Octavo

“ As a dream seldom fails of dashing seriousness with impertinence, mirth with gravity, methought I made several other experiments of a more ludicrous nature, by one of which I found that an English octavo was very often heavier than a French folio ”

“ Size-Notation.
25. In books published before the use of machine-made papers, the size of books is to be distinguished by the signatures and the fold of the water-mark of the hand-made paper. In modern books demy octavo is to be considered as the standard of an octavo. All above that size to be styled large octavo, and all below small octavo. Quartos and folios to be so designated, except in those cases where they are either specially large or specially small, when they should respectively be described as large quarto or small folio. [168]
Collation. ”

“ Thirteen sheets in octavo.
52. 1699. “La vie | de Tiel Ulespiegle | De ses faits merveilleux, des grandes fortunes qu’il a | eues, lequel par aucunes fallace [sic] ne se laissa surprendre ni tromper. A Troyes | Chez Jacques Oudot, demeurant en la rue | du Temple, 1699. Avec permission.” A small octavo, signatures A-C (query F) , forty-eight pages, without numbers. The copy described 233by Lappenberg is preserved in the Imperial Library of Paris. ”

“ No. 4 is a nicely got up little work in octavo, published in numbers, each containing eight pages. In the present two numbers are five pieces,—an air by Neükomm, from his oratorio; one by Mr. Goss; the Vesper Hymn, by Attwood, originally published in the Harmonicon, which ought to have been acknowledged; an Elegy for three voices, by Eisenhofer; and a movement from Beethoven’s Septet, with words very well set to it. This is a publication entitled to much commendation; but what will the brethren of the music trade say to so cheap a work? Surely Messrs. Cramer and Co. ”

“ Then, seeing her wavering, Octave assumed his most seductive voice—an actor’s voice, soft and musical. At the same time he looked tenderly at her, with his eyes the color of old gold, which some women thought irresistible. But, though the gas-jet flared close to the nape of her neck, she remained as cool as ever; she merely fell into a revery, half stunned by the young man’s inexhaustible flow of words. He had come to studying the affair from the money point of view, already making an estimate with the impassioned air of a romantic page declaring a long pent up love. ”

“ It is easy to hear when an Instrument is over-strung; and sometimes an Octave in a Harpsichord, by it's additional Number of Strings, shall render the Tone of the Instrument so dead, that, though it gives a Sprightliness peculiar to an Octave, yet it sometimes hardly compensates for the Loss of Tone which it causes in the Unisons, by it's too great Pressure upon the Belly of the Instrument.
And yet notwithstanding all this, what is more common than to see a Performer, with his Waistcoat unbuttoned, laying Strokes on a Violin, heavy enough to fell an Ox. ”

“ If harmonia means 'key,' there is no difficulty. The scale of a lyre was usually the standard octave from Hypatê to Nêtê: and that octave might be in any one key. But if a mode is somehow characterised by a particular succession of intervals, what becomes of the standard octave? No one succession of intervals can then be singled out. It may be said that the standard octave is in fact the scale of a particular mode, which had come to be regarded as the type, viz. the Dorian. ”

“ And as there are seven possible species of the Octave, we obtain seven different Systems or scales. From these assumptions it follows, as Ptolemy shows in some detail, that any greater number of keys is useless. If a key is an octave higher than another, it is superfluous because it gives us a mere repetition of the same intervals [29] .
[Pg 79]
If we interpose a key between (e.g.) the Hypo-dorian and the Hypo-phrygian, it must give us over again either the Hypo-dorian or the Hypo-phrygian scale [30] . ”

“ The octave thus always falls on the same day of the week as the festival, and any event occurring during the period is said to be “ in the octave.” In music, an octave is the eighth full tone above or below any given note. It is produced by double or half the number of vibrations corresponding to the given note. In the interval between a note and its octave is contained the full scale, the octave of a note forming the starting-point of another scale of similar intervals to the first. The interval between a note and its octave is also called an octave. ”

