[1] The date of 1598, previously accepted, is shown by Willcock to be
incorrect.
ARGYLLSHIRE, a county on the west coast of Scotland, the second largest
in the country, embracing a large tract of country on the mainland and a
number of the Hebrides or Western Isles. The mainland portion is bounded
N. by Inverness-shire; E. by Perth and Dumbarton, Loch Long and the
Firth of Clyde; S. by the North Channel (Irish Sea); and W. by the
Atlantic. Its area is 1,990,471 acres or 3110 sq. m. The principal
districts are Ardnamurchan on the Atlantic, Ardnamurchan Point being the
most westerly headland of Scotland; Morven or Morvern, bounded by Loch
Sunart, the Sound of Mull and Loch Linnhe; Appin, on Loch Linnhe, with
piers at Ballachulish and Port Appin; Benderloch, lying between Loch
Creran and Loch Etive; Lorne, surrounding Loch Etive and giving the
title of marquess to the Campbells; Argyll, in the middle of the shire,
containing Inveraray Castle and furnishing the titles of earl and duke
to the Campbells; Cowall, between Loch Fyne and the Firth of Clyde, in
which lie Dunoon and other favourite holiday resorts; Knapdale between
the Sound of Jura and Loch Fyne; and Kintyre or Cantyre, a long narrow
peninsula (which, at the isthmus of Tarbert, is little more than 1 m.
wide), the southernmost point of which is known as the Mull, the nearest
part of Scotland to the coast of Ireland, only 13 m. distant.
There are no navigable rivers. The two principal mountain streams are
the Orchy and Awe. The Orchy flows from Loch Tulla through Glen Orchy,
and falls into the north-eastern end of Loch Awe; and the Awe drains the
loch at its north-western extremity, discharging into Loch Etive. Among
other streams are the Add, Aray, Coe or Cona, Creran, Douglas, Eachaig,
Etive, Euchar, Feochan, Finart, Fyne, Kinglass, Nell, Ruel, Shiel,
Shira, Strae and Uisge-Dhu. The county is remarkable for the numerous
sea-lochs which deeply indent the coast, the principal being Loch Long
(with its branches Loch Goil and the Holy Loch), Loch Striven
(Rothesay's "weather glass"), Loch Riddon, Loch Fyne (with Loch Gilp and
Loch Gair), Lochs Tarbert, Killisport, Swin, Crinan, Craignish, Melfort,
Feochan, Etive, Linnhe (with its branches Loch Creran, Loch Leven and
Loch Eil) and Sunart. There are also a large number of inland lakes, the
total area of which is about 25,000 acres. Of these the principal are
Lochs Awe, Avich, Eck, Lydoch and Shiel. The principal islands are Mull,
Islay, Jura, Colonsay, Lismore, Tyree, Coll, Gigha, Luing and Kerrera.
Besides these there are the two small but interesting islands of Staffa
and Iona. The mountains are so many as to give the shire a markedly
rugged character. Some of them are among the loftiest in the kingdom, as
Ben Cruachan with its summit of twin pyramids (3689 ft.), Ben More, in
Mull (3172), Ben Ima (3318), Buachaille Etive (3345), Ben Bui (3106),
Ben Lui (or Loy), on the confines of the shires of Perth and Argyll
(3708), Ben Starav near the head of Loch Etive (3541), and Ben Arthur,
called from its shape "The Cobbler" (2891), on the borders of
Dumbartonshire. There are many picturesque glens, of which the
best-known are Glen Aray, Glen Croe, Glen Etive, Glendaruel, Glen Lochy
("the wearisome glen"--some 10 m. of bare hills and boulders--between
Tyndrum and Dalmally), Glen Strae, Hell's Glen (off Lech Goil) and
Glencoe, the scene of the massacre in 1692. The waterfalls of Cruachan
are beautiful; and those of Connel, which are more in the nature of
rapids, caused by the rush of the ebbing tide over the rocky bar at the
narrowing mouth of Loch Etive, have been made celebrated by Ossian, who
called them "the Falls of Lora." In several of the glens, as Glen Aray,
small falls may be seen, enhanced in beauty when the rivers are in
flood. Pre-eminently Argyll is the shire of the sportsman. The lovely
Western Isles provide endless enjoyment for the yachtsman; the lochs and
rivers abound with salmon and trout; the deer forests and grouse moors
are second to none in Scotland.
