1.
Woodwind instrument
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Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the more general category of wind instruments. There are two types of woodwind instruments, flutes and reed instruments. What differentiates these instruments from other instruments is the way in which they produce their sound. Examples are a saxophone, a bassoon and a piccolo, flutes produce sound by directing a focused stream of air below the edge of a hole in a cylindrical tube. The flute family can be divided into two sub-families, open flutes and closed flutes, to produce a sound with an open flute, the player is required to blow a stream of air across a sharp edge that then splits the airstream. This split airstream then acts upon the air contained within the flutes hollow causing it to vibrate. Examples of open flutes are the flute, panpipes and shakuhachi. Ancient flutes of this variety were often made from sections of plants such as grasses, reeds. Later, flutes were made of such as tin, copper. Modern concert flutes are made of high-grade metal alloys, usually containing nickel, silver, copper. To produce a sound with a flute, the player is required to blow air into a duct. This duct acts as a channel bringing the air to a sharp edge, as with the open flutes, the air is then split, this causes the column of air within the closed flute to vibrate and produce sound. Examples of this type of include the recorder, ocarina. Reed instruments produce sound by focusing air into a mouthpiece which then causes a reed, or reeds, similar to flutes, Reed pipes are also further divided into two types, single reed and double reed. Single-reed woodwinds produce sound by placing a reed onto the opening of a mouthpiece, when air is forced between the reed and the mouthpiece, the reed causes the air column in the instrument to vibrate and produce its unique sound. Single reed instruments include the clarinet, saxophone, and others such as the chalumeau, double-reed instruments use two precisely cut, small pieces of cane bound together at the base. This form of production has been estimated to have originated in the middle to late Neolithic period. The finished, bound reed is inserted into the instrument and vibrates as air is forced between the two pieces and this family of reed pipes is subdivided further into another two sub-families, exposed double reed, and capped double reed instruments
2.
Single-reed instrument
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A single-reed instrument is a woodwind instrument that uses only one reed to produce sound. The very earliest single-reed instruments were documented in ancient Egypt, as well as the Middle East, Greece, the earliest types of single-reed instruments used idioglottal reeds, where the vibrating reed is a tongue cut and shaped on the tube of cane. Much later, single-reed instruments started using heteroglottal reeds, where a reed is cut and separated from the tube of cane, by contrast, in a double reed instrument, there is no mouthpiece, the two parts of the reed vibrate against one another. Reeds are traditionally made of cane and produce sound when air is blown across or through them, most single-reed instruments are descended from single-reed idioglot instruments called memet, found in Egypt as early as 2700 BCE. Due to their fragility, no instruments from antiquity were preserved, during the Old Kingdom in Egypt, memets were depicted on the reliefs of seven tombs at Saqqarra, six tombs at Giza, and the pyramids of Queen Khentkaus. Most memets were double-clarinets, where two reed tubes were tied or glued together to one instrument. Multiple pipes were used to sound or generate a strong beat-tone with slight variations in tuning among the pipes. One of the tubes usually functioned as a drone, but the design of these simple instruments varied endlessly, the entire reed entered the mouth, meaning that the player could not easily articulate so melodies were defined by quick movement of the fingers on the tone holes. These types of double-clarinets are still prevalent today, but also developed into simplified single-clarinets, modern-day idioglots found in Egypt include the arghul and the zummara. Examples include clarinets, saxophones, and some bagpipes, see links to other examples below. Single reed instruments fall under three Hornbostel–Sachs classes,412.13 Free reeds,422.2 Single reed instruments, The pipe has a single reed consisting of a percussion lamella. These are the percussion reeds including clarinets and saxophones,422.3 Reedpipes with free reeds, The reed vibrates through a closely fitted frame, and there are fingerholes
3.
Clarinet
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The clarinet is a musical-instrument family belonging to the group known as the woodwind instruments. It has a mouthpiece, a straight cylindrical tube with an almost cylindrical bore. A person who plays a clarinet is called a clarinetist, the word clarinet may have entered the English language via the French clarinette, or from Provençal clarin, oboe. It would seem however that its roots are to be found amongst some of the various names for trumpets used around the renaissance. Clarion, clarin and the Italian clarino are all derived from the medieval term claro which referred to a form of trumpet. This is probably the origin of the Italian clarinetto, itself a diminutive of clarino, according to Johann Gottfried Walther, writing in 1732, the reason for the name is that it sounded from far off not unlike a trumpet. The English form clarinet is found as early as 1733, while the similarity in sound between the earliest clarinets and the trumpet may hold a clue to its name, other factors may have been involved. The trumpet parts that required this speciality were known by the term clarino, Johann Christoph Denner is generally believed to have invented the clarinet in Germany around the year 1700 by adding a register key to the earlier chalumeau. Over time, additional keywork and airtight pads were added to improve the tone and these days the most popular clarinet is the B♭ clarinet. However, the clarinet in A, just a lower, is commonly used in orchestral music. Since the middle of the 19th century the clarinet has become an essential addition to the orchestra. The clarinet family ranges from the BBB♭ octo-contrabass to the A♭ piccolo clarinet, the clarinet has proved to be an exceptionally flexible instrument, equally at home in the classical repertoire as in concert bands, military bands, marching bands, klezmer, and jazz. The cylindrical bore is primarily responsible for the clarinets distinctive timbre, the tone quality can vary greatly with the musician, the music, the instrument, the mouthpiece, and the reed. The most prominent were the German/Viennese traditions and the French school, the latter was centered on the clarinetists of the Conservatoire de Paris. The proliferation of recorded music has made examples of different styles of clarinet playing available, the modern clarinetist has a diverse palette of acceptable tone qualities to choose from. The A clarinet and B♭ clarinet have nearly the same bore, orchestral players using the A and B♭ instruments in the same concert could use the same mouthpiece for both. The A and the B♭ instruments have nearly identical tonal quality, the tone of the E♭ clarinet is brighter than that of the lower clarinets and can be heard even through loud orchestral or concert band textures. The bass clarinet has a deep, mellow sound, while the alto clarinet is similar in tone to the bass
4.
Saxophone
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The saxophone is a family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet, the saxophone family was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1840. He patented the saxophone on June 28,1846, in two groups of seven instruments each, each series consisted of instruments of various sizes in alternating transposition. The series pitched in B♭ and E♭, designed for bands, have proved extremely popular. The saxophone is used in music, military bands, marching bands. The saxophone was developed in 1846 by Adolphe Sax, a Belgian instrument maker, flautist, born in Dinant and originally based in Brussels, he moved to Paris in 1842 to establish his musical instrument business. Prior to his work on the saxophone, he had several improvements to the bass clarinet by improving its keywork and acoustics. Sax was also a maker of the ophicleide, a large conical brass instrument in the bass register with keys similar to a woodwind instrument. His experience with two instruments allowed him to develop the skills and technologies needed to make the first saxophones. As an outgrowth of his work improving the bass clarinet, Sax began developing an instrument with the projection of a brass instrument and he wanted it to overblow at the octave, unlike the clarinet, which rises in pitch by a twelfth when overblown. An instrument that overblows at the octave has identical fingering for both registers, Sax created an instrument with a single-reed mouthpiece like a clarinet, conical brass body like an ophicleide, and some acoustic properties of both the horn and the clarinet. Having constructed saxophones in several sizes in the early 1840s, Sax applied for, and received, the patent encompassed 14 versions of the fundamental design, split into two categories of seven instruments each, and ranging from sopranino to contrabass. Although the instruments transposed at either F or C have been considered orchestral, the C soprano saxophone was the only instrument to sound at concert pitch. Saxs patent expired in 1866, thereafter, numerous saxophonists and instrument manufacturers implemented their own improvements to the design, the first substantial modification was by a French manufacturer who extended the bell slightly and added an extra key to extend the range downwards by one semitone to B♭. It is suspected that Sax himself may have attempted this modification and this extension is now commonplace in almost all modern designs, along with other minor changes such as added keys for alternate fingerings. Using alternate fingerings allows a player to play faster and more easily, a player may also use alternate fingerings to bend the pitch. Some of the alternate fingerings are good for trilling, scales, a substantial advancement in saxophone keywork was the development of a method by which the left thumb operates both tone holes with a single octave key, which is now universal on modern saxophones. This enables a chromatic scale to be played two octaves simply by playing the diatonic scale combined with alternately raising and lowering this one digit
5.
