RACKETT -- See wurst fagott.
RANA-SHRINGA Cup Mouthpiece. India. A metal trumpet shaped like the European serpent. See serpent.
RANAT EK Sonorous Substances. Siam. A wooden frame shaped like a boat supporting strips of wood laid side by side. Sounded with wooden beaters, and greatly suggestive of the xylophone. See xylophone.
RAPPAKAI, HORANOKAI, HORAGAI Cup Mouthpiece. Japan. Conch-shell trumpet used for signals.
REBAB ESH SHA'ER Bowed Strings. Syria. A stringed instrument quadrangular in frame with unequal sides and covered with snake skin. A bow is used. This is sometimes called the poet's viol.
REBEC Bowed Strings. Europe. This ancient instrument was one of the first of the ancestors of the violin. It had a pear-shaped body like the mandolin, and three strings but no finger-board, It was usually made of a single piece of wood hollowed out, with a carved figure at the end of the peg-box. It was held by the player with the tail piece resting violin-like under the chin or a trifle lower upon the breast. It has its counterpart in the Arabian rebab. The question remains whether the Spaniards derived the rebec from the Arabians, or the Arabians the rebab from the Spaniards. See rebab.
RECORDER Vertical Flute. Europe. An obsolete instrument existing from an uncertain diate to the middle of the Eighteenth Century. It was of cylindrical bore and was held vertically for playing. This gained for it the name flute ΰ bec, in recognition of a resemblance to the beak of a bird. Another name was flute douce, derived from its pleasant voice. The etymology of the name " recorder " baffles researchers, although the word is used by Shakespeare in the sense of " to sing " and this meaning no doubt led to its use as a name.
Overblowing was not especially successful and the second octave was difficult to produce. An open pipe was furnished with a number of finger-holes, at least seven, and larger varieties fitted with one or more keys to lower the pitch.
The recorder appeared in two families, one being larger than the other. The smaller instruments were pitched, as bass in F, tenor in B flat, alto in F, treble in B flat, and high treble in F. The larger were contrabass in D, bass in C, tenor in G, alto in C, treble in G, high treble in C.
Some of the instruments were furnished with a fipple mouthpiece. The fipple was a block of wood inserted within the end of the pipe, at once narrowing the bore of the tube to the dimensions proper for the entrance of the current of air from the performer's lips, and directing the air in a flat form against the sharp edge of the tube through a slit in the block. This was a later invention and overcame the difficulty of blowing directly against the open end of the tube, the fipple being an imitation of the lips of the player. The mouthpiece was sometimes taken immediately into the mouth and at others was enclosed in a cap which in some instances contained a sponge for gathering the moisture from the breath. Other recorders were furnished with an extra hole, which was covered with a vibrating membrane which imparted an undertone when the instrument was blown.
The recorder enjoyed great popularity especially in England, this fact creating the impression that the instrument was of English extraction. Notwithstanding its popularity the compositions for it were, for a very long time, of a very mediocre quality, as the composer was generally a performer upon some other instrument and did not under-stand the recorder. Henry VIII. favored the recorder, and had a variety of them in all sizes and made of many materials. During the Seventeenth Century, composers began to treat the instrument more carefully and there exist from that period numerous selections for the recorder and the violin.
Two famous books of instruction for the recorder are The Genteel Companion, issued by Humphrey Salter, of London, in 1683, and The Delightful Companion, issued by John Playford and John Carr, also of London, in 1686.
The recorder had a long life but, after a struggle, gave way before the German flute played transversely and having a cylindrical bore fitted with numerous keys. See flute.
REGAL Whistles and Reeds. Europe. This was the name given by the Germans to a very small organ. The idea was derived from the pipe organ, but only a single row of pipes was used. The invention was attributed, but not authentically, to an organ builder in Nuremberg, called Roll, in 1575.
Henry VIII. possessed eighteen regals at the time of his death. Some of them had one pipe to a note and others two. The instruments were contained in cases representing books, whence came the name bible regal. See bible regal.
RIATA Double-beating Reed. Africa. An Algerian instrument similar to the zourna. See zourna.
RIKK Vibrating Membranes. Syria. A tambourine of wood and skin. See tambourine.
RITCHUKU Vertical Flute. Japan. Pan pipes, generally twelve pipes strung together with a silk cord finished with a tassel. See Pan pipes.
ROCKING MELODEON Free Reed. Europe. This was introduced into the United States about 1825. It was ultimately found to be unsightly, tardy in sounding, and harsh in tone. It consisted of an oblong case, at the bottom of which was placed a pair of bellows constituting the blowing apparatus. By pressing down the left hand side of the instrument, the bellows were filled, the lower ones being distended by a strong spring. By maintaining the rocking motion a constant supply of wind was provided. On the upper side were either keys or touches commanding generally about three octaves. This instrument was also called a teeter melodeon. The old blowing force system was thus employed.
ROTA A name applied to the hurdy gurdy because a wheel formed part of its mechanism.
ROTE Bowed Strings. (?) Germany. This was in shape similar to a narrow lyre. One was found in an old tomb in southern Germany, lying upon the bones of a Seventh Century knight. Its shape was evidently derived from the old kithara, a form of lyre. It was probably the original of the Welsh crwth. Although there is no positive evidence that the bow was used with the rote, this instrument figures as one of the ancestors of the violin, doubtless because of its resemblance to the crwth. We learn from the ancient manuscripts that to be proficient upon the rote was considered a requisite of the jongleurs who accompanied the troubadours in their travels and acted as their aides.
RUFHORN Cup Mouthpiece. Europe. A German call horn of the days of simple horns. The German " ruf " denotes call, voice, wind.
RUMANA Vibrating Membranes. Siam. A small drum having a circular shell of wood, and riveted skin heads.
RUSSIAN HORN Cup Mouthpiece. Russia. A conical brass tube bent at a right angle near the mouthpiece. It is also known as chotnitchiyerog. The following description of a Russian horn band is taken from the catalogue of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels.
In 1751, J. A. Maresch, cornetist of the Chapelle de l'Impιratrice Elizabeth of Russia, conceived the idea of forming a band composed of these horns. To thirty-seven musicians he gave an equal number of horns, varying in length from one foot to seven feet, which produced between them the fundamental sounds of all chromatic degrees of a scale of three octaves. Each performer was able to produce but one sound with the exception of those having the twelve horns giving the highest notes of the series, who were able to produce over the fundamental sound, its repetition an octave higher, which completed the fourth octave of this curious orchestra. One can easily appreciate the difficulties that Maresch had to encounter in order to execute with precision certain rapid movements. His success, how-ever, was enormous, and these orchestras were much in vogue at that period.
RYUTEKI See yoko-fuye, SABI See sebi.
