SACKBUT — Cup Mouthpiece. Europe. The sackbut was an instrument similar to the slide trombone, the present form of the latter bearing indeed the other name as early as the Sixteenth Century. Virdung, in 1511, gives a drawing of a sackbut similar to the slide trombone in principle. Lengthy discussions have been indulged in regarding the etymology of the name. The Spanish term, sarabuke, means pump and the first syllable of the sackbut is probably from the kindred Spanish sacar, meaning to draw, and the second syllable from the Latin buxus or pipe. The name was given to the sabeca of the Bible which, however, is believed by authorities to have been a stringed instrument. A Ninth Century drawing depicts an instrument of the sackbut kind lacking a bell.

The sackbut was evidently looked upon by the makers as a means for the expression of unbridled fancy, the mouth-piece, for instance, frequently being a mask, such as a serpent's open mouth. An ingenious Nineteenth Century maker bent the bell in a half circle above the player's head.

The sackbut retained its popularity in Germany until a later date than elsewhere, that is to say until the Nineteenth Century. It was much in use in England and attained to great royal favor in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Queen Elizabeth. J. S. Bach wrote for the soprano instrument. Its use in military bands long prevented its employment for the finer orchestral effects, its speech being held by orchestral composers as too blatant to be used with the group of low-voiced instruments which formed the orchestra of that time.

SA FA FIR — Vertical Flute. Egypt. Modern rustic Pan pipes. See Pan pipes.

SAGAT — Sonorous Substances. Africa. Egyptian castanets. See castanets.

SAIH WANG — Free Reed. Korea. An instrument in which bamboo pipes are inserted in a gourd with a mouth-piece on the side. Similar to the Chinese cheng. See cheng.

SALMODIKON — Bowed Strings. Norway and Sweden.

A shallow oblong body with a many fretted finger-board and having a fixed bridge over which is stretched a single string. The instrument is occasionally provided with sympathetic strings. Salmodikons, some of which are capable of giving two or three octaves, are used in Norway and Sweden to accompany the voice.

SAMISEN or SIAMISEN — Plucked Strings. Japan. This was brought from China to Japan in 1560 since which time it has become the national instrument. It is more portable than the biwa and more suitable for the accompaniment of lighter songs. It has three strings. The square body was once covered with snake skin but cat skin is now used, the value being proportionate to the number of nipple marks. See biwa.

SAMUIUS — Plucked Strings. Africa. An instrument whose body is a flat and narrow strip of wood. A short distance from one end occurs a small hole and a metal string or a cord is stretched from end to end of the wood. The performer places his mouth against the back of the bow over the hole and by varying the tension of his lips five notes can be produced. The Kafirs use the samuius in their songs of love and war, alternating the instrumental with the vocal music.

SAN-GEN-DAKIN — Plucked Strings. Japan. An instrument with a trapezoidal wooden box mounted with some forty strings. These pass over two bridges and are fastened at either end to pegs.

SAN-GEN-KIN — Plucked Strings. Japan. An instrument having three strings. The body is a half cylinder with a flat upper surface, often formed from a bamboo stalk. The strings pass from a small block of wood near one end over two bridges, to the opposite end where three pegs are inserted diagonally across the face.

SAN-HSIEN — Plucked Strings. China. This three-stringed guitar has a shallow cylindrical body and is covered top and bottom with snake skin. It has a long neck and three strings and is sometimes played with the hand but more often with a plectrum. It is the favorite instrument of the street ballad singers.

S'ANKHU — See shunk.

SAN-NO-TSUZUMI — See ichi-no-tsuzumi.

SANTIR -- Plucked Strings. Turkey. This is an instrument similar to the khudra katyayana-vina, but having nearly four times as many strings. See khudra katyayanavina.

SARANGI — Bowed Strings. India. An oblong body of wood with three gut strings and sympathetic strings of wire. Its tone resembles that of the viola. It is considered as rather vulgar and is chiefly found among the low caste Hindus and Mussulmans. A smaller, similar instrument is called the chekara and is much used by the common people.

SARINDA — Bowed Strings. India. The body is cut from a solid block of wood, part of the opening being covered with parchment upon which the bridge is placed. It has three strings of silk or gut and is played with a bow. It is usually highly carved and is popular with the lower classes.

