A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Instrument

by Franklin Taylor

INSTRUMENT (Lat. Instrumentum, Ital. Stromento). In general language, a tool, that by means of which work is done; hence, in music, an apparatus for producing musical sounds. Numerous as are the various kinds of instruments in practical use at the present day, they form but a small proportion of the immense number which have been invented and used from time to time. Out of nearly 340 different kinds mentioned in a list in Koch's Musikalisches Lexicon (art. 'Instrument') only 67 are given as being in use at present, and some even of these are merely varieties of the same genus. Various causes have contributed to the survival of certain instruments and the extinction of others. Quality of tone would of course be a powerfully operating cause, and practicableness in a mechanical sense would be scarcely less so; but besides this, the various ways of combining instruments in performance which prevailed at different periods, had the effect of proving certain of them to be unnecessary, and so indirectly tended to abolish them. Thus before the time of Lully it was customary for the most part to combine instruments of the same class only, and we read of a 'Concert of Violins,' 'Concert of Flutes,' etc.; this fact rendered necessary flutes of deeper compass than are now used, and accordingly we find tenor and bass flutes, extending downwards to F on the fourth line of the bass stave.^[1] So soon however as the combination of wind and stringed instruments was found to be preferable, the feeble bass of the flute would be insufficient and unnecessary, and the larger kinds of flutes naturally enough fell into disuse.

All musical sounds are the result of atmospheric vibrations; and such vibrations are excited either directly, by blowing with suitable force and direction into a tube, or indirectly, by agitating an elastic body, such as a stretched string, whereby it is thrown into a state of vibration, and communicates its own vibrations to the surrounding air. One or other of these two is the acting principle of every musical instrument. On tracing the history of the two it does not appear that either is of earlier date than the other; indeed tradition with respect to both carries us back from history into myth and fable, the invention of the earliest form of stringed instrument, the Lyre, being attributed to the god Mercury, who finding the shell of a tortoise cast upon the bank of the Nile, discovered that the filaments of dried skin which were stretched across it produced musical sounds; while the invention of the tibia or pipe—the earliest form of which is said to have been made (as its name implies) from the shank-bone of a crane—is variously ascribed to Pan, Apollo, Orpheus and others.

To attempt to describe, however briefly, all the various kinds of instruments which have been in use from the earliest ages to the present day, would extend this article far beyond its due limits. It will only be possible to mention those which are still of practical importance, referring the reader for a fuller description to the articles under the headings of their various names, and for the earlier and now obsolete kinds to Hawkins's History^[2] of Music, which contains copious extracts from the works of Blanchinus, Kircher, Luscinius, and others, illustrated by wood-cuts.

In all essential respects, instruments may be divided into three classes; namely, wind instruments, the descendants of the pipe; stringed instruments, descended from the lyre; and instruments of percussion. This classification, which is of considerable ^[3]antiquity, is not entirely satisfactory, as there are certain modern instruments which can scarcely be classed under any one of its heads without confusion for instance the Harmonium, which although played by wind, is not strictly a wind-instrument, since its sounds are produced not from pipes but from elastic reeds. Nevertheless the old arrangement is sufficiently comprehensive, and appears more practical than any other.

