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SORBS
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SORBS , the tribal name of the See also:Slavonic See also:people, whom the magician, sorcerer or See also:witch. The word meant originally divina-Germans See also:call See also:Wends in See also:Lusatia (Lausitz) ; they call themselves tion by means of the casting or See also:drawing of lots, and is derived Serbs or Luzicane. Their See also:country includes the western ex- from the O. Fr. sorcerie, sorcier, a sorcerer, Med. See also:Lat. sortiarius, tremity of the See also:kingdom of See also:Saxony and parts of the districts of one who practises See also:divination by lots, sortes (see MAGIC, DIVINAHoyerswerda, Muskau, Kottbus, Kalau, See also:Spremberg and See also:Sorau TION and See also:WITCHCRAFT). in See also:Prussia; they are now surrounded on all sides by Germans, SORDELLO, a 13th-See also:century See also:Italian See also:troubadour, See also:born at but they formerly had them as neighbours only on the See also:west See also:Mantua, who is praised by See also:Dante in the De vulgari eloquio, along the See also:Fulda, while on the See also:north towards See also:Kopenick they and in the Purgatorio made the type of patriotic See also:pride. He marched with the Lutici, on the See also:east with the Poles and Silesians is also the See also:hero of a well-known poem by See also:Robert See also:Browning. along the Queiss and Bobr, and on the See also:south were separated The real Sordello, so far as we have See also:authentic facts about his from the Bohemians by the mountains that now make the See also:life, hardly seems to justify these idealizations, though he was See also:Austrian frontier. The Sorbs are divided into High and See also:Low the most famous of the Italian troubadours. About 1220 he along a See also:line from See also:Sagan to Muskau and Spremberg. They are appears at See also:Florence in a See also:tavern brawl; and in 1226, while at in all about 18o,000 in number; 8o,000 Low Sorbs and 40,000 the See also:court of See also:Richard of Bonifazio at See also:Verona, he abducts his of the See also:Ioo,000 High Sorbs are in Prussia, and 6o,000 High Sorbs See also:master's wife, Cunizza, at the instigation Saxony. These have gained definite rights for their See also:language lino da Romano. The Romano. The See also:scandal resulted tidn in of his her See also:flight See also:brother, (IZZ to
9) to l
in school and See also:administration, so that See also:Bautzen (Budysin), their See also:Provence, where he seems to have been for some See also:time. He See also:capital, is the intellectual centre not only for Saxon subjects, but entered the service of See also: More See also:recent writers quately paralleled in his Serventese (1237) on the See also:death of his are J. Cisinsk and J. Radyserb. A Macica or See also:Literary and See also:patron Blacatz, where he invites the princes of Christendom Linguistic Society was founded in 1847, and publishes a Casopis to feed on the See also:heart of the hero. or Periodical. Meanwhile Low Sorb has remained almost unculti- For Sordello's life and See also:works see the edition of Cesare de Lollis vated owing to the pressure of the Prussian administration. (See also:Halle, 1896) ; for Browning's poem see Stopford See also:Brooke's Browning The two dialects stand between See also:Polish and Cech: they have (1902)• lost the nasal vowels, have the See also:accent on the first syllable, and SORDINO, SORDONI, SoRDUNI, Italian terms somewhat make tj into c, dj into z, like Cech, but they retain x and y and, promiscuously applied by various writers (I) to contrivances like Polish, have grad for Cech grad. High Sorb has h, for damping or muting See also:wind, See also:string and percussion See also:instruments Low the See also:original g. They have kept the old See also:aorist and dual. (Sordini) ; (2) to a See also:family of obsolete wind instruments blown Sorb is usually printed in See also:German blackletter variously adapted; by means of a See also:double See also:reed (Sordoni or Sordun) ; (3) to a stringed the Macica publishes some books spelt after the Cech See also:system. See also:instrument. To these must also be added the Surdellina or Sordellina, a See also:kind of musette invented (see BAGPIPE) in Naples in the 17th century, and evidently named after class 2. I. Under the Italian See also:term sordini are comprised the dampers used with stringed instruments, such as the See also:violin, and the dampers of See also:keyboard instruments, all well known, and described with the instruments themselves. As a certain amount of misconception exists concerning the sordini (Fr. sourdines, Ger. Dampfer), used from the 16th century with the See also:trumpet and later with the See also:horn, they may be briefly described. It would appear that the See also:art has almost been lost of making mutes for trumpets and See also:French horns, which should affect the timbre only, giving it a certain veiled mysterious quality similar to that of the sons botches or See also:hand-stopped notes, but affecting the See also:pitch not at all. We read that when it is necessary to produce this See also:peculiar timbre on the See also:valve-horn, as for instance in See also:Wagner's Rheingold, the rise of a semi See also:tone in pitch caused by the introduction of the See also:mute or the hand into the See also:bell of the horn