History Of Musical Instruments Research Articles

APLIKASI MEDIA PEMBELAJARAN ALAT MUSIK TRADISIONAL KHAS SUMATERA UTARA BERBASIS AUGMENTED REALITY

<p>Augmented Reality (AR), is a technology with the idea of fusing the real world's dimensions with the virtual world's dimensions that are shown in real time. A three-dimensional object in augmented reality is depicted on a markerless surface using a distinctive pattern that the application can identify. Among the many applications for augmented reality is as a form of educational media. The lack of information conveyed on traditional North Sumatran musical instruments is one of the obstacles for students in recognizing traditional North Sumatran musical instruments. In this final project, an Augmented Reality application was developed for learning media for traditional North Sumatran musical instruments by displaying 2-dimensional objects into 3- dimensional objects in a more attractive way, thereby creating a sense of love for the culture and history of musical instruments in North Sumatra. participate in maintaining and preserving traditional North Sumatran musical instruments which have begun to be forgotten with the emergence of modern musical instruments. This application will be able to read markerless traditional musical instruments which will display three-dimensional musical instruments, sounds, and their history. This application is also equipped with materials and quizzes that serve to evaluate the user's understanding of the material.</p>

Music in the Age of Confucius

Chinese archaeologists digging in central China in 1977 unexpectedly uncovered two of the earliest and most extensive groups of musical instruments in the entire ancient world, dating from nearly 2500 years ago. since these percussion, string, and wind instruments were in near-pristine condition - some still playable, others inscribed with musicological information - they provided hitherto unimagined possibilities for th study of music and the history of musical instruments in ancient China. Presented here are the insights of six specialists who describe these instruments' sophisticated tuning systems, techniques of manufacture and inscriptions revealing their musical and non-musical significance in ancient Chinese society. It has become apparent that different types of music existed in Bronze Age China (2000-500 BC) for state rituals as well as for private entertainment. The authors place this evidence in the context of recent archaeological discoveries and reassess it in light of classical history and the literature on Chinese music. The three main families of instruments are also examined in detail in individual chapters. Lovers of art and music, as well as enthusiast of archaeology, musicology, and cultural history, should find this a compelling and readable presentation of the latest research and ideas on one of the world's oldest and most profound artistic expressions.

The Mathematics of Musical Instruments

1. INTRODUCTION The history of musical instruments goes back tens of thousands of years. Fragments of bone flutes and whistles have been found at Neanderthal sites. Recently, a 9,000-year-old flute found in China was shown to be the world’s oldest playable instrument (pictures and a recording of this flute are available at http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/flutes.html). These early instruments show that people have long been concerned with producing pitched sound—that is, sound containing predominantly a single frequency. Indeed, finger holes on the flutes indicate that these prehistoric musicians had some concept of a musical scale. The study of the mathematics of musical instruments dates back at least to the Pythagoreans, who discovered that certain combinations of pitches that they considered pleasing corresponded to simple ratios of frequencies such as 2:1 and 3:2. The problems of tuning, temperament, and acoustics have since occupied some the brightest minds in the natural sciences. Marin Marsenne’s treatise on tuning and acoustics Harmonie Universelle (1636) [19], H. v. Helmholtz’s On the Sensations of Tone (1870) [15], and Lord Rayleigh’s seminal The Theory of Sound (1877) [21 ]a re just three outstanding examples. Many pages have been written on this subject. We mean to present an overview and let the interested reader find more detailed discussions in the references, and on our web site www.sju.edu/∼rhall/newton. 2. THE WILLOW FLUTE In this section we consider the physical properties of a Norwegian folk flute called the seljefloyte, or willow flute. This instrument can be considered “primitive” in that it does not rely on finger holes to produce different pitches. Rather, by varying the strength with which he or she blows into the flute, the player selects from a series of pitches called harmonics, whose frequencies are integer multiples of the flute’s lowest tone, called the fundamental. The willow flute’s scale is approximately a major scale with a sharp fourth and flat sixth, and plus a flat seventh. The willow flute is a member of the recorder family, though it is held transversally. The flute is constructed from a hollow willow branch (or, more recently, a PVC pipe; see the quirky but informative web site http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Museum/

Stewart Pollens. The Early Piano-forte. (Cambridge Musical Texts and Monographs.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. 158 pls. + xx + 297 pp. $ 84.95.

