Musical Instruments

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Musical Instruments

Clarinet

• Clarinets belong to woodwind family• Clarinets can be of differing sizes and pitches. • Clarinet family is the largest such instrument family, with more than a dozen types. • J.C. Denner of Germany developed clarinet from an instrument called chalumeau (“SHAH loo moe”) ~1690. • Rameau, Haydn, Mozart were the first composers to use it in their music. •There is a famous clarinet solo in George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. •The clarinet is played by blowing across a single reed on the mouthpiece

Timpani

• Timpani (“kettle drums”) are musical instruments in the percussion family. • A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper, and more recently, constructed of more lightweight fiberglass. • They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick or timpani mallet. • Unlike most drums, they are capable of producing an actual pitch when struck, and can be tuned, often with the use of a pedal mechanism to control each drum's range of notes.

Bayan (accordion)

•The bayan (Russian: баян) is a type of chromatic button accordion •Bayan was developed in Russia in the early 20th century• Bayan is named after the bard, Boyan. • Bayan differs from western chromatic button accordions in some details of construction. •The differences in internal construction give the bayan a different tone color from western instruments, especially the bass has a much fuller sound. • Because of their range and purity of tone, bayans are often the instrument of choice for accordion virtuosi who perform classical and contemporary classical music.

Tambourine

• The tambourine or Marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family • Tambourine consists of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils".• Tambourines come in many different shapes with the most common being circular• Tambourine is found in many forms of music, classical music, Roma music, Persian music, gospel music, pop music and rock music. • The word tambourine finds its origins in the Middle Persian word tambūr "lute, drum" (via the Middle French tambour).• The tambourine can be held in the hand or mounted on a stand, and can be played in numerous ways, from stroking or shaking the jingles to striking it sharply with hand or stick or using the tambourine to strike the leg or hip.

The Brazilian pandeiro

Egyptian riq

Cello

•The violoncello (abbreviated to cello) is a bowed string instrument. • The cello is played by a bow.• The Cello has 4 strings: C, D, G, and A• The cello is used as a solo instrument, in chamber music, and as a member of the string section of an orchestra. • The cello is the 2nd physically largest member of the violin family, next to the double bass.•The cello has been described as the closest sounding instrument to the human voice.• The cello was first made in Italy in 16th century. •The cello was not popular at first because its great sound overpowered the sounds of violins of that period.• Modern orchestra has 12 cellos• Pablo Casals of Spain, a famous 20th century cellist, greatly influenced the playing style of other cellists.•The cello is most closely associated with European classical music.

Mstislav Rostropovich, playing the Duport Stradivarius at the White House in 1978. He is widely considered to have been one of the greatest cellists of the 20th century, he is considered by some of his peers to be the greatest cellist of all time.

Drum

•The drum a percussion instrument• Drum is usually played by striking the drumhead (drum skin) with a cloth covered beater, drumstick. Foot pedal can be used, or hands of the drum player.•Drums are the world's oldest and most ubiquitous musical instruments, and the basic design has remained virtually unchanged for thousands of years•Drums sometimes are called “indefinite pitch”•Drumhead can be made of animal skin or vinyl•Richard Strauss‘s, Also Sprach Zarathustra has a famous introduction by drums•Most drums are considered "untuned instruments", however many modern musicians are beginning to tune drums to songs; Terry Bozzio has constructed a kit using diatonic and chromatically tuned drums. • Often, several drums are arranged together to create a drum kit that can be played by one musician with all four limbs•Every modern orchestra has at least one drum

Trombone

•The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. •Like all brass instruments, it is a lip-reed aerophone: sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips (embouchure) cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate. •The trombone is usually has a telescopic slide with which the player varies the length of the tube to change pitches, although the valve trombone uses three valves similar to those on a trumpet.•The word trombone derives from Italian tromba (trumpet) and -one (a suffix meaning "large"), so the name literally means "large trumpet".•In 17th century, Giovanni Gabrielli and Claudio Monteverdi were the first to use trombones in their music al compositions.

•Trombones are used in jazz bands, dance bands, and marching bands, as well as in classical music.

•Most trombones today are the tenor and bass, though as with other Renaissance instruments such as the recorder, the trombone has been built in every size from piccolo to contrabass.

Violin

•The violin is a bowed string instrument •The violin has 4 strings: G, D, A, E•The violin is played by drawing the horsehair of the bow across the violin’s strings, which causes them to vibrate and make sound• It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family•The violin is sometimes informally called a fiddle, • The word "violin" comes from the Middle Latin word vitula, meaning "stringed instrument“•A person who makes or repairs violins is called a luthier, or simply a violin maker.

•The first violins were used to play dance music.•The violin, while it has ancient origins, acquired most of its modern characteristics in 16th-century Italy, with some further modifications occurring in the 18th century. •Prized violins are made by the Stradivari, Guarneri and Amati families from the 16th to the 18th century in Cremona.•In 17th century, Claudio Monteverdi was the first to use violins in an operatic orchestra•The parts of a violin are usually made from different types of wood (except electric violins), and it is generally strung with gut or steel strings.•The violinist changes the pitch of the sound by placing fingers on the strings in different places on the fingerboard.• A full symphony orchestra has 35 violins, more then any other instrument.

Trumpet

•There are several types of trumpet; the most common is a transposing instrument pitched in B .♭•Modern trumpets have either three piston valves or three rotary valves, each of which increases the length of tubing when engaged, thereby lowering the pitch.•The predecessors to trumpets did not have valves; •The trumpet is used in many forms of music, including classical music and jazz.•The chromatic trumpet was first made in the late 1700s. •Joseph Haydn's Trumpet Concerto was one of the first for a chromatic trumpet

•The trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family.•Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC. •Trumpets are constructed of brass tubing bent twice into an oblong shape•Trumpets are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air column inside the trumpet.•Louis Armstrong was well known for his virtuosity with the trumpet

Piano

•The piano is keyboard instrument. •Pianos are sometimes classified as both a percussion and a stringed instrument.• The piano is played by striking keys with fingers•Piano has a range of 88 notes•Bartolomeo Cristofori developed it in 1709, Italy•Widely used in Western music for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal. •Pressing a key on the piano's keyboard causes a felt covered hammer to strike steel strings. The hammers rebound, allowing the strings to continue vibrating at their resonant frequency.•These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a sounding board that couples the acoustic energy to the air so that it can be heard as sound. •The word piano is a shortened form of the word pianoforte (from Italian, clavicembalo, col piano e forte (literally harpsichord with soft and loud). •It was called pianoforte because it was the keyboard instrument that could be played both very softly and very loudly.•Johann Christian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were two of the first composers to write music for the piano•First pianos frequently broke during performance, but starting 19th century they were built sturdier