Reed (mouthpiece)
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A reed is a thin strip of material which vibrates to produce a sound on a musical instrument. The reeds of most woodwind instruments are made from Arundo donax or synthetic material, musical instruments may be classified according to the type and number of reeds used. The earliest types of single-reed instruments used idioglottal reeds, where the reed is a tongue cut. Much later, single-reed instruments started using heteroglottal reeds, where a reed is cut and separated from the tube of cane, by contrast, in a an uncapped double reed instrument, there is no mouthpiece, the two parts of the reed vibrate against one another. Single reeds are used on the mouthpieces of clarinets and saxophones, the back of the reed is flat and is placed against the mouthpiece, the rounded top side tapers to a thin tip. These reeds are roughly rectangular in shape except for the thin vibrating tip, all single reeds are shaped similarly but vary in size to fit each instruments mouthpiece. Reeds designed for the instrument may look identical to each other. Hardness is generally measured on a scale of 1 through 5 from softest to hardest and this is not a standardized scale and reed strengths vary by manufacturer. The thickness of the tip and heel and the profile in between affect the sound and playability, cane of different grades, even if cut with the same profile, will also respond differently. This is due to the natural differences in the density of the cane fibers. The cane used to make reeds for saxophone, clarinet, once the cane is cut, it must lay out and dry in direct sunlight for about a month. The cane is rotated regularly to ensure proper and complete drying, once dry, they are taken to be stored in a warehouse. As the cane is needed, it is pulled from the warehouse, once at the factory, the cane is taken to the cutting department where it is cut into tubes. The tubes are graded by diameter and wall density, the tubes are then cut into splits which are transformed into reed blanks. The blanks are tapered and profiled using blades or CNC machines into reeds, after the reeds are completed, they are taken to a machine that grades them for strength. Double reeds are used on the oboe, oboe damore, English horn, bass oboe, Heckelphone, bassoon, contrabassoon, sarrusophone, shawm, bagpipes, nadaswaram and they are typically not used in conjunction with a mouthpiece, rather the two reeds vibrate against each other. Reed strengths are graded from hard to soft, the making of double reeds begins in the same way as how single reeds are made. The cane is collected from Arundo donax, dried, processed, similar to single reed production, the cane is separated into various diameters. The most common diameters for American-style oboe reeds are as follows,9. 5–10 mm, 10–10.5 mm, many American oboists prefer a specific diameter at one time of the year and a different diameter at other times, depending on the season and the weather
6.
Brass instrument
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A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the players lips. Brass instruments are also called labrosones, literally meaning lip-vibrated instruments, there are several factors involved in producing different pitches on a brass instrument. The view of most scholars is that the brass instrument should be defined by the way the sound is made, as above. Thus one finds brass instruments made of wood, like the alphorn, the cornett, the serpent, as valved instruments are predominant among the brasses today, a more thorough discussion of their workings can be found below. The valves are usually piston valves, but can be rotary valves, slide brass instruments use a slide to change the length of tubing. The main instruments in this category are the family, though valve trombones are occasionally used. The trombone familys ancestor, the sackbut, and the folk instrument bazooka are also in the slide family, there are two other families that have, in general, become functionally obsolete for practical purposes. Instruments of both types, however, are used for period-instrument performances of Baroque or Classical pieces. In more modern compositions, they are used for their intonation or tone color. Natural brass instruments only play notes in the harmonic series. These include the bugle and older variants of the trumpet and horn, the trumpet was a natural brass instrument prior to about 1795, and the horn before about 1820. In the 18th century, makers developed interchangeable crooks of different lengths, natural instruments are still played for period performances and some ceremonial functions, and are occasionally found in more modern scores, such as those by Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. Keyed or Fingered brass instruments used holes along the body of the instrument and these included the cornett, serpent, ophicleide, keyed bugle and keyed trumpet. They are more difficult to play than valved instruments, Brass instruments may also be characterised by two generalizations about geometry of the bore, that is, the tubing between the mouthpiece and the flaring of the tubing into the bell. Those two generalizations are with regard to the degree of taper or conicity of the bore and the diameter of the bore with respect to its length, cylindrical bore brass instruments are generally perceived as having a brighter, more penetrating tone quality compared to conical bore brass instruments. The trumpet, baritone horn and all trombones are cylindrical bore, in particular, the slide design of the trombone necessitates this. Conical bore brass instruments are those in which tubing of constantly increasing diameter predominates, conical bore instruments are generally perceived as having a more mellow tone quality than the cylindrical bore brass instruments. The British brass band group of instruments fall into this category and this includes the flugelhorn, cornet, tenor horn, horn, euphonium and tuba
7.
Ligature (instrument)
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A ligature is a device which holds a reed onto the mouthpiece of a single-reed instrument such as a saxophone or clarinet. The ligature must secure the reed firmly against the table of the mouthpiece while allowing it to vibrate freely, the earliest ligatures were lengths of string wrapped over the reed and tied. Iwan Müller invented a metal ligature to replace twine, string is still used by clarinetists, especially in Germany. Modern German mouthpieces have a cut into the outside of the mouthpiece to facilitate wrapping with a string ligature. Some modern clarinetists tie a shoestring around the mouthpiece to use as a ligature instead of a string because it is easier to tie, other modern clarinetists use electrical tape as a ligature. A ligature must be placed properly in order to allow best performance on a reed instrument, the ligature must be placed at least halfway down the stock of the reed and the screws must not be overtightened, in order to allow free vibration and not distort the reed. Ligatures are most commonly made out of metal and plated in nickel, silver, ligatures are also made out of wire, wire mesh, plastic, naugahyde, heavy nylon fabric, wood, string, or leather. Various features are incorporated into the design of ligatures to hold the reed securely while minimizing pressure distortion of the reed, contact rails may be either parallel or transverse to the reed, on either a metal band or pressure plate type ligature. The contact rails may be metal, wood, or plastic. Pressure plates may also have raised contact points, prongs, or a form to control contact with the reed. Some bands are designed for contact with the mouthpiece, allowing even less absorption of the reeds vibrations
8.
