At that time, recorders were rare instruments.

Seven-year-old Carl Dolmetsch put the bag down to rest his arms. Just then, the platform gates opened and the crowd of travellers surged forward. It was only when the train left the station that Arnold Dolmetsch discovered that his son had left the bag on the platform! The rare recorder was lost!

Arnold Dolmetsch set about making a new recorder in his workshop. Fortunately, he had made careful drawings and measurements of the old recorder. But it took a long time before Arnold was satisfied with the new instrument. He decided to make more recorders so that more people could learn to play them. The Dolmetsch family set up production in a factory. By the 1930s, the recorder was becoming as popular an instrument as it had been 200 years before.

Are you wondering what happened to the recorder that was lost at Waterloo Station? Well, many years later it was found for sale in a junk shop. It was returned to the Dolmetsch family.

And Carl, the seven-year-old who lost it? He grew up to be a talented musician and craftsman.

In and out of favour

When the recorder was a fashionable instrument in Europe, composers wrote pieces of music especially for groups of recorder players. Then musical fashions changed. Composers began writing music for larger and larger orchestras. Audiences enjoyed listening to dramatic music in large concert halls. But the recorder was not suited to large places — it is best suited to small, intimate musical gatherings where its gentle sound can be appreciated. So people stopped playing and making recorders.

Today, the recorder is popular again, thanks largely to the Dolmetsch family. Recorders are not too expensive to buy or difficult to learn to play, so they are a good instrument for young people to choose. Recorders come in different sizes. The large recorder is the bass, which plays the low notes. The smallest is the sopranino, which plays the highest notes.

Making the fingering easier

A German jeweller and goldsmith called Theobald Boehm found an answer to this problem. Boehm was also an enthusiastic flute player and, around 1830, he concentrated his skills on improving the design of the concert flute. He wanted to make the complicated fingering easier. He invented an intricate system of keys, pads, hinges and levers to cover and uncover the holes. This made the fingering much easier.

If you look at concert flutes, you will see how Boehm’s system helps the flautist. It means that the player can press a lever and cover more holes than would be possible with the fingers. So the skilled flautist can play intricate music easily!

Different flutes

Some flautists prefer the sound of a wooden flute, but most concert flutes are now made from metal. There are two other kinds of metal flutes that are larger than the concert flute and play lower notes. They are called the bass flute and the alto flute and are usually played in quiet pieces of music, where their mellow sound can be heard best.

If you listen to The Magic Flute, an opera by the Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, you will hear a concert flute played to great effect.

It is used to mimic the sound of panpipes played by one of the main characters, Papageno.

The piccolo

The concert flute has a small relative. It is half the size and plays twice as high. It is called the piccolo flute, because piccolo means small in Italian. The piccolo has the same system of keys as the concert flute. You can hear the piccolo in the Nutcracker Suite, which was written by the Russian composer Peter Tchaikovsky.

Early trumpets and horns were traditionally made from wood, animal horn, clay or bone. The long trumpet comes from Tibet. It is so long that the player has to rest the cone-shaped end in a forked tree to play it! The natural horn from Africa is made from an antelope’s horn.

Musical shells

Long ago, people discovered that some giant seashells were excellent ready- made trumpets. In parts of India, a trumpet made from a conch shell like the one is blown at Hindu festival In the Pacific islands of Fiji, the largest shell of all, called a triton, is blown to announce the opening of the local fish market.

Sound cones

Try this experiment to see why cones are good for sound. Roll a large piece of paper or cardboard into a cone shape. Speak into the narrow end. Your voice will be made louder as it comes out of the wider, flared end. You have just made a megaphone. ‘Mega’ and ‘phone’ are Greek words meaning large-voice’. The cone-shaped end of a trumpet or horn, called the bell, pushes the sound forwards, making it louder. We say that the bell amplifies the sound.

Playing the trumpet

You have to use your lips to force air into a trumpet or horn and produce a good sound. Take a deep breath. Tighten your lips together. Now force the air out between your lips.

You will hear a sound like a buzzing bee. That’s the air vibrating as it is pushed out between your lips. It is this vibration that makes the sound you recognize when horns and trumpets are played. Use your cardboard trumpets to blow some loud sounds or shout across the room to your friends!

Tutankhamun’s trumpet, like animal horns and conch shells, could only play a few notes. It was probably used for signalling or for playing fanfares on special occasions. Have you ever heard the thrilling sound of a fanfare? In Europe they are still played on straight trumpets for grand ceremonial occasions.

Folded tubes

The modern metal trumpet developed from long trumpets like Tutankhamun’s. Straight trumpets like the ones used to play fanfares have an extraordinarily long tube. You can imagine how this would get in the way, especially in a band or orchestra. To overcome this problem, modern trumpets have been folded up! You can guess how long it would be if the tubing were stretched out. If you measured it, you would find that the tubing is 1.4 metres long! Modern trumpets also have a detachable mouthpiece, which helps to carry the vibration from the player’s lips into the tubing more effectively.