_Geology._--The mainland portion of the county consists chiefly of the
metamorphic rocks of the Eastern Highlands, nearly all the
subdivisions of that series (see SCOTLAND: _Geology_) being
represented. They form parallel belts of varying width trending
north-east and south-west. The slates and phyllites referred to the
lowest group occur along the shore at Dunoon, and are followed by the
Beinn Bheula grits and albite schists, forming nearly all the highest
ground in Cowall between Loch Fyne and the Firth of Clyde and the
greater part of Kintyre. The green beds, Glensluan mica-schists and
Loch Tay limestones are developed in Glendaruel, and have been traced
north-east to Glen Fyne and at intervals south-west to Campbeltown.
The next prominent zone is that of the Ardrishaig phyllites, with
quartzites in the lower portion and soft phyllites in the upper part,
which cover a belt from 3 to 6 m. across, stretching from Glen Shira
by Inveraray and Ardrishaig to south Knapdale.
Next in order come the Easdale slates, phyllites with thin dark
limestone, the main limestone of Loch Awe and the pebbly quartzite
(Schiehallion), which are repeated by innumerable folds and spread
northwards to Loch Linnhe and westwards to Jura and Islay. The slates
of this horizon have been largely quarried at Easdale and
Ballachulish, and this main limestone is typically developed near Loch
Awe, near Kilmartin, on the islands of Lismore and Shuna, and in Islay
between Bridgend and Portaskaig. The quartzites of this series form
the highest hills in the south of Islay, occupy nearly the whole of
Jura, and are continued in the mainland, where, by means of the rapid
isoclinal folding, they form lenticular masses. In Islay and at
various localities on the mainland a conglomerate occurs at or near
the base of the quartzites, which contains fragments of the underlying
rocks and boulders of granite not now found in place in that region.
On the mainland, on the north side of the compound synclinal folding
of Loch Awe, the Ardrishaig phyllites reappear at Craignish near
Kilmartin, and the quartzites of this group are supposed to come to
the surface again in Glencoe, not far from the outcrop of the
Schiehallion quartzite.
The metamorphic rocks are associated with bands of epidiorite which
have shared in the folding and metamorphism of the region. These are
largely developed near Loch Awe, in Knapdale, and on the south-east
coast of Islay. They have been usually regarded as intrusive, but
south of Tayvallich on the mainland, lavas and tuffs, which have
escaped deformation, occur in the Easdale slates and the pebbly
limestone.
The Lower Old Red Sandstone, chiefly composed of volcanic rocks--lavas
and tuffs--rests unconformably on the metamorphic series. These rocks
cover a wide area in Lorne between Loch Melfort, Oban and the Pass of
Brander, and they reappear in the lofty mountains on both sides of
Glencoe. Representatives of this formation are found in Kintyre, south
of Campbeltown, where the sediments prevail. The intrusive igneous
rocks belonging to this period are widely distributed and form
conspicuous features. The plutonic masses are represented by the
granite of Ben Cruachan, by the diorite of Gleann Domhainn, and by the
kentallenite (a basic rock related to the monxonites), near
Ballachulish. Throughout the Lorne volcanic plateau there are numerous
dykes of porphyrite which likewise traverse the schists and part of
the Ben Cruachan granite. Sheets of quartz-porphyry, lamprophyre and
diorite are also represented, the first of these types being quarried
at Crarae on the north shore of Loch Fyne.
The Upper Old Red Sandstone forms isolated patches resting
unconformably on all older rocks, on the west coast of Kintyre, and
between Campbeltown and Southend. In the district of Campbeltown these
red sandstones and cornstones are followed by the volcanic rocks of
the Calciferous Sandstone series, which lie to the south of the
depression at Machrihanish, and are succeeded by the lower limestones
and coals of the Carboniferous Limestone series.
