Kathleen Schlesinger

“ TAMBOURINE (Fr. tambour de Basque; Ger. baskische Trommel, Tambourin, or Schellen-trommel) , a popular instrument of percussion of indefinite musical pitch, used for marking the rhythm in dance or bacchanalian music. The tambourine consists of a flat wooden or metal ring, over one end of which is stretched a parchment or vellum head; in the circumference of the ring are fixed nine or ten metal disks or small bells which jingle as the tambourine is struck by the hand, or merely waved through the air. A tremolo effect is obtained by stroking the head with the finger-tips. ”

“ COR ANGLAIS, or English Horn (Ger. englisches Horn or alt Hoboe; Ital. corno inglese) , a wood-wind double-reed instrument of the oboe family, of which it is the tenor. It is not a horn, but bears the same relation to the oboe as the basset horn does to the clarinet. ”

“ In all instruments of the harpsichord family the strings, instead of being struck by tangents as in the clavichord, or by hammers as in the pianoforte, are plucked by means of a quill firmly embedded in the centred tongue of a jack or upright placed on the back end of the key-lever. When the finger depresses a key, the jack is thrown up, and in passing the crow-quill catches the string and twangs it. It is this twanging of the string which produces the brilliant incisive tone peculiar to the harpsichord family. ”

“ GEIGE (O. Fr. gigue, gige; O. Ital. and Span. giga; Prov. gigua; O. Dutch gighe) , in modern German the violin; in medieval German the name applied to the first stringed instruments played with a bow, in contradistinction to those whose strings were plucked by fingers or plectrum such as the cithara, rotta and fidula, the first of these terms having been very generally used to designate various instruments whose strings were plucked. ”

“ It is probable that when, at the decline of the Roman empire, instrumental music was placed by the church under a ban—and the tibia more especially from its association with every form of licence and moral depravity—this instrument, sharing the common fate, survived chiefly among itinerant musicians who carried it into western Europe, where it was preserved from complete extinction. An instrument of difficult technique requiring an advanced knowledge of acoustics was not, however, likely to flourish or even to be understood among nations whose culture was as yet in its infancy. ”

“ Twanging the strings by the fingers is the most primitive method, probably suggested by the feeble note given out by the tense string of the hunters' bow, which was the prototype of the harp. In this ancient instrument, popular in all ages and lands, the strings are stretched à vide between two supports of a frame, the lower of which acts as a soundboard from which the strings rise perpendicularly. The scale of all harp-like instruments is produced by means of one string for each note, difference in pitch being obtained by varying the length of the strings. ”

“ The most valuable characteristic of the free reed is its power of producing all the delicate gradations of tone between forte and piano by virtue of a law of acoustics governing the vibration of free reeds, whereby increased pressure of wind produces a proportional increase in the volume of tone. The pitch of any sound depends upon the frequency of the sound-waves, that is, the number per second which reach the ear ”

“ In some cases the base of the body was left open, and in others there were sound-holes. The bridge, from its curiously irregular shape, was known as the “shoe”; it was thick and high at the one side on which rested the string, and low and narrow at the other which was left loose so that it vibrated against the belly with every movement of the bow, producing a trumpet-like timbre. It is to this feature, in conjunction with its general resemblance in contour to the marine speaking-trumpet of the middle ages, that the name of the instrument is doubtless due. ”

“ The lituus, or cavalry trumpet of the Romans, consisted of a cylindrical tube, to which was attached a bent horn or conical bell, the whole in the shape of a J. The long, straight Roman tuba was similar to the large, bent cornu so far as bore and capabilities were concerned, but more unwieldy. All these wind instruments seem to have been used during the classic Greek and Roman periods merely to sound fanfares, and therefore, in spite of the high degree of perfection to which they attained as instruments, they scarcely possess any claim to be considered within the domain of music. ”

“ Instrumental music was banished from civil life and from religious rites, and thenceforth the slender threads which connect the musical instruments of Greeks and Romans with those of the middle ages must be sought among the unconverted barbarians of northern and western Europe, who kept alive the traditions taught them by conquerors and colonists; but as civilization was in its infancy with them the instruments sent out from their workshops must have been crude and primitive. Asia, the cradle of the cithara, also became its foster-mother ”

