MUSICAL INSTRUMENT-MAKER.
1. This artist unites in his business some of the operations of the cabinet-maker, turner, and brazier. He also is dependent upon the wire-drawer, and the tanner and currier, for some of his materials. So great, however, is the number of musical instruments, and so different their nature and construction, that the business of making them is divided into several branches, all of which are never pursued, or carried on, by one person. But, without reference to the several divisions of this business, we will proceed to mention or describe the principal instruments which are now in most common use.
2. The organ is the largest of all musical instruments, and, in its improved state, so complex that a mere description of it cannot be well understood. Nevertheless, we will endeavor to give the reader some idea of the general principles on which it is constructed.
3. The most essential and prominent parts of this machine are the wind-chest, the pipes, and the bellows. The former of these is an oblong box, made perfectly air-tight, and placed in a horizontal position. The top of this chest is perforated with several rows of holes of different sizes, and into these are inserted the pipes. Those for the higher notes are of a cylindrical form, and are made of a mixture of metals, chiefly of tin and lead; but those designed for the expression of the lowest notes of the base are made of wood, in a square form. The dimensions of these pipes are regulated by a diapason, or scale.
4. There are as many of these rows of pipes, which are called stops, as there are kinds of tones in the organ; and to every row or stop is a plug, attached to a slide, which is denominated a register, and which is designed to regulate the admission of wind into the pipes. The pipes are also furnished with valves, which can be opened at pleasure, by means of keys similar to those of the piano-forte. Some organs have few, others have many stops; and, in order to regulate the force of sound, most church organs have two or three rows of keys, whereby a greater or less number of pipes may be filled, and the powers of the instrument may be controlled in what is called the small organ, or let loose, so as to become the full organ.
5. The fingering of an organ is similar to that of the piano-forte, so far as relates to the position of the keys; but, on account of the great number of holding notes in organ music, and the manner in which the sound is produced, the fingers are more kept down; whence it is considered injurious for performers on the piano-forte to practise on the organ, lest that lightness of touch, so necessary for the former instrument, be affected. It is hardly necessary to remark that, during the performance on the organ, the wind-chest is filled by means of the bellows.
6. The structure of the organ is lofty, elegant, and majestic; and its solemnity, grandeur, and volume of tone, have obtained for it a pre-eminence over every other instrument for the sacred purposes to which it has been applied. The largest organ known is in St. Peter's Church, at Rome. It has one hundred stops.
7. The church organ was probably suggested by the water organ of the Greeks, which was invented five or six hundred years before our era. At what period, organs began to be employed in churches, cannot now be ascertained. By some, it is said that Pope Vitelianus caused them to be used in Rome in the seventh century. Others are of opinion, that they were not introduced until three hundred years later. But, be this as it may, the church organ was not in common use until the fourteenth century; and now it is very different in its construction from that of early times. It has received many additions and improvements since the beginning of the fifteenth century.
8. The hand or barrel organ consists of a moveable cylinder, on which, by means of wires, pins, and staples, are marked the tunes which it is intended to perform. These pins and staples, by the revolution of the barrel, act upon the keys within, and give admission to the wind from the bellows to the pipes. The hand organ is so contrived that the revolution of the barrel gives motion to the bellows.
9. There are several instruments belonging to the class of horns, all of which are made of brass or silver. Those of the latter kind of metal are by far the softest in tone, but brass is the material most commonly employed. The chief instruments belonging to this class are the trumpet, the French horn, the bugle, the Kent bugle, the trombone, and the bass-horn. The serpent seems to be the connecting link between the trumpet and the flute.
10. The instruments classed with the flute, are the common flutes of various keys, German flutes, and several kinds of flageolets. Nearly allied to these are the clarionet, the hautboy, and bassoon. The breath is applied to the flageolet through an ivory tube at the end; and, in the three last named instruments, a thin reed, capable of a free vibration, is a part of the mouth-piece.
11. Of the instruments which produce musical sounds by the vibration of strings, there are a great number, of which the following are the principal;—the lyre, the harp, the guitar, the lute, the dulcimer, the harpsichord, the spinnet, the piano-forte, the violin, the violincello, and the base-viol. The strings of the three last are agitated with a bow; but those of this class first mentioned, are vibrated by the thumb and fingers, by some little instrument held in the hand, or by little hammers, moved by keys, as in the piano-forte.
12. The piano-forte is said to be the invention of Gottlieb Schroder, of Hohenstein, in Saxony, born in Dresden, about the year 1717. Before the introduction of this instrument, the clavichord, harpsichord, and spinnet, supplied its place. On all of these instruments complete harmony can be produced by a single performer, and the most difficult series of tones can be executed with rapidity, by means of a simple mechanism.
13. The piano-forte has been gradually improved, until it has become one of the most elegant instruments in the whole compass of musical practice. In firmness and strength of tone, the English piano-fortes formerly surpassed all others; but, within a few years, they have been equalled, and in some respects excelled, by those of American workmanship. The manufacture of this instrument constitutes the most extensive branch of musical instrument-making.
14. The instruments of percussion are the military drum, base-drum, kettle-drum, tabor, tamborine, and the triangle. The kettle-drum has received its name from its conformation. It has but one head, and is used in orchestres, and by the cavalry of modern armies, especially in Europe. The tabor has two heads, about three inches apart, and is beaten with one stick. The tamborine has one head, drawn over a hoop, to which are attached small bells and bits of tin, to make a jingling sound. The time is beaten on the head with the hand.
15. The bag-pipe is a wind instrument of high antiquity among the northern nations of Europe; but it has been so long a favorite with the natives of Scotland, that it may be considered their national instrument. It consists of a leather bag and three pipes. The first of the pipes is that by which the droning noise is produced, the second emits wind from the bottom of the bag, and the third is that on which the music is made.
16. During the performance on the bag-pipes, the bag is placed under the arm, and worked like a bellows, while the notes are modulated as on a flute or hautboy, by stopping and opening the holes, nine in number, with the ends of the fingers and thumb. The bag is filled by means of the breath blown into it through a pipe. In Rome, at the time of Advent, the peasants of the mountains express their veneration for the Virgin by playing on this instrument before her image.
