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
