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:

1. Blow across or into a hole on a tube.
2. Blow into a reed attached to a tube.
3. 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.

Aerophones are organized into two broad categories: brass and woodwinds.

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

Ancient Brass Instruments

Brass instruments produce sound when a player blows air through vibrating lips into a mouthpiece. Lip vibrations are then amplified in a tube. The longer the tube, the lower the pitch.

Although modern versions of this instrumental category are typically made of brass or other metals, such is not always the case. Ancient brass instruments like the didgeridoo and conch horn are constructed of natural materials—wood, shell, horn and bone—yet are members of the brass family due to the manner of sound production: a player buzzing into a mouthpiece to vibrate an air column.

Ardhanarishvara Playing Conch Horn | Brass instruments evolved from prototypes made of natural materials and, in the case of the conch horn, a sea snail shell. | Wikimedia Commons

Conch Horn

The oldest surviving brass instrument is the Marsoulas Conch, a 17,000 year old conch horn dating from the Upper Paleolithic (Late Stone Age), and unearthed from the Marsoulas cave in the Pyrenees of southern France. Also called a seashell trumpet, the conch horn is made from the shell of a large sea snail and was played in Mesoamerica, Asia and Polynesia. The natural conical bore of the conch produces a powerful trumpet like musical tone.

Marsoulas Conch | This Upper Paleolithic era aerophone is displayed in the Muséum de Toulouse in France. | Wikimedia Commons

The Marsoulas conch horn is significant not only for its age, but because it is depicted in cave art in its place of unearthing, used a mouthpiece, was adorn with artwork, and trimmed for use of one's hand in the bell (to modify pitch like a French horn). This instrument is evidence of the existence of sophisticated music and art during the Upper Paleolithic period in Europe.

Conch Horn Sound | Three notes played on the 17,000 year old Marsoulas conch | Science Advances

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Didgeridoo

An ancient brass instrument, the didgeridoo, is an Australian aboriginal instrument made of a long wooden tube, traditionally made from a hollow branch. Vibrating lips produce a continuous drone using circular breathing. This technique entails inhaling through the nose while simultaneously exhaling from the mouth. The result is a deep tone interspersed with rhythmic accents and timbre changes from the player's circular breathing technique.

Jesse Lethbridge Didgeridoo | The didgeridoo is an aerophone and member of the brass family, but constructed of wood instead of metal (2:27).

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.

Shofar | The shofar is an ancient brass instrument made from a ram's horn, and used for Jewish religious purposes. | Wikimedia Commons

Let's Get Biblical

The function of the trumpet (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.

Jewish prayer | Shofar played by the Yamma Ensemble (5:24)

Modern Brass Instruments

Contemporary brass instruments are typically made of brass or other metals, hence the name brass. Current brass designs use slides or valves to change the length of the air column. The player's embouchure, lip tension and air flow are used to select the specific harmonic or pitch produced from the air column. In contrast, 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.

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, trombone and tuba are common examples of modern brass instruments and members of the larger category of aerophones. To make brass instruments ergonomic, the tube is often coiled. Listen to the sound of a brass ensemble:

Epic Low Brass Game of Thrones Theme | Eleven bass trombones, six contrabass trombones, six tenor trombones, six tubas and three cimbassos (2:39)

Valves

Brass instruments—e.g., trumpet, tuba and cimbasso—use valves to change air column size. Trumpet virtuoso Alistair Mackie discusses 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

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

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Woodwind Instruments

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

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)

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.

Neanderthal Flute | Middle Paleolithic animal flute found in the Divje Babe cave in Slovenia. | BBC Reels

Additional intact flutes date from the Upper Paleolithic, found in caves in the Swabian Alb region of Germany. Constructed of animal bone and ivory, these Aurignacian flutes were made by Homo sapiens between 43,000 and 35,000 years ago, and excavated along with the oldest known Ice Age art.

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

Flute, piccolo, recorder and panpipes are the most common members of the flute family and are frequently played in ensembles and classrooms.

Transverse Flute

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

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)

Andean Panpiper (c. 1300-1400) | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Panpipe

The panpipe, also called pan flute, is an ancient member of the flute family. It's a bundle of different length tubes, usually cane or bamboo. There are no holes to change the length of the air column. Instead, each note has its own tube. In other words, the player blows across the top of different pipes to produce different notes, requiring rapid movements for even simple melodies.

Panpipe | Late 19th century Solomon Islands panpipe made from bamboo bound with reeds and twine. | Muséum de Toulouse

Named after Pan, the Greek god of nature and shepherds, the panpipe was first recorded in Greek art and literature c. 3000 BC, but was also widely played in the Middle East, Americas, Asia and Polynesia. The Inamauri Panpipers of the Solomon Islands perform a song with panpipes:

Avicii - Wake Me Up | A World Beat/Pop fusion cover of Wake Me Up by the Inamauri Panpipers (4:38)

Single Reed Woodwinds

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

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

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Vocabulary

aerophone, brass, conch horn, didgeridoo, circular breathing, shofar, woodwind, flute, Upper Paleolithic, transverse flute, recorder, panpipe, pan flute, single reed woodwind, clarinet, double reed woodwind, oboe, English horn, bassoon

©Copyright 2018-24 by Peter Kun Frary | All Rights Reserved

Preface	Elements	Middle Ages	Renaissance
Baroque	Classical	19th Century	20th Century