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Full-Text Articles in History
A Short Summary Of The History Of The Flute, Juanita Nicholson
A Short Summary Of The History Of The Flute, Juanita Nicholson
Honors Theses
The birth of the woodwinds as we know them today came in the time of Lully with the invention of the oboe in France. The woodwinds developed mainly as a means of producing a variety of contrasting tone colors. The four main woodwinds--flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon--produce four very different sounds, yet blend perfectly well.
In the early days of the orchestra the woodwind section consisted of a pair of oboes, usually playing a melody in thirds. Sometimes the performers would lay down their oboes and play flutes or recorders. Later two bassoonists were added, mainly to provide an independent bass …
A History Of Brass Instruments, Mary Beth Mangrum
A History Of Brass Instruments, Mary Beth Mangrum
Honors Theses
The wind instruments--instruments in which the sound results from vibrations of a column of air produced either mechanically or by the human breath--are usually divided into the woodwinds and the brasses. The brasses include the French horn, cornet, trumpet, tuba, and trombone, all of which, except the last, are fixed-tone instruments, producing only one sound at a time and not able to play in perfect tune.
Musical instruments were not "invented." They developed slowly and comparatively late. They developed from stamping feet and slapping hands. A prehistoric forerunner of ancient brass instruments was the hollow stick without a mouthpiece, used …
A History Of The Bassoon, Marilyn Rauch
A History Of The Bassoon, Marilyn Rauch
Honors Theses
The earliest ancestor of the bassoon was the bass pommer, bombard, or bass shawm. The instrument was long and perfectly straight with a metal crook fitted in the small end.
In the early part of the sixteenth century, Canon Alfranio was making instruments called phagotum, in which a long tube was bent back on itself several times. This idea, when applied to the bombard, produced the curtal--the direct ancestor of the bassoon. The phagotum itself was no relation to the bassoon, it being a form of bagpipe, but in it, Afranio was responsible for the idea used in bassoon construction. …