Single chorus 101
Double chorus 101
Sackbut 101
Syrinx 102
Pneumatic organ, fourth century 103
Organ, twelfth century 104
Regal 104
Cymbalum, ninth century 105
Bunibulum 106
Orchestra on bas-relief 108
Vielle 109
Orchestra, twelfth century, at Santiago 110
The minstrels’ gallery, at Exeter cathedral 112
Virginal 114
Lute, Elizabethan 116
Viola da gamba 118
Recorder 119
Scotch bagpipe, eighteenth century 120
Irish bagpipe, sixteenth century 121
Carillon, Netherlands 122
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Music, in however primitive a stage of development it may be with some
nations, is universally appreciated as one of the Fine Arts. The origin
of vocal music may have been coeval with that of language; and the
construction of musical instruments evidently dates with the earliest
inventions which suggested themselves to human ingenuity. 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. In tropical countries
bamboo or some similar kind of cane and gourds are especially made
use of for this purpose. 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, &c.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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