Published for the Committee of Council on Education
BY
CHAPMAN AND HALL, Ltd., LONDON.

CONTENTS

[CHAPTER I.]1
[CHAPTER II.]9
[CHAPTER III.]16
[CHAPTER IV.]27
[CHAPTER V.]38
[CHAPTER VI.]59
[CHAPTER VII.]85
[CHAPTER VIII.]98
[CHAPTER IX.]107
[CHAPTER X.]114
[INDEX.]126

LIST OF WOODCUTS.

PAGE
[Prehistoric whistle]9
[Ancient Egyptian flute concert]13
[The supposed Hebrew lyre at Beni Hassan]22
[Ancient bagpipe from Tarsus]24
[Hebrew trumpets, from the arch of Titus]25
[Grecian harp and lyre]28
[Greek lyres]29
[Greek flutes]31
[The diaulos]32
[Etruscan cornu]33
[Hydraulic organ]34
[Roman girl and tibia]36
[Roman trumpets]36
[Chinese king]39
[Chinese pien-tchung]41
[Chinese hiuen-tchung]42
[Chinese ou]43
[Chinese tchou]43
[Chinese kin-kou]44
[Chinese hiuen]45
[Chinese cheng]46
[Hindustan, vina]49
[Persian, chang]51
[Persian, bagpipe]52
[Turkish harp]53
[Persian dulcimer]55
[The rebab]56
[Aztec whistles]60
[Antique pipe from central America]61
[Pipes of the Aztecs]62
[Peruvian bone pipe]64
[Peruvian huayra-puhura]65
[Peruvian huayra-puhura]66
[Orinoco Indian trumpet]67
[South American Juruparis]68
[Indian trumpets]70
[Aztec drums]72
[San Domingo drum]73
[Peruvian bell]75
[Aztec cluster of bells]76
[Cithara, ninth century]86
[Psalterium]87
[Nablum]87
[Citole]88
[Anglo-saxon harp]89
[Harp, ninth century]90
[Ancient Irish harp]91
[German rotte]91
[Rotta]92
[Irish rotta]93
[The crwth]94
[The old English “crowd”]95
[The French crout]96
[Anglo-saxon fiddle]97
[German fiddle, ninth century]97
[Organistrum]99
[Monochord]100
[Single chorus]101
[Double chorus]101
[Sackbut]101
[Syrinx]102
[Pneumatic organ, fourth century]103
[Organ, twelfth century]104
[Regal]104
[Cymbalum, ninth century]105
[Bunibulum]106
[Orchestra on bas-relief]108
[Vielle]109
[Orchestra, twelfth century, at Santiago]110
[The minstrels’ gallery, at Exeter cathedral]112
[Virginal]114
[Lute, Elizabethan]116
[Viola da gamba]118
[Recorder]119
[Scotch bagpipe, eighteenth century]120
[Irish bagpipe, sixteenth century]121
[Carillon, Netherlands]122

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Music, in however primitive a stage of development it may be with some nations, is universally appreciated as one of the Fine Arts. The origin of vocal music may have been coeval with that of language; and the construction of musical instruments evidently dates with the earliest inventions which suggested themselves to human ingenuity. There exist even at the present day some savage tribes in Australia and South America who, although they have no more than the five first numerals in their language and are thereby unable to count the fingers of both hands together, nevertheless possess musical instruments of their own contrivance, with which they accompany their songs and dances.

Wood, metal, and the hide of animals, are the most common substances used in the construction of musical instruments. In tropical countries bamboo or some similar kind of cane and gourds are especially made use of for this purpose. The ingenuity of man has contrived to employ in producing music, horn, bone, glass, pottery, slabs of sonorous stone,—in fact, almost all vibrating matter. The strings of instruments have been made of the hair of animals, of silk, the runners of creeping plants, the fibrous roots of certain trees, of cane, catgut (which absurdly referred to the cat, is from the sheep, goat, lamb, camel, and some other animals), metal, &c.

The mode in which individual nations or tribes are in the habit of embellishing their musical instruments is sometimes as characteristic as it is singular. The negroes in several districts of western Africa affix to their drums human skulls. A war-trumpet of the king of Ashantee which was brought to England is surrounded by human jawbones. The Maories in New Zealand carve around the mouth-hole of their trumpets a figure intended, it is said, to represent female lips. The materials for ornamentation chiefly employed by savages are bright colours, beads, shells, grasses, the bark of trees, feathers, stones, gilding, pieces of looking-glass inlaid like mosaic, &c. Uncivilized nations are sure to consider anything which is bright and glittering ornamental, especially if it is also scarce. Captain Tuckey saw in Congo a negro instrument which was ornamented with part of the broken frame of a looking-glass, to which were affixed in a semicircle a number of brass buttons with the head of Louis XVI. on them,—perhaps a relic of some French sailor drowned near the coast years ago.