SAR MUNDAI— Struck Strings. Burmah. See khudra katyayana-vina.

SARRUSOPHONE — Double-beating Reed. Europe. Invented in 1856 by M. Sarrus, a band master in the French army. It has a conical tube of brass fitted with a double reed, and like the wood-winds, has round holes closed with keys. It is similar in its timbre to the oboe, the cor anglais and the bassoon according to the pitch of the instrument; though louder and more metallic than these. A family is composed of soprano in B flat, alto in E flat, tenor in B fiat, barytone in E flat, bass in B flat. The instrument most used is the contrabass in the military band. The sarrusophone, which is a combination of reeds and brass, has not been adopted by the orchestra.

SATSUMA-BIWA — Plucked Strings. Japan. A smaller and more delicate instrument than the bugaku-biwa. It is poetically termed the " Phoenix voiced." See bugaku-biwa and da-daiko.

SAUSAGE BASSOON — See wurst fagott.

SAW TAI — Bowed Strings. Siam. Has a pear-shaped body with a long narrow neck. In many instances the sound box is a gourd faced with skin. This is another Siamese instrument of great length. The body is not large comparatively, being but six inches in diameter.

SAX HORN — Cup Mouthpiece. Europe. A family which resulted from the improvement made in brass instruments by Adolphe Sax, who during the Nineteenth Century, strove to produce unity among the various instruments of this class by applying valves throughout, whereas formerly keys and valves were used with equal prominence. The perfected instruments do not possess voices which blend especially well with the strings and wood-winds of the orchestra, but appear to advantage in the military band. The most important are pitched in soprano in F, E flat, or D; contralto in C, the tenor in F and E flat, the barytone in C and B flat, and the contrabass in B flat. Some of them have acquired the special names of althorn, baryton, euphonium, bombardon. See althorn, baryton, euphonium, bombardon.

SAXOPHONE — Single-beating Reed. Europe. Invented in 1840 by Adolphe Sax, from which it takes its name. It is made of brass and has a conical tube. Owing to the fact that its mouthpiece resembles that of the clarinet, it is placed in this class, although the fingering is more like that of the oboe. Its tone is somewhat similar to the clarinet but of rich and distinctive character. There are twelve varieties of the saxophone, two belonging to each of the six classes, soprano high pitch, soprano, alto, tenor, barytone and bass, Their compass is about two octaves and a half. They all but one transpose, the music being written from a semi-tone below middle C to E flat, two octaves above.

Saxophones are effectively used in military music, especially in France, but have not been adopted to a great extent in the orchestra. An instance, however, is the melody in Bizet's " L'Arlesienne " for the alto in E flat.

Philip Hale says : " Regarding the saxophone, the treatise-maker says, ` It has a voice rich and penetrating.

The rather veiled quality of the tone partakes at once of the cello, the cor anglais, and the clarinet, but with more intense sonority. If Halιvy called for saxophones to add to the anguish and despair of humanity on the Last Great Day, so Bizet used it to express gentle melancholy, inexpressible sadness, resignation, hopelessness, grief, that which is ghostly, the remembrance of happy days in present stress of sorrow, " the depth of some divine despair," the odor of leaves in the late autumn, the room in order awaiting the guest that has gone forever — what instrument is more suggestive to the hearer of sentiment or imagination?' "

SCHALMEY — See shawm.

SCHEITHOLD — See tromba marina.

SCHELLENBAUM Or CHAPEAU CHINOIS — Sonorous Substances. Turkey. The schellenbaum was derived by the Germans from the janissary music in the Turkish wars. It was originally the pasha's standard and was borne before his regiment during battle. A pole having a crescent at the top was surmounted by a Chinese hat or pavilion. The entire device was generously hung with little bells. It is now practically obsolete. It was formerly carried at the head of military bands.

SCHIGUENE — Plucked Strings. Japan. An instrument having an octagonal body and a slender neck. It possesses four strings which are played in the mariner of the guitar. It is essentially the genkwan.

SCHLάSSELFIDEL — Bowed Strings. Europe. An instrument of the Sixteenth Century in which the principle was almost exactly that of the modern nyckelharpa of Norway. See nyckelharpa.

