GALOUBET Vertical Flute. France. This instrument is used with the tabor. It is held in the left hand, while the right hand beats an accompaniment upon the tabor. It has a cylindrical bore. A set or family consists of the bass in C, tenor in F, alto in A, and treble in C. The bass in C is provided with a tube bent properly to bring the notes within reach of the player. Its range is two octaves. Only three holes can be made use of because of one hand being occupied with the drum. Chirula is another name. The English name is merely pipe.
GEIGE — Bowed Strings. Europe. An uncomplimentary name given by the Germans to the violin.
GEKKIN — Plucked Strings. Japan. A Chinese instrument much used in Japan. Its strings are tuned in pairs. It is called the moon guitar, owing to its circular body, which is over a foot in diameter. It has a short neck, and silken strings.
GEKKO -- Vibrating Membranes. Japan. A circular shell of wood to which are riveted heads of skin. The fact that it is fiat and circular has gained it: the name of moon drum.
GELE-MASHA — Sonorous Substances. Turkey. Clappers consisting of narrow strips of metal bent together at the center like a pair of tongs, with prongs at either end which are filled with metal discs.
GENKWAN or SCHIGUENE — Plucked Strings. Japan. An instrument with an octagonal body and a slender neck, provided with twelve frets. The four strings are plucked with a plectrum. This is doubtless a development of the gekkin, in which the circular body is changed to the octagonal one. See gekkin.
GHETEH -- Single-Beating Reed. Africa. An Egyptian contrivance consisting of a tube of bamboo terminating in a metal bell, and fitted with a mouthpiece containing a single-beating reed.
GHUTRU — Vibrating Membranes. India. The shell of this drum is shaped like a goblet. The head is of skin.
GINDAI — Plucked Strings. Japan. A kin of thirteen strings. The name is probably derived from the words meaning larger kin. See kin.
GINGROI — Vertical Flute. Egypt. Wailing Flute. Slender pipes scarcely thicker than a ripened corn-stalk. They were associated with funerals. Gingrois were found in the mummy case of the Lady Maket. They constitute the oldest evidence of the world's music. There is no knowledge of the kind of mouthpiece used.
GLASS HARMONICA — Sonorous Substances. Europe. The invention of Benjamin Franklin (1760), is not in principle wholly his. The glasses used for the instrument are blown to be almost hemispherical, and are thinnest towards the edges. They are arranged, each edge lapping over the next plate, upon a spindle which is suspended transversely in a case. An attempt to use a violin bow instead of the fingers proved unsuccessful. The idea of the production of a tone from a glass was known in the Seventeenth Century, for a book printed at Nuremburg at the time describes the steps necessary " to produce a merry wine music." In this case, however, the glasses were tuned by varying the amount of wine contained in them.
The glass harmonica held a place of high importance in the day of its prime. The Euterpiad (New York, Sept. 1, 1830) in referring to a new instrument of this kind called a grand harmonicon, quotes the following stanza : So soft the heavenly strain arose, The notes of each responsive close Did seem the whispering voices dear Of beings in a brighter sphere.
English writers give the credit of the invention to an Irish-man, but Franklin's claim is clear to the invention of the instrument now designated by the name. In a letter dated July 13, 1762, he gives the following description of the affair : " To distinguish the glasses the more readily to the eye, I have painted the apparent parts of the glasses within side, every semi-tone white and the other notes of the octave with the seven prismatic colours, so that glasses of the same colour (the white excepted) are always octaves of each other. This instrument is played upon by sitting before the middle of the set of glasses, as before the keys of the harpsichord, turning them with the foot and wetting them now and then with a sponge and clean water. The fingers should be just a little soaked in water and quite free from all greasiness; a little fine chalk on them is sometimes useful to make them catch the glass and bring out the tone more readily. Both hands are used, by which means different parts are played together. Observe that the tones are best drawn out when the glasses turn from the ends of the finger, not when they turn to them. The advantages of this instrument are that its tones are incomparably sweet beyond those of any other; that they may be swelled and softened at pleasure and continued to any length, and that the instrument being once well tuned, never again wants tuning." (The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Boston, 1840, vol. vi, page 245.)
Franklin names a Mr. Puckeridge or Pockrich, an Irishman, and a Mr. E. Delaval, as having given him ideas. Goldsmith mentions the musical glasses as one of the few subjects of polite conversation touched upon by his fine ladies in The Vicar of Wakefield.
Performers on the glass harmonica were frequently heard in concerts. A notable instance is that of Miss Marianna Davis, who performed in the presence of the Imperial Court of Vienna at the celebration of the nuptials of the Duke of Parma and the Archduchess of Austria. Mozart, J. G. Nauman, and J. W. Tomascheck composed for it. Its use passed out in England with the Eighteenth Century, but in Austria it was continued in the royal circle until 1818.
GLASSICHORD — Sonorous Substances. Europe. In this rather complicated device, one or more tiers of plates of glass were operated upon by hammers working downward. A keyboard of sharps and naturals impelled the hammers. Nineteenth Century.
