generators, is an ellipse. This last proposition may be stated in the form:—“The orthogonal projection of a circle is an ellipse”; and it permits the ready deduction of many properties of the ellipse from the circle. The section of an oblique cylinder by a plane perpendicular to the principal section, and inclined to the axis at the same angle as the base, is named the “subcontrary section,” and is always a circle; any other section is an ellipse.
The mensuration of the cylinder was worked out by Archimedes, who showed that the volume of any cylinder was equal to the product of the area of the base into the height of the solid, and that the area of the curved surface was equal to that of a rectangle having its sides equal to the circumference of the base, and to the height of the solid. If the base be a circle of radius r, and the height h, the volume is πr2h and the area of the curved surface 2πrh. Archimedes also deduced relations between the sphere (q.v.) and cone (q.v.) and the circumscribing cylinder.
The name “cylindroid” has been given to two different surfaces. Thus it is a cylinder having equal and parallel elliptical bases; i.e. the surface traced out by an ellipse moving parallel to itself so that every point passes along a straight line, or by a line moving parallel to itself and always passing through the circumference of a fixed ellipse. The name was also given by Arthur Cayley to the conoidal cubic surface which has for its equation z(x2 + y2) = 2mxy; every point on this surface lies on the line given by the intersection of the planes y = x tan θ, z = m sin 2θ, for by eliminating θ we obtain the equation to the surface.
CYLLENE (mod. Ziria), a mountain in Greece, in the N.E.
of Arcadia (7789 ft.). It was specially sacred to Hermes, who
was born in a cave on the mountain, and had a temple and an
ancient statue on its summit. The name Cyllene belongs also
to an ancient port town in Elis, and, owing to doubtful identification
with this, to a modern port at Glarentza, and also to some
mineral baths a little to the south of it.
CYMA (Gr. κῦμα, wave), in architecture, a moulding of double
curvature, concave at one end, convex at the other. When the
concave part is uppermost, it is called a cyma recta; but if the
convex portion is at the top, it is called a cyma reversa. When
the crowning moulding of an entablature is of the cyma form,
it is called a “cymatium.”
CYMBALS (Fr. cymbales; Ger. Becken; Ital. piatti or cinelli),
a modern instrument of percussion of indefinite musical pitch,
whereas the small ancient cup-shaped cymbals sounded a definite
note. Cymbals consist of two thin round plates of an alloy containing
8 parts of copper to two of tin, each having a handle-strap
set in the little knob surmounting the centre of the plate.
The sound is obtained not by clashing them against each other,
but by rubbing their edges together by a sliding movement.
Sometimes a weird effect is obtained by suspending one of the
cymbals by the strap and letting a drummer execute a roll upon
it as it swings; or by holding a cymbal in the left hand and
striking it with the soft stick of the bass drum, which produces
a sound akin to that of the tam-tam. All gradations of piano
and forte can be obtained on the cymbals. The composer
indicates his intention of letting the cymbals vibrate by “Let
them vibrate,” and the contrary effect by “Damp the sound.”
To stop the vibrations the performer presses the cymbals against
his chest, as soon as he has played a note. The duration of the
vibration is indicated by the value of the note placed upon the
staff; the name signifies nothing, since the pitch of the cymbals
is indefinite. The instrument is played from the same part of
the score as the bass drum, unless otherwise indicated by senza
piatti, or piatti soli if the bass drum is to remain silent. Although
cymbals are not often required they form part of every orchestra;
their chief use is for marking the rhythm and for producing
weird, fantastic effects or adding military colour, and their
shrill notes hold their own against a full orchestra playing
fortissimo. Cymbals are specially suited for suggesting frenzy,
fury or bacchanalian revels, as in the Venus music in Wagner’s
Tannhäuser and Grieg’s Peer Gynt suite. Damping gives
a suggestion of impending evil or tragedy. The timbre of the
ancient cymbals is entirely different, more like that of small
hand-bells or of the notes of the keyed harmonica. They are
not struck full against each other, but by one of their edges,
and the note given out by them is higher in proportion as they
are thicker and smaller. Berlioz in Romeo and Juliet scored
for two pairs of cymbals, modelled on some ancient Pompeian
instruments no larger than the hand (some are no larger than
a crown piece), and tuned to 
and 
.