“ By playing a few chords on an ordinary harmonium and listening carefully to the effect, the student will perceive that in the usual mode of tuning, called Equal Temperament, only one consonant interval has a smooth and continuous sound, namely the Octave. All the others are interrupted by beats, that is to say, by regularly recurring throbs or pulsations, which mark the deviation from exact consonance. For example, the Fifth and Fourth, as at (x) , are each made to give about one beat per second. ”

“ In the Temple organ the two stops, of metal, are called 'Octave' and 'Principal' respectively; the former being scaled and voiced to go with the new open diapason, and the latter to produce the first over-tone to the old diapason. In foreign organs the Octave stop sounds the first octave above the largest metal Register of Principal (Diapason) measure on the clavier; and is therefore of eight, four, or two feet size according to circumstances. [See Principal.] [App. p.734 "Add that an explanation of the term 'Short Octave' will be found in vol. ii. p. 588, and vol. iii. p. 653."] ”

“ In Germany the term is very properly applied to the most important 8-feet stops of open flue-pipes on the manuals, and to open 16-feet stops on the pedals, thus corresponding to our 'open diapasons.' But in this country the Principal is, with very few exceptions, the chief open metal stop of 4-feet pitch, and should more properly be termed an Octave or Principal octave, since it sounds an octave above the diapasons. ”

“ When the whole earth is vibrant with life, does it not seem to you, Octavie, that heaven might for once relent and give us back our dead?” He spoke very low, advisedly, and impressively. In his voice was an old quaver which was not habitual and there was agitation in every line of his visage. She gazed at him with eyes that were full of supplication and a certain terror of joy. ”

“ One cannot help feeling a slight suspicion that some confusion between scale and octave had a great deal to do with the growth of the Ecclesiastical Scales.
One of the latest of the ancient writers on music, Claudius Ptolemy (about 130 A. D.) , proposed that all these octaves should be transposed a fourth lower; this made the Dorian Octave E to E (all naturals) . One result of this change is that many authorities at the present time call this the Dorian Scale, whereas it is evident that it is simply the Dorian Octave, as given above, transposed a fourth lower. ”

“ The octave is the most striking exemplification of this. When we reach the octave in the ascent of the scale we actually fancy we hear the fundamental tone repeated. The foundations of harmony, therefore, are the foundations of melody.
Consonance is the coalescence of sounds without appreciable beats! This principle is competent to introduce wonderful order and logic into the doctrines of the fundamental bass. The compendiums of the theory of harmony which (Heaven be witness!) have stood hitherto little behind the cook-books in subtlety of logic, are rendered extraordinarily clear and simple. ”

“ Many individuals are able to sound three octaves, but a compass of two really good octaves is a very bountiful gift of Providence. It is usual to divide the voice into six classes—three female, Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, and Contralto ”

“ If it has a dot under, it is sol of the octave below the middle; if it has no dot, it belongs to the middle octave; and if it has a dot above, it belongs to the octave above the middle. These three octaves are amply sufficient for all the purposes of vocal music, which alone is considered here. For instrumental music, where many octaves are used, the system is modified without losing its simplicity and conciseness. To represent the flats, Galin crosses the numerals with a line like the grave accent, and marks the sharps by a line like the acute accent. ”

“ The strings of the last upper octave have a delicate, crystalline sound of voluptuous freshness, which renders them fit for the expression of graceful, fairy-like ideas and for giving murmuring utterance to the sweetest secrets of smiling melodies, on condition, nevertheless, of their never being attacked with violence by the performer, as in this case they yield a dry, hard sound, similar to that of broken glass—disagreeable and snapping. ”

“ These last, being designated by lines, are named the one-lined octave and the two-lined octave, and so on, because the number of lines denotes the number of octaves above the small or second octave. A is also the name of one of the two natural modes, and is the open note of the second string of the violin, and the note by which the other strings of that instrument are tuned and regulated. A is like-wise the name of that note in our system which answers to the lowest sound used by the ancient Greeks ”

