Repertoire

According to Berlioz the flute ‘is an instrument well-nigh devoid of expression, but which may be introduced anywhere and everywhere, on account of its facility in executing groups of rapid notes, and in sustaining high sounds useful in the orchestra for adding fullness to the upper harmonies.’ This is a fair description of the way the flute is generally written for in orchestral works, but there are many exceptions. The sounds of the middle and upper registers combine well with any ensemble and add lustre. The lower register lacks penetration but has a soft and seductive quality. ‘These low sounds‘, wrote Berlioz in his Treatise on Instrumentation, `are seldom, or else ill, employed by the majority of composers.’ All the great orchestrators have however always known how to write for the low register. (More…)

dodoAmplifier, Bose, Drums, Folk Music, Headphones, Microphone, Music Box, Music Equipments, Sony, Yamaha31 Aug, 20083 Comments

The compass of the flute is three octaves from middle C, but a good player can obtain a few notes above this. The piccolo sounds an octave above, but from b.

The flute is the only woodwind instrument held crosswise, parallel to the shoulders. Sometimes it is made of dart wood, sometimes of glittering silver. The sound, which is produced by blowing across the embouchure or blow hole, has a relatively simple and uncoloured quality due to the small number of harmonics present in it. When the breath strikes the sharp edge of the embouchure it enters the tube, sets the column of air in motion and this in its turn agitates the body of the instrument. (More…)

dodoMusic Box, Music Equipments, Woodwinds31 Aug, 20086 Comments

The timbre of the oboe can be identified more easily and quickly than that of any other instrument of the orchestra because during tuning up it can be heard sounding long, steady As to which the whole orchestra, in what seems like a total chaos of sound, tune their strings, pipes and percussion.

Made of grenadilla, rose or’ cocus wood, the oboe has a narrow conical bore terminating in a slight flare or bell. It is held vertically and the double reed, which is mounted in the top, is held in the ‘player’s mouth,. When blown the lips of the double reed start beating; this drives beaten air into the pipe which then becomes alive with sound. The quality of sound or timbre depends to a major degree on the dimensions of the reed, the grain and its density. (More…)

dodoGuitar, Piano31 Aug, 20085 Comments

The clarinet is generally described as being a stopped cylindrical tube, but in fact only roughly two thirds are perfectly cylindrical. Part of the tube leading to the bell is conical, and so is the mouthpiece, which does not hermetically seal the top.

These factors, plus the fact that the surface of the bore of the tube is not perfectly smooth on account of the key holes, all contribute to the complex timbre. Uneven harmonics are present in force in the lower register and diminish in number towards the higher, where even harmonics are present. (More…)

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The saxophone has to be treated as a family of seven instruments of different sizes, each one covering 4 octaves and all seven a compass of 51 octaves. Saxophones look like outsize metal tobacco pipes supported by neck slings, apart from the sopranos which are shorter, parabolic cones. All have a single reed, clarinet-type mouthpiece. Classed as woodwinds, though made of brass, their part is written in a treble clef on a stave beneath the clarinets. (More…)

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The bassoon has a compass of 31 octaves. It is written for in a bass or tenor clef on a stave in between the clarinet and the horn.

This large woodwind instrument, usually made of maple, can be identified by the fact that it is held diagonally across the body, supported by a neck sling or sometimes by a floor spike in the butt or bottom of the tubing. The longish, curved crook that carries the double reed is another distinguishing feature. The sound has different characteristics in different registers, but in legato passages in the upper register the sound has been compared to that of the human voice, and therefore has been called vox humana. (More…)

dodoHome Theater, Music Box, Music Equipments, Woodwinds23 Aug, 20085 Comments

Horn parts are written in treble and bass clefs without key signature, accidentals being written in as they occur. The horn is a transposing instrument and sounds a fifth lower than written in the treble clef but a fourth higher in the bass clef.

In his book on the French horn Morley Pegge described the sound of the instrument as ‘the most refined and poetical voice in the symphony orchestra’. Its emotional range certainly covers the moods from martial to melancholy. (More…)

dodoBrass, Piano23 Aug, 20083 Comments

The bass drum stands vertically, the rim of the shallow wooden shell facing the audience. This was originally known as the Turkish drum. Sometimes it has two heads, sometimes only one, the former model producing somewhat greater clarity. It is beaten with upward — or downward — glancing blows with a soft stick, and sometimes brushed simultaneously on the other side with a switch of sorts. (More…)

dodoBehringer, Denon, Drums, Guitar, Sony, Violin, Yamaha14 Aug, 20085 Comments

The staves for the percussion instruments are massed in the middle of the score. Who plays what depends on manpower, availability and ability.

The glockenspiel and celesta are both metallophones, the first having a resemblance to a small xylophone and the second to a small piano.

`Glockenspiel‘ means ‘bell-play’ in German. The glockenspiel used in marching bands is a set of steel bars set in a lyre-shaped frame. Mozart specified an instrumento d’ acciaio (steel instrument) for the part of Papageno’s magic bells in Die Zauberflote; this may have been a set of small tuned bells played from a keyboard like a modern celesta. These bells were also used by carillon players for practice. (More…)

dodoDrums, Electric Guitar, Multimedia, Music Box, Music Equipments, Percussion Instruments, Piano, Yamaha14 Aug, 20083 Comments

Before Bach, trumpeters were classified as principals and clarino players, the former playing in the lower register with its widely-stepped harmonics, the latter in the high register where the harmonics lie close together. Shanks and crooks were already used as early as 1600 and by the end of the 18th century there were crooks for every key. These altered the timbre of the instrument, and there was some degree of energy loss as the vibrating air column negotiated the loops. Then came the valves, introducing more loops, and someone writing at the time of their application, towards the end of the 19th century, described them as ‘a failure as they obscure the upper harmonics, the main source of characteristic tone’. (More…)

dodoBass Guitar, Brass, Drums, Guitar, Jazz, Musical Instruments, Popular Music, Trumpet14 Aug, 20083 Comments