Mortise and tenon
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The mortise and tenon joint has been used for thousands of years by woodworkers around the world to join pieces of wood, mainly when the adjoining pieces connect at an angle of 90°. In its basic form it is simple and strong. Although there are many joint variations, the mortise and tenon comprises two components, the mortise hole and the tenon tongue. The tenon, formed on the end of a member generally referred to as a rail, is inserted into a square or rectangular hole cut into the corresponding member. The tenon is cut to fit the hole exactly and usually has shoulders that seat when the joint fully enters the mortise hole. The joint may be glued, pinned, or wedged to lock it in place and this joint is also used with other materials. For example, it is a method for stonemasons and blacksmiths. A mortise is a cavity cut into a timber to receive a tenon, there are several kinds of mortise, Open mortise a mortise that has only three sides. Stub mortise a mortise, the depth of which depends on the size of the timber. Through mortise a mortise that passes entirely through a piece, wedged half-dovetail a mortise in which the back is wider, or taller, than the front, or opening. The space for the wedge initially allows room for the tenon to be inserted and it is sometimes called a suicide joint, since it is a one-way trip. Through-wedged half-dovetail a wedged half-dovetail mortise that passes entirely through the piece, a tenon is a projection on the end of a timber for insertion into a mortise. Usually the tenon is taller than it is wide. There are several kinds of tenon, Stub tenon short, the depth of which depends on the size of the timber, through tenon a tenon that passes entirely through the piece of wood it is inserted into, being clearly visible on the back side. Loose tenon a tenon that is a part of the joint. Teasel tenon a term used for the tenon on top of a jowled or gunstock post, a common element of the English tying joint. Top tenon the tenon that occurs on top of a post, hammer-headed tenon a method of forming a tenon joint when the shoulders cannot be tightened with a clamp. Half shoulder tenon An asymmetric tenon with a shoulder on one side only, a common use is in framed, ledged and braced doors
9.
Bernhard Crusell
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Crusell was born in Uusikaupunki, Finland, into a poor family of bookbinders. In 1765, after Jakob completed his apprenticeship, he moved to Uusikaupunki and married Helena Ylander, in 1769 he married Margaretha Messman. The couple had four children, but Bernhard was the one who lived to become an adult. One night, the four-year-old Berndt was sitting in the street, leaning against a wall, on top of the world with admiration for the sweet melodies. His parents, who had been looking for their son for a time, scolded him severely. This time he got a beating for his disobedience, but as it was to no avail, they left him to his craze, when Crusell was eight, the family moved to Nurmijärvi about 23 miles north of Helsinki. His innate interest in continued, and he learned to play a friends clarinet by ear. He soon began to training from a member of the Nyland regimental band. In 1788, when he was thirteen, another friend, aware of the young mans natural ability. Sveaborg was a Swedish fortress built on six islands just off the coast of Helsinki, the educated officers of the fort had significant influence on the culture and politics of the city. Wallenstjerna, impressed with Crusells playing, recruited him as a member of the Sveaborg military band. Crusell received an education at Sveaborg and excelled in music and languages, in 1791 Wallenstjerna transferred to Stockholm and Crusell went with him. Although Crusell spent most of the rest of his life in Sweden, in his final years in a letter to Runeberg he called himself a finsk landsman. He also maintained his travel diaries in Finnish, in Stockholm, Crusell continued his studies and established himself as a clarinet soloist. In 1798 he received financial assistance which enabled him to live in Berlin for a few months, Tausch had founded the German school of clarinet playing which emphasized beauty of tone over technique. Crusells progress was swift, and he performed at concerts in Berlin, the review of the Hamburg concert in Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung was positive. Crusell lived in Sweden for the rest of his life, going back to Finland only once, in Stockholm Crusell had become acquainted with the French ambassador to Sweden. This friendship encouraged and enabled him to undertake a trip to Paris in 1803, there he performed and also studied clarinet with Jean-Xavier Lefèvre at the newly formed Conservatoire
10.
Reginald Kell
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Reginald Clifford Kell was an English clarinettist. He was noted especially for his career as a soloist and chamber music player and he was the principal clarinettist in leading British orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, and Royal Philharmonic, and was also active as a solo recording artist. Kell was influential as one of the first clarinettists to employ continuous vibrato to enhance the quality of the instrument. He was also a teacher, serving two different appointments at his alma mater, the Royal Academy of Music in London. In 1948 Kell moved to the United States where he pursued a career and taught. Born in York, England, Kell was awarded a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1929, while still a student he was engaged as principal clarinettist of the orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society. After graduation he was Sir Thomas Beechams choice as first clarinet for the London Philharmonic when the orchestra was formed in 1932 and he left the LPO in 1936 and was succeeded as first clarinet by Bernard Walton. Kell was Arturo Toscaninis principal clarinettist in the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in 1939, and was invited, in addition to his orchestral work Kell taught at the Royal Academy between 1935 and 1939, and played in chamber music. His solo repertoire extended from Corelli and earlier to twentieth century works and he was the first prominent clarinettist to apply vibrato consciously and consistently to his tone, in which respect he modelled himself on the oboist Léon Goossens. Inspired by the singers with whom he came in contact, notably Kirsten Flagstad. During the Second World War Kell was principal clarinettist of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, when Walter Legge founded the Philharmonia Orchestra in 1945 Kell became its principal clarinettist. At its first concert, conducted by Beecham, Kell was the soloist in Mozarts Clarinet Concerto, in 1948 Kell gave up both positions, he was succeeded at the Philharmonia by Walton, and at the Royal Philharmonic by Brymer. Kell moved to the USA in 1948 making a successful concert and he was also a noted teacher, his best-known pupil being Benny Goodman, who approached him for lessons in 1948–49. Goodman persisted and Kell accepted him as a student in 1952, Kells other pupils included the soloist and conductor Alan Hacker, and Peanuts Hucko. From 1951 to 1957, Kell was trustee and professor at the Aspen Music School in Colorado, Kell returned to England in 1958, taking up an appointment at the Royal Academy of Music. Among his pupils was Harrison Birtwistle, Kell retired from playing in his early fifties, and returned to the US in 1959, where he was director of Boosey & Hawkess band instrument division from 1959 to 1966. He retired in 1966 and died in Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1981, in 2007, the Deutsche Grammophon label issued a multi-CD box set of all of Kells recordings for the American Decca company. As a conductor Kell directed recordings of the two Mozart wind serenades, in C minor, K.388 and E♭ major, with the Kell Chamber Players, the following table lists some of his recordings as a soloist
11.
Embouchure
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The embouchure is the use of facial muscles and the shaping of the lips to the mouthpiece of woodwind instruments or the mouthpiece of the brass instruments. The word is of French origin and is related to the root bouche, the proper embouchure allows the instrumentalist to play the instrument at its full range with a full, clear tone and without strain or damage to ones muscles. While performing on an instrument, the sound is produced by the player buzzing his or her lips into a mouthpiece. Pitches are changed in part through altering the amount of muscular contraction in the lip formation, the performers use of the air, tightening of cheek and jaw muscles, as well as tongue manipulation can affect how the embouchure works. Even today, many brass pedagogues take an approach to teaching how a brass players embouchure should function. Many of these authors also disagree with each other regarding which technique is correct, research suggests efficient brass embouchures depend on the player using the method that suits that players particular anatomy. In 1962, Philip Farkas hypothesized that the air stream traveling through the lip aperture should be directed straight down the shank of the mouthpiece and he believed that it would be illogical to violently deflect the air stream downward at the point of where the air moves past the lips. In this text, Farkas also recommends that the lower jaw be protruded so that the upper and lower teeth are aligned, in 1970, Farkas published a second text which contradicted his earlier writing. Out of 40 subjects, Farkas showed that 39 subjects directed the air downward to varying degrees, the lower jaw position seen in these photographs show more variation from his earlier text as well. This supports what was written by trombonist and brass pedagogue Donald S. Reinhardt in 1942. According to this text, players who place the mouthpiece higher on the lips, so that more upper lip is inside the mouthpiece. Performers who place the lower, so that more lower lip is inside the mouthpiece. In order for the performer to be successful, the air stream direction, lloyd Leno confirmed the existence of both upstream and downstream embouchures. More controversial was Reinhardts description and recommendations regarding a phenomenon he termed a pivot, whether the player uses one general pivot direction or the other, and the degree to which the motion is performed, depends on the performers anatomical features and stage of development. The placement of the mouthpiece upon the lips doesnt change, but rather the relationship of the rim, later research supports Reinhardts claim that this motion exists and might be advisable for brass performers to adopt. Froelich noted that the symphonic trombonists used the least amount of direct and shear forces and recommends this model be followed. Other research notes that virtually all brass performers rely upon the upward and downward embouchure motion, other authors and pedagogues remain skeptical about the necessity of this motion, but scientific evidence supporting this view has not been sufficiently developed at this time to support this view. Some noted brass pedagogues prefer to instruct the use of the embouchure from an analytical point of view
12.