REVIEWS 1269 material for comparative analysis. Also the discussion of older mathemat- ical sources is marginal. By contrast, Bonker frequently cites twentieth-cen- tury mathematical literature; however, most of these references are too short and enigmatic to be of any help. Bru- no's alleged anticipations of modern science are either too arbitrary (regard- ing the unity of method on 68 and 249) or not argued for (e.g. the relation with Leibniz in chap. 8). Surprisingly the author seems unacquainted with P. Rossi’s Clavis universalis and with S. R.icci's studies on the reception of Bru- no in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Finally, the initial claim regarding Bruno's contribution to the development of mathematics — that it consisted of an essential impulse to- wards the analysis of the scope of ma- thematical logic through the attempt to assess the premises of mathematical thought and to understand the divine unity with mathematical means — re- mains unwarranted. LEEN Smturr University of Rome “La Sapienzaq Stewart Polleru. The Early Piano- forte. (Cambridge Musical Texts and Monographs.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. 158 pls. + xx + 297 pp. 5 84.95. The origins of most musical in- struments are obscure. Many are deri- vations and subspecies whose ancient origins cannot be traced. Equally problematic is the fact that throughout the ages there were constant changes of constructional details. resulting in the eventual reclassification into distinct instruments. Therefore, it is rare in the history of musical instruments that we should have access to the docu- ments which give the approximate date and circurmtance of the invention of an instrument, as well as the surviv- ing instruments that support those documents. Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731) has been regarded as the inventor of the pianoforte. and his invention of the principle of striking the string marked the beginning of a continuum of developments that led to the modern piano. His contemporary also believed the pianoforte was a “nuova inventione” made in Florence around 1700 by Cristofori, then in the service of Prince Ferdinand de’ Medici. Contrary to the widely accepted theory on the invention of the piano, Stewart Pollens argues that the strik- ing mechanism that distinguishes the pianoforte from other stringed key- board instruments was known long before Cristofori, and that what Cris- tofori achieved was the ‘‘rediscovery'’ of the principle of striking the string and the adaptation of the hammer ac- tion to his instrument. The earliest written document Pollens examines is a treatise written ca. 1440 by Henri Arnaut of Zwolle. a physician and as- trologer to Philip the Good. Arnaut provides technical descriptions and drawings of several instruments. among them dulce melos. Pollens be- lieves that Arnaut's description of the dulce melos provides ample evidence for the existence of the striking action similar to the one employed on Cris- tolori's pianofortes and that Arnaut recorded the technique from an earlier source. The exchanges of musical in- struments and musicians between the court of Burgundy and the court of Ferrara provide tangible evidence that Arnaut’s dalce melos or the idea of striking action on a string keyboard instrument was exported to Italy in the fifteenth century. Indeed, the next reference to keyboard instruments with the facility for playing piano and

Musical Instruments in an Ethnographic Museum

The following notes are not intended to advance a method of classification for a museum of extra-European musical instruments; rather, they detail the difficulties of a study related exclusively to musical instruments and ethnography. Ethnography necessarily involves the acknowledgment that no object of musical or sound production, however primitive, however formless it may seem, no instrument--whether essentially or accidentally musical-shall be excluded from methodical classification. Within such classification, percussive procedures on wooden chests or upon the earth itself are of no less importance than the melodic or polyphonic resources of the violin or guitar. It is to the travelers, missionaries, and ethnographers that the history of musical instruments owes its only detailed descriptions of objects and techniques that musicologists have ignored and continue to neglect through the same prejudice which leads art historians to reject expressions such as: Negro art, Indian art, or South Sea island art. We were, in the course of a partial examination of documents on the music of American and African Negroes from the sixteenth century to the present, unable to make use of concrete details from anything but travelogues.' Now, it is only on condition that nothing of a people's musical life be deemed unworthy of examination that we can consider a general study of instrumentmaking and scoring throughout history and the five continents, and, consequently, of auditory sensuality in its full range of fantasy. We do not claim, of course, that the intentions of the composers of the Choral Symphony's scherzo or The Rite of Spring will become clearer to us simply because we will have analyzed the Negro's modes of rhythmic drumming. Invariable elements do, however, lurk within all stages of musical culture; we should attend to the variety of their combinations, just as there is no word in a language which does not help us to decipher it.

