Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

—
SIR ROGER DE COVERLY SIREN 471
of the 9th edition, published in 1695, where
the tune and directions for the dance are given
exactly as follows :
Moger of Ooiierly.
Longways fbr as many as will.
^3^
The 1. man go below the 2. wo. then round, and so
below the 2. man into his own place ; then the 1. wo. go
below the 2. man, then round him, and so below the 2.
wo. into her own place. The 1. cu. [lirst couple] cross
over below the 2. cu. and take hands and turn round
twice, then lead up through and cast off into the 2. cu.
place. -W. B. S.
'
The Scots song, The Maltman comes on
Monday,' is not, as erroneously asserted by
Chappell, by Allan Eamsay, although it is
inserted in the first volume of his Tea- Table
Misoellany, 1724. The English title is not so
easily disposed of.
The Spectator, 2nd number, 1711, speaks of
Sir Roger de Coverley as a gentleman of
Worcestershire, and that 'His great grandfather
was the inventor of the famous country
dance which is called after him.'
Fanciful as this is, it shows that the dance,
at that time, was considered an old one.
Another origin for the name of the tune is
based on a MS. in the writer's possession,
inscribed For ' the violin, Patrick Gumming,
his Book : Edinburgh, 1723.' At the end the
name is repeated, and the date 1724 given. The
a^,.
TTie Maltman, or Roger the Cavalier.
datura [not given in the MS.).
tune stands as follows, although the Scottish
scordatura is likely to puzzle the casual reader,
since the first notes which appear as G, A, B,
sound A, B, C, D. (See Scoedatuka.)
It is well known that the name Roger was
' '
bestowed upon the Royalists during the Civil
War,
'
and it is suggested that Ooverly ' is
really a corruption of ' Cavalier.'
As the dance, later, was almost invariably
used at the conclusion of a ball, it was frequently
called 'The Finishing Dance.' See
Wilson's Companion to the Ball-Boom, circa 1816,
and Chappell's Popular Music for the modern
figure. According to an early correspondent of
Notes and Queries, the tune was known in
Virginia, U.S.A., as My Aunt ' Margery.' r. K.
SIREN. This, though not strictly a musical
instrument, has rendered such good service to
acoustical science that it deserves brief notice ;
for fuller details the works referred to below
must be consulted. Lord Eayleigh ' describes
it as 'a stiff disc, capable of revolving about its
centre, and pierced with one or more sets of
holes arranged at equal intervals round the
circumference of ch-cles concentric with the
disc. A windpipe in connection with bellows
is presented perpendicularly to the disc, its open
end being opposite to one of the circles, which
contains a set of holes. When the bellows are
worked, the stream of air escapes freely if a
hole is opposite to the end of the pipe ; but
otherwise it is obstructed. As the disc turns,
puffs of air in succession escape through it,
until when the velocity is sufiScient, these blend
into a note the pitch of which rises continually
with the rapid sequence of the puffs. One of
the most important facts in the whole science
of Acoustics is exemplified by the siren—namely
that the pitch of a note depends upon the period
of its vibration. The size and shape of the
holes, the force of the wind, and other elements
of the problem may be varied ; but if the
number of pufis in a given time, such as one
second, remains unchanged, so does the pitch.
We may even dispense with wind altogether,
and produce a note by allowing a card to tap
against the edges of the holes as they revolve ;
the pitch will still be the same.'
The Siren may be defined as a wind instrument,
in which the successive air-waves are
produced not at random or by consonance, but
by circular rotatory motion, which is susceptible
of accurate adjustment as well as measurement.
It was originally invented by Cagniard de la
Tour, who made it needlessly complicated by
using the force of the wind to drive the rotating
disc as well as to produce the required note.
For this purpose the speaking holes in the top
of the small wind-chest were pierced in' an
oblique direction ; those in the disc sloping in
an opposite diagonal. There was also a counting
apparatus attached to the upper part of the
1 Theory of Sound, vol- i, p, 5.
*