Madagascar
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Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, and previously known as the Malagasy Republic, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Southeast Africa. The nation comprises the island of Madagascar, and numerous smaller peripheral islands, consequently, Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot, over 90% of its wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth. The islands diverse ecosystems and unique wildlife are threatened by the encroachment of the growing human population. The first archaeological evidence for human foraging on Madagascar dates to 2000 BC, human settlement of Madagascar occurred between 350 BC and AD550 by Austronesian peoples arriving on outrigger canoes from Borneo. These were joined around AD1000 by Bantu migrants crossing the Mozambique Channel from East Africa, other groups continued to settle on Madagascar over time, each one making lasting contributions to Malagasy cultural life. The Malagasy ethnic group is divided into 18 or more sub-groups of which the largest are the Merina of the central highlands. Until the late 18th century, the island of Madagascar was ruled by an assortment of shifting sociopolitical alliances. Beginning in the early 19th century, most of the island was united and ruled as the Kingdom of Madagascar by a series of Merina nobles, the monarchy collapsed in 1897 when the island was absorbed into the French colonial empire, from which the island gained independence in 1960. The autonomous state of Madagascar has since undergone four major constitutional periods, since 1992, the nation has officially been governed as a constitutional democracy from its capital at Antananarivo. However, in an uprising in 2009, president Marc Ravalomanana was made to resign. Constitutional governance was restored in January 2014, when Hery Rajaonarimampianina was named president following a 2013 election deemed fair, Madagascar is a member of the United Nations, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie and the Southern African Development Community. Madagascar belongs to the group of least developed countries, according to the United Nations, Malagasy and French are both official languages of the state. The majority of the population adheres to traditional beliefs, Christianity, ecotourism and agriculture, paired with greater investments in education, health, and private enterprise, are key elements of Madagascars development strategy. As of 2017, the economy has been weakened by the 2009-2013 political crisis, in the Malagasy language, the island of Madagascar is called Madagasikara and its people are referred to as Malagasy. The islands appellation Madagascar is not of origin, but rather was popularized in the Middle Ages by Europeans. On St. Laurences Day in 1500, Portuguese explorer Diogo Dias landed on the island, polos name was preferred and popularized on Renaissance maps. At 592,800 square kilometres, Madagascar is the worlds 47th largest country, the country lies mostly between latitudes 12°S and 26°S, and longitudes 43°E and 51°E. Neighboring islands include the French territory of Réunion and the country of Mauritius to the east, as well as the state of Comoros, the nearest mainland state is Mozambique, located to the west
13.
Conn-Selmer
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Conn-Selmer, Inc. is an American manufacturer of musical instruments for concert bands, marching bands and orchestras. It is an owned subsidiary of Steinway Musical Instruments and was formed after Steinway bought United Musical Instruments in 2003. In the late Nineteenth Century, brothers Alexandre and Henri Selmer graduated from the Paris Conservatory as clarinetists. They were the great-grandchildren of French military drum major Johannes Jacobus Zelmer, grandchildren of Jean-Jacques Selmer, the Army Chief of Music, establishing Henri Selmer & Cie. in 1885, Henri began making clarinet reeds and expanded into mouthpieces and clarinets by 1898. By 1900 Henri had gained a reputation for his reeds and mouthpieces and he opened a store, in 1904, Selmer clarinets were presented at the Saint Louis Worlds Fair, winning a Gold Medal, and Henri Selmers brother Alexandre was First Clarinetist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Alexandre Selmer established himself in New York the following year, opening a shop that sold Selmer clarinets, the H&A Selmer Company grew out of that retail operation. In 1910, Alexandre returned to France and the H&A Selmer store was managed by George Bundy, the company expanded its product line, selling Selmer branded wind instruments and mouthpieces from manufacturers in the USA in addition to Selmer clarinets. In 1923, the H&A Selmer Company was incorporated to expand into a retail chain, in 1927 Bundy gained full ownership, establishing independence of Selmer from Selmer. It remained the sole importer of Selmer products, including saxophones, Selmer also went on to establish itself as a leading distributor of student-grade instruments under its Bundy brand. In the 1930s Selmer financed the startup Artley Flute Company of Elkhart Indiana, which provided flutes, in 1961 Selmer acquired the brasswind manufacturer Vincent Bach Corporation. In 1963 Selmer acquired ownership of its supplier of student saxophones. Selmer continued distributing identical Bundy and Buescher instruments until it discontinued the Buescher name in 1983, in 1977 Selmer acquired the stringed instrument maker Glaesel. Selmer acquired the Ludwig Drum Company in 1981, Selmer experienced several changes of ownership starting with its purchase by the British electronics firm Magnavox in 1965. It was sold to Philips Electronics in 1975, then to the investment firm Integrated Resources in 1989, the domestically-produced Bundy brand was discontinued at that time, replaced with student wind instruments sourced from Asia and sold as Selmer woodwinds and Bach brasswinds. In 2000 Steinway acquired United Musical Instruments then merged it with The Selmer Company to form Conn-Selmer in 2003, some products were dropped to minimize overlap between Selmer and former UMI products. In 2004 Conn-Selmer acquired the Leblanc Company, gaining their exclusive rights for Yanagisawa saxophones in the USA. Conn-Selmer kept Leblanc in production of clarinets but ended their production in 2007, discontinuing their Martin brand and moving production of their Holton brand to Elkhart. Conn-Selmer retains the importation and distribution rights for Selmer and Yanagisawa wind instuments formerly held by H&A Selmer and Leblanc, Conn-Selmer is the largest manufacturer of band and orchestral instruments in the United States
14.
