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Musical Instruments
A
ACCORDION -- Free Reeds. Europe. A predecessor of the concertina, and a successor of the mouth harmonica. It was invented by one Damian, of Vienna, in 1829.
Musical Instruments
B
BALALAΟKA Plucked Strings. Russia. A guitar with a long triangular-shaped body. The strings are of cat-gut, and there are three frets on.
Musical Instruments
C
CABINET ORGAN Free Reeds. America. One of the names by which the reed organ is known.
Musical Instruments
D
DABBOUS Sonorous Substances. Turkey. A rattle used by dervishes. A knobbed stick is hung with chains finished with bits of metal, that strike together when the stick is whirled.
Musical Instruments
E
EKA-TARA Plucked Strings. India. The body is small and globular, and is furnished with a long narrow neck, which passes through the body and projects on the lower side. A single string is stretched from end to end of the neck.
Musical Instruments
F
FAGGEISHAH Sonorous Substances. Syria. Castanets. Several metal discs attached to a string to be shaken. FAGOTT, FAGOTTO See bassoon.
Musical Instruments
G
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.
Musical Instruments
H
HAGGUM Bowed Strings. Korea. A cylindrical body of wood with a slender neck of bamboo. It is similar to the erh-h'sien of China, and is played in the same manner. See erh-h'sien.
Musical Instruments
I
ICBACARRE Plucked Strings. Africa. A crude lute. One in the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a body made from a round tin can, the opening being covered with parchment. It has a wooden neck with one peg and a fiber string. This curious affair came from Mozambique.
Musical Instruments
J
JEW'S HARP Sonorous Substances. Europe. A small metallic tongue vibrating within an iron frame shaped like a horseshoe. When played it is placed between the teeth, and vibrations of the metallic tongue are produced by striking it with the finger while a tune is hummed. One theory of the name is that it was originally jaw's harp, from its position while being played, and another that it was first made and sold in England by Jews. It is shrill and peculiar in sound, and rather melancholy. Even in the Nineteenth Century the jew's harp retained its popularity. In 1860 no less than six million are said to have been produced in Steyer, province of Styria, Austria.
Musical Instruments
K
KACHHAPI VINA Plucked Strings. India. The body is about four feet in length and is gourd-shaped, that is, the circular base tapers into a neck. The neck has many frets, and five strings pass from the base of the instrument over a bridge and over the frets.
Musical Instruments
L
LADAKEH Vibrating Membranes. India. A shell of wood with parchment heads. Instead of sticks it is struck with small balls at the ends of cords fastened to the center of the shell.
Musical Instruments
M
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.
Musical Instruments
N
NAGGAREH or NAKKARAH Vibrating Membranes. Syria and Arabia. A small brass double drum in the form of kettle drums with a head of skin and played with wooden drumsticks.
Musical Instruments
O
OBAH Plucked Strings. Africa. A triangular frame of wood with one corner inserted in a gourd and furnished with fiber strings. The gourd is held against the body when the instrument is played.
Musical Instruments
P
P-AI-HSIAO Vertical Flute. China. This was invented when the Chinese did not know that different tones could be got from one pipe by uncovering the holes made in it at different places. So they bound tubes of varying lengths together in the form of Pandean pipes. The first of these was made with ten tubes and bound with a silken cord. It now has sixteen tubes arranged in a carved and ornamented frame typifying a phoenix with spread wings. The sounds are supposed to represent the voice of this bird.
Musical Instruments
Q
QUINTON or PAR DESSUS Europe. A five-stringed treble viol of high pitch. It belongs to the Eighteenth Century. See viol.
Musical Instruments
R
RANA-SHRINGA Cup Mouthpiece. India. A metal trumpet shaped like the European serpent. See serpent.
Musical Instruments
S
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.
Musical Instruments
T
TABBALAT Or TABL-SHAMEE Vibrating Membranes. Arabia. This hand drum has a shallow shell of wood and is carried about the neck. A pair of them are called tabbalat arrakeb.
Musical Instruments
U
UTA-DAIKO, SHIME-DAIKO Vibrating Membranes. Japan. A plain drum, the commonest of the Japanese drums, used in the theatres and played with two plain sticks whose sharp edges are beveled off. In processions it is carried before the player in a wooden frame and is decorated with orange-red cords. If the player is celebrated, pale blue and lilac cords are substituted in his honor. The beating is a vigorous business, both sticks being lifted over the right shoulder, brought down with rapid circular motion, and immediately raised again.
Musical Instruments
V
VINA Plucked Strings. India. A stringed instrument bearing some resemblance to the mandolin or guitar and played with the finger nails. There are seven strings, four passing over frets, and three at the side to mark the time. The neck rests on a gourd near its head. The tone is rather thin but curiously soft and plaintive.
Musical Instruments
W
WEI-SHUN Sonorous Substances. China. A very ancient bell made in the shape of a balloon and suspended singly upon a frame through a knob made to suggest a monkey. Small round bells are attached as a tongue and make the sound exceedingly shrill. The Chinese declare that their idea of suspending bells was derived from a certain monkey with a yellowish-gray head, a forked tail, arid an upturned nose, which in rainy weather hangs from the branches of the trees by putting the two ends of its forked tail into its nostrils, thus forming a circle.
Musical Instruments
X
XYLOPHONE, STROHFIDEL, ECHELETTE Sonorous Substances. Europe. This consists of bars of wood tuned to a scale and laid on ropes of straw. It is struck with wooden hammers. The instrument is popular among the Tyrolese singers and originally belonged to the people of eastern Europe. Considering its rude construction, the fine effects produced are most surprising. Mendelssohn heard Gusikow perform upon the strohfidel and was greatly pleased. Its dry flat tone makes it useful in descriptive music. The instrument was employed in the orchestra, by Lumbye in Traumbildern, and by Saint-Saλns in his Danse Macabre. It is not, however, a true orchestral instrument.
Musical Instruments
Y
YAKUMO-KOTO Plucked Strings. Japan. The body is made of bamboo and has two strings being almost identical with the ni-gen-kin. See ni-gen-kin.
Musical Instruments
Z
ZICHIREI Sonorous Substances. Japan. Hollow rings strung on a wire attached to a handle and shaken in giving the alarm of fire.
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