Home / Albums / Tag musical instrument 179
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Bagpiper
167 visits
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Image 10442
351 visits
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Image 10435
244 visits
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Image 10318
285 visits
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The single flute was called monaulos, and the double one diaulos. A diaulos, which was found in a tomb at Athens, is in the British Museum. The wood of which it is made seems to be cedar, and the tubes are fifteen inches in length. Each tube has a separate mouth-piece and six finger-holes, five of which are at the upper side and one is underneath.
249 visits
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The Peruvians had the syrinx, which they called huayra-puhura. Some clue to the proper meaning of this name may perhaps be gathered from the word huayra, which signifies “air.” The huayra-puhura was made of cane, and also of stone. Sometimes an embroidery of needlework was attached to it as an ornament. One specimen which has been disinterred is adorned with twelve figures precisely resembling Maltese crosses. The cross is a figure which may readily be supposed to suggest itself very naturally; and it is therefore not so surprising, as it may appear at a first glance, that the American Indians used it not unfrequently in designs and sculptures before they came in contact with Christians.
211 visits
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A Muse with a Harp, and two others with Lyres.
From a Greek vase in the Munich Museum
The design on the Greek vase at Munich represents the nine Muses, of whom three are given in the engraving, viz., one with the harp, and two others with lyres. Some of the lyres were provided with a bridge, while others were without it. The largest was held probably on or between the knees, or were attached to the left arm by means of a band, to enable the performer to use his hands 30without impediment. The strings, made of catgut or sinew, were more usually twanged with a plektron than merely with the fingers. The plektron was a short stem of ivory or metal pointed at both ends.
247 visits
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Image 10137
2245 visits
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Our camp on a summer’s evening was a cheerful scene. At this hour, fires burned before most of the tepees; and, as the women had ended their day’s labors, there was much visiting from tent to tent. Here a family sat eating their evening meal. Yonder, a circle of old men, cross-legged or squat-on-heels in the firelight, joked and told stories. From a big tent on one side of the camp came the tum-tum tum-tum of a drum. We had dancing almost every evening in those good days.
846 visits
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Image 8888
392 visits
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A. Action Frame.
B's Indicate the Cushions, or Bushing, of felt, cloth or leather.
C. Balance Rail.
D. Balance Pin. Round.
E. Mortised Cap for Balance Pin. Bushed.
F. Key.
G. Lead.
H. Back Check.
I. Bottom or Key Rocker.
J. Bottom Screws; used to regulate height of Jack.
K. Jack.
L. Jack Spring; concealed under Bottom.
M. Center Pin to Jack.
N. Hammer Rail.
O. Regulating Screw.
P. Regulating Button.
Q. Flange Rail.
R. Flange. Split.
S. Flange Rail Screw.
T. Flange Screw, to regulate jaws of flange.
U. Hammer Butt.
V. Center Pin.
W. Hammer Stem or Shank.
X. Hammer Head.
Y. Hammer Felt. Treble hammers sometimes capped with buckskin in old instruments.
522 visits
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1. Indicates the felt, cloth or leather, upon which the various parts of the action rest, or fall noiselessly.
2. Key.
3. Bottom; sometimes called Key Rocker.
4. Extension; split at lower end to receive center pin in Bottom.
5. Wippen Support.
6. Jack.
7. Jack Spring.
8. Flange and Regulating Rail.
9. Regulating Screw, Button and Cushion.
10. Escapement Lever.
11. Regulating Screw in Hammer Flange, for Escapement Lever.
12. Check Wire, for Escapement Lever.
13. Screw to regulate fall of Escapement Lever.
14. Lever Flange, screwed to Flange Rail.
15. Hammer Shank.
16. Hammer.
17. Back Check.
18. Damper Lever, leaded.
19. Damper Wire, screwed into upright.
20. Damper Wire Guide, fastened to Sound-Board.
21. Damper Head and Felt.
0. Center Pins. Holes lined with Bushing Cloth.
428 visits
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Ky, is the Key in its resting position.
c, wherever found, represents a cushion of felt or soft leather upon which the different parts of the action rest or come in contact with each other. Their purpose, as is readily seen, is that of rendering the action noiseless and easy of operation.