Keys

Around 1800, trumpets were developed that had keys, like the ones on flutes. Many more notes could be played on these instruments. A very famous piece of music was written for a trumpet like this. The composer was Joseph Haydn, an Austrian. It is called Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto. It’s still very popular with trumpet players today.

Valves

In 1815 an even better system was -invented to improve the range of sound the trumpet could make. Three valves were added to the tubing. The diagram shows you how they work. When the player presses down on a valve, an extra length of tubing is opened. This makes a longer column of air and sounds a lower note. When the valve is released, the tubing closes again. At last the trumpet was able to join in and play any tune that had been written.

The trumpet certainly makes a stirring sound! It is probably most effective when it is played with feeling by a soloist like the American musician.

The tuba

The French composer Maurice Ravel decided to arrange a piece of music, for an orchestra. One of the `pictures’ was of an ox cart lumbering along a muddy lane. He chose a tuba to represent the sound of the ox cart.

Lengthy tubing

A large instrument the tuba is. Normally, tubas play the lowest notes of all the brass instruments in the orchestra. So you can imagine how much tubing it has — at least 3.75 metres! In the early 1900s, an enormous tuba was built in America. The length of its tubing was 10.36 metres! It was so large, a person could disappear inside the bell. Tubas have the same valve system as trumpets.

The trombone

A long time ago, the trombone was called the sackbut. It was named after an old French word `saqueboute’ meaning ‘pull-push’. Instead of having valves to change the length of the tube, like other brass instruments, trombones have a moving length of tubing called a slide. As you play the trombone, your arm

Does a `push-pull’ action to move the slide in and out, making the passage of air longer and changing the pitch of the note you play.

The French horn

Even though it is a smaller instrument, the French horn has about the same length of tubing as a tuba. The tubing is curled in a tight circle. You can make an instrument similar to the French horn. You need about 4 metres of rubber hose, with a plastic funnel. Use a brass instrument mouthpiece to blow into. Curl the hose around and tuck it under your arm to play it. Remember to tighten or slacken your lips as you blow.

Special instruments

Brass bands have several of their own special brass instruments, which you wouldn’t normally see in an orchestral brass section. One of these is the cornet.

As you can see from the picture on the left, a cornet looks like a small trumpet. But cornets make a much softer and sweeter sound. That’s why they are used in brass bands instead of the more piercing trumpet.

The horns, too, are different from the horns in the orchestra. In 1845, a Belgian instrument maker named Adolphe Sax made a family of instruments called saxhorns, especially for use in brass bands. They are not called saxhorns now — their names are flugelhorn, tenor horn, baritone horn and the largest one is the euphonium.

Playing together

Since the middle of the 1800s, brass bands have become an especially popular form of entertainment in many countries. In the United States, town parades always feature a brass band, usually with marching majorettes.

In the northern parts of England, many towns and villages have their own bands, and many more are found in workplaces like factories and coal mines. Contests are held to find out which band is the best.

Since ancient times, armies have used brass instruments to carry out special tasks. They could be used for sending signals, such as ‘march forward’ or ‘retreat’. Their music would also keep up the soldiers’ spirits and help them to march in time together into battle. Of course, army bands don’t do this now, but they still play for special occasions and in parades. Over a hundred years ago, in England, a man named William Booth started a different kind of army. His was not a military army, but a religious one. He called his religious group the Salvation Army. William Booth loved brass bands and so he started his own to attract crowds to his open-air religious meetings. By the time he died in 1912, Salvation Army bands were playing all over the world.

Musical Reeds

Have you ever made a shrill sound by blowing over a blade of grass held between your thumbs? As the blade of grass vibrates, it makes the air vibrate in sound waves. We hear the waves as a sharp buzzing sound.

Some instruments use a device that works in a similar way to the blade of grass to make a musical sound. We call them reed instruments. Reed instruments have a mouthpiece which contains one or two strips of cane, plastic or fibreglass. These strips are called reeds.

You can see different kinds of reeds. If an instrument has one reed in its mouthpiece, it is called a single-reed instrument. The two reeds are both single reeds. If it has two, it is called a double-reed instrument. Both the reeds e are double reeds. When you blow into the instrument, the reed vibrates, making the air in the pipe of the instrument vibrate, too.

Double reeds

The two reeds of a double-reed instrument make an extra sound because they vibrate against each other. You can see how this works using a straw. Cut two slits in one end, then cut across the slits to make a wedge shape. Put the cut end of the drinking straw just behind your teeth, then close your lips around the straw. Squeeze the cut ends together with your teeth and tongue. Blow hard. You should get a vibrating sound. Now cut a short length off the other end of the straw and blow again. What do you notice about the pitch of the note? It should sound higher.

In a double-reed instrument, two pieces of thin reed are carefully cut, shaped and tied together. The reeds are then fixed to the instrument. When you blow through the reeds, they flutter rapidly together. This makes the air in the instrument vibrate.

The shawm

Shawms like the one being played in the picture below are loud, double-reed instruments whose raucous, penetrating sound is ideal for events like military parades and other ceremonies. Shawm players often puff out their cheeks for continuous breathing, just like the Aboriginal didgeridoo musicians. Shawm music is popular throughout the Islamic world. Shawms are also found in Africa, Europe and south east Asia.

