DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

472 INSTRUMENT INSTRUMENT
are produced from a single tube, either by
varying its length, or by the action of the lip
in blowing. 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.
Tlie only menrbers of this class wdiich diti'er from
the others are the Syrinx or Pan's-pipes (wdiich
althougli it possesses a pipe for each sound has
neither keys nor bellows, but is blown directly
with the breath) and tlie jSTorthunibrian and
Irish bag-pipes, which are provided with bellows,
but have their pipes pierced with holes, as in
the flute. Wind instruments whicli have but
a single tube are made of either w'ood or metal
(generally brass), and tlie various sounds of
which they are capable are produced, in the
case of two of the metal instruments— the Horn
and Trumpet, —by simply altering the tension
of the lips in blowing, while in the otliers and
in the wood instruments this alteration is supplemented
and assisted by varying the length
of the tube. In brass instruments the length
of the tube is altered in three different ways ;
first, by means of a slide, one part of the tube
being made to slip inside the other, after the
manner of a telescope ; secondly, by valves,
which when pressed have the ert'ect of adding a
small piece of tube to the length of the circuit
through wliich the wind passes ; and thirdly,
by keys, which uncover holes in the tube, and
so shorten the amount of tube which is available
for the vibrating column of air. The brass
instruments witli slides are the Trombone and
Slide Trumpet ; those with valves are the
Cornet a pistons. Valve Horn, Valve Trumpet,
Flugelliorn or Valve Bugle, Saxhorn, Valve
Trombone, Euphonium, Bombardon, Bass Tuba,
and Contrabass Tuba ;
wliile those with keys are
the Key-bugle or Kent Bugle and the Ophicleide.
All these are played witli a cup-shaped mouthpiece.
Wood wind instruments have the tube
pierced with holes, which are covered by the
fingers or by keys, and the uncovering of the holes
shortens the amount of tube available for vibration
au'l so gives notes of higher pitch. Some
of them receive the breath directly through a
suitably shaped opening ; these are the Flute,
Piccolo (i. e. Jkmto piccolo, a small flute), Fife,
and the Flageolet and the toy 'tin whistle,'
which two last are survivors of the now obsolete
family of flMes a bee. In others tlie sound is
produced from the vibrations of a split reed,
which is either single and fixed in a frame or
mouthpiece, as in the Clarinet and Bassethorn
[see Clarinet], or double, consisting of two
reeds bound together so as to form a tube with
the upper end flattened out, as in the Oboe, Cor
Anglais or Oboe di Caccia, Bassoon, and Contra-
fagotto or Double Bassoon. One wind instrument
of wood remains to be mentioned, the
use of which is becoming rare, though it is still
occasionally met with in military bands. This
is the Serpent, which dillers from all other
wood instruments in having a cup-shaped
mouthpiece, similar to that of the trumpet. It
is the only remaining member of a now extinct
family of German wood instruments called
Zinken (Ital. Cornetli), which were formerly
much used in the Church service, and were in
use
the
as late as 171.5 for playing chorales at
top of church towers. ^ (See, Pipe, Wind
In.strumexts.)
2. Stringed Instruments (Ger. Saiten-in-
strumente ; Ital. ,Stro»ienti da corde ; Fr. In-
struvients a cordes).— In all these the sound is
produced from stretched strings of either catgut,
wire, or occasionally silk, the naturally feeble
resonance of wdiicli is in all cases strengthened
bya sound-board. Aswith the wind instruments,
some of these are provided with a separate string
for each note, wliile in others the various sounds
are obtained by shortening the strings, of which
there are now never fewer than three, by piressure
with the fingers. Stretched strings are thrown
into vibration in three difl'erent ways— friction,
plucking, and percussion.
The mode of friction usually employed is that
of a bow of horse-hair, strewn with powdered
rosin (see Bow), and instruments so played are
called ' ' bowed instruments (Ger. Streichinstrumente).
They are the Violin, Viola or Tenor,
Violoncello, and Contrabasso or Double Bass ;
and an humble though ancient member of the
same family is occasionally met with in the
Hurdy-gurdy, in which the friction is produced
by the edge of a wooden wheel strewn with
rosin and revolving underneath the strings.
In this instrument the stopping or shortening
of the strings is eflfected by means of a
series of keys, Avhich are pressed by the fingers
of the left hand, while the right hand turns the
wdieel. [See HuRDY-GuKDY,]
The instruments played by plucking are the
Harp, in which each note has a separate string,
and the Guitar, Mandoline, and Banjo, in which
the strings are ' stopped ' by pressure with the
fingers upon a finger-board, provided with
slightly raised transverse bars, called frets. In
the Cither or Zither, an instrument much used
in Switzerland and the Tyrol, five of the thirty
strings are capable of being stopped with the
fingers, while the remaining twenty-five are
played ' open,' giving but one sound each. In
most of these instruments the plucking takes
place mth the tips of the fingers (j)izzv:ato), but
in the Zither the thumb of the right hand is
armed with a ring bearing a kind of metal claw,
wdiile in the instruments of the Mandoline family
a plectrum of tortoiseshell is used. In the
Harpsichord and Spinet the strings were also
played by plucking, each key being provided
with a small piece of quill or stiff leather.
> ' In 1636 was publiahed in Paris a Plntntiaie i cinq partiea.
pour les Cornets, jiar II. Lejeune.' J. S. Bach occasionally UBea
them in his Church Cantatas.