Musical Instruments, Historic, Rare and UniqueHipkins, Alfred J. (Alfred James)
History
Musical Instruments, Historic, Rare and Unique
Hipkins, Alfred J. (Alfred James)
Musical instruments
The Ti-tzu to the left in the Plate is the Chinese flute. It is
usually bound round with waxed silk and ornamented with tassels. It
has seven holes besides the embouchure, that nearest to the latter
being covered with a thin membrane as in the Provençal galoubet,
taken from the sap of the bamboo and melted at the moment it is
applied, intended to make the quality of tone more reedy. The
remaining six holes are stopped by the fingers. According to Mr. Van
Aalst, twelve notes in a diatonic succession, beginning upon the A
of the violin, form the compass of this instrument, but with much
uncertainty of intonation, which may be as much due to the measuring
for boring by the instrument-makers as to the peculiarities of an
ideal Chinese scale. The scale played at the Health Exhibition, South
Kensington, in 1884, by a native ti-tzu player, was a B flat scale
with the third rather sharper than the minor but less than the major
third, that is, a neuter third, which, as we have seen, is frequently
met with in Eastern non-harmonic scales. However, there is great
difficulty in determining wind instrument scales accurately, from the
power the player has to alter intonation by blowing differently.
The Chinese So-na is a copper wind instrument--a kind of oboe--played
with a double reed. On account of the shortness of the reed there
is a disk below it to protect the lips of the player. There are
two small pierced copper spheres like those in the trumpets in Fra
Angelico's paintings, beneath which are the seven finger-holes
in the front and two thumb-holes behind the pipe. A loose brass
cone of considerable size covers the lower end and is fastened
to the upper by a string. This instrument is possibly the Indian
Soonai. There are nine notes, as in the Scotch bagpipe, which
the So-na somewhat resembles in quality of tone, but it is more
strident and disagreeable. The scale, as played by a native at the
Health Exhibition, gave intervals of whole and three-quarter tones
resembling the bagpipe, but as the performer succeeded in playing
with other instruments that apparently differed in scale, the
accommodation in blowing must be credited with the approximately
satisfactory result.
The Yueh-ch'in, or Moon Guitar, so called from the shape of the
sound-board, has four silk strings tuned as fifths in pairs. The
strings are struck with the finger-nails, which the Chinese wear
long, or a plectrum. The strings are sometimes of copper instead of
silk. The instrument is chiefly used to accompany the voice, and the
repetition of a note, as in the P'i-p'a, appears to be a favourite
effect.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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