the modern flageolet, blown at the end, as already described under Flute, and played by the left hand. The tabor was a diminutive drum, without snares, hung by a short string to the waist or left arm, and tapped with a small drumstick. There a woodcut of William Kemp the actor playing pipe and tabor in his Morris dance to Norwich, and another of Tarleton, the Elizabethan jester, in the same attitude. The writer is informed by Mr. William Chappell that Hardman, a music-seller at York, described the instruments to him fifty years ago as above, adding that he had sold them, and that country people still occasionally bought them.

[ W. H. S. ]

PIPES, VIBRATION OF AIR IN, may be illustrated by a simple experiment. If a piece of stout tubing, from a foot to two feet long, be taken, of an inch or more in diameter, its ends smoothed and rounded, it will furnish all the apparatus required. Holding it in one hand, and striking the open end smartly with the palm the other, sufficient vibration will be excited the contained air to produce a distinct musical note, often lasting a second or more, long enough for its pitch to be heard and determined. If, after striking, the hand be quickly removed, a second note is heard to follow the first at the interval of an octave above. In the former case the pipe vibrates as what is termed a 'stopped pipe' with one end closed, in the latter case as an 'open pipe.' All the various forms of pipe used in the organ and elsewhere, differ from this rudimentary form only in having a more complex mechanism for originating and maintaining the musical vibration.

When both ends of the tube are open, a pulse travelling backwards and forwards within it is completely restored to its original state after traversing twice the length of the tube, suffering in the process two reflections; but when one end