Yamaha
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It is one of the constituents of Nikkei 225 and is the worlds largest piano manufacturing company. Yamaha was established in 1887 as a piano and reed organ manufacturer by Torakusu Yamaha as Nippon Gakki Company, Limited in Hamamatsu, the companys origins as a musical instrument manufacturer are still reflected today in the groups logo—a trio of interlocking tuning forks. The YA-1, of which 125 were built in the first year of production, was named in honour of the founder and it was a 125cc, single cylinder, two-stroke, street bike patterned after the German DKW RT125. In 1955, the success of the YA-1 resulted in the founding of Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd, in 1989, Yamaha shipped the worlds first CD recorder. Yamaha purchased Sequential Circuits in 1988 and it bought a majority stake of competitor Korg in 1987, which was bought out by Korg in 1993. In the late 1990s, Yamaha released a series a portable battery operated keyboards under the PSS, in 2002, Yamaha closed down its archery product business that was started in 1959. Six archers in five different Olympic Games won gold medals using their products and it acquired German audio software manufacturers Steinberg in January 2005, from Pinnacle Systems. K. Ltd, the UK piano sales & manufacturing arm was unaffected, on December 20,2007, Yamaha made an agreement with the Austrian Bank BAWAG P. S. K. Group BAWAG to purchase all the shares of Bösendorfer, intended to place in early 2008. Yamaha intends to continue manufacturing at the Bösendorfer facilities in Austria, the acquisition of Bösendorfer was announced after the NAMM Show in Los Angeles, on January 28,2008. As of February 1,2008, Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH operates as a subsidiary of Yamaha Corp, Yamaha Corporation is also widely known for their music teaching programme that began in the 1950s. Yamaha electronic have proven to be successful, popular, and respected products, for example, the Yamaha YPG-625 was given the award Keyboard of the Year and Product of the Year in 2007 from The Music and Sound Retailer magazine. Other noteworthy Yamaha electronics include the SHS-10 Keytar, a keytar which offered MIDI output features normally found on much more expensive keyboards. Other companies in the Yamaha group include, Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH, Vienna, Yamaha Motor Company Yamaha Fine Technologies Co. Ltd. Yamaha Golf Cart Company Yamaha Livingtec Corporation Yamaha Metanix Corporation Yamaha Music Communications Co. Ltd, Yamaha Pro Audio Kandō is a Japanese word used by Yamaha to describe their corporate mission. Kandō in translation describes the sensation of profound excitement and gratification derived from experiencing supreme quality, some reasonable English synonyms are emotionally touching or emotionally moving. The Yamaha Music Foundation is an established in 1966 by the authority of the Japanese Ministry of Education for the purpose of promoting music education. It continued a program of music classes begun by Yamaha Corporation in 1954, Yamaha expanded into many diverse businesses and product groups
15.
Adolphe Sax
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Antoine-Joseph Adolphe Sax was a Belgian inventor and musician who invented the saxophone in 1846. He played the flute and clarinet, and his inventions are the saxotromba, saxhorn. Antoine-Joseph Sax was born on 6 November 1814, in Dinant, Belgium, to Charles-Joseph Sax, while his first name was Antoine, he was referred to as Adolphe from childhood. His father and mother were instrument designers themselves, who made changes to the design of the horn. Adolphe began to make his own instruments at an early age and he subsequently studied performance on those two instruments as well as voice at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. According to the biography of Adolphe Sax published on the city of Dinants website and his neighbors called him little Sax, the ghost. After leaving the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Sax began to experiment with new instrument designs, adolphes first important invention was an improvement of the bass clarinet design, which he patented at the age of 24. Sax relocated permanently to Paris in 1841 and began working on a new set of instruments exhibited there in 1844. These were valved bugles, and although he had not invented the instrument itself, his examples were more successful than those of his rivals. They came in seven different sizes, and paved the path to the creation of the flugelhorn. Today, saxhorns are sometimes used in bands and orchestras. The saxhorn also laid the groundwork for the modern euphonium, Sax also developed the saxotromba family, valved brass instruments with narrower bore than the saxhorns, in 1845, though they survived only briefly. The saxhorn valves were accepted as state-of-the-art and are largely unchanged today, the advances made by Adolphe Sax were soon followed by the British brass band movement which exclusively adopted the saxhorn range. The Jedforest Instrumental Band formed in 1854 and The Hawick Saxhorn Band formed in 1855, within the Scottish Borders, the period around 1840 saw Sax inventing the clarinette-bourdon, an early unsuccessful design of contrabass clarinet. Around this time he developed the instrument for which he is best known. The saxophone was invented for use in orchestras and concert bands. Composer Hector Berlioz wrote approvingly of the new instrument in 1842, by 1846 Sax had designed, on paper, a full range of saxophones. Although they never became standard orchestral instruments, the made his reputation and secured him a job
16.
Classical music
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Classical music is art music produced or rooted in the traditions of Western music, including both liturgical and secular music. The central norms of this tradition became codified between 1550 and 1900, which is known as the common-practice period, Western staff notation is used by composers to indicate to the performer the pitches, tempo, meter and rhythms for a piece of music. This can leave less room for such as improvisation and ad libitum ornamentation. The term classical music did not appear until the early 19th century, the earliest reference to classical music recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary is from about 1836. This score typically determines details of rhythm, pitch, and, the written quality of the music has enabled a high level of complexity within them, J. S. The use of written notation also preserves a record of the works, Musical notation enables 2000s-era performers to sing a choral work from the 1300s Renaissance era or a 1700s Baroque concerto with many of the features of the music being reproduced. That said, the score does not provide complete and exact instructions on how to perform a historical work, even if the tempo is written with an Italian instruction, we do not know exactly how fast the piece should be played. Bach was particularly noted for his complex improvisations, during the Classical era, the composer-performer Mozart was noted for his ability to improvise melodies in different styles. During the Classical era, some virtuoso soloists would improvise the cadenza sections of a concerto, during the Romantic era, Beethoven would improvise at the piano. The instruments currently used in most classical music were largely invented before the mid-19th century and they consist of the instruments found in an orchestra or in a concert band, together with several other solo instruments. The symphony orchestra is the most widely known medium for music and includes members of the string, woodwind, brass. The concert band consists of members of the woodwind, brass and it generally has a larger variety and number of woodwind and brass instruments than the orchestra but does not have a string section. However, many bands use a double bass. Many of the used to perform medieval music still exist. Medieval instruments included the flute, the recorder and plucked string instruments like the lute. As well, early versions of the organ, fiddle, Medieval instruments in Europe had most commonly been used singly, often self accompanied with a drone note, or occasionally in parts. From at least as early as the 13th century through the 15th century there was a division of instruments into haut, during the earlier medieval period, the vocal music from the liturgical genre, predominantly Gregorian chant, was monophonic, using a single, unaccompanied vocal melody line. Polyphonic vocal genres, which used multiple independent vocal melodies, began to develop during the medieval era, becoming prevalent by the later 13th
17.
