Musical instruments... : with numerous woodcuts by Engel Carl 1818-1882

Author:Engel, Carl, 1818-1882
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Musical instruments
Publisher: New York : Scribner, Welford, and Armstrong
Published: 1876-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

shape, representing caricatures of the .human face and figure, birds, beasts, and flowers. Some were provided at the top with a finger-hole which, when closed, altered the pitch of the sound, so that two different tones were producible on the instrument. Others had a little ball of baked clay lying loose inside the air-chamber. When the instrument was blown the current of air set the ball in a vibrating motion, thereby causing a shrill and whirring sound. A similar contrivance is sometimes made use of by Englishmen for conveying signals. • The Mexican whistle most likely served principally the same purpose, but it may possibly have been used also in musical entertainments. In the Russian

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

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horn band each musician is restricted to a single tone,; and similar combinations of performers—oply, of course, much more rude-^have been witnessed by travellers among some tribes in Africa and America.

Rather more complete than the above specimens are some of the whistles and small pipes which have been found in graves of the Indians of Chiriqui in central America. The pipe or whistle which is represented in the accompanying engravingap-

pears, to judge from the somewhat obscure description transmitted to us, to possess about half a dozen tones. It is of pottery, painted in red and black on a cream-coloured ground, and in length about five inches. Among the instruments of this kind from central America the most complete have four finger-holes. By means of three the following four sounds (including the sound which is produced when none of the holes are closed) can be

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