SCHOSCHI or SEOUNOFUYE — Vertical Flute. Japan. Pan pipes composed of about twelve wooden pipes of different lengths strung together with a silk cord. See Pan pipes.

SCHOSCHI-BOUIE or JINNIRITSI — Free Reed. Japan. This consists of some twelve tubes of different lengths, each fitted with a free reed and tied together with a cord.

SCHUMGHA — Plucked Strings. Africa. An ordinary bow shaft, perhaps a yard long, with the single bowstring tied back. The instrument is held horizontally, one end supported in the hollow of the performer's right thumb and the other gripped in his teeth. The tone may be increased and the tremolo effect added to it by the performer blowing on the back of the bow. This is probably the most primitive example of an African instrument.

SE — Plucked Strings. China. An instrument, which according to tradition had originally fifty strings. It came to have twenty-five in this wise. A certain Miss Su per-formed one day upon it before the august emperor, Huang Ti. The strains, however, made him so sad that he forth-with ordered the number of strings to be reduced one-half, and thus it has ever since remained.

The se is made on the same plan as the ch'in. Each string is elevated over a movable bridge, the bridges being painted in five colors, blue, red, yellow, white and black. These instruments are used in imperial and religious ceremonies. See ch'in.

SEAOU-PO — See po.

SEA TRUMPET — See tromba marina.

SEBA — See sebi.

SEBI, SEBA OR SABI — Vertical Flute. Ancient Egypt. This flute was a long tube of natural reed pierced toward the lower end with five finger-holes. The instrument was held almost vertically and blown across the upper edge. It is considered as an ancestor of the European recorders. Its present form, the nay or nei, is the representative national instrument.

SEE SAW DUANG — Bowed Strings. Siam. A cylindrical body with a skin belly and having a long neck, and mounted with two or more strings. Like many other Siamese instruments the body is very slender, only a few inches in diameter, and about twenty-five inches in length. SEE-SAW-OO — Bowed Strings. Siam. A fiddle having a globular body and a long neck. Generally furnished with two strings of twine. The instrument is about thirty inches in length and the diameter of the body is four inches.

SEITEKI — Transverse Flute. Japan. A primitive Chinese flute made of plain bamboo and having six finger-holes. Its chief peculiarity lies in the fact that between the upper finger-hole and the lip-hole there is another hole covered with paper which lends a quaint buzzing sound to the music. The seiteki is ornamented with cord and tassel.

SEOUNOFUYE — See schoschi.

SERAPHINE — Free Reed. Europe. This, a precursor of the harmonium, was invented in 1833 by John Green of London. It had a keyboard and bellows similar to an organ. One pedal served to operate the bellows, and another to move a swell shutter over the reeds beneath the instrument. The sound produced was harsh.

SERINETTE — Wind with automatic mechanism. French. A miniature barrel organ, so called because it was played by bird fanciers in teaching the finch (serin) and other birds to pipe.

SERPENT – Cup Mouthpiece. Europe. This consisted of two hollow shells of wood or brass bent into serpentine shape and held together with a covering of leather. The mouth tube was curved towards the performer and the mouthpiece was cupped. The instrument originally had six holes and was later fitted with keys. It was bent in order to bring the finger-holes within reach of the player. Its tube was frequently over eight feet long, its fundamental note being in consequence two octaves and a whole tone below middle C. It was sometimes used in poor villages in France in place of the organ. Handel held it in no high esteem, considering its tone unbearable, but Beethoven and Mendelssohn did it the honor to write parts for it and it occurs in the earlier compositions of Wagner.

Burney in The Present State of Music in France and Italy (1771) remarks that he frequently mistook the tone of the serpent for that of the organ; but soon found it had in its effect, something better and something worse than that instrument. At the Notre Dame Cathedral he found that it accompanied the choir more often than did the organ. SEZE — See tzetze.

SHAKUGIO — Sonorous Substances. Japan. A sistrum. A wooden handle with a ring at one end on which are hung other metal rings. See sistrum.

SHAKUHACHI or SIAKUHACHI — Vertical Flute. Japan. A flute of thick bamboo and in many cases twenty inches or more in length. It is difficult to play, but when well played is the mellowest of wind instruments. Smaller varieties are made.

