MUSICAL SAND-MUSK-DEER with drones enclosing single reeds, such as the "cornemuses," and the "musettes," complete the series. Of the single-reed instruments, the "clarinet" is the most important. It was invented by Christopher Denner of Nuremberg, in 1690, and embodies the very ancient principle, that of the "squeaker" reed, which is commonly made by children even at the present time. Of the several forms of clarinets those in Aand B-flat are used by the modern orchestra, while the B-flat and E-flat instruments are used in military bands, in which their functions correspond to that of the violins in the orchestra. The C clarinet with its shrill tone is seldom used. Their color varies according to the register. The ordinary notes are eloquent, heroic, and tender; in the lower register they become spectral, and impressively sombre in the bass. Although the last instrument introduced into the orchestra, all the great composers wrote for it, and considered it favorably. With Mozart it was one of the leading instruments of the orchestra, and in his beautiful E-flat symphony, written in 1788, clarinets are employed even in the place of the oboes. As in the case of the double-reed woodwind instruments, in which the mouthpiece is used with a metal tube and gives the sarrusophone, the adaptation of the clarinet-reed to a brass tube gives the family of "saxophones," invented by Adolph Sax in 1846. They resemble the clarinets very closely in shape; have a full, rich, penetrating tone-color, and are extensively used by the military bands of France and Belgium, and have also been used with great advantage in the French orchestras. Of the "brass instruments," the most important are the horns, cornets, trumpets, trombones, and tubas. Two other forms, the ophicleide and the serpents, though frequently employed in the older orchestral scores, are now obsolete, having been entirely superseded by the tuba. The instruments of percussion are those which are incapable of giving many tones, or playing definite melodies, like the stringed and wind instruments already described. They are of two classes those that give an actual tone, such as the kettledrums, glockenspiel, and xylophone; and those without any definite pitch, such as the bass and small drums, tambourines, cymbals, castanets, and triangles. Of these, the kettledrums are the most important, and, together with the cymbals, are extensively used to emphasize military effects; while the others serve to express those that are purely rhythmical. For detailed descriptions of all of the instruments mentioned, see special articles under their respective titles. For descriptions of keyed instruments, see articles on the organ and the pianoforte. Bibliography.-For further detailed information consult: Elson, Orchestral Instruments and their Use' (Boston 1903); Hawkins, General History of the Science and Practice of Music' (London 1875); Hofmann, Katechisder Musikinstrumente' (Leipsic 1890); Vidal, Les Instruments a Archet' (Paris 1878); and Schletterer, 'Die Ahnen moderne. Musikinstrumente' (Leipsic 1882). mus WILLIAM MORey, Jr., Musical Instruments, Mechanical. The record of inventions and devices in this field methods of operation. One of the most famous shows a great variety of shapes, sounds and in this class of music-producers was Barnum's steam calliope, used for many years in circus processions. Organs of all sizes and shapes, set in motion by the occasional turning of a crank or pressing of a button, are widely used for purposes of public entertainment. music boxes with cylinders and American music boxes with discs are embraced in the same lass. There are also mechanical banjos, violins, zithers, mandolins and trombones. Swiss Progress of the Piano-Player.-Since the advent of the first piano-player, a few years ago, rapid strides have been made in the creation and roduction, by purely mechanical methods, of lassical and popular music. The perforated roll, passing over a perforated wooden cyclinder, such roll and cylinder representing, together, the music-producing medium when aided by bellows, formed and still forms a leading feature of the automatic idea in piano-playing. See PIANO. The earliest efforts of those who undertook to create and introduce mechanical harmony effects yielded crude, unsatisfactory, and unpromising results. Progress was blocked at every turn by practical difficulties not contemplated in theoretical calculations and experiments. There are two important differences between the wood-wind and the brass instruments. In the former the tones are produced by vibrating air-columns, or by vibrating single or double reeds, and alterations of pitch are accomplished by shortening the air-columns, while in the latter the vibrations utilized are those of the player's lips, which are pressed against a round, cup-like mouthpiece, and the air-column is lengthened to alter the pitch. The brass instruments are capable of giving a much larger number of partial tones naturally than the flutes, oboes, and clarinets, which use only a few notes of the harmonic series, and derive such partial tones from the fundamental tones, or from the overtones. Horns and cornets furnish romantic tone-coloring, and are effectively used in connection with forest and hunting scenes, First Products.-Among the first products of while the trumpets are employed to express the mechanical piano-playing movement was an brilliant martial passages depicting heroic deeds. odd-appearing. seemingly over-elaborate accuTrombones and tubas are grand, sonorous tubes mulation of rubber-tubes, strikers, bellows, and which afford a solemn and menacing tone-color pedals, nearly all of these contrivances and ac to the splendor of a full orchestra, and are also cessories being fixed to a wooden frame and inadvantageously used to depict coarse and brutal serted in the back part of the piano, between the scenes. All of them are valuable components frame-posts. It was found impracticable to inof modern military bands. Plate II. illustrates clude all necessary material without increasing various types of wind instruments, developed the size of the piano proper. This was accomfrom their original forms into perfect instru- plished by adding several inches to the piano's ments during the latter part of the 18th and depth. the earlier part of the 19th centuries. Portable Players.