On the north and south shores of the promontory of Ardnamurchan there
are small patches of Jurassic strata ranging from the Lower Lias to
the Oxford Clay, and in Morvern on the shores of Loch Aline
representatives of the Upper Greensand are covered by the basaltic
lavas of Tertiary age. The acid and basic plutonic rocks (gabbros and
granophyres) of Tertiary time occur in Ardnamurchan. A striking
geological feature of the county is the number of dolerite and basalt
dykes trending in a north-west direction, which are referred to the
same period of intrusion. There is, however, another group of dolerite
dykes running east and west near Dunoon and elsewhere, which are cut
by the former and are probably of older date.
Lead veins occur at Strontian which have yielded a number of minerals,
including sphalerite, fluorite, strontianite, harmotone, brewsterite
and pilolite. Near Inveraray, nickeliferous ore has been obtained at
two localities.
_Climate._--The rainfall is very abundant. At Oban, the average annual
amount is 64.18 in.; in Glen Fyne, 104.11 in.; at the bridge of Orchy,
113.62 in., and at Upper Glencoe 127.65. The prevailing winds, as
observed near Crinan, are south-west and south-east, and next in
frequency are the north-west and north-east. The average yearly
temperature is 48 deg. F.
_Agriculture._--Argyllshire was formerly partly covered with natural
forests, remains of which, consisting chiefly of oak, ash, pine and
birch, are still visible in the mosses; but, owing to the clearance of
the ground for the introduction of sheep, and to past neglect of
planting, the county is now remarkable for its lack of wood, except in
the neighbourhood of Inveraray, where there are extensive and
flourishing plantations, and a few other places. Replanting, however,
has been carried on. Most of the county is unfitted for agriculture; but
many districts afford fine pasturage for mountain sheep; and some of the
valleys, such as Glendaruel, are very fertile. The chief crop is oats;
there is a little barley, but no wheat. The shire is one of those where
the crofting system exists, but it is by no means universal. It is
predominant in Tyree and the western district of the mainland, but
elsewhere farms of moderate size are the rule. The cattle, though small,
are equal to any other breed in the kingdom, and are marketed in large
numbers in the south. Dairy farming is carried on to some extent in the
southern parts of Kintyre, where there is a large proportion of arable
land. In the higher tracts sheep have taken the place of cattle with
excellent results. The black-faced is the species most generally reared.
_Industries._--Whisky is manufactured at Campbeltown, in Islay, at Oban,
Ardrishaig and elsewhere. Gunpowder is made at Kames (Kyles of Bute),
Melfort and Furnace. Coarse woollens are made for home use; but fishing
is the most important industry, Loch Fyne being famous for its herrings.
The season lasts from June to January, but white fishing is carried on
at one or other of the ports all the year round. Slate and granite
quarrying and some coal-mining are the only other industries of any
consequence.
_Communications._--Owing partly to the paucity of trading industries and
partly to the fact that, owing to its greatly indented coast-line, no
place in the shire is more than 12 m. from the sea, the railway mileage
in the county is very small. The Tyndrum to Oban section of the
Caledonian railway company's system is within the county limits; a small
portion of the track of the North British railway company's line to
Mallaig skirts the extreme west of the shire, and the Caledonian line
from Oban to Ballachulish serves the northern coast districts of the
Argyllshire mainland. In connexion with this last route mention should
be made of the cantilever bridge crossing the Falls of Lora with a span
of 500 ft. at a height of 125 ft. above the water-way. The chief means
of communication is by steamers, which maintain regular intercourse
between Glasgow and various parts of the coast. In order to avoid the
circuitous passage round the Mull of Kintyre the Crinan Canal, across
the isthmus from Ardrishaig to Loch Crinan, a distance of 9 m., was
constructed in 1793-1801, at a cost of L142,000. It has 15 locks, an
average depth of 10 ft., a surface width of 66 ft., and bottom width of
30 ft., is navigable by vessels of 200 tons, and runs through a district
of remarkable beauty. Another canal unites Campbeltown with Dalavaddy.
In summer the mails for the islands and the great bulk of the tourist
traffic by the MacBrayne fleet is conveyed through the Crinan Canal,
transhipment being effected at Ardrishaig and Crinan. Throughout the
year goods traffic between the Clyde and elsewhere and the West Highland
ports is conveyed by deep-sea steamers round the Mull. Before the advent
of railways the shire contained many famous coaching routes, but now
coaches only run during the tourist season, either in connexion with
train and steamer, or in districts still not served by either.
