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Period Instruments
In the historically informed performance movement, musicians perform classical music using restored or replicated versions of the instruments for which it was originally written. Often performances by such musicians are said to be "on authentic instruments". This article consists of a list of such instruments in the European tradition, including both instruments that are now obsolete and early versions of instruments that continued to be used in later classical music. Renaissance (1400–1600) Strings * Violin * Viol * Viola * Cello * Lira da braccio * Contrabass * Violone * Lute * Theorbo * Archlute * Gittern * Mandore * Harp * Cittern * Vihuela Woodwinds * Cornamuse * Cromorne * Crumhorn * Rauschpfeife * Recorder * Shawm * Dulcian Brasses * Trumpet * Cornett * Sackbut * Serpent * Natural horn * Slide trumpet * Natural trumpet * Horn Keyboards * Clavichord * Harpsichord * Regal * Virginal * Ottavino * Organ Percussion * Drum * Timpani * Cymbals * Bass drum ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cittern
The cittern or cithren ( Fr. ''cistre'', It. ''cetra'', Ger. ''Cister,'' Sp. ''cistro, cedra, cítola'') is a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is descended from the Medieval citole (or cytole). Its flat-back design was simpler and cheaper to construct than the lute. It was also easier to play, smaller, less delicate and more portable. Played by people of all social classes, the cittern was a premier instrument of casual music-making much as is the guitar today. History Pre-modern citterns The cittern is one of the few metal-strung instruments known from the Renaissance period. It generally has four courses (single, pairs or threes) of strings, one or more courses being usually tuned in octaves, though instruments with more or fewer courses were made. The cittern may have a range of only an octave between its lowest and highest strings and employs a re-entrant tuning – a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural Horn
The natural horn is a musical instrument that is the predecessor to the modern-day (French) horn (differentiated by its lack of valves). Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth century the natural horn evolved as a separation from the trumpet by widening the bell and lengthening the tubes. It consists of a mouthpiece, long coiled tubing, and a large flared bell. This instrument was used extensively until the emergence of the valved horn in the early 19th century. Hand stopping technique The natural horn has several gaps in its harmonic range. To play chromatically, in addition to crooking the instrument into the right key, two additional techniques are required: ''bending'' and '' hand-stopping''. Bending a note is achieved by modifying the embouchure to raise or lower the pitch fractionally, and compensates for the slightly out-of-pitch "wolf tones" which all brass instruments have. Hand-stopping is a technique whereby the player can modify the pitch of a note by up t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serpent (instrument)
The serpent is a low-pitched early brass instrument developed in the Renaissance era with a trombone-like mouthpiece and tone holes (later with keys) like a woodwind instrument. It is named for its long, conical bore bent into a snakelike shape, and unlike most brass instruments is generally made from wood, usually walnut, and covered with dark brown or black leather. A distant ancestor of the tuba, the serpent is related to the cornett and was used for bass parts from the 17th to the early 19th centuries. Characteristics Although closely related to the cornett, the serpent has thinner walls, a more conical bore, and no thumb-hole. The serpent is typically built in eight-foot C with six fingerholes, in two groups of three. Early serpents were keyless, while later instruments added keys for additional holes out of reach of the fingers, to improve intonation and extend range. There is no real standard for the serpent's range, which varies according to the instrument and the p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sackbut
The term sackbut refers to the early forms of the trombone commonly used during the Renaissance and Baroque eras. A sackbut has the characteristic telescopic slide of a trombone, used to vary the length of the tube to change pitch, but is distinct from later trombones by its smaller, more cylindrically-proportioned bore, and its less-flared bell. Unlike the earlier slide trumpet from which it evolved, the sackbut possesses a U-shaped slide with two parallel sliding tubes, rather than just one. Records of the term ''trombone'' predate the term ''sackbut'' by two decades, and evidence for the German term ''Posaune'' is even older.Timeline of trombone history (15th century) Will Kimball ''Sackbut'', originally a French term, was used in England until the instrum ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cornett