1. Wind instruments (Ger. Blasinstrumente; Ital. Stromenti da vento; Fr. Instruments à vent). These are of two kinds; namely, those in which a separate pipe or reed is provided for each note, and those in which the various notes are produced from a single tube, either by varying its length, or by the action of the lip in blowing. In the first kind the wind is provided by means of bellows, and is admitted to each individual pipe or reed by the action of a key. The instruments of this kind are the Organ, Harmonium, Concertina, and Accordion. The only members of this class which differ from the others are the Syrinx or Pan's-pipes (which although it possesses a pipe for each sound has neither keys nor bellows, but is blown directly with the breath) and the Northumbrian and Irish Bag-pipes, which are provided with bellows, but have their pipes pierced with holes, as in the flute. Wind-instruments which have but a single tube are made of either wood or metal (generally brass), and the various sounds of which they are capable are produced, in the case of two of the metal instruments—the Horn and Trumpet,—by simply altering the tension of the lips in blowing, while in the others and in the wood instruments this alteration is supplemented and assisted by varying the length of the tube. In brass instruments the length of the tube is altered in three different ways; first, by means of a slide, one part of the tube being made to slip inside the other, after the manner of a telescope; secondly, by valves, which when pressed have the effect of adding a small piece of tube to the length of the circuit through which the wind passes; and thirdly, by keys, which uncover holes in the tube, and so shorten the amount of tube which is available for the vibrating column of air. The brass instruments with slide are the Trombone^[4] and Slide Trumpet; those with valves are the Cornet à pistons, Valve Horn, Valve Trumpet, Flügelhorn or Valve Bugle, Saxhorn, Valve Trombone, Euphonium, Bombardon, Bass Tuba, and Contrabass Tuba; while those with keys are the Key-bugle or Kent Bugle and the Ophicleide. All these are played with a cup-shaped mouthpiece. Wood wind-instruments have the tube pierced with holes, which are covered by the fingers or by keys, and the uncovering of the holes shortens the amount of tube available for vibration and so gives notes of higher pitch. Some of them receive the breath directly through a suitably shaped opening; these are the Flute, Piccolo (i.e. flauto piccolo, a small flute), Fife, and the Flageolet and the toy 'tin whistle,' which two last are survivors of the now obsolete family of flutes à bec. In others the sound is produced from the vibrations of a split reed, which is either single and fixed in a frame or mouthpiece, as in the Clarinet and Bassethorn [see Clarinet], or double, consisting of two reeds bound together so as to form a tube with the upper end flattened out, as in the Oboe, Cor Anglais or Oboe di Caccia, Bassoon, and Contrafagotto or Double Bassoon. One wind-instrument of wood remains to be mentioned, the use of which is becoming rare, though it is still occasionally met with in military bands. This is the Serpent, which differs from all other wood instruments in having a cup-shaped mouthpiece, similar to that of the trumpet. It is the only remaining member of a now extinct family of German wood instruments called Zinken (Ital. Cornetti), which were formerly much used in the Church service, and were in use as late as 1715 for playing chorales at the top of church towers.^[5]

2. Stringed Instruments (Ger. Saiten-instrumente; Ital. Stromenti da corde; Fr. Instruments à cordes). In all these the sound is produced from stretched strings of either catgut, wire, or occasionally silk, the naturally feeble resonance of which is in all cases strengthened by a soundboard. As with the wind-instruments, some of these are provided with a separate string for each note, while in others the various sounds are obtained by shortening the strings, of which there are now never fewer than three, by pressure with the fingers. Stretched strings are thrown into vibration in three different ways—friction, plucking, and percussion.

The mode of friction usually employed is that of a bow of horse-hair, strewn with powdered rosin (see Bow), and instruments so played are called 'bowed instruments' (Ger. Streichinstrumente). They are the Violin, Viola or Tenor, Violoncello, and Contrabasso or Double Bass; and an humble though ancient member of the same family is occasionally met with in the Hurdy-gurdy, ia which the friction is produced by the edge of a wooden wheel strewn with rosin and revolving underneath the strings. In this instrument the stopping or shortening of the strings is effected by means of a series of keys, which are pressed by the fingers of the left hand, while the right hand turns the wheel. [See Hurdy-Gurdy.]

