Class of musical instruments with vibrating strings
In
musical instrument classification
,
string instruments
or
chordophones
, are
musical instruments
that produce sound from
vibrating strings
when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner.
Musicians play some string instruments, like
guitars
, by plucking the
strings
with their fingers or a
plectrum (pick)
, and others by hitting the strings with a light wooden hammer or by rubbing the strings with a
bow
, like
violins
. In some
keyboard
instruments, such as the
harpsichord
, the musician presses a key that plucks the string. Other musical instruments generate sound by striking the string.
With bowed instruments, the player pulls a rosined horsehair bow across the strings, causing them to vibrate. With a
hurdy-gurdy
, the musician cranks a wheel whose rosined edge touches the strings.
Bowed instruments include the
string section
instruments of the
orchestra
in
Western classical music
(
violin
,
viola
,
cello
and
double bass
) and a number of other instruments (e.g.,
viols
and
gambas
used in
early music
from the
Baroque music
era and
fiddles
used in many types of
folk music
). All of the bowed string instruments can also be plucked with the fingers, a technique called "
pizzicato
". A wide variety of techniques are used to sound notes on the
electric guitar
, including plucking with the fingernails or a plectrum, strumming and even "
tapping
" on the fingerboard and using
feedback
from a loud,
distorted
guitar amplifier
to produce a sustained sound.
Some string instruments are mainly plucked, such as the
harp
and the
electric bass
. Other examples include the
sitar
,
rebab
,
banjo
,
mandolin
,
ukulele
, and
bouzouki
.
In the
Hornbostel?Sachs
scheme of
musical instrument classification
, used in
organology
, string instruments are called chordophones. According to
Sachs
,
Chordophones are instruments with strings. The strings may be struck with sticks, plucked with the bare fingers or a plectrum, bowed or (in the Aeolian harp, for instance) sounded by wind. The confusing plenitude of stringed instruments can be reduced to four fundamental type: zithers, lutes, lyres, and harps.
In most string instruments, the vibrations are transmitted to the body of the instrument, which often incorporates some sort of hollow or enclosed area. The body of the instrument also vibrates, along with the air inside it. The vibration of the body of the instrument and the enclosed hollow or chamber make the vibration of the string more audible to the performer and audience. The body of most string instruments is hollow, in order to have better sound projection. Some, however?such as
electric guitar
and other instruments that rely on electronic amplification?may have a solid wood body.
Classification
[
edit
]
In
musicology
, string instruments are known as chordophones. It is one of the five main divisions of instruments in the
Hornbostel?Sachs
scheme of
musical instrument classification
.
Hornbostel?Sachs divides chordophones into two main groups: instruments without a
resonator
as an integral part of the instrument (which have the classification number 31, also known as 'simple'); and instruments with such a resonator (which have the classification number 32, also known as 'composite'). Most western instruments fall into the second group, but the
piano
and
harpsichord
fall into the first. Hornbostel and Sachs' criterion for determining which sub-group an instrument falls into is that if the resonator can be removed without destroying the instrument, then it is classified as 31. The idea that the piano's casing, which acts as a resonator, could be removed without destroying the instrument, may seem odd, but if the action and strings of the piano were taken out of its box, it could still be played. This is not true of the
violin
, because the string passes over a bridge located on the resonator box, so removing the resonator would mean the strings had no tension.
Curt Sachs also broke chordophones into four basic subcategories, "zithers, lutes, lyres and harps."
[2]
- Zithers
include
stick zithers
such as the
musical bow
,
tube zithers
with a tube as the resonator such as the
valiha
,
raft zithers
in which tube zithers are tied into a single "raft",
board zithers
including
clavichord
and
piano
and
dulcimer
, and
long zithers
(described as combination of half-tube and board zithers) including
Se
and
Guzheng
families.
- Lutes
are stringed musical instruments that include a body and "a neck which serves both as a handle and as a means of stretching the strings beyond the body."
[3]
The lute family includes not only
short-necked plucked lutes
such as the
lute
,
oud
,
pipa
,
guitar
,
citole
,
gittern
,
mandore
,
rubab
, and
gambus
and
long-necked plucked lutes
such as the
tanbura
,
swarabat
,
ba?lama
,
bouzouki
,
veena
,
theorbo
,
archlute
,
pandura
,
sitar
,
setar
, but also
bowed instruments
such as the
Yaylı tambur
,
rebab
,
erhu
, and entire family of
viols
and
violins
.
