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5 | Musical Elements

Wind Instruments

Peter Kun Frary

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Air Columns

Wind instruments create sound via a vibrating column of air and thus classified in the Hornbostel-Sachs system as aerophones (air sounds). There are three methods of activating an air column:

Blow across or into a hole on a tube.

Blow into a reed attached to a tube.

Vibrate your lips while blowing through a tube.

Pitch is controlled by varying the length of the vibrating air column: longer air columns create lower pitches and shorter air columns yield higher pitches.

Wind instruments are organized into two broad categories: brass and woodwinds.

Royal Hawaiian Band Low Brass | Ala Moana Center | ©Peter Kun Frary

Hawaiian Low Brass

Brass Instruments

Modern brass instruments are typically made of brass or other metals and create sound by players blowing air through vibrating lips (buzzing) into a mouthpiece. Lip vibrations are amplified in a coiled tube. The longer the coiled tube, the lower the pitch. Trumpet, trombone and tuba are examples of brass instruments and, of course, members of the larger category of aerophones.

B-Flat Trumpet | Under the player's right-hand fingers are the valves used, along with the player's lips, to control pitch. | ©Peter Kun Frary

Trumpet

Ancient Brass

Although this category of instruments is typically made of brass, such was not always the case. Ancient brass instruments such as the didgeridoo and conch horn are constructed of natural materials such as wood, shell, horn and bone, yet are considered members of the brass family due to the sound production method: a player buzzing into a mouthpiece to vibrate an air column.

Erke | Brass instruments evolved from prototypes made of natural materials such as bone, wood and, in the case of the erke, cow horn. | Wikimedia Commons

Erke

Signaling Origins

Many brass instruments originated as signaling devices: herald the arrival of royalty, issue a call to arms, warn of danger, guide hunters in the woodlands, etc.

Bugle

The bugle is the best known ancient brass instrument still played today. Like most early brass instruments, the bugle evolved from signaling instruments made from animal horns. Indeed, the name bugle comes from the word buculus, Latin for bullock (castrated bull). While bugles are mainly used for ceremonial purposes today, e.g., military funerals, it served as a military signaling device well into the 20th century.

Let's Get Biblical

The function of the trumpet (a translation of ram's horn or shofar) in the Bible was to blast out a warning of impending doom or the arrival of the Lord:

"Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near." Joel 2:1

Ancient brass instruments such as the conch horn, Swiss alphorn, kelp horn (seaweed), Jewish shofar (ram's horn) and military bugle are still used today in ceremonies and stage productions.

Jeremy West Introduces the Cornett | The Cornett (Italian, cornetto) is a brass instrument made of wood, leather and ivory (2:45) .

Pitch Control

Slides, valves, holes or keys may be used to change the length of the air column in a modern brass instrument while the player's embouchure, lip tension and air flow are used to select the specific harmonic or pitch produced from the air column. Most ancient brass instruments—e.g., conch horn and bugle—lack valves, holes or keys and rely only on the player's lips and airflow to change pitch.

Valves

Brass instruments—e.g., trumpet, tuba and cimbasso—use valves to change air column size. Listen to trumpet virtuoso Alistair Mackie discuss trumpet technique:

Alistair Mackie introduces the trumpet (13:11)

Slides

Instead of valves, trombones employ a telescoping slide mechanism to change the length of the vibrating air column. The most commonly played trombones are the tenor trombone and its larger and lower pitched sibling, the bass trombone.

Trombone | Mid-nineteenth century Europe | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Trombone

The name, trombone, comes from the Italian word, tromba, meaning trumpet, and one, a suffix indicating a large size. Thus, trombone means a big trumpet.

Epic Low Brass Game of Thrones Theme | Eleven Bass Trombones, six Contrabass Trombones, six Tenor Trombones, six Tubas and three Cimbassos (2:39)

Woodwinds

Woodwinds were traditionally constructed of wood, hence the name, although many modern woodwinds are metal. Most woodwinds have a pipe-like body (are not coiled) and change pitch by varying air column length with a system of holes or keys. The woodwind family is subdivided into three categories: flute, single reed and double reed instruments.

Royal Hawaiian Band Woodwinds | Front from left to right: three clarinets, flute, piccolo and oboe | ©Peter Kun Frary

Woodwinds

Flutes

The flute and its higher pitched sibling, piccolo, are found in marching bands and orchestras. Flutes are made in the shape of a pipe or cylinder but other shapes are possible. Sound is created when a player blows across a hole on a tube. In the case of the recorder, the player blows into a narrow channel. A beer bottle becomes a flute when you blow across the top opening. Breath creates eddies of air that vibrate the air column within the bottle, producing musical tones.

FLUTES - What Makes Them Different? (5:22)

Aurignacian Flute | Upper Paleolithic flute found in a Geissenklösterle cave and made from animal bone. | José-Manuel Benito | Wikimedia Commons

Flute_paleolithic

Paleolithic Flutes

Flutes have the distinction of being the oldest known musical instruments. The oldest musical artifact, the Divje Babe Flute, dates from 50,000 and 60,000 years ago (Upper Paleolithic) and is believed to have been made by Neanderthal man.

Baroque Flute | Garion c. 1720-40, France | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Flute

Transverse Flute

The type of flute played in modern orchestras and marching bands is called a transverse flute. Blow across a hole on the side to vibrate the air column, and change pitch by working a set of keys or holes along the tube. Originally transverse flutes were constructed of wood. Most modern examples are made of metal, typically copper-nickel, silver and sometimes gold.

Listen to Kate Clark play a wood Baroque transverse flute. Unlike modern flutes, there is no mechanical keys to change the length of the vibrating air column. Ms. Clark blocks and opens holes with her fingers to change pitch.

Partita in A Minor, Allemande BWV 1013 | J.S. Bach (5:17)

Single Reed Woodwinds

Single reed woodwinds such as saxophones and clarinets use a vibrating reed to create sound. A reed is a thin slice of bamboo or cane. The reed is placed in a mouthpiece and installed on the end of the instrument. An air stream from the player's mouth vibrates the reed. Woodwind players control pitch by opening and blocking holes with fingertips or mechanical keys.

Saxophone | A single reed woodwind instrument popular in jazz, rhythm and blues and marching band music | ©Peter Kun Frary

alto sax

Saxophone

The saxophone was invented by Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax during the early 1840s. Although a relative newcomer to the woodwind family, the saxophone is perhaps the most iconic single reed instrument to exist. Such notoriety is certainly due in large part to its extensive use in secondary school bands, popular music and jazz. Simon Haram discusses the sound and technique of the saxophone:

All About the Saxophone (28:22)

Double Reed Woodwinds

The oboe, English horn and bassoon use two reeds held between the player's lips, hence the name, double reeds. A stream of air from the player's mouth sets the reeds in motion. Double reeds are temperamental and players spend much of their life shaping, soaking and sucking reeds for optimal sound. Watch Amy Harman demonstrate the bassoon, the bass of the double reed family:

Amy Harman introduces the bassoon (10:16)

The Orchestra at the Opera | Edgar Degas, 1868 | Musée d'Orsay

The Orchestra at the Opera | Edgar Degas, 1868 | Musée d'Orsay

Vocabulary

aerophone, brass, woodwind, flute, transverse flute, single reed woodwind, clarinet, double reed woodwind, oboe, English horn, bassoon

Preface	Elements	Medieval	Renaissance
Baroque	Classical	Romantic	Modern