Bnc R, shows the end of the balance rail, extending the entire length of the keyboard.
B P, is the balance pin. This is a perfectly round pin driven firmly in the balance rail. The bottom of the hole in the key fits closely around the balance pin; at the top, it is the shape of a mortise, parallel with the key, which allows the key to move only in the direction intended. The mortise in the wooden cap on top of the key at this point is lined with bushing cloth which holds the key in position laterally, and prevents looseness and rattling, yet allows the key to move easily.
436 visits
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The great god Pan, protector of the shepherds and their flocks, was half man, half goat. Every one loved this strange god, who yet ofttimes startled mortals by his wild and wilful ways. When to-day a sudden, needless fear overtakes a crowd, and we say a panic has fallen upon it, we are using a word which we learned from the name of this old pagan god.
Down by the streams the great god Pan was sometimes seen to wander—
‘What was he doing, the great god Pan,
Down in the reeds by the river?
Spreading ruin and scattering ban,
Splashing and paddling with hoofs of a goat,
And breaking the golden lilies afloat,
With the dragon-fly on the river.
‘He tore out a reed, the great god Pan,
From the deep cool bank of the river,’
and then sitting down he ‘hacked and hewed, as a great god can,’ at the slender reed. He made it hollow, and notched out holes, and lo! there was a flute ready for his use.
Sweet, piercing sweet was the music of Pan’s pipe as the god placed his mouth upon the holes.
674 visits
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The samisen is early taught. Girls of seven or thereabouts are made to learn it while their fingers are still very pliant. But the lessons are hard to learn as the tunes have to be committed to memory, for there are no scores to refer to. There is no popular method of notation; the marks which are sometimes to be seen in song-books are too few to be of use to any but skilled musicians.
The lighter samisen does not require much exertion to play; women can thrum it for hours on end; and they make slight indentations on the nails of the middle and ring fingers of the left hand for catching the strings when those fingers are moved up and down the neck to stop them. But with the heavier kind the indentations are deeper, and the constant friction of the strings hardens the finger-tips and often breaks the nails, while still worse is the condition of the right hand which holds the plectrum.
The plectrum, the striking end of which is flat as in the one for the slender-necked samisen, is heavily leaded and weighs from twelve ounces to a pound when used by professionals; and the handle, which is square, is held between the ring and little fingers for leverage and worked with the thumb and the forefinger.
1305 visits
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The only Japanese musical instrument taught in girls’ schools is the koto, a kind of zither. As the koto is the most adaptable of all Japanese instruments to western music, it is more readily learnt than others at schools where the piano and the violin are also taught. There are several kinds of koto, the number of strings on them ranging from one to twenty-five; but the one exclusively used at schools has thirteen strings It has a hollow convex body,six feet five inches long and ten inches wide at one end and half an inch narrower at the other, and stands on legs three and a half inches high. The strings are tied at equal distances at the head or broader end and gathered at the other; they are supported each by its own bridge, the position of which varies with the pitch required. Small ivory nails are put on the tips of the fingers for striking the strings.
1333 visits
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The Calabrian Bagpipe or Zampogna is a rudely carved instrument of the eighteenth century. It has four drones attached to one stock, hanging downwards from the end of the bag: two of them are furnished with finger-holes. The reeds are double like those of the oboe and bassoon. The bag is large; it is inflated by the mouth and pressed by the left arm against the chest of the performer. The Zampogna is chiefly used as an accompaniment to a small reed melody pipe called by the same name, and played by another performer. The quality of the tone produced is not unpleasing. It has five holes only, and consequently the seventh of the scale is absent, but this can be easily got by octaving the open note of the pipe and covering part of the lower opening of the chanter with the little finger.
The Musette, Zampogna, and Cornemuse here shown are from specimens belonging to Messrs. J. & R. Glen, Edinburgh.
362 visits
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This venerable instrument, the least impaired Gaelic Harp existing, is known as Queen Mary's Harp.
It is small, being only 31 inches high and 18 inches from back to front. It was played resting upon the left knee and against the left shoulder of the performer, whose left hand touched the upper strings. The comb is from 2½ to 3¼ inches high. It is inserted obliquely in the sound chest, and projects about 14 inches.