“ FLAGEOLET, in music, a kind of flûte-à-bec with a new fingering, invented in France at the end of the 16th century, and in vogue in England from the end of the 17th to the beginning of the 19th century. ”

“ Ger. Tuben, Tenor-bass, Bombardon, Kontrabasstuba, Helikon; Ital. basstuba, bombardone) — are a family of valved instruments of powerful tone forming the tenor and bass of the brass wind. In the orchestra these instruments are called tubas; in military bands euphonium (tenor) , bombardon and helicon (bass) .
The modern tubas owe their existence to the invention of valves or pistons (Ger. Ventile) by two Prussians, Stölzel and Blümel, in 1815. The tubas are often confounded with the baritone and bass of the saxhorns, being like them the outcome of the application of valves to the bugle family. ”

“ Telephanes was a great virtuoso who scorned the use of a speaker-hole, being able to obtain his harmonics on the aulos by the mere control of lips and teeth.
The modern clarinet has from thirteen to nineteen keys, some being normally open and others closed. In order to understand why, when once the idea of adding keys to the chalumeau had been conceived, the number rose so slowly, keys being added one or two at a time by makers of various nationalities at long intervals, it is necessary to consider the effect of boring holes in the side of a cylindrical tube. ”

“ FREE REED VIBRATOR (Fr. anche libre, Ger. durchschlagende Zunge, Ital. ancia or lingua libera) , in musical instruments, a thin metal tongue fixed at one end and vibrating freely either in surrounding space, as in the accordion and concertina, or enclosed in a pipe or channel, as in certain reed stops of the organ or in the harmonium. The enclosed reed, in its typical and theoretical form, is fixed over an aperture of the same shape but just large enough to allow it to swing freely backwards and forwards, alternately opening and closing the aperture, when driven by a current of compressed air. ”

“ In the Image of Ireland and Discoverie of Woodkarne, by John Derrick, 1581, the Irish insurgents are portrayed in pictures full of life and character, as led to rebellion and pillage by a piper armed with a bag-pipe, similar to the Highland bag-pipe. The cradle of the musette is inconceivable anywhere but in France, among the courtiers and elegant world, turning from the pomps and luxuries of court life to an artificial admiration and cult of Nature, idealized to harmonize with silks and satins. ”

“ The fingering of the clarinet is the most difficult of any instrument in the orchestra, for it differs in all four octaves of its compass. Once mastered, however, it is the same for all clarinets, the music being always written in the key of C.
The actual tonality of the clarinet is determined by the diatonic scale produced when, starting with keys untouched and finger and thumb-holes closed, the fingers are raised one by one from the holes. ”

“ Although the harmonic series remains the same for all the crooks, the actual sounds produced by overblowing are lower, the tube being longer, and they now belong to the key of the crook. The principle of the crook was known early in the 17th century; it had been applied to the trumpet, trombone and Jägertrummet [1] before being adapted to the horn. Crooks are merely transposing agents; they are powerless to fill up the gaps in the scale of the horn in order to make it a chromatic or even a diatonic instrument, for they require time for adjustment. ”

“ A musical sound is thus produced the pitch of which depends on the length and thickness of the metal tongue; the greater the length, the slower the vibrations and the lower the pitch, while on the contrary, the thicker the reed near the shoulder at the fixed end, the higher the pitch. It must be borne in mind that the periodic vibrations of the reed determine the pitch of the sound solely by the frequency per second they impose upon the pulses of rarefaction and condensation within the pipe. ”

“ The new instrument, the douçaine, we may imagine, by its unusual appearance provoked the satirical wit of some courtier, and was henceforth known as fagotto. Just a century later Ravilius of Ferrara made Afranio’s first phagotus from the inventor’s design.
The bassoon has been a favourite with all the great masters, excepting Handel. Beethoven uses the bassoon largely in his symphonies, writing everywhere for it independent parts of great beauty and originality. ”