Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 1.djvu/87

APOLLONICON. selections of music on the keys. The following programme, performed by him in 1830, affords a fair sample of the quality of these selections:— overtures to Mozart's 'Zauberflöte' and Paer's 'Sophonisba'; divertimento by Purkis on Swiss airs; the grand scena for soprano from Weber's 'Freischütz'; songs by Barnett and Phillips; and movements by Pleyel and Dussek. For some time annual evening performances were given under the superintendence of Thomas Adams.

At various periods additional sets of barrels were provided which performed the following pieces: the overtures to Mozart's 'Idomeneo,' 'Nozze di Figaro,' and 'Zauberflöte'; Beethoven's 'Prometheus'; Webers' 'Freischütz' and 'Oberon'; and the military movement from Haydn's twelfth symphony. The performance of the overture to 'Oberon' in particular has been recorded as a perfect triumph of mechanical skill and ingenuity, every note of the score being rendered as accurately as though executed by a fine orchestra. The setting of the music on the barrels was entrusted to the younger Flight (the present representative of the firm), who used for the purpose a micrometer of his own invention. About the year 1840, the exhibition of the instrument having become unremunerative, the Apollonicon was taken down and its component parts employed in the construction of other organs. A lengthened technical description, illustrated by engraved figures, of the instrument made for Lord Kirkwall will be found embodied in the article 'Organ' in Rees' Cyclopedia. [ W. H. H. ]

APPASSIONATA (Ital.), 'Impassioned.' Best known by its use in 'Sonata appassionata' as a title for Beethoven's Op. 57. The title was not his, but was added by Cranz the publisher, or some one else. He himself only uses the term twice—in Sonatas Op. 106 and 111.

APPLICATIO and APPLICATUR are respectively the ancient and modern German terms for Fingering. [App. p.523 "See Spitta's Bach, i. 600 (English translation ii. 39 and iii. 385)."]

APPOGGIATURA. (Ital. from appoggiare, to lean upon; Ger. Vorschlag, Vorhalt; Fr. Port de voix.) One of the most important of melodic ornaments, much used in both vocal and instrumental compositions. It consists in suspending or delaying a note of a melody by means of a note introduced before it; the time required for its performance, whether long or short, being always taken from the value of the principal note. It is usually written in the form of a small quaver, semiquaver, or demisemiquaver, either with or without a stroke across the stem (Ex. 1).

The appoggiatura may belong to the same harmony as the principal note (Ex. 2), or it may be one degree above or below it. In the latter case it is a so-called 'auxiliary note' (sometimes called 'transient' or 'changing' note— Wechselnote), and follows the known rule of such notes, that the lower auxiliary note should be only one semitone distant from the principal note, the upper being either a tone or a semitone according to the scale (Ex. 3).

With regard to its length, the appoggiatura is of two kinds, long and short; the long appoggiatura bears a fixed relation to the length of the principal note, as will be seen presently, but the short one is performed so quickly that the abbreviation of the following note is scarcely perceptible. There is also a difference between the two kinds in the matter of accent; the long appoggiatura is always made stronger than the principal note, while in the case of the short one the accent falls on the principal note itself (Ex. 4).

On this subject authorities would seem to differ, Leopold Mozart, Hummel, and others holding the view advanced above, while Emanuel Bach, Marpurg, and Agricola give the rule that all appoggiaturas should be accented. It is however evident that a note which passes away so quickly as a short appoggiatura can scarcely receive any effective accent, and besides this it is doubtful whether the above-named writers may not have intended the rule to refer exclusively to the long appoggiatura (Vorhalt), as they often used the word Vorschlag for both kinds indiscriminately. Since then there is no accent on the short appoggiatura, the term itself, which means a note dwelt upon, seems inappropriate, and accordingly the word 'acciacatura' has been very generally substituted for it, though properly belonging to another similar kind of ornament. (See .)

The rules relating to the length of the long appoggiatura are three, and are thus given by Türk in his 'Clavierschule':—'Whenever it is possible to divide the principal note into two equal parts, the appoggiatura receives one half' (Ex. 5). 'When the principal note is dotted the appoggiatura receives two-thirds and the principal note one' (Ex. 6). If the principal note is tied to another shorter note, the appogiatura receives the whole value of the principal note' (Ex. 7). The third rule is commonly though not invariably followed when the principal note is followed by a rest (Ex. 8).

