Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/88

* PITCAIRN. 64 PITCH AND HITCH. C200 by the British (lovornmcnt, and his son, £)AV1D, became a distinguished surgeon. PITCAIRN ISLAND. One of the most east- "dy of Ihe I'ulvncsian islands, and the southein- Wst niumbiT of the l.nw Aichipehigo. It lies in the Pacific Ocean, in latitude 23° 3' S. and longi- tude 130" 18' V., is about 2 miles long and 1 mile broad, and consists of a mountain sunounded by coral reefs. I'itcairn was discovered by Car- teret in 1707, iMit remained uninhabited till 17!)U. when it was settled by a company consisting of nine mutineers from H. JI. S. liountii (see Br.K.u, William), and IS nalives from Tahiti — (! men and 12 women. During the ten years fol- lowing their settlement the island was a scene of disorder and lawlessness. In the year 1808 the sole survivors of the original settlers were one Englishman by the name of .John Adams (former- I3' Alexander .."sniith ), 8 or i) women, and several children, the rest having fallen victims to disease and violence. The elements of disorder having been removed, the island Ijogan to grow under the wise management of Adams. In 1808 I'ileairn wa.s visited by an American sealing ship, and in ISI.'i by H.M.S. Britain, whose captain was very favorably impressed with the peace and good order prevailing on the island. In 1839 it was for- mally taken possession of for the British Crown, and in 1855, when the numlier of inhabitants had readied 200, which was more than the island could maintain, they jietitioned the British (iov- ernment to be remiived to Xorfidk Island (q.v.), which was done in tlic following year. Since then some of them have returned "to Pitcairn, whose present population is about 125. Consult; Murray, I'itcairn Island (London, 1885): Bar- row. Mutiny of the liounty (London. 1831); Brodie, I'ilciiirn's Island (London, 1850). PITCH (assibilated form of pick. AS. pician, Ger. pickcn, to pick; connected with Eng. pipe). That characteristic of a sound which is deter- mined b_y the raiiidit'y of the vibrations producing it. In music there are two kinds of pitch, ah- solnte pitch, which is the position of a tone con- sidered in reference to the whole range of musical tones, and rclalirr pitch, which is its position as compared with some otlicr single tone. In ascer- taining the relative pitch of a tone. C is consid- ered the standard or starting tone, and the jiitcli of the tone in question is found by progressing from C either by skips of perfect fifths (quints) or by skips of major thirds (tierces). Tones determined by the former method are called quint tones, those found by the latter tierce tones. Relative jiitcli is, liowcver. practically never used except for scientific purposes, since the dilTerenee in jiitcli between every tierce tone and its corresponding qiiint must "be carefully calculated. For ordinary purposes the musical scale is divided into a series of octaves, to repre- sent the absolute pitch of the notes. The abso- lute pitch of any tone is dependent upon the num- ber of vibrations taking place in a second. Each musical sound is produced by a series of vibra- tions recurring on the ear at precisely equal in- tervals; the gieater the number of vibrations in a given time the more acute or higher is the pitch. In stringed instruments the pitch is de- pendent upon the length, thickness, and degree of tension of the strings; the shorter and thinner a sf ring is the greater its tension and the higher the pitch of the note. In wind instruments, where the notes are produced by the vibration of a column of air, the pitch is dependent upon the length of the column set in motion; the shorter the column of air the higher the pitch becomes. The lowest tone used in music (€*). is given by the largest pipes of modern organs and has si.xteen and one-half vibrations per secon<l ; but this tone is so un- musical that it is used only in conjunction with its overtones. The |)racticable range of musical tones is from C" (32 vibrations per second) to c* (4096 vibrations per second). The note C is the basis of modern pitch, and the history of pitch is a chronicle of the variations in the number of vibrations per second which have been assigned to that note; for. strange to say, there is no absolute standard of pitch. We have no record of what pitch was used early in the history of modern music, lint at the time of fiuido d'Arezzo (q.v.) the c' seems to have had somewhere arotind 500 vibrations per second. Our first ex- act idea of pitch is gained from the sizes of or- gan pipes which were in use in the si.xteenth century, and from these we find that it differed considerably according to localities. Difi'erent pitches were also used for secular and sacred music. Early in the seventeenth century, how- ever, a 'mean' pitch was introduced, and for al)Out two centuries this was an a|iroxiiiiatcly stanclanl pitch, since c' only varied during that time from 49S to 515 vibrations a second. This is the so-called rias.sir pitch, for it was during this period that the great masters of music lived. But with the growth of the orchestra and the increased importance of wind instnunents. the pitch was gradually raised in order to obtain more sonorous effects; and various ed'orts were made to counterbalance the diHii'iilties involved by a varying .scale of pitch. In 1.S34 a congress of physicists at Stuttgart ado])ted ^cheihler's pitch (true c' 528). In 1.S59 a French commis- sion of musicians and scientists reported in favor of c' 522. This is the widely used French pitch. In 18S7 it was formerly adopted by the Vienna Congress, and is now often called International pitch. Phitosophicnl pitch (c' 512) is used con- siderably in theoretical calculations. Concert pitch was a high pitch of about c' 540. mtich used in i-oncert and operatic work during the middle of the nineteenth century. See .f'oiSTrcs ; Mf- sic: and consult Ellis, The Uistory of Musical I'itch (London, 1880). PITCH. See Coal-Tab. PITCH AND HITCH. An indoor game played by teams of five on each side, with disks of galvanized metal 2% inches, in diameter, which are pitched from a distance of 10 yards into a receiver, a round rubber cup placed on the floor, having an opening at the top 5 inches in diameter. If the disk goes into and remains in the receiver it counts 1 point to the pitcher; if it goes in and springs out again, it counts 10 points. If on the pitch it falls outside the receiver, it does not count at all. The disks outside the receiver have to be picked up by pressing over them an inverted iiibber cap fixed at the end of a rod. If any disk in transit falls out of the rubber cup. it counts 1 against the player for each fall. Each player pitches 12 disks in each of the innings comprised in the game. There are senior and junior leagues of clubs playing the game, with headquarters in Brooklyn.