The Woodwind Musical Instruments

Abstract

The wood-wind group of musical instruments includes four distinct types, commonly known as flutes, oboes, clarinets, and saxophones. According to peculiarities of size or method of construction these instruments have a variety of names among which are: recorder, galoubet, piccolo, flageolet, English horn, bassoon, bag-pipe, doodlesack, etc. Originally these instruments were made of wood, now many are made of metal. A discussion is given of the tone production and of the relations of the nodes and loops of the vibrating air-column to the mouth-piece and the tone-holes in the several types of instruments. The varying qualities of tone are due to the prominence of certain overtones which are characteristic of each instrument; the general nature of these peculiarities have been determined by analysis of photographic records of the tones. The positions of tone-holes were primitively determined by the number and length of fingers conveniently available in playing and varies according to custom. Our musical scale of the octave has been by the peculiarities of the hand! Very little of the scientific method is applicable to the design of musical instruments. Theobald Boehm, of Munich, just one hundred years ago, first made use of the principles of acoustics in the making of an orchestral instrument; this consisted simply in placing the tone-holes according to the intervals of the equally tempered scale. He followed this with a study of tone-quality which resulted, in 1847, in the present-day Boehm Flute. These studies influenced the design of all the other wood-wind instruments. A discussion is given of possible further improvements through laboratory research. Exhibition and demonstration of primitive and modern instruments will be made with various specimens selected from the writer's historical collection of flutes, now the largest in the world.