"instruments. Many advancements were made in music instrument technology during the Middle Ages and 19th Century. The introduction of copper smelting allowed for trumpets, organ pipes, and slides to be constructed with sheet metal which had a smooth texture and consistency in thickness, allowing for more range of tones and sounds. Improvements in molding and casting during the 19th Century allowed for technological advancement to pianos. While originally constructed with wooden frames, limiting the amount of sound that could be produced, pianos began to be constructed of one-piece iron frames. This provided a more amplified volume from the instrument and"
"instrument is incisive enough to fill a large room with an audience. The striking position of the hammers, at around one twelfth of the speaking length of the strings, gives this instrument a thinner and much less harmonically rich sound than a modern piano whose striking point is, for optimum power and tonal richness and complexity, around one seventh of the speaking length. (This optimum striking distance was discovered and standardized by the first John Broadwood before the end of the 18th Century indicating that he possessed an exceptional ear for identifying and eliciting the maximum musical appeal from his"
"Scale length (string instruments) When referring to stringed instruments, the scale length (often simply called the ""scale"") is the maximum vibrating length of the strings that produce sound, and determines the range of tones that string can produce at a given tension. It's also called ""string length."" On instruments in which strings are not ""stopped"" or divided in length (typically by frets, the player's fingers, or other mechanism), such as the piano, it is the actual length of string between the nut and the bridge. String instruments produce sound through the vibration of their strings. The range of tones these"
"Clavichord The clavichord is a European stringed rectangular keyboard instrument that was used largely in the Late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras. Historically, it was mostly used as a practice instrument and as an aid to composition, not being loud enough for larger performances. The clavichord produces sound by striking brass or iron strings with small metal blades called tangents. Vibrations are transmitted through the bridge(s) to the soundboard. The name is derived from the Latin word ""clavis"", meaning ""key"" (associated with more common ""clavus"", meaning ""nail, rod, etc."") and ""chorda"" (from Greek χορδή) meaning ""string,"
"Long-string instrument The long-string instrument is a musical instrument in which the string is of such a length that the fundamental transverse wave is below what a person can hear as a tone (±20 Hz). If the tension and the length result in sounds with such a frequency, the tone becomes a beating frequency that ranges from a short reverb (approx 5–10 meters) to longer echo sounds (longer than 10 meters). Besides the beating frequency, the string also gives higher pitched natural overtones. Since the length is that long, this has an effect on the attack tone. The attack tone"
"Later the phonofiddle was relegated to novelty performances such as those of The Temperance Seven and Bennett & Williams. Phonofiddle A phonofiddle is a class of stringed musical instruments that are played with a bow and use a phonograph type reproducer as a voice-box. The sound producing diaphragm may be a metal cone as in the Stroh violin or a mica sheet as in the instruments made by A. T. Howson, London and the Stroviols company of Britain. The sound generated by the vibrations from the string or strings are transferred through the bridge to a connecting arm into the"
"The same design principle was used by Hutchins to design a complete family of eight stringed instruments, commonly called the violin octet, of which the vertical viola has been the most successful. Since all of the instruments are designed based on the violin, Hutchins gave the name ""alto violin"" to her vertical viola design. Hutchins's instrument has attracted admiration for its power and beauty of tone. The cellist Yo-Yo Ma has employed a Hutchins vertical viola to perform and record Béla Bartók's Viola Concerto. Vertical viola The vertical viola, or alto violin, is a stringed instrument with the range of"
"harmonics) and brass, especially the horn. Musical instruments with can effect a portamento over a substantial range. These include unfretted stringed instruments (such as the violin, viola, cello and double bass, and fretless guitars), stringed instruments with a way of stretching the strings (such as the guitar, veena, or sitar), a fretted guitar or lap steel guitar when accompanied with the use of a slide, wind instruments without valves or stops (such as the trombone or slide whistle), timpani (kettledrums), electronic instruments (such as the theremin, the ondes Martenot, synthesizers and keytars), the water organ, and the human voice. Brass"