[3]
- The
lyre
has two arms, which have a "yoke" or crossbar connecting them, and strings between the crossbar and the soundboard.
[2]
Sachs divided this into the
box lyre
such as the Greek
kithara
and the
bowl lyre
which used a bowl on its side with skin
soundboard
.
[2]
- The
harp
which has strings vertical to the soundboard.
[2]
Earliest string instruments
[
edit
]
Bow Harp or Harp Lute, West Africa
Dating to around
c.
13,000 BC
, a cave painting in the
Trois Freres
cave in France depicts what some believe is a
musical bow
, a hunting bow used as a single-stringed musical instrument.
[4]
[5]
From the musical bow, families of stringed instruments developed; since each string played a single note, adding strings added new notes, creating
bow harps
,
harps
and
lyres
.
In turn, this led to being able to play
dyads
and
chords
. Another innovation occurred when the bow harp was straightened out and a
bridge
used to lift the strings off the
stick-neck
, creating the lute.
This picture of musical bow to harp bow is theory and has been contested. In 1965 Franz Jahnel wrote his criticism stating that the early ancestors of plucked instruments are not currently known.
[8]
He felt that the harp bow was a long cry from the sophistication of the civilizations of western Asia in 4000 BC that took the primitive technology and created "technically and artistically well-made harps, lyres, citharas, and lutes."
[8]
Archaeological digs have identified some of the earliest stringed instruments in
Ancient Mesopotamian
sites, like the
lyres of Ur
, which include artifacts over three thousand years old. The development of
lyre
instruments required the
technology
to create a tuning mechanism to tighten and loosen the string tension. Lyres with wooden bodies and strings used for plucking or playing with a bow represent key instruments that point towards later harps and violin-type instruments; moreover, Indian instruments from 500 BC have been discovered with anything from 7 to 21 strings. In Vietnam, a 2,000 year old, singularly stringed instrument made of deer antler was also discovered.
[9]
Lutes
[
edit
]
- See:
History of lute-family instruments
Hellenistic banquet scene from the 1st century AD,
Hadda
,
Gandhara
. Lute player far right.
Musicologists have put forth examples of that 4th-century BC technology, looking at engraved images that have survived. The earliest image showing a lute-like instrument came from
Mesopotamia
prior to 3000 BC.
[11]
A
cylinder seal
from
c.
3100 BC
or earlier (now in the possession of the British Museum) shows what is thought to be a woman playing a stick lute.
[11]
[12]
From the surviving images, theorists have categorized the Mesopotamian lutes, showing that they developed into a long variety and a short.
The line of long lutes may have developed into the
tamburs
and
pandura
.
[14]
The line of short lutes was further developed to the east of Mesopotamia, in
Bactria
,
Gandhara
, and Northwest India, and shown in sculpture from the 2nd century BC through the 4th or 5th centuries AD.
[15]
[16]
[17]
During the
medieval era
, instrument development varied in different regions of the world. Middle Eastern rebecs represented breakthroughs in terms of shape and strings, with a half a pear shape using three strings. Early versions of the violin and fiddle, by comparison, emerged in Europe through instruments such as the
gittern
, a four-stringed precursor to the guitar, and basic
lutes
. These instruments typically used catgut (animal intestine) and other materials, including silk, for their strings.
Renaissance to modern
[
edit
]
String instrument design was refined during the
Renaissance
and into the
Baroque period
(1600?1750) of musical history.
Violins
and
guitars
became more consistent in design and were roughly similar to acoustic guitars of the 2000s. The violins of the
Renaissance
featured intricate woodwork and stringing, while more elaborate bass instruments such as the bandora were produced alongside quill-plucked
citterns
, and Spanish body guitars.
In the 19th century, string instruments were made more widely available through mass production, with wood string instruments a key part of orchestras ? cellos, violas, and upright basses, for example, were now standard instruments for chamber ensembles and smaller orchestras. At the same time, the 19th-century guitar became more typically associated with six-string models, rather than traditional five-string versions.