_Population and Government._--Owing to emigration, chiefly to Canada,
the population has declined, almost without a break, since 1831, when it
was 100,973, to 74,085 in 1891 and 73,642 in 1901, in which year there
were 24 persons to the sq. m. In 1901 the number of Gaelic-speaking
persons was 34,224, of whom 3313 spoke Gaelic only. The chief towns are
Campbeltown (population in 1901, 8286), Dunoon (6779) and Oban (5427),
with Ardrishaig (1285), Ballachulish (1143), Lochgilphead (1313) and
Tarbert (1697). The county returns a member to parliament. Inveraray,
Campbeltown and Oban belong to the Ayr district group of parliamentary
burghs. Argyllshire is a sheriffdom, and there are resident
sheriffs-substitute at Inveraray, Campbeltown and Oban; courts are held
also at Tobermory, Lochgilphead, Bowmore in Islay, and Dunoon. Both
Presbyterian bodies are strongly represented; there are Roman Catholic
and (Anglican) Episcopal bishops of Argyll and the Isles, and there is a
Roman Catholic pro-cathedral at Oban. Campbeltown, Dunoon and Oban have
secondary schools, Tarbert public school has a secondary department, and
several other schools earn grants for giving higher education. Part of
the "residue" grant is spent by the county council on classes of
navigation and other subjects in various schools, short courses in
agriculture for farmers, and in providing bursaries.
_History._--The early history of Argyll (Airergaidheal) is very obscure.
At the close of the 5th century Fergus, son of Erc, a descendant of
Conor II., _airdrigh_ or high king of Ireland, came over with a band of
Irish Scots and established himself in Argyll and Kintyre. Nothing more
is known till, in the days of Conall I., the descendant of Fergus in the
fourth generation, St Columba appears. Conall died in 574, and Columba
was mainly instrumental in establishing his first cousin, Aidan, founder
of the Dalriad kingdom and ancestor of the royal house of Scotland, in
power. In the 8th century Argyll, with the Western Islands and Man, fell
under the power of the Norsemen until, in the 12th century, Somerled (or
Somhairle), a descendant of Colla-Uais, _airdrigh_ of Ireland (327-331),
succeeded in ousting them and established his authority, not only as
thane of Argyll, but also in Kintyre and the Western Islands. Somerled
died in 1164 and his descendants maintained themselves in Argyll and the
islands, between the conflicting claims of the kings of Scotland, Norway
and Man, until the end of the 15th century.
Up to 1222 Argyll had formed an independent Celtic princedom; but in
that year it was reduced by Alexander II., the Scottish king, to a
sheriffdom, and was henceforth regarded as an integral part of Scotland.
Among the various clans in Argyll, the Campbells of Loch Awe, a branch
of the clan McArthur, now began to come to the fore, though the mainland
was still chiefly in the possession of the MacDougals. The position of
the lords of the house of Somerled was now curious, since they were
feudatories of the king of Norway for the isles and of the king of
Scotland for Argyll. Their policy in the wars between the two powers was
a masterly neutrality. Thus, during the expedition of Alexander II. to
the Western Isles in 1249, Ewan (Eoghan), lord of Argyll, refused to
fight against the Norwegians; in 1263 the same Ewan refused to join
Haakon of Norway in attacking Alexander III. Forty years later the
clansmen of Argyll, mainly MacDougals, were warring on the side of
Edward of England against Robert Bruce, by whom they were badly beaten
on Loch Awe in 1309. The clansmen of the house of Somerled in the isles,
on the other hand, the MacDonalds, remained loyal to Scotland in spite
of the persuasions of John of Argyll, appointed admiral of Edward II.'s
western fleet; and, under their chief Angus Og, they contributed much to
the victory of Bannockburn. The alliance of John, earl of Ross and lord
of the Isles, with Edward IV. of England in 1461 led to the breaking of
the power of the house of Somerled, and in 1478 John was forced to
resign Ross to the crown and, two years later, his lordships of Knapdale
and Kintyre as well. In Argyll itself the Campbells had already made the
first step to supremacy through the marriage of Colin, grandson of Sir
Duncan Campbell of Lochow, first Lord Campbell, with Isabel Stewart,
eldest of the three co-heiresses of John, third lord of Lorne. He
acquired the greater part of the lands of the other sisters by purchase,
and the lordship of Lorne from Walter their uncle, the heir in tail
male, by an exchange for lands in Perthshire. In 1457 he was created, by
James II., earl of Argyll. He died on the 10th of May 1493. From him
dates the greatness of the house of the earls and dukes of Argyll
(q.v.), whose history belongs to that of Scotland. The house of Somerled
survives in two main branches--that of Macdonald of the Isles, Alexander
Macdonald (d. 1795) having been raised to the peerage in 1776, and that
of the Macdonnells, earls of Antrim in Ireland. The principal clans in
Argyll, besides those already mentioned, were the Macleans, the Stewarts
of Appin, the Macquarries and the Macdonalds of Glencoe, and the
Macfarlanes of Glencroe. The Campbells are still very numerous in the
county.