"the endpoint of the vibrating string, and thus its pitch. Because of this intimate contact between the player's hand and the production of sound, the clavichord has been referred to as the most intimate of keyboard instruments. Despite its many (serious) limitations, including extremely low volume, it has considerable expressive power, the player being able to control attack, duration, volume, and even provide certain subtle effects of swelling of tone and a type of vibrato unique to the clavichord. Since the string vibrates from the bridge only as far as the tangent, multiple keys with multiple tangents can be assigned"
"produces 55 hertz. One example of a long-string instrument was invented by the American composer Ellen Fullman. It is tuned in just intonation and played by walking along the length of its approximately 100 -long strings and rubbing them with rosined hands and producing longitudinal vibrations. A C-clamp is used on each string for putting tension on the strings, much like a guitar capo, and a resonator is placed on the end the musician faces. This long-string instrument's range is centered on the octave of middle C and extends above and below this by an octave. The strings of the"
"Bowed string instrument extended technique String instruments are capable of producing a variety of extended technique sounds. These alternative playing techniques have been used extensively since the 20th century. Particularly famous examples of string instrument extended technique can be found in the music of Krzysztof Penderecki (particularly his ""Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima""), Witold Lutosławski, George Crumb, and Helmut Lachenmann. Bowing the body of a string instrument (which can include bowing the sound box, neck, tuning pegs, or scroll) produces a quiet sound whose amplitude differs according to the place bowed, bow pressure and bow speed. At most the"
"long string instruments acoustically amplified with styrofoam. The experimental luthier and recording artist Yuri Landman built a portable electric long-string instrument. A three-minute solo that he recorded in a garden on this instrument can be heard on YouTube, uploaded in 2011. Sound lab and research centre Sonoscopia in Porto, Portugal has a permanent electric amplified long-string instrument mounted to the wall in the hall of their building. Long-string instrument The long-string instrument is a musical instrument in which the string is of such a length that the fundamental transverse wave is below what a person can hear as a tone"
"Guzheng The zheng () or guzheng (), also known as the Chinese zither, is a Chinese plucked string instrument with a more than 2,500-year history. The modern guzheng commonly has 21 strings, is long, and is tuned in a major pentatonic scale. It has a large, resonant soundboard made from ""Paulownia"". Other components are often made from other woods for structural or decorative reasons. Guzheng players often wear fingerpicks made from materials such as ivory, tortoiseshell, resin or hard plastic on one or both hands. The guzheng is ancestral to several other Asian zithers such as the Japanese koto, the"
"in upper partials. String stops are generally named after bowed string instruments such as the Violoncelle, the Gamba, the Geigen (from the German , for violin), and the Viol. One of the most famous organs with a String Division is the Wanamaker Organ. Often, an organ will feature two similarly-voiced stops, one tuned slightly sharp or flat of the other. When these stops are played together, a unique undulating effect results due to alternating constructive and destructive interference (beat frequency). Examples include the ""Voix céleste"" (French for ""celestial voice""), typically tuned slightly sharp, and the ""Unda maris"" (Latin for ""sea"
"range in which a player is expected to have comfortable control of all aspects. The duration range is the difference between the shortest and longest rhythm used. Dynamic range is the difference between the quietest and loudest volume of an instrument, part or piece of music. Although woodwind instruments and string instruments have no theoretical upper limit to their range (subject to practical limits), they generally cannot go below their designated range. Brass instruments, on the other hand, can play beyond their designated ranges. Notes lower than the brass instrument's designated range are called pedal tones. The playing range of"
"Phonofiddle A phonofiddle is a class of stringed musical instruments that are played with a bow and use a phonograph type reproducer as a voice-box. The sound producing diaphragm may be a metal cone as in the Stroh violin or a mica sheet as in the instruments made by A. T. Howson, London and the Stroviols company of Britain. The sound generated by the vibrations from the string or strings are transferred through the bridge to a connecting arm into the center of the diaphragm within the reproducer. The vibrating column of air is then directed into one or several"