Major changes to string instruments in the 20th century primarily involved innovations in electronic
instrument amplification
and electronic music ? electric violins were available by the 1920s and were an important part of emerging jazz music trends in the United States. The
acoustic guitar
was widely used in
blues
and
jazz
, but as an acoustic instrument, it was not loud enough to be a solo instrument, so these genres mostly used it as an
accompaniment
rhythm section
instrument. In
big bands
of the 1920s, the
acoustic guitar
played backing chords, but it was not loud enough to play solos like the
saxophone
and
trumpet
. The development of guitar amplifiers, which contained a
power amplifier
and a
loudspeaker
in a
wooden cabinet
, let
jazz guitarists
play solos and be heard over a big band. The development of the
electric guitar
provided guitarists with an instrument that was built to connect to guitar amplifiers. Electric guitars have
magnetic pickups
,
volume control knobs
and an output jack.
In the 1960s, larger, more powerful guitar amplifiers were developed, called "stacks". These powerful amplifiers enabled guitarists to perform in rock bands that played in large venues such as stadiums and outdoor music festivals (e.g.,
Woodstock Music Festival
). Along with the development of guitar amplifiers, a large range of electronic
effects units
, many in small
stompbox
pedals were introduced in the 1960s and 1970s, such as
fuzz pedals
,
flangers
, and
phasers
enabling performers to create unique new sounds during the
psychedelic rock
era. Breakthroughs in electric guitar and basses technologies and playing styles enabled major breakthroughs in pop and rock music in the 1960s and 1970s. The distinctive sound of the amplified
electric guitar
was the centerpiece of new genres of music such as
blues rock
and
jazz-rock fusion
. The sonic power of the loudly amplified, highly
distorted
electric guitar was the key element of the early
heavy metal music
, with the distorted guitar being used in
lead guitar
roles, and with
power chords
as a
rhythm guitar
.
The ongoing use of electronic amplification and effects units in string instruments, ranging from traditional instruments like the violin to the new electric guitar, added variety to
contemporary classical music
performances, and enabled experimentation in the dynamic and timbre (tone colour) range of orchestras, bands, and solo performances.
[18]
Types of instruments
[
edit
]
Construction
[
edit
]
String instruments can be divided into three groups:
- Lutes
- Instruments that support the strings via a
neck
and a bout (gourd), for instance a guitar, violin, or
saz
- Harps
- Instruments that contain the strings within a frame
- Zithers
- Instruments that have the strings mounted on a body,
frame
or
tube
, such as a
guqin
,
cimbalom
,
autoharp
,
harpsichord
,
piano
, or
valiha
It is also possible to divide the instruments into categories focused on how the instrument is played.
Playing techniques
[
edit
]
All string instruments produce sound from one or more
vibrating strings
, transferred to the air by the body of the instrument (or by a pickup in the case of electronically amplified instruments). They are usually categorised by the technique used to make the strings vibrate (or by the primary technique, in the case of instruments where more than one may apply.) The three most common techniques are plucking, bowing, and striking. An important difference between bowing and plucking is that in the former the phenomenon is periodic so that the overtones are kept in a strictly harmonic relationship to the fundamental.
[19]
Plucking
[
edit
]
Plucking is a method of playing on instruments such as the
veena
,
banjo
,
ukulele
, guitar, harp,
lute
,
mandolin
,
oud
, and
sitar
, using either a finger, thumb, or quills (now plastic plectra) to pluck the strings.
Instruments normally played by bowing (see below) may also be plucked, a technique referred to by the Italian term
pizzicato
.
Bowing
[
edit
]
Bowing
(Italian:
arco
) is a method used in some string instruments, including the
violin
,
viola
,
cello
, and the
double bass
(of the
violin family
), and the old
viol
family. The
bow
consists of a stick with a "ribbon" of parallel horse tail hairs stretched between its ends. The hair is coated with
rosin
so it can grip the string; moving the hair across a string causes a
stick-slip phenomenon
, making the string
vibrate
, and prompting the instrument to emit sound. Darker grades of rosin grip well in cool, dry climates, but may be too sticky in warmer, more humid weather. Violin and viola players generally use harder, lighter-colored rosin than players of lower-pitched instruments, who tend to favor darker, softer rosin.
[20]
The
ravanahatha
is one of the oldest string instruments. Ancestors of the modern bowed string instruments are the
rebab
of the Islamic Empires, the Persian
kamanche
and the
Byzantine lira
. Other bowed instruments are the
rebec
,
hardingfele
,
nyckelharpa
,
koky?
,
erhu
,
igil
,
sarangi
,
morin khuur
, and
K'ni
. The
hurdy-gurdy
is bowed by a wheel. Rarely, the
guitar has been played with a bow
(rather than plucked) for unique effects.