Argyllshire men have made few contributions to English literature. For
long the natives spoke Gaelic only and their bards sang in Gaelic (see
CELT: _Literature:_ Scottish). Near Inistrynich on the north-eastern
shore of Loch Awe stands the monumental cairn erected in honour of
Duncan Ban McIntyre (1724-1812), the most popular of modern Gaelic
bards. But the romantic beauty of the country has made it a favourite
setting for the themes of many poets and story-tellers, from "Ossian"
and Sir Walter Scott to Robert Louis Stevenson, while not a few men
distinguished in affairs or in learning have been natives of the county.
The antiquities comprise monoliths, circles of standing stones, crannogs
and cairns. In almost all the burying-grounds--as at Campbeltown, Keil,
Soroby, Kilchousland, Kilmun--there are specimens of sculptured crosses
and slabs. Besides the famous ecclesiastical remains at Iona (q.v.),
there are ruins of a Cistercian priory in Oronsay, and of a church
founded in the 12th century by Somerled, thane of Argyll, at Saddell.
Among castles may be mentioned Dunstaffnage, Ardtornish, Skipness,
Kilchurn (beloved of painters), Ardchonnel, Dunolly, Stalker, Dunderaw
and Carrick.
AUTHORITIES.--The (Eighth) Duke of Argyll, _Commercial Principles
Applied to the Hire of Land_ (London, 1877); _Crofts and Farms in the
Hebrides_ (Edinburgh, 1883); _Iona_ (Edinburgh, 1889); _Scotland as it
Was and Is_ (Edinburgh, 1887), _House of Argyll_ (Glasgow, 1871); A.
Brown, _Memorials of Argyllshire_ (Greenock, 1889); Harvie-Brown and
Buckley, _Vertebrate Fauna of Argyll and the Inner Hebrides_
(Edinburgh, 1892); D. Clerk, "On the Agriculture of the County of
Argyll" (_Trans. of H. and A. Soc._, 1878); T. Gray, _Week at Oban_
(Edinburgh, 1881); Stewart, _Collection of Views of Campbeltown_. For
antiquities see _The Sculptured Stones of Scotland_, vol. ii.,
published by the Spalding Club, and Capt. T.P. White's
_Archaeological Sketches in Kintyre_ and _Proc. Antiq. Soc. of
Scotland_, vols. iv., v., viii.
ARGYRODITE, a mineral which is of interest as being that in which the
element germanium was discovered by C. Winkler in 1886. It is a silver
sulpho-germanate, Ag8GeS6, and crystallizes in the cubic system. The
crystals have the form of the octahedron or rhombic dodecahedron, and
are frequently twinned. The botryoidal crusts of small indistinct
crystals first found in a silver mine at Freiberg in Saxony were
originally thought to be monoclinic, but were afterwards proved to be
identical with the more distinctly developed crystals recently found in
Bolivia. The colour is iron-black with a purplish tinge, and the lustre
metallic. There is no cleavage; hardness 2-1/2, specific gravity 6.2. It
is of interest to note that the Freiberg mineral was long ago
imperfectly described by A. Breithaupt under the name _Plusinglanz_, and
that the Bolivian crystals were incorrectly described in 1849 as
crystallized brongniardite. The name argyrodite is from the Greek
[Greek: argurodaes], rich in silver.