The origin of the cymbals must be referred to prehistoric times. The ancient Egyptian cymbals closely resembled our own. The British Museum possesses two pairs, 513 in. in diameter, one of which was found in the coffin of the mummy of Ankhhapē, a sacred musician; they are shown in the same case as the mummy, and have been reproduced by Carl Engel.[1] Those used by the Assyrians were both plate- and cup-shaped. The Greek cymbals were cup- or bell-shaped, and are to be seen in the hands of fauns and satyrs innumerable in sculptures and on painted vases. The word cymbal is derived from κύμβη (Lat. cymba), a hollow vessel, and κύμβαλα = small cymbals. During the middle ages the word cymbal was applied to the Glockenspiel, or peal of small bells, and later to the dulcimer, perhaps on account of the clear bell-like tone produced by the hammers striking the wire strings. After the introduction or invention of the keyed dulcimer or clavichord, and of the spinet, the word clavicymbal was used in the Romance languages to denote the varieties of spinet and harpsichord. Ancient cymbals are among the instruments played by King David and his musicians in the 9th-century illuminated MS. known as the Bible of Charles the Bald in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. (K. S.)
CYNEGILS (d. 643), king of the West Saxons, succeeded his
uncle King Ceolwulf in 611. With his son Cwichelm (d. 636),
he defeated the advancing Britons at Bampton in Oxfordshire
in 614, and Cwichelm sought to arrest the growing power of
the Northumbrian king Eadwine by procuring his assassination;
the attempt, however, failed, and in 626 the West Saxons were
defeated in battle and forced to own Eadwine’s supremacy.
Cynegils’ next struggle was with Penda of Mercia, and here
again he was worsted, the battle being fought in 628 at Cirencester,
and was probably compelled to surrender part of his
kingdom to Mercia. Cynegils was converted to Christianity
through the preaching of Birinus, and was baptized in 635 at
Dorchester in Oxfordshire, where he founded a bishopric. He
was succeeded as king by his son Cenwalh.
CYNEWULF (d. 785), king of Wessex, succeeded to the throne in 757 on the deposition of Sigeberht. He was constantly at war with the Welsh. In 779 Offa of Mercia defeated him and took Bensington. In 785 he was surprised and killed, with all his thegns present, at Marten, Wilts (Merantune), by Cyneheard, brother of the deposed Sigeberht.
See Earle and Plummer’s edition of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 755, 779 (Oxford, 1892).
CYNEWULF, the only Old-English vernacular poet, known
by name, of whom any undisputed writings are extant. He is
the author of four poems preserved in two MSS., the Exeter
Book and the Vercelli Book, both of the early 11th century.
An epilogue to each poem contains the runic characters answering
to the letters c, y, n (e), w, u, l, f. The runes are to be read as the
words that served as their names; these words enter into the
metre of the verse, and (except in one poem) are significant in
their context. The poems thus signed are the following. (1) A
meditation on The Ascension, which stands in the Exeter Book
between two similar poems on the Incarnation and the Last
Judgment. The three are commonly known as Cynewulf’s
Christ, but the runic signature attests only the second. (2) A
version of the legend of the martyr St Juliana, also in the
Exeter Book. (3) Elene, in the Vercelli Book, on the story of
the empress Helena and the “Invention of the Cross.” (4) A
short poem on The Fates of the Apostles, in the same MS. The
page
containing
the signature to this poem was first discovered
by Professor A. S. Napier in 1888, so that the piece is not included
in earlier enumerations of the poet’s signed works.
In Juliana and Elene the name is spelt Cynewulf; in The Ascension the form is Cynwulf. In The Fates of the Apostles the page is defaced, but the spelling Cynwulf is almost certain.
- ↑ The Music of the Most Ancient Nations, fig. 75, p. 227.