The clarinet

The sleek, black cat is played by the clarinet, which is a single-reed instrument. You can see a picture of one on the left. The clarinet can jump easily from high to low notes, play very loudly or very quietly, and move fast or slow. The low sounds are rich and velvety, the high ones piercing and bright.

The oboe

The quacking duck is played by the oboe. The oboe can move very quickly from sound to sound, too. Its low sounds are raucous and reedy, its high ones thin and penetrating. This is possible because the oboe has two reeds which vibrate against each other, exactly like the shawm. The instrument on the right is an oboe.

The bassoon

The bassoon’s tubing is four times as long as that of the oboe. The tube is so long, in fact, that it is folded, like most of the brass instruments. As you can see from this picture, the bell points upwards above the player’s head rather than down. It makes a lower sound than the other reed instruments. People say that some of its notes can sound like the human voice. Perhaps that’s why the bassoon plays the voice of Peter’s grumbling grandfather.

The story and its music were written in 1936 by a Russian composer named Sergei Prokofiev. It is called Peter and the Wolf Perhaps you can find a recording of it and listen to what happens in the story. Do you think Prokofiev chose the right instruments for his characters?

This early music is sometimes called Dixieland Jazz. ‘Dixie’ is an area of the southern states of the United States. A band playing this traditional jazz is often made up of brass instruments like a cornet and trombone, with perhaps a clarinet.

Improvised jazz

Jazz is different from most other kinds of music. It is mostly improvised. This means that musicians make up the music as they play.

Improvised music works best with small groups, where the musicians can easily follow each other. But large orchestras can play jazz, too. These big bands were a popular form of entertainment between the 1930s and the 1950s. One famous band leader was Duke Ellington. He wrote his own music for his band and arranged it so that each musician knew what to play. Then during the performance, certain musicians played improvised solos on their own. The sound of big-band music helped jazz become known to a larger audience and become popular in many countries outside the United States.

The saxophone

It was during the time of the big bands that the saxophone became such an important jazz instrument. Compared to other brass instruments, the saxophone is quite new. It is a single-reed instrument.

If you look at the picture of a saxophone on the right, you will see that it has a system of keys, like the keys of a concert flute. The saxophone, or sax as it’s often called, is a very expressive instrument. Players develop their own personal style of playing. You can oftent recognize a particular musician after hearing only a few notes. A saxophone player with a good technique can play loudly or softly.

This instrument originated in the Middle East, but many parts of Europe and Asia now have their own particular form of bagpipes. The most famous type are the highland pipes, which originally came from Scotland. These impressive instruments, with their loud, forceful sound, are now played by musicians in many different countries around the world.

How to play the bagpipes

Bagpipes are very difficult instruments to play well. There are so many different things for the musician to do. The player has to blow hard into the bag and then squeeze it to push the air back out. At the same time, he fingers the holes in the pipe, or chanter, to play the tune. And then there are the drones, those long pipes that rest on the musician’s shoulder. The drones make a continuous note which accompanies the tune played on the chanter.

Hidden reeds

Bagpipes are reed instruments, but you can’t see the reeds. They are fixed in the ends of the pipes inside the bag. Usually a chanter has a double reed, like a shawm oran oboe. The drones generally have a single reed, like a clarinet. The bag acts as a reservoir for air. It is nearly always made of sheep’s or goat’s skin. You can clearly see the skin of the folk bagpipes in the picture above, although it is often covered with cloth. Because the air in the bag makes the reeds vibrate, the player can breathe and still produce a continuous sound.

Not all bagpipes produce loud sounds. The Northumbrian ’small-pipes’, shown in the picture below, play enchanting music with a much gentler sound. They are not blown by mouth, but by bellows, which the player pumps by moving the arm up and down.

Playing the mouth organ

You hold the instrument so that the low notes are to your left. Try to blow just one single note by blocking the other holes to the side with your tongue. What happens when you suck? If you don’t move your mouth, you will hear a different note. That’s because you activate the second reed by sucking instead of blowing.

The sheng from China

Mouth organs have been played in China for thousands of years, where they are called shengs. Shengs are very different from the European mouth organ. They have long pipes and each has a free reed inside. The sheng player blows and sucks air through a wind box to play the same note, with different pitches. The reeds vibrate when the holes are closed.

Famous players

Some harmonicas are designed to play very complicated music. One man who became a virtuoso, or expert, on the harmonica was the American musician Larry Adler. He wanted to show that the harmonica deserved to be taken seriously as a musical instrument. The English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote a piece of harmonica music especially for Larry Adler.

The mouth organ is also an ideal instrument for folk and blues music. It has a mournful sound that goes very well with a solo voice. The famous American folk singer Bob Dylan is well known for his mouth organ playing. This frees his hands so that he can play the guitar and the mouth organ at the same time!

The melodica

The instrument in the picture below is a melodica. It is a new kind of free-reed instrument, invented only 30 years ago. The body is made of plastic. The metal reeds are controlled by a tiny keyboard. Melodicas are cheap to buy and easy to play.