The instruments played by plucking are the Harp, in which each note has a separate string, and the Guitar, Mandoline, and Banjo, in which the strings are 'stopped' by pressure with the fingers upon a finger-board, provided with slightly-raised transverse bars, called frets. In the Cither or Zither, an instrument much used in Switzerland and the Tyrol, 4 of the 29 [App. p.685 "5 of the 30"] strings are capable of being stopped with the fingers, while the remaining 25 are played 'open,' giving but one sound each. In most of these instruments the plucking takes place with the tips of the fingers (pizzicato), but in the Zither the thumb of the right hand is armed with a ring bearing a kind of metal claw. [App. p.685 "while in the instruments of the Mandolin family a plectrum of tortoiseshell is used."] In the now obsolete Harpsichord and Spinet the strings were also played by plucking, each key being provided with a small piece of quill or stiff leather. [Jack.] Only two stringed instruments are played by percussion—the Pianoforte and the Dulcimer; in the former the strings are struck by hammers attached to the keys, and in the latter by two hammers held in the hands.

3. Instruments of Percussion (Ger. Schlaginstrumente; Ital. Stromenti per la percussione; Fr. Instruments à percussion). These are of two kinds, those whose chief use is to mark the rhythm, and which therefore need not, and in many cases do not, give a note of any definite pitch, and those which consist of a series of vibrating bodies, each giving a definite note, so that the whole instrument possesses a scale of greater or less extent. Of the instruments of indefinite pitch, some are struck with drumsticks or other suitable implements; these are the Bass Drum, Side Drum, Tambour de Provence, Gong or Tam-tam, and Triangle; others, such as Cymbals and Castagnettes, are used in pairs, and are played by striking them together; and one, the Tambourine, or Tambour de Basque, is struck with the open hand. The instruments of percussion which give definite notes, and which are therefore musical rather than rhythmical, are the Kettle Drums (used in pairs, or more), Glockenspiel (bells used in military bands and occasionally with orchestra), and the Harmonica, consisting of bars of either glass, steel, or wood, resting on two cords and struck with a hammer.

4. There are still one or two instruments to be mentioned which are not easily classed in any of the three categories just described. In the Harmonium, which we have accepted as a windinstrument, the sound is really produced by the vibrations of metal springs, called reeds, though these vibrations are certainly excited and maintained by the force of wind; so also stretched strings may be acted upon by wind, and of this the Æolian Harp is an illustration. [See Æolian Harp.] The instrument or organ of Mr. Baillie Hamilton, which is said to be a combination of tongue and string, is not sufficiently perfected to be described here.

Metal tongues or reeds may also be played by plucking, and this method is employed in the so-called Musical Box, in which a series of metal tongues are plucked by pins or studs fixed in a revolving barrel. Another instrument played by plucking, but possessing only a single reed or tongue, is the Jews-harp. In respect to the production of its various notes this instrument differs from all others. It is played by pressing the iron frame in which the reed is fixed against the teeth, and while the reed is in a state of vibration altering the form of the cavity of the mouth, by which means certain sounds of higher pitch than the fundamental note may be produced, and simple melodies played. These higher sounds appear to be upper 'partial-tones' of the fundamental note of the reed, which are so strongly reinforced by the vibrations of the volume of air in the mouth as to overpower the fundamental tone, and leave it just audible as a drone bass. In the Harmonica proper, another mode of sound-production is employed, the edges of glass bowls being rubbed by a wetted finger. [See Harmonica.]

For much of the information contained in this article the writer is indebted to Schilling 'Universallexicon der Tonkunst.'

[ F. T. ]

1. In Lully's ballet 'Le triomphe da l'amour,' Paris, 1681, there is a quartet of flutes, the lowest part of which is only possible on a bass flute.
2. Reprinted by Novello and Co. in 2 vols. 8vo. 1868.
3. Casalodorus, writing in the 6th century, gives the same three divisions, uuder the names inflatilia, tensibilia, and percussionalia.
4. Mr. Ford's Slide-Horn is highly spoken of (see p. 794a [App. p.685 "[[A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Horn|vol. 1 p. 749a"]), but it has not yet come into actual use.
5. In 1636 was published in Paris a 'Phantasle à cinq parties, pour les Cornets, par H. Lejeune.' J. S. Bach occasionally uses them in his Church Cantatas.