Bow (music)A cello bowIn music, a bow () is a tensioned stick which has hair (usually horse-tail hair) coated in rosin (to facilitate friction) affixed to it. It is moved across some part (generally some type of strings) of a musical instrument to cause vibration, which the instrument emits as sound. The vast majority of bows are used with string instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, and bass, although some bows are used with musical saws and other bowed idiophones.
Musical instrument classificationMusical instrument classification is the practice of grouping musical instruments according to shared characteristics. It is a central concern of organology, the study of musical instruments. Classifications may be based on the material that vibrates, the method of sound production, playing technique, construction, musical role, register, or a society's own concepts about instruments.
Musical instrumentA musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who plays a musical instrument is known as an instrumentalist. The history of musical instruments dates to the beginnings of human culture.
Pitch (music)Pitch is the quality that makes it possible to judge sounds as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies. Pitch is a perceptual property that allows sounds to be ordered on a frequency-related scale. Pitch is a major auditory attribute of musical tones, along with duration, loudness, and timbre. Pitch may be quantified as a frequency, but pitch is not a purely objective physical property; it is a subjective psychoacoustical attribute of sound.
Friction idiophoneFriction idiophones is designation 13 in the Hornbostel-Sachs system of musical instrument classification. These idiophones produce sound by being rubbed either against each other or by means of a non-sounding object. Instruments of this type are not very common; possibly the best known examples are the musical saw and the nail violin. According to musicologist Curt Sachs: ... It is essential to distinguish between rubbing and scraping.
MalletA mallet is a tool used for imparting force on another object, often made of rubber or sometimes wood, that is smaller than a maul or beetle, and usually has a relatively large head. General overviewThe term is descriptive of the overall size and proportions of the tool, and not the materials it may be made of, though most mallets have striking faces that are softer than steel.
Hornbostel–SachsHornbostel–Sachs or Sachs–Hornbostel is a system of musical instrument classification devised by Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs. This system was first published in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie in 1914. An English translation was published in the Galpin Society Journal in 1961, which is the most widely used system for classifying musical instruments by ethnomusicologists and organologists (people who study musical instruments).
GlissandoIn music, a glissando (Italian:; plural: glissandi, abbreviated gliss.) is a glide from one pitch to another (example). It is an Italianized musical term derived from the French glisser, "to glide". In some contexts, it is equivalent to portamento, which is a continuous, seamless glide between notes. In other contexts, it refers to discrete, stepped glides across notes, such as on a piano.
ThereminJ. S. Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" played by Italian thereminist Fabio Pesce on a Moog Etherwave thereminProblems playing this file? See .The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone, etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named after its inventor, Leon Theremin, who patented the device in 1928.
VaudevilleA promotional poster for the Sandow Trocadero Vaudevilles (1894), showing dancers, clowns, trapeze artists, costumed dogs, singers and costumed actorsVaudeville (; French:) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which became popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1870s until the early 1930s. In some ways analogous to music hall from Victorian United Kingdom, a typical North American vaudeville performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill.
Hand sawIn woodworking and carpentry, hand saws, also known as "panel saws", are used to cut pieces of wood into different shapes. This is usually done in order to join the pieces together and carve a wooden object. They operate by having a series of sharp points, called teeth, of a substance that is harder than the wood being cut. Hand saws have been used for thousands of years.
PortamentoIn music, portamento (pl.: portamenti; from old portamento, meaning 'carriage' or 'carrying'), also known by its French name glissade, is a pitch sliding from one note to another.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.