SHAWM — Double-beating Reed. Europe. The tenor of the pommer family. The German name was schalmey. See pommer.

SHICHI-GEN-KIN — Plucked Strings. Japan. A seven-stringed kin identical with the ch'in or scholar's lute of China. See kin or ch'in.

SHICHIRIKI — See hitschi-riki.

SHIME-DAIKO — See uta-daiko.

SHI-YO — See sho.

SHO or SHI-YO, SHONO-FUYE — Free Reed. Japan. A primitive mouth organ made of seventeen thin bamboo reeds placed in a compact bundle and fixed in a circular lacquered wind chamber of cherry wood or hard pine. Each pipe has a slit which must be covered before a tone can be produced. The bamboo used in the construction of the sho is often procured from old country houses. Some per-formers warm the wind-box over a hibachi, the small stove of the Japanese, to prevent the accumulation of moisture. It is like the Chinese cheng.

SHONO-FUYE — See sho.

SHOPHAR — Cup Mouthpiece. Hebrew. This is the only existing instrument that may be assigned to the Jews as a nation. In the course of their wanderings, all others which may have been theirs have been lost. The shophar is made of ram's horn straightened under great heat. The rabbis sound it in the synagogue on the Jewish New Year, in accordance with the mandate of Moses: "And in the seventh month, ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work ; it is a day of blowing the trumpets unto you." Only a few notes can be produced, but the ritual requires a certain series. The interior as in other such horns is conical.

SHUANG-CH'IN — Plucked Strings. China. An octagonal guitar made of hard wood with a long neck furnished with frets. The strings are tuned in pairs and are played with a plectrum. It is very costly and in consequence is rarely used.

SHUN — Sonorous Substances. China. This is the literary appellation of an instrument shaped like the mortar. Its popular name is ch'ing. It is struck with a wooden hammer. When used at religious ceremonies it is placed in a kind of silken purse richly ornamented with rare fish scales.

SHUNK or S'ANKHU — Cup Mouthpiece. India. A conch-shell trumpet used only in temples in religious ceremonies or carried in processions to the shrine of Hindu deities.

SIASUHACHI — See shakuhachi.

SIAMISEN — See samisen.

SIDE DRUM — Vibrating Membranes. Europe. Also known as the snare drum, from the cords of gut which are stretched over the under side and which vibrate sympathetically with each stroke. The two heads are of skin and are stretched over the ends and fastened in the same manner as those of the bass drum. See bass drum.

The side drum is used in orchestras and marks the time for marching in military bands and gives a few signals in the army. The playing requires great skill, and instruction should begin in youth to develop it.

In La Gazza and Fra Diavolo, the side drums are used with good effect, but it is the tendency of composers to use them injudiciously. In the Dead March from Saul a continuous role of muffled drums is used, and the blessing of the poniards in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots is made more impressive by their use in crescendo passages.

SINDI — Sonorous Substances. Persia. Persian cymbals. See cymbals.

SISTRUM — Sonorous Substances. Ancient Egypt. This instrument originated in the worship of Isis. Metal rods passed through a metal hoop and were hung with tiny bells. The hoop was furnished with a handle by which it was shaken. This jingling instrument was carried with the pagan worship to Rome, in the last years of her supremacy, and it was found in Italy as late as the Eleventh Century in use in the Roman Catholic churches. It was also known by the Oriental people and mention of the sistrum is made by Josephus.

SITAR — Plucked Strings. India. Also called sundari. This instrument has a flat, circular body of wood and a long straight neck. It is played with a wire plectrum secured upon the forefinger, while the thumb is pressed firmly upon the belly in order that the position of the hand should vary as little as possible. The tone is singularly sweet and plaintive and the smaller ones are sometimes used by the native ladies.

SLIDE TROMBONE — See trombone.

SNARE DRUM — See side drum.

So-NA — Double-beating Reed. China. There is no instrument in more general use in China than this shrieking and detestable contrivance. When heard in the morning it announces a funeral and in the afternoon a wedding. It consists of a wooden pipe fitted with a double-beating reed and a copper bell. There are seven holes on the upper side and one on the lower for the thumb. As in the European oboe, the mouthpiece is a small reed affixed to the upper end. The smaller size is called k'ai-ti. Also called heang-teih. See oboe.