Timbre
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The physical characteristics of sound that determine the perception of timbre include spectrum and envelope. Singers and instrumental musicians can change the timbre of the music they are singing/playing by using different singing or playing techniques, for example, a violinist can use different bowing styles or play on different parts of the string to obtain different timbres. On electric guitar and electric piano, performers can change the timbre using effects units, in simple terms, timbre is what makes a particular musical sound have a different sound from another, even when they have the same pitch and loudness. For instance, it is the difference in sound between a guitar and a playing the same note at the same volume. Experienced musicians are able to distinguish between different instruments of the type based on their varied timbres, even if those instruments are playing notes at the same pitch. Tone quality and tone color are synonyms for timbre, as well as the attributed to a single instrument. However, the texture can also refer to the type of music, such as multiple. The sound of an instrument may be described with words such as bright, dark, warm, harsh. There are also colors of noise, such as pink and white, in visual representations of sound, timbre corresponds to the shape of the image. The Acoustical Society of America Acoustical Terminology definition 12, Timbre has been called. the psychoacousticians multidimensional waste-basket category for everything that cannot be labeled pitch or loudness. Many commentators have attempted to decompose timbre into component attributes, the richness of a sound or note a musical instrument produces is sometimes described in terms of a sum of a number of distinct frequencies. The lowest frequency is called the frequency, and the pitch it produces is used to name the note. The dominant frequency is the frequency that is most heard, for example, the dominant frequency for the transverse flute is double the fundamental frequency. Other significant frequencies are called overtones of the frequency, which may include harmonics. Harmonics are whole number multiples of the frequency, such as ×2, ×3, ×4. There are also sometimes subharmonics at whole number divisions of the fundamental frequency, most instruments produce harmonic sounds, but many instruments produce partials and inharmonic tones, such as cymbals and other indefinite-pitched instruments. When the tuning note in an orchestra or concert band is played, each instrument in the orchestra or concert band produces a different combination of these frequencies, as well as harmonics and overtones. The sound waves of the different frequencies overlap and combine, the timbre of a sound is also greatly affected by the following aspects of its envelope, attack time and characteristics, decay, sustain, release and transients
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Jazz
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Jazz is a music genre that originated amongst African Americans in New Orleans, United States, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and developed from roots in Blues and Ragtime. Since the 1920s jazz age, jazz has become recognized as a form of musical expression. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, call and response vocals, polyrhythms, Jazz has roots in West African cultural and musical expression, and in African-American music traditions including blues and ragtime, as well as European military band music. Although the foundation of jazz is deeply rooted within the Black experience of the United States, different cultures have contributed their own experience, intellectuals around the world have hailed jazz as one of Americas original art forms. As jazz spread around the world, it drew on different national, regional, and local musical cultures, New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass-band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. In the 1930s, heavily arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz, bebop emerged in the 1940s, shifting jazz from danceable popular music toward a more challenging musicians music which was played at faster tempos and used more chord-based improvisation. Cool jazz developed in the end of the 1940s, introducing calmer, smoother sounds and long, modal jazz developed in the late 1950s, using the mode, or musical scale, as the basis of musical structure and improvisation. Jazz-rock fusion appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s, combining jazz improvisation with rock rhythms, electric instruments. In the early 1980s, a form of jazz fusion called smooth jazz became successful. Other styles and genres abound in the 2000s, such as Latin, the question of the origin of the word jazz has resulted in considerable research, and its history is well documented. It is believed to be related to jasm, a term dating back to 1860 meaning pep. The use of the word in a context was documented as early as 1915 in the Chicago Daily Tribune. Its first documented use in a context in New Orleans was in a November 14,1916 Times-Picayune article about jas bands. In an interview with NPR, musician Eubie Blake offered his recollections of the slang connotations of the term, saying, When Broadway picked it up. That was dirty, and if you knew what it was, the American Dialect Society named it the Word of the Twentieth Century. Jazz has proved to be difficult to define, since it encompasses such a wide range of music spanning a period of over 100 years. Attempts have been made to define jazz from the perspective of other musical traditions, in the opinion of Robert Christgau, most of us would say that inventing meaning while letting loose is the essence and promise of jazz. As Duke Ellington, one of jazzs most famous figures, said, although jazz is considered highly difficult to define, at least in part because it contains so many varied subgenres, improvisation is consistently regarded as being one of its key elements
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Harmonic series (music)
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A harmonic series is the sequence of sounds where the base frequency of each sound is an integer multiple of the lowest base frequency. Pitched musical instruments are based on an approximate harmonic oscillator such as a string or a column of air. At these resonant frequencies, waves travel in both directions along the string or air column, reinforcing and canceling each other to form standing waves, interaction with the surrounding air causes audible sound waves, which travel away from the instrument. Because of the spacing of the resonances, these frequencies are mostly limited to integer multiples, or harmonics, of the lowest frequency. The musical timbre of a tone from such an instrument is determined by the relative strengths of each harmonic. A complex tone can be described as a combination of many simple periodic waves or partials, each with its own frequency of vibration, amplitude, a partial is any of the sine waves of which a complex tone is composed. A harmonic is any member of the series, an ideal set of frequencies that are positive integer multiples of a common fundamental frequency. The fundamental is also considered a harmonic because it is 1 times itself, a harmonic partial is any real partial component of a complex tone that matches an ideal harmonic. An inharmonic partial is any partial that does not match an ideal harmonic, Inharmonicity is a measure of the deviation of a partial from the closest ideal harmonic, typically measured in cents for each partial. Unpitched, or indefinite-pitched instruments, such as cymbals, gongs, or tam-tams make sounds that are rich in inharmonic partials, an overtone is any partial except the lowest partial. The term overtone does not imply harmonicity or inharmonicity and has no special meaning other than to exclude the fundamental. It is the relative strengths of the different overtones that gives an instrument its particular timbre, some electronic instruments, such as synthesizers, can play a pure frequency with no overtones. Synthesizers can also combine pure frequencies into more complex tones, such as to other instruments. Certain flutes and ocarinas are very nearly without overtones, in most pitched musical instruments, the fundamental is accompanied by other, higher-frequency harmonics. Thus shorter-wavelength, higher-frequency waves occur with varying prominence and give each instrument its characteristic tone quality, the fact that a string is fixed at each end means that the longest allowed wavelength on the string is twice the length of the string. Other allowed wavelengths are 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/6, theoretically, these shorter wavelengths correspond to vibrations at frequencies that are 2,3,4,5,6, etc. times the fundamental frequency. Physical characteristics of the vibrating medium and/or the resonator it vibrates against often alter these frequencies, the harmonic series is an arithmetic series. In terms of frequency, the difference between consecutive harmonics is therefore constant and equal to the fundamental, but because human ears respond to sound nonlinearly, higher harmonics are perceived as closer together than lower ones
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Double reed
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A double reed is a type of reed used to produce sound in various wind instruments. The term double reed comes from the fact there are two pieces of cane vibrating against each other. A single reed consists of one piece of cane which vibrates against a mouthpiece made of metal, hardened rubber, resin, the term double reeds can also refer collectively to the class of instruments which use double reeds. There are several differences, the most obvious being size, between various types of reeds, for example between that for a bassoon and that for an oboe or a cor anglais. Typically, Arundo donax cane is used for the making of double reeds, for bassoon reeds, tubes of this cane are first split lengthwise then gouged to a certain thickness. The chosen piece of cane is cut to shape and the centre portion is thinned. The cane is folded end to end to form the two blades of the reed, the unprofiled end of the cane is shaped into a tube with the aid of a mandrel and bound with three strategically placed wires. A turban made out of thread is added on the third wire and it provides a hand hold for the reed that isnt a sharp wire. The folded tip is cut off to allow the blades to vibrate and final adjustments to the interior of the using a reamer. The reed is then ready to fit to the bocal of the bassoon, note that there are many schools of thought and processes for making reeds. However, because the oboe does not have a bocal, the cane must be fastened to a metal tube, the staple is then inserted into the farrow at the upper end of the oboe. There are many different methods of making reeds and many variations of design have been developed, players can buy reeds either ready-made, or in various stages of formation, such as part-scraped, reed blanks, or buy the staples and cane separately. Cane is sold in forms, as tubes, gouged, gouged and shaped. Bassoon cane has the option of being profiled before purchase. Cane from several different regions is used in reed making, traditionally from southern France, there are also many options with regard to staples, shaping equipment, and so forth, which all have a subtle effect on the tone quality a reed will produce. While cane is by far the most common material for double reeds, reeds made out of synthetic materials may be used, these reeds often last longer and are less sensitive to temperature and humidity flucutations. Most reeds produced from synthetic materials have a quality that is dissimilar to that of a cane reed and are not favored by musicians. However, some recent manufacturers produce synthetic reeds that are used in a professional setting, oboe double reeds are about 7 mm in width
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Fipple
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A fipple is a constricted mouthpiece common to many end-blown flutes, such as the tin whistle and the recorder. These instruments are known variously as fipple flutes, duct flutes, exiting from the windway, the breath is directed against a hard, bladed edge, called the labium lip or windcutter, producing a Bernoulli effect or siphon. The air flowing over the voicing mouth creates a flow-controlled valve, interaction between the air reed and the air column in the body of the instrument excites standing waves in the air column, which determines the pitch of the sound. This oscillation results in the sound in ducted flue instruments. See wind instrument and flue pipe, a distinct tone color, determined by the dimensions of the instrument and the voicing mouth, is then slightly modified by the players technique or embouchure. The space created between the ducted flue windway and the labium ramp edge is referred to as the mouth or voicing, the size of the mouth is usually in proportion to the instruments bore, depending on the model of instrument and specifically which original instrument is being copied. Many mass-produced factory instruments feature a voicing of a rectangular or flat lozenge cross section, such a flat and rectangular voicing however, produces a less-than-sweet tone and offers far less dynamic flexibility than a flute embouchure. The recorder voicing was designed to limit pitch bending for a more stable tone with variations in breath pressure, some modern recorder makers now produce curved labium lip voicings to add harmonic tone color. If the air stream strikes a curved D shaped lip, there will be slight turbulence created at the voicing mouth and this translates to extra sympathetic harmonics or tone color. The chamfer/rounding at the end of the windway that opens on the mouth/voicing is responsible for the quality of articulation of the ducted flue instrument and it consists of one or both of the windway exit lips being rounded. This can be seen by looking through the labium at the place where the windway opens out on the mouth/window and these rounded edges affect the responsiveness produced by the player. This enables the rhythmic and dynamic language of the instrument to be spoken, articulations such as Ta, Da, Ra, Ta-ka and Da-ga and Diddle will be very clearly differentiated in a good instrument played by a good player. An inferior instrument lacking these modified rounded edges on the exit will greatly limit the dynamics of tone or create dead spots in the music. The lack of this feature will degrade the performance of a ducted flue instrument, regardless of the effort made by the player to correct tone, or his or her level of skill. Because of the position of the windway with respect to the labium. However, it is not true that no embouchure is required to make a beautiful-sounding tone, embouchure on fipple flutes is centered on the idea of focusing the air inside the instruments windway and bore alike, following the shape of the bore. A bore which tapers down to a bell sounds best when the lips are used to focus the air to a tighter stream. The idea is to always resonate the full length and width of the bore with the airflow, at all times, closing the lips around the beak of the recorder or fipple flute will help to focus the air down the narrow windway
22.
