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Jiahu Flutes
The Jiahu gǔdí () are the oldest known musical instruments from China, dating back to around 6000 BCE. ''Gudi'' means "bone flute" in Chinese. History Since 1984, six complete bone flutes, as well as the fragments of at least thirty more, have been excavated from several early Neolithic Jiahu culture tombs in Jiahu, Wuyan County, Henan Province, in Central China. They have been dated to 6000 BCE. Description The bone flutes have average dimensions of approximately , and are made from the legs of the red-crowned crane. They are open-ended and vary in the number of their finger holes, from one to eight; the 24 holed version has 23 holes in front and one thumb hole in back. Jiahu bone whistles are much shorter than the flutes, with lengths of , and having only a couple of holes. The number of holes and the spacing between the holes determined the musical range and scale or mode in which the flute was intended to function. Lee and Shen believed that the Jiahu culture und ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bone Flute
A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, and enable mobility. Bones come in a variety of shapes and sizes and have complex internal and external structures. They are lightweight yet strong and hard and serve multiple functions. Bone tissue (osseous tissue), which is also called bone in the uncountable sense of that word, is hard tissue, a type of specialized connective tissue. It has a honeycomb-like matrix internally, which helps to give the bone rigidity. Bone tissue is made up of different types of bone cells. Osteoblasts and osteocytes are involved in the formation and mineralization of bone; osteoclasts are involved in the resorption of bone tissue. Modified (flattened) osteoblasts become the lining cells that form a protective layer on the bone surface. The mineralized matrix ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Open Tube
Acoustic resonance is a phenomenon in which an acoustic system amplifies sound waves whose frequency matches one of its own natural frequencies of vibration (its ''resonance frequencies''). The term "acoustic resonance" is sometimes used to narrow mechanical resonance to the frequency range of human hearing, but since acoustics is defined in general terms concerning vibrational waves in matter, acoustic resonance can occur at frequencies outside the range of human hearing. An acoustically resonant object usually has more than one resonance frequency, especially at harmonics of the strongest resonance. It will easily vibrate at those frequencies, and vibrate less strongly at other frequencies. It will "pick out" its resonance frequency from a complex excitation, such as an impulse or a wideband noise excitation. In effect, it is filtering out all frequencies other than its resonance. Acoustic resonance is an important consideration for instrument builders, as most acoustic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Traditional Chinese Musical Instruments
Chinese musical instruments are traditionally grouped into eight categories known as (). The eight categories are silk, bamboo, wood, stone, metal, clay, gourd and skin; other instruments considered traditional exist that may not fit these groups. The grouping of instruments in material categories in China is one of the first musical groupings ever devised. Silk ( 絲) Silk () instruments are mostly stringed instruments (including those that are plucked, bowed, and struck). Since ancient times, the Chinese have used twisted silk for strings, though today metal or nylon are more frequently used. Instruments in the silk category include: Plucked Bowed Struck Combined * () – a combination of the , , and with 50 or more steel strings. * () - strucked and bowed zither from Shandong, China. Bamboo ( 竹) Bamboo () mainly refers to woodwind instruments, which includes; Flutes Free reed pipes Single reed pipes Double reed pipes Wood ( 木) Most wood () instru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paleolithic Flutes
During regular archaeological excavations, several flutes that date to the European Upper Paleolithic were discovered in caves in the Swabian Alb region of Germany. Dated and tested independently by two laboratories, in England and Germany, the artifacts are authentic products of the Aurignacian archaeological culture. The Aurignacian flutes were created between 43,000 and 35,000 years ago. The flutes, made of bone and ivory, represent the earliest known musical instruments and provide unmistakable evidence of prehistoric music. The flutes were found in caves with the oldest known examples of figurative art. Music and sculpture as artistic expression have developed simultaneously among the first humans in Europe, as the region is considered a key area in which various cultural innovations have developed. In addition to recreational and religious purposes, such ritual music might have helped to maintain larger social networks. This may have provided a competitive advantage o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Music Of China
Music of China refers to the music of the Chinese people, which may be the music of the Han Chinese in the course of Chinese history as well as ethnic minorities in today's China. It also includes music produced by people of Chinese origin in some territories outside mainland China using traditional Chinese instruments or in the Chinese language. It includes forms from the traditional and modern, Western inspired, commercial popular music, folk, art, and classical forms, and innovative combinations of them. Documents and archaeological artifacts from early Chinese civilization show a well-developed musical culture as early as the Zhou dynasty (1122 BC – 256 BC) that set the tone for the continual development of Chinese musicology in following dynasties. These developed into a wide variety of forms through succeeding dynasties, producing the heritage that is part of the Chinese cultural landscape today. Traditional forms continued to evolve in the modern times, and over the cour ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
End-blown Flute
The end-blown flute (also called an edge-blown flute or rim-blown flute) is a woodwind instrument played by directing an airstream against the sharp edge of the upper end of a tube. Unlike a recorder or tin whistle, there is not a ducted flue voicing, also known as a fipple. Most rim-blown flutes are "oblique" flutes, being played at an angle to the body's vertical axis. A notched flute is an end-blown flute with a notch on the blowing surface. A lip-valley flute is a type of notched flute. End-blown flutes are widespread in folk music and art music. In Europe, the Russians have the svirel, attested from at least the 11th century. In the Middle East and Mediterranean the ney is frequently used, constructed from reed. Depictions of early versions of the ney can be found in wall paintings in ancient Egyptian tombs, indicating that it is one of the oldest musical instruments in continuous use. Several ancient Persian artworks depict the use of the ney. The Persian ney has six f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dizi (instrument)