"even 27 inches (66 to 68 cm). These longer-scaled instruments are generally acknowledged to possess greater volume, sustain, and tonal richness but some players find the stretches involved in fingering too difficult and so prefer shorter scale lengths. Irish bouzouki The Irish bouzouki () is an adaptation of the Greek bouzouki (Greek: μπουζούκι). Johnny Moynihan is credited with bringing the first ""tetrachordo"" (4 courses of strings) Greek bouzouki to Ireland and retuning it to G-D-A-D (in intervals he first used on the mandolin). In the mid-1960s, Moynihan established a presence for the instrument in Irish music with the folk trio"
"using feedback from a loud, distorted guitar amplifier to produce a sustained sound. Some types of string instrument are mainly plucked, such as the harp and the electric bass. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, string instruments are called chordophones. Other examples include the sitar, rebab, banjo, mandolin, ukulele, and bouzouki. In most string instruments, the vibrations are transmitted to the body of the instrument, which often incorporates some sort of hollow or enclosed area. The body of the instrument also vibrates, along with the air inside it. The vibration of the body of the"
"may also be used. Bass (sound) Bass ( ) describes tones of low (also called ""deep"") frequency, pitch and range from 16 to 256 Hz (C to middle C) and bass instruments that produce tones in the low-pitched range C-C. They belong to different families of instruments and can cover a wide range of musical roles. Since producing low pitches usually requires a long air column or string, the string and wind bass instruments are usually the largest instruments in their families or instrument classes. In musical compositions, such as songs and pieces, these are the lowest parts of the"
"String instrument String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when the performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the strings with their fingers or a plectrum—and others by hitting the strings with a light wooden hammer or by rubbing the strings with a bow. In some keyboard instruments, such as the harpsichord, the musician presses a key that plucks the string. With bowed instruments, the player rubs the strings with a horsehair bow, causing them to vibrate. With a hurdy-gurdy, the musician operates"
"Xylophone The xylophone (from the Greek words —""xylon"", ""wood"" + —""phōnē"", ""sound, voice"", meaning ""wooden sound"") is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African and Asian instruments, diatonic in many western children's instruments, or chromatic for orchestral use. The term ""xylophone"" may be used generally, to include all such instruments such as the marimba, balafon and even the semantron. However, in the orchestra, the term ""xylophone"" refers specifically to"
"The cittern or cithren (Fr. cistre, It. cetra, Ger. zitter, zither, Sp. cistro, cedra, cítola)[1] is a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is descended from the Medieval citole (or cytole). It looks much like the modern-day flat-back mandolin and the modern Irish bouzouki. Its flat-back design was simpler and cheaper to construct than the lute. It was also easier to play, smaller, less delicate and more portable. Played by all classes, the cittern was a premier instrument of casual music-making much as is the guitar today."
"Bass (sound) Bass ( ) describes tones of low (also called ""deep"") frequency, pitch and range from 16 to 256 Hz (C to middle C) and bass instruments that produce tones in the low-pitched range C-C. They belong to different families of instruments and can cover a wide range of musical roles. Since producing low pitches usually requires a long air column or string, the string and wind bass instruments are usually the largest instruments in their families or instrument classes. In musical compositions, such as songs and pieces, these are the lowest parts of the harmony. In choral music"
"were the most celebrated makers of this period. The baroque recorder produces a most brilliant and projecting sound is in the second octave, which is more facile and extended than that of earlier recorders, while the lowest notes in its range are relatively weak. Composers such as Bach, Telemann and Vivaldi exploit this property in their concertos for the instrument. Measured from its lowest to its highest playable note, the baroque alto recorder has a range of at most two octaves and a fifth with many instruments having a smaller range. Even the most developed instruments of the period, however,"
"string thickness and tension) and changing only length, the sound of the instrument would be homogeneous across its full range. Because the length of strings increases so quickly in the bass register, it often would produce an instrument of impractical length. If pythagorean scaling were applied to the stringed instruments, the double bass would be extremely cumbersome. In pianos and harpsichords, generally less tension or thicker strings are used in the lower register to avoid the need for such large dimensions as demanded by a Pythagorean scale. Scale length (string instruments) When referring to stringed instruments, the scale length (often"
