Pipe (musical instrument)

“ Four of the tubes have small lateral finger-holes which, when closed, lower the pitch a semitone. These holes are on the second, fourth, sixth, and seventh pipe, as shown in the engraving. When the holes are open, the tones are: and when they are closed: The other tubes have unalterable tones. The following notation exhibits all the tones producible on the instrument:
The musician is likely to speculate what could have induced the Peruvians to adopt so strange a series of intervals: it seems rather arbitrary than premeditated. ”

“ The Chinese instrument is an assemblage of pipes of various lengths from which musical tones of different pitches are produced,—it is a mouth organ. Our modern organ is likewise an assemblage of pipes, and differs only from it in respect of number and degree. Perhaps the blowing across the open end of a pipes was the earliest mechanical way of producing a flute sound. The little19 river reed pipe of Pan is therefore selected as the type of all flutes; the principle is the same whatever the variation in method of sounding. ”

“ General Gates P. Thruston suggests that the stem holes of the disc pipe being funnel-shaped, it may safely be regarded as an old type.
“Mr. J. D. McGuire writes: ‘The shape is so suggestive of the jewsharp, an instrument used extensively in trade with the Indians, as to indicate that the pipe itself is modeled after the form of this 53primitive musical instrument, even though the file marks, so common on many of the pipes, are absent from those coming under the writer’s observation.’
Fig. ”

“ Musical connoisseurs often express disappointment at the sound of some imposing-looking organ. The instrument with the great dimensions of its outer frame and the gorgeous show of its great gilded pipes in front would give the impression of great power. But those pipes, instead of being of hollow and sonorous metal, are solid pieces of wood. They are decorated dummies, incapable of giving forth a single sound. The musical pipes in such an instrument are hidden from view but they alone are of service. ”

“ The other parts are three drones, also consisting of reeds and tubes, two of which are in unison with D, on the chanter, or the first note of the German flute, and the third, or long drone, is an octave lower. The bagpipe is an extremely defective and imperfect instrument in all its different kinds, of which there are four. First, the Irish, or soft pipe, in which the chanter takes a range of ten or twelve notes with tolerable precision, and which is always played with bellows ; the reeds are softer, and the tubes longer ; whence the Irish pipe is more suitable for performance in an apartment. ”

“ For some time before we fell in I heard from all quarters strange, unearthly noises, and in every direction I turned I saw, at quite a distance from each other, kilted figures walking up and down bearing their wide-branched bag-pipes, each one emitting the weirdest wails imaginable; they were the pipers of the Sixteenth pipe band tuning up. However, when we started off the sound was quite different, for the pipes and kettle-drums make merry marching music. I know of no other music that can make tired men march so briskly and with such a swing as that of the pipes. ”

“ An improvement has been at-tempted, by adapting three or four keys, like flute keys, on one of the drones ; by pressing I one of them with the arm, a third or fifth to the note of the chanter is produced, which forms an intermediate chord with the drone, and has a pleasing effect. The second kind of this instrument is the Scottish or Highland bagpipe, which is played either with the mouth or with bellows, like the Irish pipe ; and, excepting that, as far as we know, keys have never been adapted to it, is almost the same in every respect. ”

“ They fall into two distinct classes, the single and the double pipes. There were three principal single pipes, the monaulos, the plagiaulos and the syrinx monocalamos. The double pipes were used by the great musicians of ancient Greece, and notably at the musical contests at Delphi, and what has been said above concerning the construction of the aulos refers mainly to the double pipes. The monaulos, a single pipe of Egyptian origin, which, by inference, we assume to have been played from the end by means of a reed, may have been the archetype of the oboe or clarinet. ”

“ So the Chinese foot predetermined the standard both for the reed pipe of bamboo with a tongue of metal, and for the reed pipe blown across as the pandean pipe is blown across: which pipe from immemorial days has remained in the imperial archives, as the unalterable standard of pitch—unalterable because nature does not alter. ”

“ If its origin was as previously suggested by Collins, there is occasion to believe the shepherd’s simple life afforded it first existence; in the native and wild notes of the pastoral reed, may be discovered the germ of a science as various as its effects are beautiful. We shall for the present presume the simple Pandean pipe was the first effort of the construction of musical instruments; its soft tone being analogous to the dulcet harmony of the voice. We are led to suppose this from the evidence of ancient statuary, where those pipes are frequently discovered ”

“ In India we find flutes which seem to show a compromise or blending of the tip-blown and side-blown methods. In the India Museum some pipes may be seen with a curiously shaped hollow tip, cut with a slant curve, across which the player blows. These several ways are but different illustrations of one and the same principle—that is to say—the stream of air blown across the hole creates suction in the pipe, which reaching its limit is constantly broken with a rapidity of action resulting in periodic vibration of definite sound or pitch. ”

“ The proper name of “classic” pipe music in the Gaelic is Ceol Mor, the Great Music, a word which includes gatherings, laments, and salutes.
“The proper music of the bagpipe is well worthy of the instrument. They are really fit for each other, and ought never to have been separated. The instrument has suffered in reputation, like the ass in the fable, from making too high flights. It is, properly speaking, a military weapon (sic) , and the pibroch is its real business.” ”

“ From father to son, from teacher to scholar the tradition of pitch was carried on. The string affected by heat and moisture and by the strain when twanged, never remains accurately to pitch. Although pipes and strings have run a parallel course, we do not find that the lyre players actually cared to refer to pipes as guiding them in setting the pitch. Yet it was the custom, so Plutarch tells us, for reciters and orators to have a pitch pipe sounded by an attendant to keep their voices to a prescribed pitch, and he mentions an ivory pipe being used for the practice. ”

