Musical instrument

“ Musical Instruments.—When instrumental music began to receive a share of public attention, a great step was taken toward development of music in the United States. In cities like Boston, New York, Philadelphia and some Southern homes, instruments of the spinet and virginal type could be found in the 17th and 18th centuries. The flute was a gentleman’s instrument in those days, following the English custom. The violin also received some attention. ”

“ Another form of instrument intended for producing sound, if not indeed deserving to be classed as a musical instrument, is the bell, or rattle, formed of a hollow egg-shaped or pear-shaped piece of bronze, with a pebble or piece of metal inside by way of clapper.
The only examples which I am able to adduce are those which formed part of the Dowris hoard, one of which is represented in Fig. 446. [1401] There are three such in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, and four in the British Museum. ”

“ Are there stringed instruments with sympathetic strings (i.e., strings placed under those strings which are played upon. The sympathetic strings merely serve to increase the sonorousness) ?
"40. What are the musical intervals in which the stringed instruments are tuned?
"41. Do the people possess any musical instrument of a very peculiar construction? ”

“ We may, in the next place, with advantage briefly examine the principles of construction of one musical instrument, and allude to some recent improvements. One of the most interesting of all the musical appliances devised by human ingenuity is the violin, comprising as it does in its construction an art, a science, and a tradition. ”

“ The piano, to be sure, is a more representative instrument, enabling one pair of hands to grasp the whole harmony of a composition, or a compendium thereof; but the violin, with the other members of its family, viola, 'cello,64 &c., is the more social instrument, bringing together groups of kindred spirits who can play in parts, and read together the quartets, &c., of the greatest masters, or play sonata duos, trios, &c., with the piano-forte. And the string-instruments are infinitely the most expressive: their tones lie nearer to the soul, spring more directly from the human breast. ”

“ Much use was also made of a certain musical instrument, unknown till that time, and which, in such cases, has often been found very powerful. The effect of these artifices was so much beyond my expectation that the enthusiasm to which on this occasion I was obliged to force myself was infinitely heightened by that of my audience. ”

“ When not playing, or composing, or teaching, he would often be found hard at work engraving his compositions on copper, or engaged in manufacturing some kind of musical instrument—at least two instruments are known to have been of his own inventing. ”

“ Indeed, we have now scarcely a musical instrument which can be called beautiful. The old lutes, spinets, viols, dulcimers, &c., are not only elegant in shape but are also often tastefully ornamented with carvings, designs in marquetry, and painting.
The player on the viola da gamba, shown in the next engraving, is a reduced copy of an illustration in “The Division Violist,” London, 1659. It shows exactly how the frets were regulated, and how the bow was held. The most popular instruments played with a bow, at that time, were the treble-viol, the tenor-viol, and the bass-viol. ”

“ The timbre available in the musical instrument will therefore run from the pure tone to the roughest noise.
In the above I have attempted to present a picture in rough outline indicating present trends and predictable futures for music through the improvement of musical instruments. The instrumentalist can point out many features not here mentioned. The musician may yearn for new resources in his musical medium for 72which he can now lay down specifications. The listeners must be prepared for startling innovations and thrilling new sources of pleasure in music. ”

“ The rollers are made of light wood and the bearings and pins which are made of metal, WILL NEVER WEAR OUT. This instrument is the Perfection of Musical ingenuity and PLAYS MARCHES, WALTZES, POLKAS, JIGS, Reels, Sacred music, selections from Operas, Popular Songs, etc., and is peculiarly arranged for playing DANCE MUSIC in perfect time. If you have purchased any other style of an Automatic Musical Instrument and have found it a disappointment and a nuisance YOU SHOULD SEND FOR ONE of the above described instruments. ”

“ MUSICAL instruments with manuals or key-boards, and fixed tones, occupy a most important position in the annals of modern art. All the greatest composers have been skilled performers on such instruments, and especially on the piano-forte. ”

“ The instrument must be playable by only one performer; it must not present any extraordinary difficulty to musicians to play it well; and it must permit being easily kept in tune. Perhaps the organ approaches the nearest to this perfection, but is still far from it. The violin and the violoncello are in some respects ahead of all—at any rate, as regards delicacy of expression. ”

“ Should it interest the musician to restore to its original condition some dilapidated lute or cithern which he may happen to pick up, and to learn to play upon it according to the old method taught in some old book, he will become acquainted with niceties in the construction of the instrument, such as the peculiar arrangement of its pegs, frets, bridge, pins, and other contrivances, which are not to be learnt from books. ”

“ The musical instruments on which they excelled were the double flutes, the trumpet, and the lyre, and on these they have conferred an immortality by the ceramic art which they carried to so high a state of perfection. ”

“ The ingenuity of man has contrived to employ in producing music, horn, bone, glass, pottery, slabs of sonorous stone—​in fact, almost all vibrating matter. The strings of instruments have been made of the hair of animals, of silk, the runners of creeping plants, the fibrous roots of certain trees, of cane, catgut (which, absurdly referred to the cat, is from the sheep, goat, lamb, camel, and some other animals) , metal, etc.
2 The mode in which individual nations or tribes are in the habit of embellishing their musical instruments is sometimes as characteristic as it is singular. ”

“ Imperfect though this essay may be it will probably have convinced the reader that a reference to the history of the music of different nations elucidates many facts illustrative of our own musical instruments, which to the unprepared observer must appear misty and impenetrable. ”

“ As musical instruments have always been divided into three particular classes,—stringed, pulsatile, and wind instruments,—we shall adopt this natural division in passing under review the various kinds in use during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. ”