"Regal (instrument) The regal is a small portable organ, furnished with beating reeds and having two bellows. The instrument enjoyed its greatest popularity during the Renaissance. The name was also sometimes given to the reed stops of a pipe organ, and more especially the vox humana stop. The sound of the regal is produced by brass reeds held in resonators. The length of the vibrating portion of the reed determines its pitch and is regulated by means of a wire passing through the socket, the other end pressing on the reed at the proper distance. The resonators in the regal"
"— but these notes are nevertheless audible due to the overtones they produce. (An organ's 32′ stop also exceeds the supposed 20 Hz limit.) The Montreal Symphony Orchestra octobass uses gut strings, is tuned A, E, B and has a high range to F. Triple contrabass viol – A similar, but more recent, instrument that has appeared on a recording by the American composer Roscoe Mitchell. Octobass The octobass is an extremely large and rare (only 7 in existence) bowed string instrument that was first built around 1850 in Paris by the French luthier Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (1798–1875). It has three"
"Calliope (music) A calliope (see below for pronunciation) is a musical instrument that produces sound by sending a gas, originally steam or more recently compressed air, through large whistles—originally locomotive whistles. A calliope is typically very loud. Even some small calliopes are audible for miles. There is no way to vary tone or loudness. Musically, the only expression possible is the pitch, rhythm, and duration of the notes. The steam calliope is also known as a steam organ or steam piano. The air-driven calliope is sometimes called a calliaphone, the name given to it by Norman Baker, but the ""Calliaphone"""
"Range (music) In music, the range, or chromatic range, of a musical instrument is the distance from the lowest to the highest pitch it can play. For a singing voice, the equivalent is ""vocal range"". The range of a musical part is the distance between its lowest and highest note. Among British English speakers, and perhaps others, compass means the same thing as chromatic range—the interval between the lowest and highest note attainable by a voice or musical instrument. The terms sounding range, written range, designated range, duration range and dynamic range have specific meanings. The sounding range refers to"
"2011 Viola profonda The viola profonda is a bowed string instrument in tenor-range, with four strings, which is bigger than a viola and its standard way of playing is resting on the shoulder (as a violin and viola). By having its own sound colour and by filling the entire tenor-range, it reforms the usual classical string quartet and completes the idea of classical music theory of having four separate voices with their own timbre each (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) in every instrument-category; as known in the choir, the woodwinds and the brass family, whereas in the usual string quartet the"
"strings passes inside the bow's hair, between wood and hair. The result is that the bow and strings are intertwined. The bow presses down on one string to play it and pulls upward on the other string to play that one. Tro sau thom The tro sau thom or tro sau (Khmer: ទ្រសោធំ) is a bowed stringed instrument from Cambodia. It is the larger tro sau instrument; thom means ""big"" in Khmer. The sound box (a cylinder) can measure 90mm by 120mm. The neck can measure 620mm long. It is made from black wood but more basic materials were used,"
"Balalaika The balalaika (, ) is a Russian stringed musical instrument with a characteristic triangular wooden, hollow body and three strings. Two strings are usually tuned to the same note and the third string is a perfect fourth higher. The higher-pitched balalaikas are used to play melodies and chords.The instrument generally has a short sustain, necessitating rapid strumming or plucking when it is used to play melodies. Balalaikas are often used for Russian folk music and dancing. The balalaika ""family of instruments"" includes instruments of various sizes, from the highest-pitched to the lowest: the piccolo balalaika, prima balalaika, secunda balalaika,"
"Tromba marina A tromba marina, or marine trumpet (Fr. ""trompette marine""; Ger. ""Marientrompete, Trompetengeige, Nonnengeige"" or ""Trumscheit"", Pol. ""tubmaryna"") is a triangular bowed string instrument used in medieval and Renaissance Europe that was highly popular in the 15th century in England and survived into the 18th century. The tromba marina consists of a body and neck in the shape of a truncated cone resting on a triangular base. It is usually four to seven feet long, and is a monochord (although some versions have sympathetically-vibrating strings). It is played without stopping the string, but playing natural harmonics by lightly touching"