“ Nevertheless, as matters stand at present, the moment that the wind is introduced, all the pipes would speak at once, to obviate which a moveable piece of wood, or sounding-pallet is inserted in the groove, the control over it being exercised by means of a wire connected with the key-note: the result is, that when the note is pressed, the wire acts on the pallet, allowing the air to escape into that particular groove, and thus produces a musical note, or, we may say, notes; for, as there are several pipe-holes to each groove, all those pipes would sound simultaneously. ”

“ A pipe of this kind is so much influenced by temperature, moisture, force of blowing, and irregularities of calibre, that it can only be depended on for the pitch of vocal music, and is not to be trusted for more accurate determinations. A small reed pipe of the free species, in which the length of the vibrating portion of metal is controlled by a rotating spiral, is somewhat superior, and far less bulky than the older contrivance. ”

“ As with the drum among percussion instruments, so this instrument among wind instruments occupies a place of honor. The invention of the drum sums up for us all previously existing rhythmic musical impulses, and this collection of whistles gives us an instrument on which the production of a sequence of different tones or musical scale is possible. It has been given the poetical name of ‘Pan’s Pipes.’ These ‘Pan’s Pipes,’ of more or less primitive construction, are found quite generally among the savage tribes of the world. ”

“ The pipe is quite incorrectly held, more than two fingers being employed while the thumb is free.
Ibid., Vol III., p. 82. In a figure from Pierre Michaud’s Dance des Aveugles, 1485, the pipe has four instead of two holes on the upper surface.
Ibid., Vol III., p. 86. The pipe is incorrect, the holes being too far from the lower end of the instrument; the hand is wrongly given according to our standards, the little finger being flourished in the air. The tabor is suspended from the hand as in the English style, and is struck on the snare side. ”

“ It is obvious that to have a perfect chromatic scale a separate string or pipe is required for each note in such instruments as the organ and pianoforte, while it is obtained in those of the flute and oboe class by making additional 371holes in the tube at the correct intervals and covering them with close-fitting pads with levers (keys) within convenient reach of the fingers. (Having mentioned the oboe, it may be remarked in passing that its tone has been called “bagpipe music sublimated.”) ”

“ The pipe dance is one of the most animated amusements.
Basil. Oh! do tell us about the pipe dance.
Hunter. In the ground in the centre of the village a fire is lighted, and a party assemble round it; every one smoking his pipe, as he sits on his buffalo skin, as though nothing was farther from his thoughts than dancing. While these are whiffing away at a distance from the fire, a mystery man, who sits nearer to the flame, smokes a longer pipe, grunting at the same time a kind of tune. Suddenly is heard the rub-a-dub of a drum, or the beat of some other instrument of the same kind ”

“ In the first kind the wind is provided by means of bellows, and is admitted to each individual pipe or reed by the action of a key. The instruments of this kind are the Organ, Harmonium, Concertina, and Accordion. The only members of this class which differ from the others are the Syrinx or Pan's-pipes (which although it possesses a pipe for each sound has neither keys nor bellows, but is blown directly with the breath) and the Northumbrian and Irish Bag-pipes, which are provided with bellows, but have their pipes pierced with holes, as in the flute. ”

“ The ancients had it, and the sylvan divinity Pan, who can be identified with the Satan of Scottish superstition, is said to have appeared as a performer on the bagpipe. A flute with seven reeds was his favourite instrument, and this may be identified with the bagpipe of tradition. Popular belief in the seventeenth century labelled the pipes as the Devil’s favourite musical instrument. ”

“ For the details of these harp types of instruments see Dictionary of Antiquities.
The other instrument in common use is the flute. At its simplest, this is a mere shepherd’s pipe. Anybody can make one with a knife and some rushes. Then come elaborations; two pipes are fitted together into one wooden mouthpiece. Now, we really have an instrument with possibilities. But it is not in such favor in the schools as the lyre. You cannot blow day after day upon the flute and not distort your cheeks permanently. ”

“ The most common are the harp, fiddle, cittern or lute, hand-organ, the shalm or psaltery, the pipe and tabor, pipes of various sizes played like clarionets, but called flutes, the double pipe, hand-bells, trumpets and horns, bagpipes, tambourine, tabret, drum, and cymbals. Of the greater number of these we have already incidentally given illustrations; we add, on the last page, other illustrations, from the Royal MS., 2 B vii., and Royal MS. 14 E iii. In the fourteenth century new instruments were invented. ”

“ The Pan’s pipes as a musical instrument made its mark in history; in almost every land in some form or other it has existed as a popular instrument, and therefore a source of pleasure. Varied in form, and with pipes few or many, it is found on ancient sculptures and in paintings. Europe, Asia, Africa, and America show specimens of the instrument ancient, and often modern; for the use survives among some people not yet spoilt17 by premature civilization. The British Museum possesses a very peculiar specimen made of stone, which was found in Central America. ”

“ Aut. My clown (who wants but something to be a reasonable man) grew so in love with the wenches' song, that he would not stir his pettitoes, till he had both tune and words.
The tabor and pipe, in the servant's first speech, were common popular instruments. The tabor, of course, was a small drum, which was used as accompaniment to the pipe, a small whistle with three holes, but with a compass of 18 notes. (See Frontispiece.) In its curiously disproportionate compass, it may be compared to the modern 'Picco' pipe of the music shops. ”

“ In organ-pipes the air is agitated by causing it to issue from a narrow slit, and to strike upon a cutting edge. Some pulse of the flutter thus produced is raised by the resonance of the pipe to a musical sound.
When, instead of the aërial flutter, a tuning-fork of the proper rate of vibration is placed at the embouchure of an organ-pipe, the pipe speaks in response to the fork. In practice, the organ-pipe virtually creates its own tuning-fork, by compelling the sheet of air at its embouchure to vibrate in periods synchronous with its own. ”