May 11th 2009
On some temples in India, every square centimetre of wall- surface is covered with erotic carvings: people and animals coupling in every conceivable position, a monument to the exuberance and ecstasy of sex. Continue Reading »
October 7th 2008
In addition to the notes of the four “open” strings, the players make many other notes by stopping the string with the fingers of their left hands. When a string is pressed against the fingerboard, its length is shortened, and a higher sound is produced. The closer to the sound box the finger is pressed, the higher the note. There is nothing on the fingerboard to tell a player exactly where to place his fingers (that is, unlike a guitar, a violin has no frets); he must listen very carefully and practise hard to learn where the right spots are for each note. Continue Reading »
September 27th 2008
The timpani are different because they can be tuned to a definite pitch. The timpani shell looks like a very large bowl made of copper. The head is stretched across the top of the bowl. The player is able to tune the timpani by pushing on a foot pedal attached to a tuning mechanism inside the drum. Since each timpani can only be tuned to four or five different pitches, the instruments are used in sets. As many as five drums of various sizes may be played by one drummer (timpanist). Continue Reading »
September 27th 2008
One of the most fascinating families of instruments is found in the very last row of the orchestra—the percussion section. Any instrument whose sound is made by striking or used only for special sound effects, or is not a member of one of the other instrument families is naturally assigned to the percussion section. Since it contains instruments of many different shapes, sizes, and sounds, the percussion section has been given the nickname “kitchen of the orchestra“. Continue Reading »
August 14th 2008
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. Continue Reading »
August 9th 2008
The part for the timpani, or kettle drums, is written on a stave above that of the first stringed instrument, be it harp, violins, or that other percussion instrument, the piano. The notes to which the two or three drums are to be tuned are named at the beginning of the score, any alterations being indicated as they occur. Each drum has a compass of a fifth. Continue Reading »
July 26th 2008
Whatever the shape and size of those earlier pianos, the makers always strove for elegance. The cabinets of the small squares, supported on elegantly turned legs, became collectors’ pieces of furniture, and many an action was ripped out in order to convert the silent shell into something more useful such as a cocktail cabinet or dressing table. Woods were carefully chosen for their grain and craftsmen indulged in filigree fretwork for the music rack on either side of which glowed merry brass candlesticks. Some grands were decorated with brass inlay and one piano at least was made entirely of brass. Hand-pleated silk of superior quality concealed the sound board and strings of the uprights. All this contributed to making pianos desirable adornments of the home, a pleasure to look at as well as to hear. Mass production spoiled all that and all pianos began to sound alike and to look alike — hence the necessity for writing the name on the instrument as well as in the concert or recital programme. Continue Reading »
July 26th 2008
The piano is rarely used as an instrument of the orchestra, but when it is the part is written in the score between the percussion and strings. The piano is a percussion instrument since the strings are struck by hammers.
Today the piano is the heaviest of all musical instruments, the cabinet being uniformly sombre in colour and the several legs of muscular appearance on account of the weight they have to bear.Unlike any other instrument of the orchestra the name of the maker could sometimes be read by the audience because it used to be announced in large letters. Continue Reading »
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