Turbulence
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Turbulence or turbulent flow is a flow regime in fluid dynamics characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to a flow regime, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers. Turbulence is caused by kinetic energy in parts of a fluid flow. For this reason turbulence is easier to create in low viscosity fluids, in general terms, in turbulent flow, unsteady vortices appear of many sizes which interact with each other, consequently drag due to friction effects increases. This would increase the energy needed to pump fluid through a pipe, however this effect can also be exploited by such as aerodynamic spoilers on aircraft, which deliberately spoil the laminar flow to increase drag and reduce lift. The onset of turbulence can be predicted by a constant called the Reynolds number. However, turbulence has long resisted detailed physical analysis, and the interactions within turbulence creates a complex situation. Richard Feynman has described turbulence as the most important unsolved problem of classical physics, smoke rising from a cigarette is mostly turbulent flow. However, for the first few centimeters the flow is laminar, the smoke plume becomes turbulent as its Reynolds number increases, due to its flow velocity and characteristic length increasing. If the golf ball were smooth, the boundary layer flow over the front of the sphere would be laminar at typical conditions. However, the layer would separate early, as the pressure gradient switched from favorable to unfavorable. To prevent this happening, the surface is dimpled to perturb the boundary layer. This results in higher skin friction, but moves the point of boundary layer separation further along, resulting in form drag. The flow conditions in industrial equipment and machines. The external flow over all kind of such as cars, airplanes, ships. The motions of matter in stellar atmospheres, a jet exhausting from a nozzle into a quiescent fluid. As the flow emerges into this external fluid, shear layers originating at the lips of the nozzle are created and these layers separate the fast moving jet from the external fluid, and at a certain critical Reynolds number they become unstable and break down to turbulence. Biologically generated turbulence resulting from swimming animals affects ocean mixing, snow fences work by inducing turbulence in the wind, forcing it to drop much of its snow load near the fence
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Piffero
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The piffero or piffaro is a double reed musical instrument with a conical bore, of the oboe family. It is also played throughout Southern Italy with different fingering styles dictated by local tradition, the instrument is a descendant of the Medieval shawm and belongs to the family of the bombarde. The reed used by the piffero is inserted in a brass tube. This peculiarity, which is shared with oriental and ancient oboes, is unique in Italy, traditionally in Northern Italy it was accompanied by an Appennine bagpipe known as the müsa. In the early 20th century the müsa was largely displaced by the accordion, however towards the end of the twentieth century the bagpipes made a comeback and today the piffero is commonly accompanied by either of these instruments, or by both. Other regional names for the piffero in Southern Italy are ciaramella or pipita, in some regions of Southern Italy, particularly in the Valle Lucania, two pifferos are played simultaneously by a single player similar to how one would play the aulos in ancient Greece. Related to the piffero is a larger Sicilian instrument known as the bifora, the Italian word piffero can also refer to the fife, as in Michael Haydns Symphony in C major, Perger 10, which calls for pifferi in addition to regular flutes. Piffaro is also the name of a performance ensemble specializing in Renaissance music, construction of the instrument and famous builders Homepage of Ettore Losini Playing a Piffero Playing a Piffero
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Shawm
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The shawm is a conical bore, double-reed woodwind instrument made in Europe from the 12th century to the present day. It achieved its peak of popularity during the medieval and Renaissance periods and it is likely to have come to Western Europe from the Eastern Mediterranean around the time of the Crusades. Double reed instruments similar to the shawm were long present in Southern Europe and the East, for instance the Ancient Greek, and later Byzantine, aulos, the Persian sorna, and the Armenian duduk. The body of the shawm is usually turned from a piece of wood. Beginning in the 16th century, shawms were made in sizes, from sopranino to great bass. All later shawms have at least one key allowing an extension of the compass. The pirouette, a small wooden attachment with a cavity in the center resembling a thimble, surrounds the lower part of the reed—this provides support for the lips and embouchure. Since only a portion of the reed protrudes past the pirouette, the player has only limited contact with the reed. In English the name only first appears in the 14th century, the early plural forms were often mistaken for a singular, and new plurals were formed from them. The later reduction in the 15th and 16th centuries to a syllable in forms such as schalme, shaume, shawme. In Portugal there is an instrument called charamela, and the name of the Italian shawm is ciaramella, Instruments resembling the medieval shawm can still be heard in many countries today, played by street musicians or military bands. The latter use would have been familiar to crusaders, who often had to face massed bands of Saracen shawms and nakers and it must have had a profound effect, as the shawm was quickly adopted by Europeans, for dancing as well as for military purposes. The standard outdoor dance band in the century consisted of a slide trumpet playing popular melodies. In many Asian countries, shawm technique includes circular breathing allowing continuous playing without pauses for air, by the early 16th century, the shawm had undergone considerable development. The harsh tonality of the shawm had been modulated somewhat by a narrowing of the bore. This also extended the range, enabling the performer to play the notes in the second octave. Larger sizes of shawm were built, down to the bass in Bb, two octaves and a major third below the soprano in D. However, the larger sizes were unwieldy. The shawm became standard equipment for bands, or waits
25.