“ Some specimens (of which we give engravings) are singularly grotesque in shape, representing caricatures of the human face and figure, birds, beasts, and flowers. Some were provided at the top with a finger-hole which, when closed, altered the pitch of the sound, so that two different tones were producible on the instrument. Others had a little ball of baked clay lying loose inside the air-chamber. When the instrument was blown the current of air set the ball in a vibrating motion, thereby causing a shrill and whirring sound. ”

“ Indeed, every nation’s musical effusions exhibit a character peculiarly their own, with which the musician would find it advantageous to familiarize himself. 5
Now, it will easily be understood that an acquaintance with the musical instruments of a nation conveys a more correct idea than could otherwise be obtained of the characteristic features of the nation’s musical compositions. Furthermore, in many instances the construction of the instruments reveals to us the nature of the musical intervals, scales, modulations, and suchlike noteworthy facts. ”

“ In describing musical instruments we can refer to no beginnings; those that may be discerned dimly in the glimmering of the historic dawn present a certain completeness that marks an intellectual advance already accomplished. ”

“ Modern skill has not added one new means, but has simply improved the contrivances by which musical sound is produced. We can, however, trace the evolution and growth of the various instruments with considerable accuracy, and to this end it is of the utmost importance to have a clear understanding of the principles upon which musical instruments are constructed, in order to avoid bewilderment among the endless variety that have been and are yet made. All instruments may be divided into three general classes: Percussion Instruments, Wind Instruments, Stringed Instruments. ”

“ The percussion instruments, including kettledrums, bass drums, and cymbals, are the least important of all the musical instruments; and are usually of service merely in adding to the excitement and general effect of an orchestra. ”

“ The harp has always been considered one of the most pleasing and perfect of musical instruments. Here the skilled performer has absolutely free scope for his genius, because his fingers can pluck the strings at will and hence regulate the overtones, and his feet can regulate at will the tension, and hence the pitch of the strings. ”

“ The Chapter on musical instruments is more detailed than seems warranted at first sight; but interest in orchestral instruments is real and general, and there is a persistent desire for intelligent information relative to musical instruments. ”

“ Our intention is to deal only with the artistic side of musical instruments, so we lay no claim to real connoisseurship of musical instruments, more especially as regards the family of stringed instruments which finds its best and most complete expression in the violin. ”

“ The cittern. 2. The bagpipe. 3. The clarion, a small trumpet having a shrill sound. 4. The rebec. 5. The psaltery. 6. The syrinx. 7. The sackbut. 8. The regals. 9. The gittern, a small guitar strung with catgut. 10. The shalm. 11. The timbrel; resembling our present tambourine, with a double row of gingles. 12. Cymbals. Most of these instruments have been already noticed in the preceding pages. The shalm, or shawm, was a pipe with a reed in the mouth-hole. The wait was an English wind instrument of the same construction. ”

“ The mind of man may be compared to a musical instrument with a certain range of notes, beyond which in both directions we have an infinitude of silence. ”

“ That the short strings vibrate more rapidly than the long ones, and at the same time produce tones of a higher pitch? Imagine that having become familiar with the harp you should successively come upon scores of other musical instruments of very differing types. ”

“ Before these instruments, which bring us down to modern civilized times, and constitute the genealogy of the piano-forte, we have the dulcimer and psaltery, and all the Egyptian, Grecian, and Roman harps and lyres which were struck with a quill or plectrum. No product of human ingenuity has been the outcome of a steady and systematic growth from age to age by more demonstrable stages than this most remarkable of musical instruments. ”

“ This Guitar had ten strings, forming five notes, in pairs of unisons, instead of six single strings, as in the modern guitar, giving six notes. It is the lowest note E that is here wanting. The instrument is 3 feet 1 inch in extreme length; the body being 183⁄4 inches in length, and 10 inches across. The ribs are 33⁄4 inches deep. ”

“ During my progress around from places to places I have got acquaintance with all sorts American musical instruments. Banjos, gasolene, stoves, trumbones and basso drums I have heard shooting their music. But never until of recently did I encounter a sew-machine doing so. ”

“ It is curious that certain other popular musical instruments seem to have the same characteristics as the mouth-organ. The concertina and the accordion, good friends of the sailor, the lonely Colonist, and rough, kindly fellows the world over, seem to me to possess the same power of transforming all the tunes played upon them into one long wail. ”

“ During the last hundred years there has been a steady betterment in the mechanisms of practically all the leading musical instruments; but this movement will rise to great heights in view of the new tools for investigation and new materials and principles of construction. ”

“ If it is true that the violin is the most perfect of musical instruments, then Greek is the violin of human thought. ”

“ The difference between the musical instruments of our time and those of a former age, is another interesting subject of inquiry. The Bible mentions the timbrel, the ram’s horn, the reed, the harp, silver trumpets, and other equally rude inventions. From later classical writers we learn the existence of the pipe and tabor, the lyre, the lute, and others. In the records of a much more advanced period, we find mention of the harpsichord, whence we have obtained our present tolerably perfect piano forte. ”

“ The other elegant groups123 of figures which sport on the top of the dome—the Cupids, the Loves, and the Graces!—besides festoons of the freshest and most beautiful flowers, have each of them musical instruments in their hands, which by the exquisite and most expensive mechanism, are made to breathe forth sounds corresponding with the appearance of the several instruments,—flutes, guitars, violins, clarionets, trumpets, horns, oboes, kettle-drums, &c. ”

“ There exist even at the present day some savage tribes in Australia and South America who, although they have no more than the five first numerals in their language and are thereby unable to count the fingers of both hands together, nevertheless possess musical instruments of their own contrivance, with which they accompany their songs and dances.
Wood, metal, and the hide of animals, are the most common substances used in the construction of musical instruments. ”