must be compensated by means of the second See also:piston which lowers the pitch a semi-tone.' If the sordino used early in the 17th century had had this effect of raising the pitch, the fact would have been stated by such writers as See also:Mersenne and See also:Praetorius; it would, moreover, have rendered the mute useless with instruments on which no sort of See also:compensation was possible. H. Domnich 2 and J. See also:Frohlich,' however, describe the sordino which leaves the pitch unaffected : it consisted of a hollow See also:cone of See also:wood or cardboard, truncated at the See also:apex to allow the See also:air to pass through and See also:escape through a hole in the See also:base. The See also:bore of the instrument thus continued through the cone of the mute was the essential point, and the proportions to be maintained between the diameters of the two bores were also, no doubt, of importance. Domnich expressly states that it was when Hampel substituted a plug of See also:cotton-See also:wool (therefore solid and providing no central passage for the air) for the mute, that he found the pitch of the horn raised a semi-tone. Domnich's See also:evidence is of value, for his 'other was a horn-player contemporary with Hampel, and he himself was the intimate friend and colleague of Punto, Hampel's most celebrated See also:pupil. 2. The sordun or sordoni family are often confused with the dolcians (Fr. courtaud, Eng. single curtail, Ger. Kort or Kortholt), from which, however, they differed radically. This difference was not understood by See also:Michael Praetorius, who acknowledges his mystification. The contra-See also:bass sordun, he says, hardly See also:half the length of the contra-fagotto, is yet practically of the same pitch, which is astonishing since the bore is only double once upon itself as in the fagotto. The kort likewise is of the same See also:size as the bass sordun, and yet in pitch it is but a See also:tenor. The following description of the construction and acoustic properties of the sordoni will clear up the See also:mystery. The See also:body consisted' of a See also:cylinder of wood in which were cut two parallel channels of narrow cylindrical bore, communicating with each other at the bottom through a See also:bend, but not with See also:ambient air. At the See also:top of the cylinder was fitted a double-reed See also:mouthpiece giving See also:access to the See also:column of air at one end of the bore, while the other was vented through a small hole in the See also:side, similar to the See also:finger-holes; in the tenor, bass and contra members of the family, the reed was attached to a curved See also:brass crook similar to that of the fagotto. So far the description would almost apply to the dolcian also, but in the latter there is the See also:radical difference that the bore of the channels is conical, so that it has the acoustic properties of the open See also:pipe. The sordun, however, having a cylindrical bore, has the acoustic properties of the stopped pipe, i.e. the See also:sound waves are twice the length of the pipe, so that to produce a sound of any given pitch, for instance for C, the bore need only be half the length, i.e. 4 ft. See also:long. Over-blowing, on the sordoni, moreover, produced as first See also:harmonic (the only one required for reed-blown instruments in See also:order to produce the diatonic See also:scale for the second See also:octave) not the octave, but the twelfth, or number 3 of the See also:series. This accounts for the fact that instruments of the fagotto and dolcian type require but 6 or 7 holes to give the diatonic scale throughout the See also:compass, whereas the sordoni require II or 12 holes. Praetorius states that those figured by him (See also:Plate )(II.) have 12 open holes, and that some specimens have in addition two keys; a hole is also bored through the bottom of the instrument to allow the moisture condensed from the breath to be shaken out. The 12 holes are stopped by means of fingers and thumbs and by the See also:ball of the hand or the fleshy under-See also:part of the See also:joints of the fingers. The compass of the 5 sizes of sordoni was as follows: -9-a— _— FF —to—1—= ' See See also:Victor Mahillon, " Le See also:Cor," Instruments a vent, pt. ii. (See also:Brussels and See also:London, 1907), pp. 34 and 53. ! Methode de premier et de second cor (See also:Paris, c. 1807), pp. 3 and 4. s Vollstandige theor.-prakt. Musiklehre See also:fur alle bei dem Orchester gebrauchliche Instrumente (See also:Cologne and See also:Bonn, c. 1811). Two sourdines belonging to the Museum of the Brussels See also:Conservatoire, said to be facsimiles of some instruments belonging to the See also:emperor See also:Maximilian I.'s See also:band, are reproduced in See also:Captain C. R. See also:Day's Descriptive See also:Catalogue of Musical Instruments (London, 1891). They differ slightly in construction from the Italian instruments described by Praetorius. The straight crook is set in the side of the instrument, almost at right angles, the top of the cylinder is surmounted by a cap, and there are but 6 open holes, the See also:rest being covered by brass keys in wooden boxes. The pitch of these instruments lies within a semi-tone of that of the contra-bass and bass of Praetorius. (K. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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