Rediscovering the Venda Ground-Bow

'This article contains material originally presented for degree purposes (see Kruger 1986). I would like to thank the University of Cape Town for granting permission to publish the original material here. I am also grateful to the University of Venda for the rendering of financial assistance to carry out further investigation into the Venda ground-bow tradition during 1987. 2The precise naming of this type of instrument has been problematic for lengthy period of time. Von Hornbostel and Sachs first defined the instrument partly in the combination of classes 314.2 and 314.21 (zithers) as contained in their classification of instruments ([1914] 1961). It was listed by von Hornbostel (1933:310) under harps as groundbow. Sachs introduced the term ground in 1940 in his History of Musical Instruments. The instrument has recently been referred to as earth-bow (Blacking 1965; Djenda 1968) and groundbow (Kubik 1974). Both Baines (1961) and Rycroft (1980) argue that the instrument is, in terms of its construction, member of the harp family. The instrument exhibits characteristics of the harp as well as of the musical bow. However, some scholars acquainted with the latter two instruments argue that links between them and ground-bow type instruments are too tenuous to permit use of the terms ground-harp or ground-bow. It seems to me that the latter is less objectionable, viewed in terms of the definition of bow simply as that which is flexible, and not necessarily in terms of flexible stave with a string stretched between its ends (Rycroft 1980:811). In order to avoid unacceptable connotations, organologists should perhaps consider the creation of new term(s). For instance, while the term ground-bass may not be applicable cross-culturally, it seems an appropriate counterpart for the term dumbu kalinga (see discussion of the text of Example 1).

The pardessus de viole and its literature

Over the past several decades performers and scholars have become increasingly aware of the extensive literature for the bass viol produced in France in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Through live performances and musicological research the genius of Marin Marais and the charming, if not always profound, works of his followers and rivals have come to be recognized as an important part of French instrumental music of the period. Largely unexplored, however, is the somewhat less extensive but no less musically rewarding literature for the pardessus de viole, the smallest member of the viol family.' Whereas the 17th century had seen the downwards extension of the ranges of the lute, harpsichord and bass viol, the 18th saw the upwards extension of the ranges of the melodic instruments-flute, oboe and violin. The pardessus, as it emerged in the early 18th century, was a product of this trend. Like the treble viol (dessus de viole), it had six strings, lacking the seldom used low d but with the addition of g, a 4th higher than the top string of the older instrument (gc'-e'-a'-d-g).2 The body was appropriately smaller and the string length shorter (illus. 1).3 From the 1720s to the 1750s composers, many of whom had published works for the bass viol, explored the distinctive characteristics of the smaller instrument. The modern neglect of this instrument has not always been the result simply of ignorance. Many scholars seem to have disregarded the volume of material concerning the pardessus, while others have used selected parts of it to show why the instrument should not, in their opinion, be considered seriously. Two quotations from works on the history of musical instruments will summarize these attitudes.

Musical Instruments and Their Symbolism in Western Art: Studies in Musical Iconology