The cornett, cornetto, or zink is an early wind instrument that dates from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods, popular from 1500 to 1650. It was used in what are now called alta capellas or wind ensembles. It is not to be confused with the modern cornet. The sound of the cornett is produced by lip vibrations against a cup mouthpiece, similar to modern brass instruments. A cornett consists of a conical wooden pipe covered in leather, is about long, and has finger holes and a small horn, ivory, or bone mouthpiece. The range is from A3 to A5, however the bottom note can be lipped as far as G3 and a good player can get up to E6. Construction The ordinary treble cornett is made by splitting a length of wood and gouging out the two halves to make the gently conical, curved bore. The halves are then glued together, and the outside planed to an octagonal cross section, the whole being bound in thin black leather. Six front finger holes and a thumb hole on the back (like on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard B or C trumpet. Trumpet-like instruments have historically been used as signaling devices in battle or hunting, with examples dating back to at least 1500 BC. They began to be used as musical instruments only in the late 14th or early 15th century. Trumpets are used in art music styles, for instance in orchestras, concert bands, and jazz ensembles, as well as in popular music. They are played by blowing air through nearly-closed lips (called the player's embouchure), producing a "buzzing" sound that starts a standing wave vibration in the air column inside the instrument. Since the late 15th century, trumpets have primarily been constructed of brass tubing, usually bent twice into a rounded rectangular shape. There are many disti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dulcian
The dulcian is a Renaissance woodwind instrument, with a double reed and a folded conical bore. Equivalent terms include en, curtal, german: Dulzian, french: douçaine, nl, dulciaan, it, dulciana, es, bajón, and pt, baixão. The predecessor of the modern bassoon, it flourished between 1550 and 1700, but was probably invented earlier. Towards the end of this period it co-existed with, and was then superseded by, the baroque bassoon. It was played in both secular and sacred contexts, throughout northern and western Europe, as well as in the New World. Construction The dulcian is generally made from a single piece of maple, with the bores being drilled and reamed first, and then the outside planed to shape. The reed is attached to the end of a metal bocal, inserted into the top of the small bore. Unlike the bassoon it normally has a flared bell, sometimes made from a separate piece of timber. This bell can sometimes be muted, the mute being either detachable, or built into ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shawm
The shawm () is a conical bore, double-reed woodwind instrument made in Europe from the 12th century to the present day. It achieved its peak of popularity during the medieval and Renaissance periods, after which it was gradually eclipsed by the oboe family of descendant instruments in classical music. It is likely to have come to Western Europe from the Eastern Mediterranean around the time of the Crusades.The Shawm and Curtal ��from the Diabolus in Musica Guide to Early Instruments Double-reed instruments similar to the shawm were long present in Southern Europe and the East, for instance the , and later |
Recorder (musical Instrument)
The recorder is a family of woodwind musical instruments in the group known as ''internal duct flutes'': flutes with a whistle mouthpiece, also known as fipple flutes. A recorder can be distinguished from other duct flutes by the presence of a thumb-hole for the upper hand and seven finger-holes: three for the upper hand and four for the lower. It is the most prominent duct flute in the western classical tradition. Recorders are made in various sizes with names and compasses roughly corresponding to various vocal ranges. The sizes most commonly in use today are the soprano (also known as descant, lowest note C5), alto (also known as treble, lowest note F4), tenor (lowest note C4), and bass (lowest note F3). Recorders were traditionally constructed from wood or ivory. Modern professional instruments are almost invariably of wood, often boxwood; student and scholastic recorders are commonly of molded plastic. The recorders' internal and external proportions vary, but the bore ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rauschpfeife
Rauschpfeife is a commonly used term for a specific type of capped conical reed musical instrument of the woodwind family, used in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. In common with the crumhorn and cornamuse, it is a wooden double-reed instrument with the reed enclosed in a windcap. The player blows into a slot in the top of the windcap to produce the sound. Description Rauschpfeifes (Schreierpfeiffen) differ from cornamusen mainly in the shape of the bore, which, like the shawm, is conical. This bore profile combined with the unrestricted vibration of the reed within the windcap produced an instrument that was exceedingly loud, which made it useful for outdoor performances. The word ''Rauschpfeife'' (German for "rush (or reed) pipe" from the Old German "rusch" for 'rush', as in grass), is found in the description of two windcapped instruments depicted in one of the 16th-century woodcut illustrations of '' Triumphal Procession'', commissioned by Holy Roman Emperor Maximili ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crumhorn
The crumhorn is a double reed instrument of the woodwind family, most commonly used during the Renaissance period. In modern times, particularly since the 1960s, there has been a revival of interest in early music, and crumhorns are being played again. It was also spelled krummhorn, krumhorn, krum horn, and cremorne. Terminology The name derives from the German ''Krumhorn'' (or ''Krummhorn'' or ''Krumporn'') meaning ''bent horn''. This relates to the old English ''crumpet'' meaning curve, surviving in modern English in 'crumpled' and ' crumpet' (a curved cake). The similar-sounding French term cromorne, when used correctly, refers to a woodwind instrument of different design, though the term cromorne is often used in error synonymously with that of crumhorn. It is uncertain if the Spanish wind instrument ''orlo'' (attested in an inventory of 1559) designates the crumhorn, but it is known that crumhorns were used in Spain in the sixteenth century, and the identification see ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