Isomorphous with argyrodite is the corresponding tin compound Ag8SnS6,
also found in Bolivia as cubic crystals, and known by the name
canfieldite. Other Bolivian crystals are intermediate in composition
between argyrodite and canfieldite. (L. J. S.)
ARGYROKASTRO, or ARGYROCASTRON (Turkish, _Ergeri_; Albanian _Ergir
Castri_), a town of southern Albania, Turkey, in the vilayet of Iannina.
Pop. (1900) about 11,000. Argyrokastro is finely situated 1060 ft. above
sea-level, on the eastern slopes of the Acroceraunian mountains, and
near the left bank of the river Dhrynos, a left-hand tributary of the
Viossa. It is the capital of a sanjak bearing the same name, and was
formerly important as the headquarters of the local Moslem aristocracy,
partly owing to the mountainous and easily defensible nature of the
district. It contains the ruins of an imposing castellated fort. A fine
kind of snuff, known as _fuli_, is manufactured here. Argyrokastro has
been variously identified with the ancient Hadrianopolis and Antigonea.
In the 18th century it is said to have contained 20,000 inhabitants, but
it was almost depopulated by plague in 1814. Albanian Moslems constitute
the greater part of the population.
ARGYROPULUS, or ARGYROPULO, JOHN (c. 1416-1486), Greek humanist, one of
the earliest promoters of the revival of learning in the West, was born
in Constantinople, and became a teacher there, Constantine Lascaris
being his pupil. He then appears to have crossed over to Italy, and
taught in Padua in 1434, being subsequently made rector of the
university. About 1441 he returned to Constantinople, but after its
capture by the Turks, again took refuge in Italy. About 1456 he was
invited to Florence by Cosimo de' Medici, and was there appointed
professor of Greek in the university. In 1471, on the outbreak of the
plague, he removed to Rome, where he continued to act as a teacher of
Greek till his death. Among his scholars were Angelus Politianus and
Johann Reuchlin. His principal works were translations of the following
portions of Aristotle,--_Categoriae, De Interpretatione, Analytica
Posteriora, Physica, De Caelo, De Anima, Metaphysica, Ethica Nicomachea,
Politica_; and an _Expositio Ethicorum Aristotelis_. Several of his
writings exist still in manuscript.
See Humphrey Hody, _De Graecis Illustribus_, 1742, and Smith's
_Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, s.v._ Joannes.
ARIA (Ital. for "air"), a musical term, equivalent to the English "air,"
signifying a melody apart from the harmony, but especially a musical
composition for a single voice or instrument, with an accompaniment of
other voices or instruments.
The aria originally developed from the expansion of a single vocal
melody, generally on the lines of what is known as binary form (see
SONATA and SONATA FORMS). Accordingly, while the germs of aria form may
be traceable in the highest developments of folk-song, the aria as a
definite art-form could not exist before the middle of the 17th century;
because up to that time the whole organization of music was based upon
polyphonic principles which left no room for the development of melody
for melody's sake. When at the beginning of the 17th century the
Monodists (see HARMONY and MONTEVERDE) inaugurated a new era and showed
in their first experiments the enormous possibilities latent in their
new art of accompanying single voices by instruments, it was natural
that for many years the mere suggestiveness and variety of their
experiments should suffice to retain the attention of contemporary
listeners, without any real artistic coherence in the works as wholes.
But, even at the outset, mere novelty of harmony, however poignant its
emotional expression, was felt by the profounder spirits of the new art
to be an untrustworthy guide to progress. And Monteverde's famous lament
of the deserted Ariadne is one of many early examples that appeal to an
elementary sense of form by making the last phrase identical with the
first. As instrumental music grew, and the modern sense of key became
strong and consistent, composers felt themselves more and more able to
appeal to that sense of harmonically consistent melody which has
asserted itself in folk-music before the history of harmonic music may
be said to have begun. The technique of solo singers grew as rapidly as
that of solo players, and composers soon found their chief musical
interest in doing justice to both. In Sir Hubert Parry's work, _The
Music of the 17th Century (Oxford History of Music_, vol. iii.), will be
found numerous illustrations of the early development of aria forms,
from their first indications in Monteverde's instinctive struggles after
coherence, to their complete maturity in the works of Alessandro
Scarlatti.
