MACHETE Plucked Strings. Spain. A small guitar used in Spain and Portugal. It has a shallow sound-box and four strings and has the compass of an octave. It is a pastoral instrument and a possession of many of the country people who enjoy hearing a number of them together. Often a group of machetes are accompanied by a large five-stringed guitar.
MANDURA Spanish name for a small lute.
MADIUMBA Sonorous Substances. Africa. A zanze from the Kongo. See zanze.
MAGADIS Plucked Strings. Egypt. A small sounding-board over which are drawn strings to a cross-piece. They are plucked with a plectrum.
MAHAMBI See marimba.
MAMBAN-TETSU-NO-FUYE Vertical Flute. Japan. Vertical flute often three feet in length and made of iron.
MAMM Probably Single-beating Reed. Egypt. These were twin pipes, similar to the gingroi. It was dedicated to the goddess Mama, lady of the gods, and was played by women, who were recommended thus to cherish the melodies of the songs belonging to their race. Called monaulos when there was a single pipe and no reed mouthpiece.
MANDOLA, MANDORA Plucked Strings. Europe. Tenor mandolin. Larger in size than the ordinary instrument. See mandolin.
MANDOLIN Plucked Strings. Europe. This instrument was first generally adopted in the United States in 1880, Spanish students bringing it into notice. It has increased steadily in popularity until every American college has a mandolin club. The tone is sympathetic and the instrument comparatively easy to learn. There are two varieties, the Neapolitan and Milanese. The Neapolitan has generally four pairs of strings and the Milanese five or six. The Neapolitan is the more popular. It has a compass of three octaves and, as a rule, wire strings, which are struck with a plectrum, or piece of tortoise shell held between the fingers. It is beautifully formed, with a pear-shaped body made of strips of wood glued together arid quite convex. The strings are tuned in fifths like those of the violin and the fingering is that of the violin. It is used for melodic pas-sages. Its tone is thin and somewhat nasal, but nevertheless pleasant. The practicable compass of the mandolin is limited to the first octave above E, highest string when it lies open. Beethoven wrote a sonatina for the mandolin, and Mozart employed it for the accompaniment of the serenade " Deh vieni " in " Don Giovanni ; " Paisiello in " The Barber of Seville; " and Handel, in "Alexander Balus."
MANDORA See mandola.
MARIMBA or MAHAMBI Sonorous Substance. Africa. This instrument is variously called mihambi, timbali and balafo, according to the part of the country in which it is found. It is quite common and can boast great favor with the negroes and Kafirs. It consists of any number of bamboo bars from perhaps five to twenty-five, arranged over either a frame or a hollow resonance box. The marimba is usually suspended at the waist by a cord or an arched wooden handle, and is beaten by two rubber tipped sticks.
MAROUVANE or VALIHA Plucked Strings. Egypt. This in its most primitive form consists of a tube of bamboo with strips of bark cut between two joints and raised from the surface by small bits of wood placed at both ends of each string. A palm leaf resonator is often added. The point of the leaf and the stem are fastened one to each end of the tube, and the leaf allowed to flare naturally. The more ingenious kinds have wire strings. Found in Madagascar and other regions.
MATHALA See mridang.
MAYURI See tayuc.
MBE Vibrating Membranes. Africa. A drum found in the French Kongo, having a long cylindrical body of wood one end of which is covered with skin.
MEGYOUNG Plucked Strings. Burmah. An instrument in which the body is carved to represent a crocodile. The strings are stretched from the head along the belly to the tail. They are few in number and pass over a number of frets and a high bridge near the tail.
MEIJIWIZ Double-beating Reed. Syria. A double reed pipe made of bone and bamboo. It is played by taking the reeds quite within the lips and blowing while fingering the holes, of which there are six.
MELODEON Free Reeds. America. In 1836, Jeremiah Carhart of Dutchess County, N. Y., introduced a change in the manner of the action of air on reeds in the rocking melodeon, harmonium, etc., by adopting the exhaust system which, briefly speaking, is this : A vacuum is practically created in the so-called air chamber below the reeds by the exhausting power of the foot pedal and a current of air rushes down from above to fill the vacuum and in its course passes through the reeds. Naturally, this causes them to vibrate and sound or, in technical terminology, to speak. The bellows is single and is operated by a pedal similar in appearance to the pianoforte pedal. A second pedal operates a swell. The instrument has a case in piano style. In 1859, over twenty thousand were made in the United States. It is now out of use, being supplanted by the reed organ.
MELOPHONE Free Reeds. Europe. Invented in 1837 by Leclθrc of Paris. There is one contained in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The case is guitar-shaped and the short neck has one hundred and four ivory touches arranged in eight rows. These open, by means of levers and connecting wires, round brass keys hidden beneath a case. Below the brass keys are five rows of free reeds with steel tongues. The wind is supplied by a double action bellows concealed within the instrument and actuated by a piston working through the lower end of the case. Beneath the neck is a lever acting as an octave coupler. It is a prototype of the harmonium. Regondi added interest to the melophone by playing in concerts upon it.
MIHAMBI See marimba.
