Reed (musical instrument)

“ As the free reed does not touch its frame it is less harsh in quality. But the latter variety of reed is of very recent introduction into Europe. Strangely enough, it has been taken from a Chinese mouth organ of great antiquity, the Shêng! This Chinese instrument has seventeen sounding pipes, each furnished with a small brass or copper free reed, and is usually sounded by drawing in the wind, not blowing, being in this respect followed by the present American organ. ”

“ The single or beating reed consists of a single blade bevelled at the edge and placed over a table or frame communicating with the main bore of the instrument, against which it beats, causing a series of pulsations. The single reed is common to all the members of the clarinet family, consisting, besides the clarinet, of the basset-horn or tenor, and of the bass and pedal clarinets; of the batyphone, an early bass clarinet, and of the saxophone, a metal oboe with a beating reed instead of a double reed. ”

“ The lute or possibly cittern; (2) the bagpipe; (3) the clarion or the shalm; (4) the rebec; (5) the psaltery or the harp; (6) the jew’s harp (?) ; (7) the sackbut or the clarion; (8) the regals; (9) the gittern, a small guitar strung with catgut; (10) the shalm (?) ; (11) the timbrel, 103 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. ”

“ There is just one instant more together, with the thunders and the lightnings all around us, then I am alone, except for mine violin.
“Do you not see? There must always be pain. The dear God has made mine instrument, and in the same way He has made me, with the cutting and the bruises and the long night. I, too, have known the storm and all the fury of the winds and rain. Like the [Pg 228] tree, I have aspired, I have grown upward, I have done the best I could. Otherwise, I should not be fitted to play on mine Cremona—I would not deserve to touch it, and so, in a way, I am glad. ”

“ By pressing the reed with the lip near the base where it is thicker and stiffer, and increasing the pressure of the breath, the air-column is forced to divide and to sound the 438 harmonics, a principle well understood by the ancient Greeks and Romans in playing upon the aulos and tibia.3 This is easier to accomplish with the double reed than with the beating reed; in fact with a tube of wide diameter, such as that of the modern clarinet, it would not be possible by this means alone to do justice to the tone of the instrument or to the music now written for it. ”

“ The violin is the most noble of instruments. It is for those who have been sorry to play to those who are. You have nothing to give, but it is one pity to lose your fine technique. Since you wish to amuse, [Pg 146] change your instrument, and study the banjo, or perhaps the concertina.”
Lynn understood no more than if Herr Kaufmann had spoken in a foreign tongue. “I may have to stop for a little while,” he said, “for my aunt is ill, and I can’t practise.”
“Practise here,” returned the Master, indifferently. “Fredrika will not care. Or go to the office of mine friend, the Herr Doctor. ”

“ He went back to his violin, tightened a string, and began to play, alone. The melody was as delicate in structure as the instrument itself, yet strangely full of longing. Slowly the violin gave back the music of which it was made; the wind in the forest, the sound of many waters, moonlight shimmering through green aisles of forest, the mating calls of Spring. And again, through it all, surged some great question to which Rose thrilled in unspoken answer ”

“ The reed employed is nothing but a thin strip of brass with a tongue slit in it, the vibration of which causes the musical sound. One of the reeds, though it produces a volume of sound only surpassed by the pipes of an organ, weighs about an ounce, and can be carried in a vest-pocket. In fact, a cabinet organ is simply an accordeon of immense power and improved mechanism. Twenty years ago, one of our melodeon-makers chanced to observe that the accordeon produced a better tone when it was drawn out than when it was pushed in; and this fact suggested the first great improvement in the melodeon. ”

“ It is one quiet place where one can rest undisturbed and think of many things. Fredrika would not care.”
Weeks later, Lynn thought of the kindly offer. A storm was coming up, and he remembered that the Master had spoken of driving to another town with Dr. Brinkerhoff. “I have one violin,” he had explained, “which was ordered long ago and which is now finished. While the Herr Doctor visits the sick, I will go on with mine instrument and perhaps obtain one more pupil.”
Fräulein Fredrika answered his ring, and he asked, conventionally, for Herr Kaufmann. “Mine brudder is not home,” she said. ”

“ As before, Lynn saw chiefly the technique. Never for a moment did he forget the instrument. Iris was trembling, for she well knew those high and lonely places of the spirit, within the borders of Gethsemane.
The Master put down the violin and sighed. “Come,” faltered Iris, “it is late and we must go.”
He did not hear, and it was Fräulein Fredrika who went to the door with them. “Franz is thinking,” she whispered. “He is often like that. He will be most sorry when he learns that you have gone.” ”

“ The reeds only sound by suction: you draw the breath through, and that sets the reed vibrating and sounding,215 whilst the note on an instrument is being tuned. To blow through on to the reeds would horrify the native musician, because the moisture of the breath would lodge and injure the durability of the reed. To have a set of pipes as these, is as it would be to us if we had a dozen tuning forks in a case to tune our pianos by for ourselves. All the stringed instruments in Japan require to be properly tuned every time they are played ”