This book first appeared in 1967. In the years since then, it has spawned the new academic sub-discipline of musical iconology, which belongs equally to the histories of art and of music. Emmanuel Winternitz, who was for thirty-one years Curator of Musical Collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is one of the world's leading authorities on the history of musical instruments. He is also an erudite historian of art. Combining these two interests he has for many years studied the innumerable representations of musical instruments in Western art. In this collection of closely related articles, he examines what these pictures tell of the design and construction of instruments, of their performance, practice, and of the often subtle symbolic use to which artists put them. Kithara and cittern, lute and lyre, bagpipe and hurdy-gurdy, and the ubiquitous lira da braccio, all of these figured largely in the art of the Middle Ages or the Renaissance, together with a clutch of shwms, zinks, and crumhorns, and a variety of fantastic instruments that existed only in the imagination of the artists. In more than 200 photographs and many drawings, Winternizt illustrates instruments that range from an Egytptian wall-painting of a harp to a musette in a Watteau Fete champetre. He draws from the works of Titian, Raphael, Durer, and Bruegel, and also from medieval manuscripts and sculpture. Winternitz discusses these diverse elements with a combination of formidable learning, wit, and keen insight that makes this book at once a seminal work for scholars and a delight for lovers of art and music.

Slit Logs and Sacred Cows: The History of the Drum

The information in this article was drawn primarily from James Blades's Percussion Instruments and Their History (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, Publishers, 1970), David Reck's Music of the Whole Earth (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1977), and Curt Sachs's The History of Musical Instruments (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1940).

On the Origin of the Keyboard Mechanism in the Late Middle Ages

History is full of instances of the transfer of techniques between two widely disparate branches of human activity. For example, the first truly "refined" trumpets and horns coincide with both the rise of new metallurgical techniques in the twelfth century and the exposure of the Crusaders to Saracen prototypes. The mining of copper and silver in Germany and Saxony was accompanied by the creation of skilled manpower capable of fabricating better musical instruments. Together with zinc ores from the Meuse Valley, this provided ample material for thinner trumpets of silver or brass, giving a far better tone quality to the sound. The art of repousse, modeling sheetmetal with hammer and punches, facilitated the production of instruments from a long strip of thin metal rolled over a rod and then riveted together.1 A similar connection between technological developments and musical instruments can be made for organ bellows during the Middle Ages. One of the intriguing problems still to be solved in the history of musical instruments is the origin of the keyboard mechanism. Within the short space of a century a number of keyboard-type instruments burst upon the medieval scene in considerable profusion. Neither their precise physiognomies nor their technological origins have been satisfactorily explained. How did the instrument-makers come by the necessary technology suddenly to develop, within the space of a few decades, it would seem, a series of keyboard instruments incorporating radically new principles of action and embodied in a rather ingenious system of connecting a key with a striking device which returned to its original position after hitting or plucking the string? The answer to this

Monographs in Slides

During the last fifteen years, Dr. Julius Rosenthal, 5230 Kimbark Avenue, Chicago 15, has issued many valuable slide catalogues. To mention just a few: his Survey of Western Art is a most satisfactory collection of material for art survey courses; recently it has been supplemented by a negative file corresponding to the illustrations of the third edition of Gardner's Art Through the Ages. His catalogue Paintings and Sculpture in the NGA, Washington, D.C. is a comprehensive listing of the important material there. His Slides for a Course on the History of Chinese Art is based on Dr. Ludwig Bachhofer's unique material and parallels his Short History of Chinese Art. Among his other catalogues A History of Musical Instruments in Slides might be mentioned, which was favorably reviewed by outstanding musicologists. Recently Dr. Rosenthal has made a promising start in color photography too.

Review: A History of Musical Instruments in Slides by Julius Rosenthal

Review: A History of Musical Instruments in Slides by Julius Rosenthal

A History of Musical Instruments in Slides

A History of Musical Instruments in Slides

The History of Musical Instruments

The History of Musical Instruments

A Descriptive Catalogue of the Musical Instruments in the South Kensington Museum. Preceded by an Essay on the History of Musical Instruments

A Descriptive Catalogue of the Musical Instruments in the South Kensington Museum. Preceded by an Essay on the History of Musical Instruments

History of Musical Instruments (Concluded)

History of Musical Instruments (Concluded)

History of Musical Instruments (Continued)

History of Musical Instruments (Continued)

History of Musical Instruments (Continued)

History of Musical Instruments (Continued)

History of Musical Instruments (Continued)

History of Musical Instruments (Continued)

History of Musical Instruments (Continued)

History of Musical Instruments (Continued)