The ''dizi'' (, pronounced ), is a Chinese transverse flute. It is also sometimes known as the ''di'' () or ''héngdi'' (), and has varieties including Qudi (), Bangdi (), and Xindi (). It is a major Chinese musical instrument that is widely used in many genres of Chinese folk music, Chinese opera, as well as the modern Chinese orchestra. The ''dizi'' is also a popular instrument among the Chinese people as it is simple to make and easy to carry. Most ''dizi'' are made of bamboo, which explains why ''dizi'' are sometimes known by simple names such as Chinese bamboo flute. However, "bamboo" is perhaps more of a Chinese instrument classification like "woodwind" in the West. Northern Chinese ''dizi'' are made from purple or violet bamboo, while ''dizi'' made in Suzhou and Hangzhou are made from white bamboo. ''Dizi'' produced in southern Chinese regions such as Chaozhou are often made of very slender, lightweight, light-colored bamboo and are much quieter in tone. Although bamb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Divje Babe Flute
The Divje Babe flute is a cave bear femur pierced by spaced holes that was unearthed in 1995 during systematic archaeological excavations led by the Institute of Archaeology of the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, at the Divje Babe I near Cerkno in northwestern Slovenia. It has been suggested that it was made by Neanderthals as a form of musical instrument, and became known as the Neanderthal flute. The artifact is on prominent public display in the National Museum of Slovenia in Ljubljana as a Neanderthal flute. As such, it would be the world's oldest known musical instrument. Like many other Middle Paleolithic (Mousterian) finds that might reflect symbolic behavior and advanced cognitive abilities among Neanderthals, this find was met with severe criticism and rejection by a part of the scientific community. Finds of symbolic significance are of primary interest within Paleolithic research. Special attention is devoted to the discoveries that preda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Flutes
Chinese flutes come in various types. They include Transverse Flutes: * Dizi (and its varieties such as the qudi and bangdi; primary transverse flutes, usually made of bamboo and distinctively has a buzzing membrane) * Koudi (a small center-blown mouth flute with open-ends) * Tuliang (a large center-blown flute with open-ends) *Chi (an ancient center-blown transverse flute with closed ends and front finger holes.) * Hengxiao ( dizi without membrane) * Xindi (fully chromatic dizi without membrane) * Jiajian Di (keyed dizi without membrane) End-Blown Flutes (air split directly on mouthpiece): * Xiao ( end-blown vertical bamboo flute) * Gudi, an ancient vertical flute made from the bones of large birds *Paixiao (pan pipes with distinctive notched or curved blowholes to allow for greater expression) * Xun (clay globular flute) ( Uyghur and Mongolian minorities also play a version of the Turkish ney.) Fipple Flutes (air split through whistle flue duct): * Jiexiao "Sister xiao ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Register (music)
A register is the "height" or range of a note, set of pitches or pitch classes, melody, part, instrument, or group of instruments. A higher register indicates higher pitch. *Example 1: Violins are in a higher register than cellos. In woodwind and brass instruments, the word register usually distinguishes pitch ranges produced using different normal modes of the air column, with higher registers produced by overblowing. Often the timbres of different woodwind instrument registers tend to be markedly different. *Example 2: The Western concert flute plays approximately three and a half octaves and generally has three complete registers and one partial register. The musical note C4 (corresponding to middle C on the piano) would be in that instrument's first register, whereas C5 (one octave higher) would be in its second register. However, on the clarinet the notes from ( written) G4 or A4 to B4 sometimes are regarded as a separate "throat register", even though both they ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interval (music)
In music theory, an interval is a difference in pitch between two sounds. An interval may be described as horizontal, linear, or melodic if it refers to successively sounding tones, such as two adjacent pitches in a melody, and vertical or harmonic if it pertains to simultaneously sounding tones, such as in a chord. In Western music, intervals are most commonly differences between notes of a diatonic scale. Intervals between successive notes of a scale are also known as scale steps. The smallest of these intervals is a semitone. Intervals smaller than a semitone are called microtones. They can be formed using the notes of various kinds of non-diatonic scales. Some of the very smallest ones are called commas, and describe small discrepancies, observed in some tuning systems, between enharmonically equivalent notes such as C and D. Intervals can be arbitrarily small, and even imperceptible to the human ear. In physical terms, an interval is the ratio between two sonic f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Closed Tube
Acoustic resonance is a phenomenon in which an acoustic system amplifies sound waves whose frequency matches one of its own natural frequencies of vibration (its ''resonance frequencies''). The term "acoustic resonance" is sometimes used to narrow mechanical resonance to the frequency range of human hearing, but since acoustics is defined in general terms concerning vibrational waves in matter, acoustic resonance can occur at frequencies outside the range of human hearing. An acoustically resonant object usually has more than one resonance frequency, especially at harmonics of the strongest resonance. It will easily vibrate at those frequencies, and vibrate less strongly at other frequencies. It will "pick out" its resonance frequency from a complex excitation, such as an impulse or a wideband noise excitation. In effect, it is filtering out all frequencies other than its resonance. Acoustic resonance is an important consideration for instrument builders, as most acoustic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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