A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Zopf

ZOPF, i.e. 'pigtail.' The German term for the old-fashioned obsolete style in music. Mendelssohn, when at the Engelberg monastery, accompanied a Mass by Emmerich; 'every note,' he says, 'had its pigtail (Zopf) and its powder.' (Letter, Aug. 24, 1831.) The French word perruque is sometimes used for the same thing. After writing some contrapuntal pieces, 'me voilà perruque' says he to Hiller. [See Devin du Village, vol. i. p. 442a.] Beethoven used to speak of his old-fashioned contemporaries as 'Reichscomponisten,' which perhaps might be rendered 'Act-of-Parliament musicians.'

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