“ The reed is carefully thinned at the point where it vibrates against the curved table of the mouthpiece. The vibration is caused by the air pressure against the reed, thus engendering sound. The air-column in the instrument is shortened, or lengthened, by the opening, or closing, of the holes and keys, emitting high, or low, sounds accordingly. The reed vibrates through the action of the air. The lips of the player merely encompass the reed and mouthpiece, slightly pressing the reed. ”

“ Diamonds dripped from every twig, and the grass was full of them. The laughter of happy children came to his ears, and a rainbow of living light spanned the valley. Its floating draperies overhung the topmost branches of the trees on the crest of the opposite hill, and picked out here and there a jewel—a ruby, an opal, or an emerald, set in the silvered framework of the leaves.
Lynn sighed heavily, for the beauty of it sent the old, remorseless pain to surging through his heart. The Master’s violin lay on the piano near him, and he took it up, noting only that it was not the Cremona. ”

“ Edith at the Piano
Smiling, and wholly unconscious, it was as though she pleaded with the instrument to give her back some half-forgotten melody. Presently the strings answered, shyly at first, then in full soft chords that sang and crooned through the dusk. Alden, in his remote corner, drew a long breath of rapture. The ineffable sweetness of her pervaded his house, not alone with the scent of violets, but with the finer, more subtle fragrance of her personality. ”

“ The free reed is not represented among members of the modern wood wind, and, as adapted to a directly-blown instrument, only finds application in the Chinese cheng, the prototype of the harmonium, and in the mouth organ or harmonica. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Low, quivering tones came from the Cremona, like the sobs of a woman whose heart was broken. Suddenly, Iris knew that she belonged to Lynn—that through love or hate she was bound to him forever. Then, in a blinding flood came the tears.
Slowly the adagio swept to its end, and yet [Pg 314] she could not move. The music ceased, and yet the silence held her spellbound, vainly praying for the strength to go away. She heard the click of the lock as the violin case was closed, the quick step to the door, and the turning of the knob. ”

“ The rod is clasped by India-rubber bands, which entirely close the tin tube. The lower end of the rod rests upon the sound-board of the piano, its upper end being exposed before you. An artist is at this moment engaged at the instrument, but you hear no sound.116 When, however, a violin is placed upon the end of the rod, the instrument becomes instantly musical, not, however, with the vibrations of its own strings, but with those of the piano. When the violin is removed, the sound ceases; putting in its place a guitar, the music revives. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Miss Evelina sighed, deeply, and the Piper put his hand on hers.
"I'm not meaning to reproach you," he said, kindly, "though, truly, I do think you have played wrong. In any music I have heard, there has never been any one instrument that has played all the time and sadly. When there is sadness, there is always rest, and you have had no rest." ”

“ 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. ”

“ The same applies to the coupling of two instruments of the same kind, such as 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons. The quality of tone will lose nothing of its individuality, and will gain in power, but its capacity for expression will be diminished accordingly. An-49- instrument enjoys greater independence and freedom when used as a solo than when it is doubled. The use of doubling and mixed timbres is naturally more frequent in loud passages than in soft ones, also where expression and colour is broad rather than individual or intimate in character. ”

“ In these experiments the reed was compelled to accommodate itself throughout to the requirements of the vibrating column of air.
Fig. 106.
The clarinet is a reed-pipe. It has a single broad tongue, with which a long, cylindrical tube is associated. The reed-end of the instrument is grasped by the lips, and by their pressure the slit between the reed and its frame is narrowed to the required extent. The overtones of a clarinet are different from those of a flute. A flute is an open pipe, a clarinet a stopped one, the end at which the reed is placed answering to the closed end of the pipe. ”

“ The peculiar triangular shape of the Balaläika is of very primitive character, the curved form in lutes and guitars being an artistic development. In a delightfully realistic Russian bronze shown at the Health Exhibition, South Kensington, 1884, the performer simultaneously holds the neck of the instrument and stops the strings with his left hand, while he touches them, guitar fashion, with his right hand, the instrument being free from any other support whatever. ”

“ The boy trembled. In slow, measured sweetness the music came—a deep wonderful harmony that held him spellbound. There was a tender cadence that swayed the player's soul, and into the theme crept the passionate pain of one who had loved and lost.
The child knew that the man was suffering—that music like that could only come from an aching heart. With double notes, in a minor key, the master played on; then the violin slipped to the floor unheeded, and the old man laid his head on the window sill, and wept like a child.
Pedro crept away; he could bear no more. ”

“ The latest development of flute and reed pipes is to be found in the flute, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon of the modern orchestra. Plates XXXVIII. and XXXIX. represent instruments that have been the immediate precursors of or are identical with the instruments named. One, the Dolciano or Tenoroon with a clarinet reed, is of unusual importance as possibly anticipating the invention of the Saxophone. ”

“ Raised to the strings in playing, these tangents set the strings in vibration, and at the same time form bridges to measure off the lengths required for the notes. The red cloth, woven in the strings behind the tangents, damps the sound. As far as we have met with the clavichords, the instrument has had two, sometimes three strings of brass wire to each note tuned in unison; the treble being, however, occasionally of steel wire to cause a brighter sound. There were sometimes octave strings to the lowest bass octave, after the manner of some theorboes, to make those notes distinct. ”