455 visits
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The extreme length of the Lamont Harp is 38 inches, and the extreme width 18½ inches. The sound chest, as with other ancient harps, is hollowed out of one piece of wood, but the back has been in this instrument renewed, although probably a long time ago. The sound chest is 30 inches long, 4 inches in breadth at the top, and 17 at the bottom. The comb projects 15½ inches. The broken parts of the bow are held together by iron clamps.
372 visits
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Beautiful horns of hammered and embossed bronze belonging to the Corporations of Canterbury and Dover. The right-hand one is from Dover, where it was formerly used for the calling together of the Corporation at the order of the mayor. The minutes of the town proceedings were constantly headed "At a common Horn blowing" (comyne Horne Blowying). This practice continued until the year 1670, and is not yet entirely done away with, as it is still blown on the occasion of certain Municipal ceremonies. The motto on this horn is:—
JOHANNES DE · ALLEMAINE · ME · FECIT ·
preceded by the talismanic letters A·G·L·A, which stand for the Hebrew
אַתָּה גִּבּוֹר לְעוֹלָם אֲדֹנָי
and mean, "Thou art mighty for ever, O Lord!" The horn, which is 31¾ inches long, with a circumference at the larger end of 15½ inches, is of brass, and is deeply chased with a spiral scrollwork of foliage chiefly on a hatched ground. The inscription is on a band that starts four inches from the mouth and continues spirally. The maker's name is now nearly effaced, but the inscription shows that he was a German, and the date is assigned to the thirteenth century.
467 visits
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A. Continuous bent rim.
B. Wooden struts.
C. Iron shoe holding struts and connecting with iron plate.
D. Main beam.
332 visits
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Back view of upright pianoforte, Knabe patents, showing ribbing of sound-board and construction of back framing.
373 visits
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Image 6843
360 visits
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Image 6841
366 visits
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Image 6840
415 visits
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Sketch of iron plate for concert grand, showing general arrangement of braces, belly-bridges and system of bolts for fastening to case.
A—B. Hammer line.
1. Body of plate.
2. Bass bridge.
3. Continuous treble bridge.
4. Agraffes.
5. Capo d’astro bar.
Plate is cast in one piece and scale is overstrung.
365 visits
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1. Key.
2. Jack.
3. Jack-operating spring.
4. Cushion limiting rebound of jack.
5. Under-hammer.
6. Hammer-butt.
7. Hinge of hammer-butt.
8. Hammer-shank.
9. Hammer head.
10. Check.
11. Damper-lifter.
12. Damper-head.
13. Action-beam.
14. Wrest-plank.
15. Tuning pins.
16. Bearing-bridge.
17. String.
388 visits
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Image 6839
371 visits
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1. Key.
2. Jack.
3. Jack-operating spring.
4. Cushion limiting rebound of jack.
5. Button and screw regulating escapement of hammer.
6. Hammer-butt and operating face.
7. Hammer-butt pivot.
8. Hammer-shank.
9. Hammer-head.
10. Check.
11. Damper-lifter.
12. Damper-head.
13. Action-rails.
414 visits
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1. Key.
2. Jack.
3. Jack operating spring.
4. Rail and cushion limiting travel of jack.
5. Button and screw regulating escapement of hammer.
6. Hammer-butt with operating notch.
7. Hammer-butt flange.
8. Hammer-shank.
9. Hammer-head.
10. Check.
13. Action-rails.
415 visits
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1. Key.
2. Wippen.
3. Jack.
4. Escapement lever.
5. Hammer-shank.
6. Roller.
7. Hammer-head.
8. Jack regulating button.
9. Regulating button to limit rise of escapement lever.
10. Hammer-butt.
11. Check.
12. Felt cushion to engage with check.
13. Sticker connecting key and wippen.
14. Action-rails.
15. Damper-head.
16. Damper operating device.
17. Device to limit travel of jack.
18. String.
19. Spring (v-shaped) for escapement lever and jack.
438 visits
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1. Key.