-Notable among the next MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, MECHANICAL succeeding stages of piano-player development was the invention and perfecting of a movable and easily-portable player having cylinder, perforated rolls, and pedal action. About half the regular piano width and only a trifle higher than the keyboard, this "supplement" can be moved at will to the centre of the piano, in front. Operation of the pedals results in the bringing of any one or more of a series of hammers or strikers in direct contact with the key-surfaces, speed and force being regulated by several thumbpieces projecting from the player top or side. Players of this description, with many variations, are still in use but have been partially superseded by more recent contrivances. Interior Players.- After many costly experiments, covering several years, an interior player, which has been very successful thus far and promises to evolutionize the whole industry of piano-making, was perfected. It was found possible to minimize the parts in such a way that practically the entire player apparatus, excepting, of course, the pedals, could be placed above the keyboard in front of the action and behind the fallboard, the latter hiding it completely from view. Thousands of these pianos containing mechanical players have already been made and sold by the firm of patentees and other manufacturers, the latter paying royalty charges to the former for privileges. Makers of pianos of all grades have accepted this interior player, with modifications, as permanent, and steps are now being taken in many instances to embody it as a standard feature in regular piano styles. Electricity Introduced. In the interval between the perfecting of "movable" and "interior" piano-players, an enterprising practical New York electrician and piano-action maker secured certain important player rights and privileges and set to work on the problem of electrical operation. Experiments, extending over several years, were finally successful. Electrical attachments were devised and introduced in such a manner as to make it possible for any person or firm, in any part of the world, having a simple electrical connection, to start and stop the player at will. The advance in usefulness of the mechanical piano-player thereby reached a stage where it only needed the occasional insertion of a perforated roll to produce, without any further physical effort whatever, perfect musical effects, including correct tempo and proper expression. Continuous Rolls.- Since that time, continuous rolls have been devised to admit of several tunes being played successively without any interference on the part of the person who applies the electrical connection and turns on the current. The electrical-attachment device just referred to, with numerous variations, is now largely in use throughout the United States, Canada, and other countries for the entertainment of guests, travelers and others in restaurants, hotels, saloons, railroad stations, and similar public resorts. Some are operated by use of an electric button conveniently placed at tables, hotel desks, and in private apartments. Others start by the insertion of a coin in a metal slot at the side of the instrument. Electricity as a Tone-Producer-The foregoing synopsis is intended to show briefly actual conditions in the mechanical harmony field at the time, only recently, when the "Telharmonium" of Dr. Cahill entered the lists as a competitor for the patronage of all such as desired to obtain their music "ready made." The description of his method given below reveals the fact that Dr. Cahill does not require for his purpose any instrument or apparatus other than a motor, alternator, "mixer," keyboard, telephone wire, telephone, telephone receiver and sounding horn. This ingenious inventor can claim for his device great simplicity, directness of application, convenience, facility for purposes of distribution, and economy. The Cahill Method. In order to obtain, instantaneously, by day or night, on week-days, Sundays, and holidays, an absolutely accurate technical rendering of any published instrumental musical composition, classical or popular, domestic or foreign, one need only be a subscriber to a local telephone system in any large city or town, paying perhaps a trifling additional periodical charge for the privilege of using the Cahill method with horn attachment. This horn once applied, a whole room or hall of listeners may enjoy, without flaw or interruption, a lengthy, acceptable, well-rendered musical program covering, to all intents and purposes, nearly the entire field of instrumental execution. Dr. Cahill is now working on full orchestral application of his general plan. Theory and Application.- The musical wave theory of the Cahill plan is that of Helmholtz, the famous German scientist. The practical working basis of the method is an electrical plant, with shafts, dynamos, electric attachments, transformers, switch-board, etc., such as may be seen in any electric power-house. There are no visible or audible evidences in the machine room, except probably to the inventor and his assistants, of any ability on the part of the machine in motion to produce harmonious sounds. A large plant, costing $200.000, is now in operation in New York city, with a smaller plant - the original at the inventor's Holyoke laboratory. Duplicates are to be constructed, from time to time, in many cities. How Harmonic Sounds Are Produced.— Actual production of harmonic sounds by this system is developed at a keyboard, in a room apart and away from the machinery. The accompanying illustration will give a good general idea of the keyboard arrangement. At this board, when a program is to be played, sits an expert operator — perhaps two. Resembling in appearance the keyboard of a large pipe-organ, the further likeness to that sonorous instrument is suddenly ended, for, whereas the pipe-organ operator plays upon air in the pipes, the Telharmonium expert secures his music from the electric current generated as he proceeds, in many small dynamo-electric machines of the alternating-current type. The Alternators of Inductors. These "induction alternators" are simple in construction, yet their development to the point of practical utility, as represented in present performances, occupied the attention of Dr. Cahill during nearly a decade. In the inductors the electrical current passes back and forth with ever-fluctuating force and frequency. Transmitted along the wires to the nearest telephone, the harmonic variations or sound-waves thus created impinge 1. Auditorium with key boards and outlets. The outlets for the music are arranged in the setee in center of the room and in the hydrangea at the side. 2. The tone mixers. |