By Scarlatti's time it was thoroughly established that the binary form
of melody was that which could best be expanded into a form which should
do justice both to singers and to the players who accompanied them. Thus
the aria became on a small scale the prototype of the Concerto; and
under that heading will accordingly be found all that need be said as to
the relation between the instrumental _ritornello_ and the material of
the voice part in an aria.
So far we have spoken only of the main body of the aria; but the
addition of a middle section with a _da Capo_, which constitutes the
universal 18th-century _da Capo_ form of aria, adds a very simple new
principle to the essential scheme without really modifying it. A typical
aria of the Scarlatti or Handelian type is a very large melody in binary
form, delivered by the voice, which expands it with florid perorations
before each cadence (and sometimes also with florid preludes); while
relief is given to the voice, further spaciousness to the form, and
justice done to the accompaniment, by the addition of an instrumental
ritornello containing the gist of the melody not only at the beginning
and end, but also in suitable shorter forms at the principal
intermediate cadences in foreign keys. A smaller scheme of the same kind
in a new group of related keys, but generally without much new material,
is then appended as a middle section after which follows the main
section _da Capo_. The result is generally a piece of music of
considerable length, in a form which cannot fail to be effective and
coherent; and there is little cause for wonder in the extent to which it
dominated 18th-century music. It was not, however, invariable. In the
_Cavatina_ we find a form too small for the _da Capo_; and in the
oratorios of Handel and the choral works of Bach we find a majority of
arias in a larger form which evades the possibility of exact repetition.
The aria forms are profoundly influenced by the difference between the
Sonata style and the style of Bach and Handel. But the scale of the form
is inevitably small, and in any opera an aria is hardly possible except
in a situation which is a tableau rather than an action. Consequently
there is no such difference between the form of the classical operatic
aria of Mozart and that of the Handelian type as there is between sonata
music and suite music. The scale, however, has become too large for the
_da Capo_, which was in any case too rigid to survive in music designed
to intensify a dramatic situation instead of to distract attention from
it. The necessary change of style was so successfully achieved that,
until Wagner succeeded in devising music that moved absolutely _pari
passu_ with his drama, the aria remained as the central formal principle
in dramatic music; and few things in artistic evolution are more
interesting than the extent to which Mozart's predecessor, the great
dramatic reformer Gluck, profited by the essential resources of his pet
aversion, the aria style, when he had not only purged it of what had
become the stereotyped ideas of ritornellos and vocal flourishes, but
animated it by the new sense of dramatic climax to which the sonata
style appealed.
In modern opera the aria is almost always out of place, and the forms in
which definite melodies nowadays appear are rather those of the song in
its limited sense as that of a poem in formal stanzas all set to the
same music. In other words, a song in a modern opera tends to be
something which would be sung even if the drama had to be performed as a
play without music; whereas a classical aria would in non-musical drama
be a soliloquy. This can be shown by works at such opposite poles of
musical and dramatic technique as Bizet's _Carmen_ and the later works
of Wagner. In _Carmen_ the librettist has so managed that, if his work
were performed as a play, almost the whole of it would have to be sung;
and the one exception of musical importance is the developed soliloquy
of Micaela in the third act, which, although treated in no old-fashioned
or commonplace spirit by the composer, is the one thing in the opera
which sounds "operatic."
In the later works of Wagner those passages in which we can successfully
detach complete melodies from their context have, one and all,
dramatically the aspect of songs and not of soliloquies. Siegmund sings
the song of Spring to his sister-bride; Mime teaches Siegfried lessons
of gratitude in nursery rhymes; and the whole story of the
_Meistersinger_ is a series of opportunities for song-singing.
The distinctions and gradations between aria and song are of great
aesthetic importance, but their history would carry us too far. The
distinction is obviously of the same importance as that between dramatic
and lyric poetry. Beethoven's _Adelaide_ is a famous example of what is
called a song when it is really entirely in aria style; while the operas
of Mozart and Weber naturally contain in appropriate situations many
numbers which really are songs. The composers themselves generally give
appropriate names. Thus Mozart, in _Figaro_, calls "Non so piu cosa son"
an aria, because of its free style, though Cherubino actually sings it
as a song he has just invented; while "Voi che sapete," being more
purely lyric, is called _Canzona_.
