![]() The whistles of a calliope are tuned to a chromatic scale, although this process is difficult and must be repeated often to maintain quality sound. ![]() Some calliopes can also be played via a MIDI interface. Some instruments have both a keyboard and a mechanism for automated operation, others only one or the other. Mechanical operation may be by a drum similar to a music box drum, or by a roll similar to that of a player piano. This was in part to resist the heat and moisture of the steam, but also for the golden shine of the highly polished keys.Ĭalliopes can be played by a player at a keyboard or mechanically. Steam instruments often had keyboards made from brass. Other circus calliopes were self-contained, mounted on a carved, painted and gilded wagon pulled by horses, but the presence of other steam boilers in the circus meant that fuel and expertise to run the boiler were readily available. The traction engine could also supply electric power for lighting, and tow the calliope in the circus parade, where it traditionally came last. Circus calliopes were sometimes installed in steam-driven carousels, or supplied with steam from a traction engine. Riverboats supplied steam from their propulsion boilers. In both cases, a steam supply was readily available for other purposes. In the age of steam, the steam calliope was particularly used on riverboats and in circuses. The air-driven calliope is sometimes called a calliaphone, the name given to it by Norman Baker, but the "Calliaphone" name is registered by the Miner Company for instruments produced under the Tangley name. The steam calliope is also known as a steam organ ( orgue à vapeur in Quebec) or steam piano ( piano à vapeur in Quebec). Musically, the only expression possible is the pitch, rhythm, and duration of the notes. There is no way to vary tone or loudness. Even some small calliopes are audible for miles. All the Hesiodic names are significant thus Clio is approximately the “Proclaimer,” Euterpe the “Well Pleasing,” Thalia the “Blooming,” or “Luxuriant,” Melpomene the “Songstress,” Erato the “Lovely,” Polymnia “She of the Many Hymns,” Urania the “Heavenly,” and Calliope “She of the Beautiful Voice.” Because dancing was a regular accompaniment of song, it is not remarkable that Hesiod called one of his nine “Delighting in the Dance,” Terpsichore.Problems playing this file? See media help.Ī calliope (see below for pronunciation) is an American and Canadian musical instrument that produces sound by sending a gas, originally steam or, more recently, compressed air, through large whistles-originally locomotive whistles.Ī calliope is typically very loud. Although Hesiod’s list became canonical in later times, it was not the only one at both Delphi and Sicyon there were but three Muses, one of whom in the latter place bore the fanciful name Polymatheia (“Much Learning”). Their father was Zeus, and their mother was Mnemosyne (“Memory”). Probably, to begin with, the Muses were one of those vague collections of deities, undifferentiated within the group, which are characteristic of certain, probably early, strata of Greek religion.ĭifferentiation is a matter rather of mythological systematization than of cult and began with the 8th-century-BCE poet Hesiod, who mentioned the names of Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polymnia (Polyhymnia), Urania, and Calliope, who was their chief. There were nine Muses as early as Homer’s Odyssey, and Homer invokes either a Muse or the Muses collectively from time to time. They probably were originally the patron goddesses of poets (who in early times were also musicians, providing their own accompaniments), although later their range was extended to include all liberal arts and sciences-hence, their connection with such institutions as the Museum (Mouseion, seat of the Muses) at Alexandria, Egypt. Very little is known of their cult, but they had a festival every four years at Thespiae, near Helicon, and a contest (Museia), presumably-or at least at first-in singing and playing. ![]() ![]() They were born in Pieria, at the foot of Mount Olympus. ![]() Muse, Greek Mousa or Moisa, Latin Musa, in Greco-Roman religion and mythology, any of a group of sister goddesses of obscure but ancient origin, the chief centre of whose cult was Mount Helicon in Boeotia, Greece. ![]()
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