GLOCKENSPIEL Or CARILLON - Sonorous Substances. Europe. Either bars or bowls of metal set in a wooden frame, having a compass of a little more than two octaves when struck with a hammer. The music is written with middle C or B flat as the lowest note, but the instrument sounds an octave higher. Formerly a series of bells were used, and a keyboard attachment has been employed. Some years ago the glockenspiel when combined with the harmonium proved very pleasant to its hearers. Wagner used it at the entrance of the toymakers' guild in " Die Meister-singer," and in the effective closing slumber scene in " Die Walküre." The glockenspiel also lends its tinkle in Mozart's " Die Zauberflöte." Carillon also refers to bells arranged in the diatonic scale and used in church towers. They are played by means of a keyboard, and are more effective than chimes because of the greater number of bells, made possible by the fact that they are fixed, and need not be allowed room to swing.
GONG — Sonorous Substances. This name is given to all instruments which answer to the description of a stationary bell in the form of a shallow bowl which is struck with a hammer. It has grown into use for giving calls on steam-boats or in any place where a far-reaching sound is necessary. It has an Asiatic origin and is found in all sizes and shapes under various names. The tone, like that of all sonorous substances is not exact and is used by the Orientals in court and temple ceremonies, and in the theatre for the purpose of emphasis. They also use it as an instrument of call. It finds an unimportant place in modern orchestras and can be used in producing a long-continued loud noise by first being gently struck, the force of the impact increasing.
GOONGOOROO — Sonorous Substances. India. Ankle bells. These are used by dancers and post runners, and resemble small sleigh bells strung upon a cord.
GOPI-YANTRA — Plucked Strings. India. The resonator is a circular shell of wood, having a membrane over one end. From the center of the membrane a string is stretched to a peg which is situated in a cross-bar held in place by two strips of wood attached on either side of the upper edge of the drum.
GOTCHNAG or BATELLUS — Sonorous Substances. Syria. An Armenian gong constructed from a block of wood, and sounded with wooden beaters.
GOURA — Africa. An instrument peculiar to the Hottentots. It is made from a flexible rod of bamboo, a short distance from the end of which is inserted a peg and a bit of flattened quill. From the latter is drawn a string to the opposite end of the bamboo, where it is fastened. When played, the quill is placed before or between the lightly closed lips, and the performer directs his breath so that the string vibrates like that of an aeolian harp.
GOUSLI — Plucked Strings. Russia. A psaltery. The instrument is said to have originated with the Tchérémisses, a people of Finnish extraction, resident in Central Russia. It dates back to the Eleventh Century.
GUBO — Plucked or Bowed Strings. Africa. This consists of a narrow strip of wood, between the ends of which is stretched a string of fiber. A section of the shell of a gourd is attached to one end for a resonator, which is held against the body of the performer when the instrument is played. It is sounded by either plucking the strings with the fingers or a plectrum, or, in rare instances, by means of a bow. As in many of the African instruments; the tension of the strings is regulated by twisting them to form a loop, instead of winding them directly about the pegs. When the peg is turned, the loop acts. It is used by Kafirs and Zulus.
GUENBRI — Lute Type. Africa and Syria. A hemispherical or pear-shaped body made from a hollowed block of wood, a gourd, the shell of a nut, or a tortoise shell. The opening is covered by a membrane. A straight round neck pierces the body and extends from it, and is often provided with very crude tuning pegs. Gut or fiber strings pass over a small bridge near the lower end of the body. It is sometimes played with a plectrum. Also spelled ganibry, gunibre, and gimbrede.
GUITAR — Plucked Strings. Europe. A descendant of the lute which has six strings, three of which are gut and three silk overspun with silver. The body possesses a flat back, and in outline resembles a violin, the sides incurving similarly. Maple, ash, service, or cherry may be used in its construction, and the neck and finger-board, which is fretted, are of hard wood. The strings pass from an ebony bridge, near the lower part of the instrument, over a round sound-hole and along the neck to pegs at the extreme end. The guitar, which is in reality a Spanish instrument, displaced the English cither. It is especially adapted to voice accompaniment, and its dreamy tones recommend it to the people of sunny Italy and Spain. Almaviva in Rossini's " Barber of Seville " uses it in his serenade to Rosina. In playing the little finger is allowed to rest upon the sound-board, while the thumb is employed with the bass strings, and the remaining fingers with the three higher strings.
The guitar was at one time much more prominent than now, and Burney in Ree's Encyclopedia tells the following story: "About 1750 its (the guitar's) vogue was so great among all ranks of people, as nearly to break all the harpsichord and spinet makers. All the ladies disposed of their harpsichords at auction for one-third of their price, or exchanged them for guitars, till old Kirkman, the harpsichord maker, after almost ruining himself with buying in his instruments, for better times, purchased likewise some cheap guitars and made a present of several to girls in milliners' shops, and to ballad singers in the streets, whom he had taught to accompany themselves with a few chords and triplets, which soon made the ladies ashamed of their frivolous and vulgar taste and return to the harpsichord." He also says that during this reign of terror not a song was printed without its being transposed and set for the guitar.
GUSLA, GUZLA — Bowed Strings. Servia and Bulgaria. An instrument having but a single string of gut or hair. The body is bowl-shaped, and is formed from a solid piece of wood hollowed out. The top is of parchment and the string is carried over a bridge near the foot of the instrument. A very crude horsehair bow is used in playing it. The gusla has a length of several feet, and is six or more inches in width.
GUZLA — See gusla.