2. Wippen.
3. Jack.
4. Escapement lever.
5. Hammer-shank.
6. Hammer-butt notch.
7. Hammer-head.
8. Jack regulating button.
9. Regulating button to limit rise of escapement lever.
10. Hammer-butt.
11. Check.
12. Molded tail of hammer-head to engage with check.
13. Capstan-screw connecting key and wippen.
14. Action-rails.
15. Damper-head.
16. Damper-operating device.
17. Device to limit travel of jack.
18. Regulating device for escapement lever.
19. Springs (2) for escapement lever and jack.
20. String.
21. Flange.
390 visits
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Grand pianoforte action with metallic action and damper frames, sostenuto pedal device and hammer swinging soft pedal attachment.
22. Sostenuto pedal-rod.
23. Attachment to damper-lever engaging with sostenuto pedal-rod.
24. Metallic action and damper-brackets.
25. Hammer swing-rail and cushion.
26. Hammer swing-rail rod.
27. Hammer swing-rail lifter.
28. Lifter-rod.
29. Lost motion compensating levers.
30. Lost motion compensating levers.
364 visits
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1. Key.
2. Wippen.
3. Jack.
4. Escapement lever.
5. Hammer-shank.
6. Roller.
7. Hammer-head.
8. Jack-regulating button.
9. Regulating button to limit rise of escapement lever.
10. Hammer-butt.
11. Check.
12. Molded tail of hammer-head to engage with check.
13. Key-rocker and sticker connecting wippen and key.
14. Action-rails.
15. Damper-head.
16. Damper operating device.
17. Device to limit travel of jack.
18. Regulating device for escapement lever.
19. Separate springs for jack and escapement lever.
20. String.
21. Flanges.
322 visits
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1. Key-rocker.
2. Abstract.
3. Abstract-lever.
4. Flange.
5. Action-rail.
6. Wippen.
7. Jack.
8. Jack-spring.
9. Check.
10. Check-wire.
11. Bridle-wire.
12. Tip of bridle-tape.
13. Bridle-tape.
14. Back-stop.
15. Regulating rail.
16. Regulating button.
17. Regulating screw.
18. Hammer-butt.
19. Hammer-shank.
20. Hammer-molding.
21. Hammer-head.
22. Hammer-rail.
23. Hammer-butt spring.
24. Hammer-spring rail.
25. Damper-spoon.
26. Damper-lifting rod.
27. Damper-lever.
28. Damper-lever spring.
29. Damper-wire.
30. Damper-block.
31. Damper-head.
32. String.
33. Continuous brass hammer-butt flange.
311 visits
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Upright action showing lost-motion device, metallic regulating rail support, capstan screw, jack regulating rail and metallic action brackets.
34. Hammer-rail lifter-wire.
35. Hammer-rail swing-lever.
36. Hammer-rail lifter rod.
37. Lifter-rod lever.
38. Compensation-lever.
39. Capstan-screw.
40. Rail for limiting return movement of jack.
41. Metallic regulating rail support.
342 visits
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Image 6642
908 visits
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Image 6526
769 visits
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The Saw Ou, or Chinese fiddle, used in Siam, is suggestive of a modern croquet mallet, with pegs stuck in the handle, and has only two strings, fastened from the pegs to the head. It is played with a bow which the performer cleverly inserts between the strings.
652 visits
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A very curious instrument is known as the Ta'khay, or Alligator: a glance at its form will readily account for its name. There seems a sort of satire in making one of the most silent of savage monsters a medium for the conveyance of sweet sounds. The Ta'khay is a stringed instrument of considerable power, and in tone is not unlike a violoncello. The three strings pass over eleven frets or wide movable bridges, and the shape of the body is rather like that of a guitar. It is placed on the ground, raised on low feet, and the player squats beside it. The strings are sounded by a plectrum, or plucker, shaped like an ivory tooth, fastened to the fingers, and drawn backwards and forwards so rapidly that it produces an almost continuous sweet dreamy sound.
604 visits
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The Saw Tai is the real Siamese violin, and is frequently of most elaborate construction. The upper neck of the one shown in the illustration is of gold, beautifully enamelled, while the lower neck is of ivory, richly carved. The back of the instrument is made of cocoa-nut shell, ornamented with jewels. The membrane stretched on the sounding-board, which gives the effect of a pair of bellows, is made of parchment, and has often, as in this special instrument, a jewelled ornament inserted in one corner. The Saw Tai has three strings of silk cord, which, passing over a bridge on the sounding-board, run up to the neck, being bound tightly to it below the pegs. The player sitting cross-legged on the ground holds the fiddle in a sloping posture, and touches the strings with a curiously curved bow.
