Musical instruments by Andrews George Whitfield 1861-1932 ed

Author:Andrews, George Whitfield, 1861-1932, ed
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Musical instruments
Publisher: New York : Irving Squire
Published: 1908-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

GiNGROi — Vertical Flute. Egypt. Wailing Flute. Slender pipes scarcely thicker than a ripened corn-stalk. They were associated with funerals. Gingrois were found in the mummy case of the Lady Maket. They constitute the oldest evidence of the world's music. There is no knowledge of the kind of mouthpiece used.

Glass Harmonica — Sonorous Substances. Europe. The invention of Benjamin Franklin (1760), is not in principle wholly his. The glasses used for the instrument are blown to be almost hemispherical, and are thinnest towards the edges. They are arranged, each edge lapping over the next plate, upon a spindle which is suspended transversely in a case. An attempt to use a violin bow instead of the fingers proved unsuccessful. The idea of the production of a tone from a glass was known in the Seventeenth Century, for a book printed at Nuremburg at the time describes the steps necessary " to produce a merry wine music." In this case, however, the glasses were tuned by varying the amount of wine contained in them.

The glass harmonica held a place of high importance in the day of its prime. The Euterpiad (New York, Sept. 1, 1830) in referring, to a new instrument of this kind called a grand harmonicon, quotes the following stanza:

So soft the heavenly strain arose, The notes of each responsive close Did seem the whispering voices dear Of beings in a brighter sphere.

English writers give the credit of the invention to an Irishman, but Franklin's claim is clear to the invention of the instrument now designated by the name. In a letter dated July 13, 1762, he gives the following description of the affair: " To distinguish the glasses the more readily to the eye, I have painted the apparent parts of the glasses within side, every semi-tone white and the other notes of the octave with the seven prismatic colours, so that glasses of the same colour (the white excepted) are always octaves of each other. This instrument is played upon by sitting before the

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