SONA RAPPA or DOSA — Cup Mouthpiece. Japan. A copper trumpet over a foot long having a bell over four inches in diameter. It is used by candy venders and hence can scarcely be called a musical instrument.

SONG NAH — Vibrating Membranes. Siam. A cylindrical drum with skin heads braced with strips of skin.

So-No-Kozo — Plucked Strings. Japan. A Chinese instrument used in playing Chinese music in Japan. There are thirteen strings which are played with the tsume, two bits of ivory fastened to the fingers.

The story goes that a noblewoman about 670 A. D. was sent to a rural district for her health. One day while gathering flowers, she was attracted to a grove by beautiful strains of music. Within the grove she found a man in the guise of a Chinaman, whom instinct told her to be a god. He called her to him and began to instruct her upon the beautiful instrument which he played. The lessons continued for many days and with the acquisition of knowledge, health returned, until a day came for her reappearance at court. There she displayed her new instrument and her new art and taught others. As soon as possible, how-ever, she returned to her rural retreat only to find that the god and the grove had disappeared and that only a fleecy cloud had been left in their stead.

SONOROPHONE — Cup Mouthpiece. Europe. A coiled variety of the bombardon, constructed of metal. Sonoro-phones were still made in the Nineteenth Century. See bombardon.

SOOR — Double-beating Reed. India. The conical tube terminates in a metal bell and is furnished with a double-beating reed mouthpiece. The instrument is fitted with a varying number of finger-holes.

SOORSRINGA — Plucked Strings. India. A gourd body is furnished with a neck carrying sixteen frets. A specimen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is forty-six inches long and the body has a diameter of nine inches.

SOOTE — Vertical Flute. Persia. A short flute possessing several finger-holes.

SOUFFARAH — See duduki.

SOUNG — Plucked Strings. Burmah. A harp whose body is shaped like a boat. A curved neck rises from one end, and assists in the support of the strings, whose tension is altered by slipping them along the neck, or by pegs in it. In some instances the frame is elaborately carved, and there are often about thirteen strings.

SOURNA-KOTO — See ichi-gen-kin.

SOUTAK — Vertical Flute. Persia. A musical toy whose foundation is a jar filled with water. Notes resembling those of a bird are produced by blowing through the spout.

SPINET — See virginal.

SPITZHARFE or DAVIDHARFE — Plucked Strings. A double sound-box with strings on both sides, the bass on one and the treble on the other. It was a double psaltery designed for playing duets. The instrument had a base and could be placed upon a table between two performers. The spitzharfe, literally meaning pointed harp, is also known as harpa doppia. The story goes that it was this variety of instrument which David used, bringing about the name davidharfe. This name and the name harpanetta, which is also at times applied are both erroneous as the strings run over the sound-box instead of from it, as in the harp.

SPOON FIDDLE — See lφffelgeige.

STONE HARMONICA — Sonorous Substances. England. In one of these instruments in the Metropolitan Museum of Art there are twenty-two slabs of stone varying in length from two feet and two inches, to nine inches. The slabs rest upon ropes which are stretched across a frame. William Till of England was the collector and the Museum catalogue says : " In selecting these stones it was found that the rocks should be perfectly sound gneiss and horn-blende schist in which there was no slate, in order to produce a musical note, and in tuning them it was discovered that chipping away the end sharpened the tone, while at the center similar treatment flattened the tone." When once in order the tone never changes.

STREICH-ZITHER — See bowed zither.

STROHFIDEL — See xylophone,

SU-D'ZU — Sonorous Substances. Japan. A globular brass bell resembling the ordinary sleigh bell, used in worship by the Shintos, a religious sect.

SU-LO — See lo.

SUNDARI — See sitar.

SUNG — Plucked Strings. Siam. An instrument of the guitar type, with a circular body and a long neck. Similar to the Chinese yueh-ch'in. The face is twelve inches or more in diameter. See yueh-ch'in.

SYRINX — Vertical Flute. See Pan pipes. Top of Page