630 visits
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Another form of Marimba is popular amongst the natives of Guatemala, in Central America. Its construction is much that of a rough table, the top being formed of twenty-eight wooden bars or keys, from each of which hangs a hollow piece of wood, varying in size; these take the place of the resonating shells of the Zulu Marimba. The instrument is usually about six and a half feet long, by two and a half wide, and the keys are struck by hammers topped with rubber. Three performers often play together with great skill. This form of Marimba is also met with amongst the natives of Costa Rica.
615 visits
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The Zulus, or more correctly the Amazulus, take the front `rank` amongst the native tribes of the African continent. Their code of laws, military arrangements, and orderly settlements resemble those of civilised nations at many points.
Their dances are a national feature, and a great company of young warriors performing a solemn war dance is a most impressive sight. One of their chief instruments is the 'Marimba' or 'Tyanbilo,' a form of harmonium. The keys are bars of wood called Intyari, of graduated size. These are suspended by strings from a light wooden frame, either resting on the ground, or hung round the neck of the player. Between every two keys is a wooden bar crossing the centre bar to which the keys are attached. On each key two shells of the fruit known as the Strychnos McKenzie, or Kaffir Orange, are placed as resonators, one large and one small. The use of resonators is to increase and deepen the sound. The Marimba is played with drum-sticks of rubber, and the tone is good and powerful.
659 visits
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The Arpa or drum of Oceana is made of wood, and imitates the head and jaws of a crocodile, with a handle for carrying purposes.
The head is covered with snake-skin, which sometimes gives it an unpleasantly real appearance. It is used by the natives of New Guinea, especially by those dwelling around the Gulf of Papua.
514 visits
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The harp (the Soung) shown in the illustration is a favourite Burmese instrument, and is chiefly used to accompany the voice: it is always played by young men. It also has thirteen strings, made of silk, and is tuned by the strings being pushed up or down on the handle. It would sound strange to our ears, as the Burmese scale is differently constructed from ours. Every learner of music knows, or ought to know, that our scale has the semi-tones between the third and fourth, and the seventh and eighth notes, which gives a smooth progression satisfactory to our ears; but the Burmese scale places the semi-tones between the second and third and the fifth and sixth, which is quite different and to us has not nearly such a pleasant effect. The Soung is held with the handle resting on the left arm of the performer, who touches the strings with his right hand.
738 visits
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The instrument called Sho is blown with the mouth, and corresponds to the Chinese Cheng or Mouth Organ. The pipes are made of wood, with reed mouthpieces, and the notes are made by stopping the holes with the fingers. In some ways the construction is like that of a harmonium, but it is much more troublesome to play, and the performer, having to use his own breath to make the sounds, cannot sing at the same time. Unlike a harmonium also, it is difficult to keep in tune, and Miss Bird, a well-known traveller, tells of a concert at which the performer was obliged to be continually warming his instrument at a brazier of coals placed near. Some years ago a Japanese Commission was appointed to consider which of the national instruments were most suitable for use in schools; it rejected the Sho because its manufacture was troublesome and its tuning even worse.
818 visits
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Of all the so-called musical instruments of the world, that known as the Juruparis, used by the Indians of the Rio Negro, seems to involve most misery to humanity in general. To women and girls the very sight of it means death in some form or other, usually by poison, and boys are strictly forbidden to see it until grown to manhood, and then only after a most severe preliminary course of fasting.
The Juruparis is kept concealed in the bed of some stream far away in the gloomy forest, and wherever that river may wander, or however brightly its waters may sparkle in the sunny glades, no mortal who values his life may cool his parching lips with its freshness, or bathe his aching limbs in its clear depths. Only for solemn festivals is the Juruparis brought out by night and blown outside the place of meeting, and it is restored to its forest home immediately afterwards.
The word Juruparis means 'demon,' and it is supposed that its mysteries date back to some pre-historic Indian tradition, as various tribes inhabiting the vast forests round the Amazon district practise weird ceremonies in honour of the demons.