Rackett
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The rackett or Sausage Bassoon is a Renaissance-era double reed wind instrument, introduced late in the sixteenth century and already superseded by bassoons at the end of the seventeenth century. There are four sizes of rackett, in a family ranging from discant, tenor-alto, relative to their pitch, racketts are quite small. This is achieved through its ingenious construction, the body consists of a wooden cylinder into which nine parallel bores are drilled. Additional holes are covered by the thumbs and second joint of the finger in order to extend the range a perfect fourth below the nominal scale. Thus the discant rackett is considered to be in C, the ranges for the rest of the family as given by Praetorius are, tenor alt, g to C, bass, c to FF, great bass, A to DD or G to CC. The range could be extended upward by several more notes since the renaissance rackett overblows at the twelfth like a clarinet. Praetorius writes in Syntagma Musicum II, if a rackett is well drilled and is played by a good musician, the three extant renaissance racketts are housed in two European collections, one is in the Musikinstrumenten Museum in Leipzig, and two are in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The baroque rackett combined the folded bore concept with a conical profile, in essence. It has ten parallel cylindrical bores whose diameters increase in succession to function as a conical bore. A number of tetines were added, which are tubular metal extensions covered by the joint of the index fingers as well as the pinkies. Condensation usually remains in the coil of the removable brass crook, despite its idiosyncrasies, the baroque rackett is a versatile instrument with a wide range of notes and dynamics. Extant specimens of the baroque rackett can be found in the Musikinstrumenten-Museum Berlin, the inventor of the rackett is unknown. The first historical mention can be found in German sources Wurttemberg inventories of 1576, early paintings of the Munich Court band and a carved cabinet by Christof Angermair depict a single rackett being played in a mixed consort of other instruments. Prior to the seventeenth century, the rackett had a cylindrical bore. The later baroque rackett had an expanding pseudo-conical bore and was blown through a coiled crook inserted into the top of the instrument, a separate bell joint is added to extend the sounding length. Praetorius noted, In sound renaissance racketts are quite soft, almost as if one were blowing through a comb and it is particularly pleasing and fine to hear on bass parts
26.
Zurna
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The zurna, is a wind instrument played in central Eurasia, ranging from the Balkans to Central Asia. It is usually accompanied by a davul in Anatolian folk music, the zurna, like the duduk and kaval, is a woodwind instrument used to play Anatolian, Middle Eastern and Central Asian folk music. The zurna is an oboe, made from the apricot fruit tree. Thus, it has historically been played outdoors during festive events such as weddings and it has eight holes on the front, seven of which are used while playing, and one thumbhole which provides a range of one octave. It is similar to the mizmar, in the Slavic nations of the Balkans it is typically called zurla. The zurna is most likely the predecessor of the European shawm. The Japanese charumera, or charamera, traditionally associated with itinerant noodle vendors is a small zurna, few, if any, noodle vendors continue this tradition, and those who do would use a loudspeaker playing a recorded charumera. There are several different types of zurnas and they all share one and the same sound inductor—the so-called kalem—which is actually a very tight double reed, sometimes made out of wheat leaves. The longest is the Kaba zurna, used in northern Turkey, as a rule of thumb, a zurna is conical and made of wood. Turkish lore says that Adam, who was moulded from clay, had no soul and it is said only the melodious tuiduk-playing of Archangel Gabriel could breathe life into Adam. According to a Turkmen legend, the played the main role in tuiduk invention. The name is derived from Persian سرنای surnāy, composed of سور sūr “banquet, feast” and نای nāy “reed, memo G. Schachiner, MusicalConfrontations. com Zurna FAQ
27.
Wikisource
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Wikisource is an online digital library of free content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project, the projects aims are to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, the project officially began in November 24,2003 under the name Project Sourceberg. The name Wikisource was adopted later that year and it received its own domain name seven months later, the project has come under criticism for lack of reliability but it is also cited by organisations such as the National Archives and Records Administration. The project holds works that are either in the domain or freely licensed, professionally published works or historical source documents, not vanity products. Verification was initially made offline, or by trusting the reliability of digital libraries. Now works are supported by online scans via the ProofreadPage extension, some individual Wikisources, each representing a specific language, now only allow works backed up with scans. While the bulk of its collection are texts, Wikisource as a whole hosts other media, some Wikisources allow user-generated annotations, subject to the specific policies of the Wikisource in question. Wikisources early history included several changes of name and location, the original concept for Wikisource was as storage for useful or important historical texts. These texts were intended to support Wikipedia articles, by providing evidence and original source texts. The collection was focused on important historical and cultural material. The project was originally called Project Sourceberg during its planning stages, in 2001, there was a dispute on Wikipedia regarding the addition of primary source material, leading to edit wars over their inclusion or deletion. Project Sourceberg was suggested as a solution to this, perhaps Project Sourceberg can mainly work as an interface for easily linking from Wikipedia to a Project Gutenberg file, and as an interface for people to easily submit new work to PG. Wed want to complement Project Gutenberg--how, exactly, and Jimmy Wales adding like Larry, Im interested that we think it over to see what we can add to Project Gutenberg. It seems unlikely that primary sources should in general be editable by anyone -- I mean, Shakespeare is Shakespeare, unlike our commentary on his work, the project began its activity at ps. wikipedia. org. The contributors understood the PS subdomain to mean either primary sources or Project Sourceberg, however, this resulted in Project Sourceberg occupying the subdomain of the Pashto Wikipedia. A vote on the name changed it to Wikisource on December 6,2003. Despite the change in name, the project did not move to its permanent URL until July 23,2004, since Wikisource was initially called Project Sourceberg, its first logo was a picture of an iceberg
28.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
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Oxford English Dictionary
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The Oxford English Dictionary is a descriptive dictionary of the English language, published by the Oxford University Press. The second edition came to 21,728 pages in 20 volumes, in 1895, the title The Oxford English Dictionary was first used unofficially on the covers of the series, and in 1928 the full dictionary was republished in ten bound volumes. In 1933, the title The Oxford English Dictionary fully replaced the name in all occurrences in its reprinting as twelve volumes with a one-volume supplement. More supplements came over the years until 1989, when the edition was published. Since 2000, an edition of the dictionary has been underway. The first electronic version of the dictionary was available in 1988. The online version has been available since 2000, and as of April 2014 was receiving two million hits per month. The third edition of the dictionary will probably appear in electronic form, Nigel Portwood, chief executive of Oxford University Press. As a historical dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary explains words by showing their development rather than merely their present-day usages, therefore, it shows definitions in the order that the sense of the word began being used, including word meanings which are no longer used. The format of the OEDs entries has influenced numerous other historical lexicography projects and this influenced later volumes of this and other lexicographical works. As of 30 November 2005, the Oxford English Dictionary contained approximately 301,100 main entries, the dictionarys latest, complete print edition was printed in 20 volumes, comprising 291,500 entries in 21,730 pages. The longest entry in the OED2 was for the verb set, as entries began to be revised for the OED3 in sequence starting from M, the longest entry became make in 2000, then put in 2007, then run in 2011. Despite its impressive size, the OED is neither the worlds largest nor the earliest exhaustive dictionary of a language, the Dutch dictionary Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal is the worlds largest dictionary, has similar aims to the OED and took twice as long to complete. Another earlier large dictionary is the Grimm brothers dictionary of the German language, begun in 1838, the official dictionary of Spanish is the Diccionario de la lengua española, and its first edition was published in 1780. The Kangxi dictionary of Chinese was published in 1716, trench suggested that a new, truly comprehensive dictionary was needed. On 7 January 1858, the Society formally adopted the idea of a new dictionary. Volunteer readers would be assigned particular books, copying passages illustrating word usage onto quotation slips, later the same year, the Society agreed to the project in principle, with the title A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. He withdrew and Herbert Coleridge became the first editor, on 12 May 1860, Coleridges dictionary plan was published and research was started