“ To the diminished octave are to be added the minor third and minor sixth.
You are already acquainted with the nature of the perfect octave, from the perfect common chord. The superfluous octave is a mere passing note, and it may be accompanied by the major third and perfect fifth. ”

“ We are so frightened.”
Then, without exactly understanding, and greatly surprised, she quitted the piano and followed Clémence. Octave, who was uncertain whether to accompany her, remained walking about the drawing-room. However, after a few minutes of hesitation and embarrassment, as he heard people rushing about and calling out distractedly, he made up his mind, and, crossing a room that was in darkness, he found himself in Monsieur Vabre’s bedchamber.
“He is in a fit,” said Octave. “He must not be left there. We must get him onto his bed.” ”

“ In illustration of his theory Ptolemy gives tables showing in numbers the intervals of the octaves used in the different keys and genera. He shows two octaves in each key, viz. that from Hypatê Mesôn (kata thesin) to Nêtê Diezeugmenôn (called the octave apo nêtês) , and that from Proslambanomenos to Mesê (the octave apo mesês) . As he also gives the divisions of five different 'colours' or varieties of genus, the whole number of octaves is no less than seventy.
Ptolemy does not exclude difference of pitch altogether. ”

“ Thus the interval C to E, = 4:5, is called a major third, and the interval E to G, = 5:6, is called a minor third; the interval C to G, = 2:3, is called a fifth, and that of C to C1, = 1:2, is called an octave. For the purposes of music it has been found necessary to introduce other notes between the seven notes of the octave. If a note is introduced which has a frequency greater than any one of the seven in the ratio of 25 to 24, that is called a sharpened note; thus the note of which the frequency is 3⁄2n × 25⁄24 would be called G sharp, and written G♯. ”

“ In Ptolemy's time, therefore, music was rapidly approaching the stage in which all its forms are based upon a single scale—the natural diatonic scale of modern Europe.
In the light of these facts it must occur to us that Westphal's theory of seven modes or species of the Octave is really open to an a priori objection as decisive in its nature as any of the testimony which has been brought against it. Is it possible, we may ask, that a system of modes analogous to the ecclesiastical Tones can have subsisted along with a system of scales such as the genera and 'colours' of early Greek music? ”

“ These two octaves will have been covered, when, advancing the starting-point by semitones, the scale has been carried up through an entire octave. So much every voice can finally accomplish, even if the high notes must be very feeble.
The great scale, properly elaborated in practice, accomplishes wonders: it equalizes the voice, makes it flexible and noble, gives strength to all weak places, operates to repair all faults and breaks that exist, and controls the voice to the very heart. Nothing escapes it. ”

“ Now if we take the case of one sound doubling another in the 12th, it will be seen that here, too, no real addition is made by the higher sound to the lower. The 12th is No. 3 of the harmonic series, No. 2 of the higher note will be No. 6 of the lower, No. 3 will be No. 9, and so on. But there is an important difference between the 12th and the octave. However much we alter the octave by transposition into other octaves, we never get anything but unison or octaves. ”

“ The notation does not represent only the species of a scale, that is to say, the relative pitch of the notes which compose it, but it represents also the absolute pitch of each note. Thus the octaves which are defined by the successive pairs of letters, β-γ, δ-ε, and the rest, are octaves of definite notes. If they were framed with a view to the ancient modes, as Westphal thinks, they must be the actual scales employed in these modes. If so, the modes followed each other, in respect of pitch, in an order exactly the reverse of the order observed in the keys. ”

“ Examples of octaves in eight-syllabled trochaics and seven-syllabled iambics are also found. An older form of the octave was the so-called Copla (“stanza”) de arte mayor, a stanza containing eight lines of four amphibrachs (or twelve syllables) each, and rhyming according to the scheme a b b a a c c a; [2] cf. p. 31.
2: As opposed to the term arte mayor, there was used that of arte menor, applied in general to any verse of not more than eight syllables in length.
The sonnet—a short poem of fourteen hendecasyllables—is of Italian origin and has the conventional Italian forms. ”