Striking
[
edit
]
The third common method of sound production in stringed instruments is to strike the string. The piano and
hammered dulcimer
use this method of sound production. Even though the piano strikes the strings, the use of felt hammers means that the sound that is produced can nevertheless be mellow and rounded, in contrast to the sharp attack produced when a very hard hammer strikes the strings.
Violin family string instrument players are occasionally instructed to strike the string with the stick of the bow, a technique called
col legno
. This yields a percussive sound along with the pitch of the note. A well-known use of
col legno
for orchestral strings is
Gustav Holst
's "Mars" movement from
The Planets
suite.
Other methods
[
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]
The
aeolian harp
employs a very unusual method of sound production: the strings are excited by the movement of the air.
Some instruments that have strings have an attached
keyboard
that the player presses keys on to trigger a mechanism that sounds the strings, instead of directly manipulating the strings. These include the
piano
, the
clavichord
, and the harpsichord. With these
keyboard instruments
, strings are occasionally plucked or bowed by hand. Modern
composers
such as
Henry Cowell
wrote music that requires that the player reach inside the piano and pluck the strings directly, "bow" them with bow hair wrapped around the strings, or play them by rolling the bell of a
brass instrument
such as a
trombone
on the array of strings. However, these are relatively rarely used special techniques.
Other keyed string instruments, small enough for a strolling musician to play, include the plucked
autoharp
, the bowed
nyckelharpa
, and the hurdy-gurdy, which is played by cranking a rosined wheel.
Steel-stringed instruments (such as the guitar, bass, violin, etc.) can be played using a magnetic field. An
E-Bow
is a small hand-held battery-powered device that magnetically excites the strings of an electric string instrument to provide a sustained, singing tone reminiscent of a held bowed violin note.
Third bridge
is a plucking method where the player
frets
a string and strikes the side opposite the bridge. The technique is mainly used on electric instruments because these have a pickup that amplifies only the local string vibration. It is possible on acoustic instruments as well, but less effective. For instance, a player might press on the seventh
fret
on a guitar and pluck it at the head side to make a tone resonate at the opposing side. On electric instruments, this technique generates multitone sounds reminiscent of a clock or bell.
Electric string instruments, such as the
electric guitar
, can also be played without touching the strings by using
audio feedback
. When an electric guitar is plugged into a loud, powerful guitar amplifier with a
loudspeaker
and a high level of
distortion
is intentionally used, the guitar produces sustained high-pitched sounds. By changing the proximity of the guitar to the speaker, the guitarist can produce sounds that cannot be produced with standard plucking and picking techniques. This technique was popularized by
Jimi Hendrix
and others in the 1960s. It was widely used in
psychedelic rock
and
heavy metal music
.
Changing the pitch of a vibrating string
[
edit
]
There are three ways to change the pitch of a
vibrating string
. String instruments are tuned by varying a string's tension because adjusting length or mass per unit length is impractical. Instruments with a
fingerboard
are then played by adjusting the length of the vibrating portion of the strings. The following observations all apply to a string that is infinitely flexible (a theoretical assumption, because in practical applications, strings are not infinitely flexible) strung between two fixed supports. Real strings have finite curvature at the bridge and nut, and the bridge, because of its motion, is not exactly nodes of vibration. Hence the following statements about proportionality are approximations.
Length
[
edit
]
Pitch can be adjusted by varying the
length
of the string.
[19]
[
better source needed
]
A longer string results in a lower pitch, while a shorter string results in a higher pitch. A
concert harp
has pedals that cause a hard object to make contact with a string to shorten its vibrating length during a performance.
[22]
The frequency is inversely proportional to the length:
A string twice as long produces a tone of half the frequency (one octave lower).
Tension
[
edit
]
Pitch can be adjusted by varying the
tension
of the string. A string with less tension (looser) results in a lower pitch, while a string with greater tension (tighter) results in a higher pitch. Pushing a pedal on a
pedal steel guitar
raises the pitch of certain strings by increasing tension on them (stretching) through a mechanical linkage; release of the pedal returns the pitch to the original. Knee levers on the instrument can lower a pitch by releasing (and restoring) tension in the same way.