The Juruparis in casing. The Juruparis in casing.
In form the Juruparis is a slender tube from four to five feet long, made from strips of palm wood. Close to the mouth is an oblong hole, and when the instrument is to be used a piece of curved Uaruma or Arrowroot wood is inserted into the opening, which is then nearly closed with wet clay.
747 visits
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A smaller instrument of the same kind is also used in religious ceremonies, the 'the king,' made of one large block of 'yu,' suspended from an upright. It is played like the real 'king,' by being struck with a special stick or plectrum, and the tone, though less varied than that of the larger instrument, is equally deep and full.
628 visits
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Another curious Chinese instrument is the 'ou,' which is made of wood, and fashioned like a crouching tiger. It is hollow, and along its back run metal teeth, which are played with a small stick or brush. The 'ou' stands on a hollow pedestal, also of wood, which serves as a sounding board and increases the tone.
See also
585 visits
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THE original heading of this picture, as given by my Chinese artist, is " striking the flower drum." For the information of those who do not understand the Chinese idiom we must say that flower or flowery (for the position of the word alone determines its genus) is put for anything gay, and frequently means that which is not only gay and pleasing to the eye or senses, but sometimes also that which is dissolute and vicious. Thus " a flower boat " is a boat for a party of pleasure, used fre-quently by the Southern Chinese for an occasion of revelling and vice. A flower chair is the sedan chair used on occasions of a marriage festivity ; flower guns are guns for purposes of amusement, namely, squibs, rockets, and fireworks generally. The meaning of " a flower child " would never be guessed by the English reader ; it signifies nothing more than a beggar, most probably because beggars are usually a vagabond people, leading a wretched abandoned life. The Chinese beggar, like his European brother, notwithstanding all his hardships, greatly prefers his liberty with an occasional feast, frolic, and dance, to the toil of honest industry. I have myself in China clothed, fed, and housed a starving beggar boy, who ran away from me directly he was asked to take a spade and dig for an hour in the garden. The women in our picture are a kind of beggars, and as they play sprightly, exciting music, and sing gay and almost indecent songs, and I fear live frequently a corrupt life, they are called those who " strike the flower drum." The drum is not the only instrument they employ, but this is put generally for all other kinds of music. One of the figures is seen holding a small drum and a little slip of bamboo as drum-stick, the other has a tiny brass gong, and as she strikes her " flower gong," she deadens the sound with the other hand, to pre-vent the prolonged clang of the metal from drown-ing the words of her song. The little child carried on the back shows the ordinary method employed by beggars of stowing away their children when they are too young or too tired to follow their elders on foot. These street singers are not seen all the year round, they only appear on New-year festivities.
961 visits
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This engraving represents two persons dancing to the music of the horn and the trumpet, and it does not appear to be a common dance in which they are engaged; on the contrary, their attitudes are such as must have rendered it very difficult to perform
2313 visits
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A Horse dancing to the Pipe and Tabor
1313 visits
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The Hindus love amusements. They are fond of music and have many curious instruments. Dancing girls dance for the amusement of guests at feasts given in the homes of the wealthy. They usually take their own musicians with them; one of these plays upon a little drum, the other on a kind of guitar. Street exhibitions are frequent.
2592 visits
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The most important thing in Tibet is religion. Their religion, which is called Lamaism, is a sort of Buddhism peculiar to Tibet. Tibet might be called a theocracy, or a land where a god rules. For the ruler of Tibet, called the Dalai-lama, is considered no common man, but a real god on earth. Many centuries ago, in India, there lived a man named Gautama or Sakyi-muni. He was wise and good, and the new religion which he taught was a great improvement upon the Brahmanism of India. On account of his wisdom and goodness, he was called Buddha, but he never claimed to be himself a god. Since his death, however, many millions of people in many lands have worshipped him as a god.
1408 visits
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Image 4282
1042 visits
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Group of Western Lyres
1026 visits
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Egyptian Crotola or Castanets
1905 visits
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Egyptian Drums
1090 visits
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Jewish Rabbis refer their use to Genesis. xxii. 13
1290 visits
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A Sambuca or triangular harp
1034 visits
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Group of Harps and other musical instruments
1224 visits
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A framework with loose metal bars inserted, sometimes with metal rings added, shaken by the hand.
