Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

SOTO SOUND-HOLES 625
grand ') and the ' Claviol,' which was in form
like a cabinet piano, with ringbow mechanism
for the sostinente, were introduced to the
public in a concert at Philadelphia, by the
inventor, June 21, 1802. There is a description
of the Claviol in Rees's Oyclopcedia,
IS 19, and also in the Mechanic's Magazine
for 1845, No. 1150, p. 123. About Hawkins
himself there are interesting particulars
in Scribner's Magazine (1880), in an article
on Bordertown and the Bonapartes. Hawkins
was in England in 1813 and 1814, ex-
' '
hibiting his Claviol, and in the latter year
complained of his idea being appropriated by
others through the expiration of his patent.
He afterwaids lived here and was a prominent
member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
Isaac Mott's ' Sostineiite Piano Forte, ' patented
by him in 1817, was a further development of
the idea, and is fully described in the patent.
No. 4098. Mott claimed the power to increase
or diminish the tone at will ; and by rollers acting
on silken threads, set in action by a pedal,
the 'sostinente' was brought into action or
stopped. Mott's instmment had some success,
he being at the time a fashionable pianoforte-maker.
See Piano-Violin and Melo-
PiANO.' [See also p. 95 of Hipkins's History
of the Piatwforte.^ A. J. H.
SOTO, Francisco, born 1534, at Langa ia
Spain, entered the college of the Pope's Chapel,
June 8, 1562. He was a friend of St. Philip
Neri, and in December 1575 took the du'ection
of the music in the Oratory founded by him.
He also founded the first Carmelite convent in
Rome. He published the 3rd and 4th books
of Laud) Spii-ituali (1588, 1591) in continuation
of the two edited by G. Animuccia, and died as
Dean of the Pope's Chapel, Sept. 25, 1619. G.
SOTTO VOCE, 'under the voice,' in an
undertone ; a direction of frequent occurrence in
instrumental as well as vocal music. M.
SOUBIES, Albert, born in Paris, May 10,
1846, was educated at the Lyc^e Louis-le-Grand,
but, after studying for the legal profession, music
was too strong for him, and. he entered the
Conservatoire, where he studied under Savard,
Baziu, and Guilmant. His first essay as a
writer on music, a career in which he has had
remarkable success, was in the continuation
of the Almanack Duchesne under the title of
Almaiiach des Spectacles (1874 onwards). His
principal work has been a history of music
in a series of small volumes arranged under
different countries : Allemagne et Sussie occupy
two volumes ; L'Espagne, three more ; Le Portugal,
La Sbngrie, et la BotiAine, three ; Suisse and
Hollande, one each ; Belgique, two ; &ais Scandinaves,
three ; and lies Britanniques, two. Zes
Graiids ThMtres Farisiens is in four volumes,
dealing respectively with the Comedie Frangaise,
' Mr. R. B. Frosser of the Patent Office haa supplied the references
to the Claviol.
the Opera (for sixty-seven years), the Opira-
Comique (for sixty-nine years), and the Th^Stre
Lyrique, 1851-70. Une Premiire par jour was
crowned, with other of Soubies's works, by the
Academic, and other non-musical books are in
his list. He has collaborated with Ch. Malherbe
in the Histoire de V Opira-Gmnique (I84O-
1887), Melanges sur Richard Wagner, L'CEume
dramatique de Richard Wagner, and in a
Precis de Vhistoire de V Opira-Comique, the last
under the name of B. de Lomagne. He has
written for the Soir since 1876, and for tlie
Revue de VArt dramatique since 1885. He is
a frequent contributor to the Guide Musical,
the Minestrel, etc. G. F.
SOUND-BOARD or SOUNDING-BOARD.
I. In the organ the sound-board is the upper
portion of the wind-chest, upon which the pipes
stand.
II. In the pianoforte the sound -board is
usually called the Belly. See vol. i. p. 2936.
SOUND-HOLES, or ff HOLES (Fr. ouie ;
Ital. oechi ; Ger. SchallocK). The two apertures
in the form of italic /'s which face one another
in the bellies of violins—and the instruments
of that family—on either side of the bridge.
These exercise a powerful influence upon the
tone, regulating as they do the entire system of
vibrations of the various parts of the instruments,
by governing the amount of air which is
contained within the body. Scientific investigation
has proved that the best tonal results are
arrived at when the contained mass of air in the
body of a violin answers to 512 vibrations {i.e.
answering to middle C), and for this reason
that standard of vibration has been generally
adopted by all good violin-makers since the
days of Stradivarius, whose violins are perfect
examples of this system. The principle, however,
cannot be applied by way of extension to
the viola, or violoncello, a fact which was proved
by those large violoncellos made by 17 th century
luthiers in accordance with violin measurements
by mere augmentation, all of which have
had to be reduced in size. According to M.
Savart (Mitrwire sur la Construction des Instruments
a, Cordes et a, Archet) the pitch of the
viola being a fifth below that of the violin, and
an octave above the violoncello, the instrument
should contain a mass of an- answering to
341-33 vibrations (/: a system, however, not
generally followed) ;
and the violoncello, being
pitched a fifth plus an octave below the violin,
should give 170 '66 vibrations (F)—neither of
which, again, can be said to be arbitrary laws.
The form of the^ holes and their position are
therefore matters of great importance. Savart
at first questioned the necessity of curved soundholes,
but his later experiments proved that any
deviation from the /form, where the belly was
arched, had a disastrous effect upon the tone of
the instrument. He also tested the effect of
dispensing with one sound-hole by covering it
2s