MINJAIRAH Vertical Whistle. Syria. A simple pipe. MINJAIREH Vertical Flute. Syria. A bamboo tube with a number of finger-holes.
MINTEKI Vertical Flute. China. A flute made of bamboo and having seven finger-holes.
MIRLITON Vibrating Membranes. France. A cylindrical tube of reed closed at both ends by a thin membrane. On either side of the tube is a large hole and by humming into one of these the membranes are set in motion and a curious nasal tone produced as in the onion flute.
M'KUL -- Sonorous Substances. Africa. This drum when used in time of war is struck in the middle. It is struck in the center and at one end when used to accompany the mbe in the song and dance of peaceful times. In West Africa, these wooden drums are made to answer almost the same service as the telegraph of civilization. Each village has a drummer and a drum call, making it possible for the scattered settlements to be put in speedy communication with each other. Such information as the approach of travelers, their number and equipment. can be announced hours before their arrival. The drum signal system is capable of minute detail of information. For instance, it is related that a certain missionary in South Africa was caught in the rain some distance from home and desired an umbrella. The man in the palaver house struck the drum several times and presently a boy came running up with an umbrella. The sticks had designated in the code the location of the missionary and his necessity. The m'kul is cut from a block of wood and its center is hollowed out.
MOCHANGA Sonorous Substances. India. A metal jew's harp. See jew's harp.
MOHUR See tayuc.
MOKKINE Sonorous Substances. Japan. This consists of a hollow box over which from thirteen to sixteen transverse wooden bars are laid. A melody can be produced by striking the bars with knobbed beaters after a method similar to that of the xylophone. See xylophone.
MOKU-GYO Sonorous Substances. Japan. A wooden prayer gong struck with a padded stick. It was formerly shaped like a fish with its tail in its mouth but is now found in the form of a bird in the same position.
MOKURI Sonorous Substances. Japan. A jew's harp formed of a strip of bamboo having a narrow tongue cut in its center. It is used chiefly by the Ainos, a tribe of northern Japan representing the primitive population and not of the Japanese race or language. See jew's harp.
MONAULOS Double-beating Reed. Ancient Rome. One found in the Tiber has a cylindrical tube of large bore, composed of pieces of bone united by cement. There are four finger-holes. The sound is produced by means of a double reed inserted in a socket at the upper end of the tube. Also the name given to a single tube mamm, an Egyptian instrument.
MOON GUITAR See yueh-ch'in.
MOUTH HARMONICA-Free Reed. Europe. The same instrument was known as mund-harmonica (mouth harmonica) in Germany and hence, doubtless, our present name. It is also known colloquially as mouth organ. The name aeolina was bestowed upon it between 1825 and 1830, because of a similarity in principle and in tone to the aeolian harp. It consists of a small rectangular frame of wood and metal with sixteen rectangular apertures on one edge which differ in length according to the tone required. Into these apertures are fitted elastic metallic laminae or springs fixed at one end. They are placed with great accuracy but are allowed to vibrate freely. In the side of the case, leading to each spring are air channels through which the air is conveyed. The instrument is moved back and forth before the mouth in performance. The strength and rapidity of tone lies wholly within the taste and skill of the per-former. Books of instruction were issued during the early part of the Nineteenth Century and its use was recommended even for fair lips.
A recent invention is one with four sides, sixty-four double holes and one hundred and twenty-eight reeds. It can be played in four different keys. Consider the dexterity required for its performance. A probable ancestor of this little toy, which is of no musical consequence whatever, is mentioned in Hamlet as follows : " There is much music, excellent voice in this little organ, . . . give it breath with your mouth and it will discourse most eloquent music."
MOUTH ORGAN See mouth harmonica.
MRIDANG or MATHALA Vibrating Membranes. India. This is probably the most ancient of the Indian drums. It consists of a hollow shell of wood larger at one end than at the other upon which are stretched two heads of skin fastened to wooden hoops and strained by interlaced leather braces passing the length of the drum. It is beaten in a peculiar manner by the hands, the finger tips and the wrists. To beat the mridang is an art in itself and years are necessary for the attainment of proficiency. Nearly identical to the pakhwaj.
MUET - Plucked Strings. Africa. In this essentially primitive affair, a stalk of " building palm " in many instances constitutes the basis, to which are fitted one or several resonators. Strips of bark are raised from the stalk and a notched bridge passed under them. The tension of the strings can be regulated by movable loops of fiber. Found in the Fan tribe, the Gaboon, and in the French Kongo.
MUND-HARMONICA German name for the mouth harmonica.
MURALI Transverse Flute. India. Is found both in wood and in metal and is often highly decorated with colors or with carving. It has about six finger-holes.
MUSETTE Double-beating Reed. Europe. A French name for the oboe in high F. The contemporary name in Germany was schalmey. See schalmey.
MU-YU Sonorous Substances. China. A block of wood hollowed out and shaped somewhat like a skull, and painted red. It is used by the priests to mark time during the recitation of their prayers when begging from door to door or in performing ceremonies. They beat it with a stick having a large head covered with leather.