1060 visits
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Assyrian Harpist , beating time with his foot
1017 visits
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The next natural step for the use of music would be that of victory and triumph. The first notice of this kind is the song of Miriam. And here we may rightly conjecture the introduction of an Egyptian, and therefore cultured element. " Miriam took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances " (Exod. xv. 2o).
1600 visits
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The history of the Harp may be traced with much the same clearness. The twanging of the bow probably suggested the original idea; and the variation of sound was obtained by lengthening and shortening a multiplicity of strings. These were made, at first, of some fibrous material, or the long hair of animals. Perhaps even the tresses of wives and daughters were turned to such musical use, as we read in the Greek and Roman historians that the bows of the Carthaginians were thus supplied with strings in their last war with the Romans. Harps, too, like the bow, were portable, about four feet long; and all Oriental harps, so far as we can judge from surviving sculptures, unlike ours, had no front pillar. Their bow-like shape and characteristics long remained. Without entering at greater length on their further and later development, we can easily imagine how soon the need of pegs for tightening and loosening the strings was felt; how a sounding-board was found to add to the body of sound; how Strings of fibre or hair were supplanted by those of catgut, of steel, and even of silver. Whether the fingers or whether the quill and plectrum were the first manipulators of the strings, is a matter of debate. Certainly fingers were made long before either quills or plectra! Be it as it may, after these latter had been introduced, hammers wielded by the hand in due time followed. And thus we see how the "stringed instruments" of primaeval and ancient days became the parent of the dulcimer, the spinet, the harpsichord, and the piano.
1356 visits
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".. put two such pipes into the mouth, and you get the double Egyptian and Assyrian pipe, such as may be still seen sculptured on their monuments. In the holes or apertures of some of these pipes, which have
been discovered in the tombs and other places, small straws have been found, plainly intended to act the part of reeds in our modern oboes and clarionets. "
1196 visits
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The first and primaeval musical instruments must have been of the simplest kind.
A hollow reed, uttering, when blown with the mouth, one monotonous sound would be the first successful attempt at such an invention. The next step was to vary the sound by perforating it with holes, like to our " Penny Whistle."
1242 visits
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“Clay pipe from Babylon, the most ancient yet found, apparently modelled to imitate the skull of some animal. It still sounds clearly the intervals of the common chord.”
1078 visits
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Musical instrument divider
756 visits
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The idea of forming of a number of bells a musical instrument such as the carillon is said by some to have suggested itself first to the English and Dutch; but what we have seen in Asiatic countries sufficiently refutes this. Moreover, not only the Romans employed variously arranged and attuned bells, but also among the Etruscan antiquities an instrument has been discovered which is constructed of a number of bronze vessels placed in a row on a metal rod. Numerous bells, varying in size and tone, have also been found in Etruscan tombs. Among the later contrivances of this kind in European countries the sets of bells suspended in a wooden frame, which we find in mediæval illuminations, deserve notice. In the British museum is a manuscript of the fourteenth century in which king David is depicted holding in each hand a hammer with which he strikes upon bells of different dimensions, suspended on a wooden stand.
1222 visits
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The woodcut represents a very beautiful vielle; French, of about 1550, with monograms of Henry II. This is at South Kensington.
The contrivance of placing a string or two at the side of the finger-board is evidently very old, and was also gradually adopted on other instruments of the violin class of a somewhat later period than that of the vielle; for instance, on the lira di braccio of the Italians. It was likewise adopted on the lute, to obtain a fuller power in the bass; and hence arose the theorbo, the archlute, and other varieties of the old lute.
1381 visits
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The minstrels’ gallery of Exeter cathedral dates from the fourteenth century. The front is divided into twelve niches, each of which contains a winged figure or an angel playing on an instrument of music. The instruments are so much dilapidated that some of them cannot be clearly recognized; but, as far as may be ascertained, they appear to be as follows:—1. 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.
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. If it differed in any respect from the shalm, the difference consisted probably in the size only. The wait obtained its name from being used principally by watchmen, or waights, to proclaim the time of night. Such were the poor ancestors of our fine oboe and clarinet.