The term _aria form_ is applied, generally most inaccurately, to all
kinds of slow cantabile instrumental music of which the general design
can be traced to the operatic aria. Mozart, for example, is very fond of
slow movements in large binary form without development, and this is
constantly called aria-form, though the term ought certainly to be
restricted to such examples as have some traits of the aria style, such
as the first slow movement in the great serenade in B flat. At all
events, until writers on music have agreed to give the term some more
accurate use, it is as well to avoid it and its cognate version,
_Lied-form_, altogether in speaking of instrumental music.
The _air_ or _aria_ in a suite is a short binary movement in a flowing
rhythm in common or duple time and by no means of the broadly tunelike
quality which its name would seem to imply. (D. F. T.)
ARIADNE (in Greek mythology), was the daughter of Minos, king of Crete,
and Pasiphae, the daughter of Helios the Sun-god. When Theseus landed on
the island to slay the Minotaur (q.v.), Ariadne fell in love with him,
and gave him a clue of thread to guide him through the mazes of the
labyrinth. After he had slain the monster, Theseus carried her off, but,
according to Homer (_Odyssey_, xi. 322) she was slain by Artemis at the
request of Dionysus in the island of Dia near Cnossus, before she could
reach Athens with Theseus. In the later legend, she was abandoned, while
asleep on the island of Naxos, by Theseus, who had fallen a victim to
the charms of Aegle (Plutarch, _Theseus_, 20; Diodorus, iv. 60, 61). Her
abandonment and awakening are celebrated in the beautiful _Epithalamium_
of Catullus. On Naxos she is discovered by Dionysus on his return from
India, who is enchanted with her beauty, and marries her when she
awakes. She receives a crown as a bridal gift, which is placed amongst
the stars, while she herself is honoured as a goddess (Ovid, _Metam._
viii. 152, _Fasti_, iii. 459).
The name probably means "very holy" = [Greek: ari-agne]; another
(Cretan) form [Greek: Aridela] (= [Greek: phanera])indicates the return
to a "bright" season of nature. Ariadne is the personification of
spring. In keeping with this, her festivals at Naxos present a double
character; the one, full of mourning and sadness, represents her death
or abandonment by Theseus, the other, full of joy and revelry,
celebrates her awakening from sleep and marriage with Dionysus. Thus
nature sleeps and dies during winter, to awake in springtime to a life
of renewed luxuriance. With this may be compared the festivals of Adonis
and Osiris and the myth of Persephone. Theseus himself was said to have
founded a festival at Athens in honour of Ariadne and Dionysus after his
return from Crete. The story of Dionysus and Ariadne was a favourite
subject for reliefs and wall-paintings. Most commonly Ariadne is
represented asleep on the shore at Naxos, while Dionysus, attended by
satyrs and bacchanals, gazes admiringly upon her; sometimes they are
seated side by side under a spreading vine. The scene where she is
holding the clue to Theseus occurs on a very early vase in the British
Museum. There is a statue of the sleeping Ariadne in the Vatican Museum.
Kanter, _De Ariadne_ (1879); Pallat, _De Fabula Ariadnea_ (1891).
ARIANO DI PUGLIA, a town and episcopal see, which, despite its name, now
belongs to Campania, Italy, in the province of Avellino, 1509 ft. above
sea-level, on the railway between Benevento and Foggia, 24 m. E. of the
former by rail. Pop. (1901) town, 8384; commune, 17,653. It lies in the
centre of a fertile district, but has no buildings of importance, as it
has often been devastated by earthquakes. A considerable part of the
population still dwells in caves. It has been supposed to occupy the
site of Aequum Tuticum, an ancient Samnite town, which became a
post-station on the Via Traiana[1] in Roman times; but this should
probably be sought at S. Eleuterio 5-1/2 m. north. It was a military
position of some importance in the middle ages. Thirteen miles
south-south-east is the Sorgente Mefita, identical with the pools of
Ampsanctus (q.v.). (T. As.)