902 visits
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The bagpipe appears to have been from time immemorial a special favourite instrument with the Celtic races; but it was perhaps quite as much admired by the Slavonic nations. In Poland, and in the Ukraine, it used to be made of the whole skin of the goat in which the shape of the animal, whenever the bagpipe was expanded with air, appeared fully retained, exhibiting even the head with the horns; hence the bagpipe was called kosa, which signifies a goat. The woodcut represents a Scotch bagpipe of the eighteenth century.
753 visits
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Of the little portable organ, known as the regal or regals, often tastefully shaped and embellished, some interesting sculptured representations are still extant in the old ecclesiastical edifices of England and Scotland. There is, for instance, in Beverley minster a figure of a man playing on a single regal, or a regal provided with only one set of pipes; and in Melrose abbey the figure of an angel holding in his arms a double regal, the pipes of which are in two sets. The regal generally had keys like those of the organ but smaller. A painting in the national Gallery, by Melozzo da Forli who lived in the fifteenth century, contains a regal which has keys of a peculiar shape, rather resembling the pistons of certain brass instruments. The illustration has been drawn from that painting. To avoid misapprehension, it is necessary to mention that the name regal (or regals, rigols) was also applied to an instrument of percussion with sonorous slabs of wood.
909 visits
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That there was, in the time of Shakespeare, a musical instrument called recorder is undoubtedly known to most readers from the stage direction in Hamlet: Re-enter players with recorders. But not many are likely to have ever seen a recorder, as it has now become very scarce: we therefore give an illustration of this old instrument, which is copied from “The Genteel Companion; Being exact Directions for the Recorder: etc.” London, 1683.
1008 visits
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The pneumatic organ is sculptured on an obelisk which was erected in Constantinople under Theodosius the great, towards the end of the fourth century. The bellows were pressed by men standing on them: see page 103. This interesting monument also exhibits performers on the double flute. The hydraulic organ, which is recorded to have been already known about two hundred years before the Christian era, was according to some statements occasionally employed in churches during the earlier centuries of the middle ages. Probably it was more frequently heard in secular entertainments for which it was more suitable; and at the beginning of the fourteenth century appears to have been entirely supplanted by the pneumatic organ. The earliest organs had only about a dozen pipes.
788 visits
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The monochord was mounted with a single string stretched over two bridges which were fixed on an oblong box. The string could be tightened or slackened by means of a turning screw inserted into one end of the box. The intervals of the scale were marked on the side, and were regulated by a sort of movable bridge placed beneath the string when required. As might be expected, the monochord was chiefly used by theorists; for any musical performance it was but little suitable. About a thousand years ago when this monochord was in use the musical scale was diatonic, with the exception of the interval of the seventh, which was chromatic inasmuch as both b-flat and b-natural formed part of the scale. The notation on the preceding page exhibits the compass as well as the order of intervals adhered to about the tenth century.
671 visits
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Lute, Elizabethan
The lute was made of various sizes according to the purpose for which it was intended in performance. The treble-lute was of the smallest dimensions, and the bass-lute of the largest. The theorbo, or double-necked lute which appears to have come into use during the sixteenth century, had in addition to the strings situated over the finger-board a number of others running at the left side of the finger-board which could not be shortened by the fingers, and which produced the bass tones. The largest kinds of theorbo were the archlute and the chitarrone.
554 visits
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The bagpipe is of high antiquity in Ireland, and is alluded to in Irish poetry and prose said to date from the tenth century. A pig gravely engaged in playing the bagpipe is represented in an illuminated Irish manuscript, of the year 1300: and we give a copy of a woodcut from “The Image of Ireland,” a book printed in London in 1581.
854 visits
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The player on the viola da gamba, shown in the 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. It was usual for viol players to have “a chest of viols,” a case containing four or more viols, of different sizes. Thus, Thomas Mace in his directions for the use of the viol, “Musick’s Monument” 1676, remarks, “Your best provision, and most complete, will be a good chest of viols, six in number, viz., two basses, two tenors, and two trebles, all truly and proportionably suited.” The violist, to be properly furnished with his requirements, had therefore 119to supply himself with a larger stock of instruments than the violinist of the present day.
1229 visits