[23]
A homemade
washtub bass
made out of a length of rope, a broomstick and a washtub can produce different pitches by increasing the tension on the rope (producing a higher pitch) or reducing the tension (producing a lower pitch). The frequency is proportional to the square root of the tension:
Linear density
[
edit
]
The pitch of a string can also be varied by changing the
linear density
(mass per unit length) of the string. In practical applications, such as with
double bass
strings or bass
piano
strings, extra weight is added to strings by winding them with metal. A string with a heavier metal winding produces a lower pitch than a string of equal length without a metal winding. This can be seen on a 2016-era set of gut strings for double bass. The higher-pitched G string is often made of synthetic material, or sometimes animal intestine, with no metal wrapping. To enable the low E string to produce a much lower pitch with a string of the same length, it is wrapped with many wrappings of thin metal wire. This adds to its mass without making it too stiff. The frequency is inversely proportional to the square root of the linear density:
Given two strings of equal length and tension, the string with higher mass per unit length produces the lower pitch.
String length or scale length
[
edit
]
The length of the string from
nut
to
bridge
on bowed or plucked instruments ultimately determines the distance between different notes on the instrument. For example, a double bass with its low range needs a
scale length
of around 42 inches (110 cm), whilst a violin scale is only about 13 inches (33 cm). On the shorter scale of the violin, the left hand may easily reach a range of slightly more than two octaves without
shifting position
, while on the bass' longer scale, a single octave or a ninth is reachable in lower positions.
Contact points along the string
[
edit
]
In bowed instruments, the bow is normally placed perpendicularly to the string, at a point halfway between the end of the fingerboard and the bridge. However, different bow placements can be selected to change
timbre
. Application of the bow close to the bridge (known as
sul ponticello
) produces an intense, sometimes harsh sound, which acoustically emphasizes the upper
harmonics
. Bowing above the fingerboard (
sul tasto
) produces a purer tone with less overtone strength, emphasizing the
fundamental
, also known as
flautando
, since it sounds less reedy and more flute-like.
Bowed instruments pose a challenge to instrument builders, as compared with instruments that are only plucked (e.g., guitar), because on bowed instruments, the musician must be able to play one string at a time if they wish. As such, a bowed instrument must have a curved bridge that makes the "outer" strings lower in height than the "inner" strings. With such a curved bridge, the player can select one string at a time to play. On guitars and
lutes
, the bridge can be flat, because the strings are played by plucking them with the fingers, fingernails or a pick; by moving the fingers or pick to different positions, the player can play different strings. On bowed instruments, the need to play strings individually with the bow also limits the number of strings to about six or seven strings; with more strings, it would be impossible to select individual strings to bow. (Note: bowed strings can also play two bowed notes on two different strings at the same time, a technique called a
double stop
.) Indeed, on the orchestral
string section
instruments, four strings are the norm, with the exception of five strings used on some
double basses
. In contrast, with stringed keyboard instruments, 88 courses are used on a
piano
, and even though these strings are arranged on a flat bridge, the mechanism can play any of the notes individually.
Similar timbral distinctions are also possible with plucked string instruments by selecting an appropriate plucking point, although the difference is perhaps more subtle.
In keyboard instruments, the contact point along the string (whether this be hammer, tangent, or plectrum) is a choice made by the instrument designer. Builders use a combination of experience and acoustic theory to establish the right set of contact points.
In harpsichords, often there are two sets of strings of equal length. These "choirs" usually differ in their plucking points. One choir has a "normal" plucking point, producing a canonical harpsichord sound; the other has a plucking point close to the bridge, producing a reedier "nasal" sound rich in upper harmonics.
Production of multiple notes
[
edit
]
A single string at a certain tension and length only produces one note. To produce multiple notes, string instruments use one of two methods. One is to add enough strings to cover the required range of different notes (e.g., as with the
piano
, which has sets of 88 strings to enable the performer to play 88 different notes). The other is to provide a way to
stop
the strings along their length to shorten the part that vibrates, which is the method used in guitar and violin family instruments to produce different notes from the same string. The piano and harp represent the first method, where each note on the instrument has its own string or
course
of multiple strings tuned to the same note. (Many notes on a piano are strung with a "choir" of three strings tuned alike, to increase the volume.) A guitar represents the second method?the player's fingers push the string against the fingerboard so that the string is pressed firmly against a metal fret. Pressing the string against a fret while plucking or strumming it shortens the vibrating part and thus produces a different note.
Some zithers combine stoppable (melody) strings with a greater number of "open" harmony or chord strings. On instruments with stoppable strings, such as the violin or guitar, the player can shorten the vibrating length of the string, using their fingers directly (or more rarely through some mechanical device, as in the
nyckelharpa
and the hurdy-gurdy). Such instruments usually have a fingerboard attached to the neck of the instrument, that provides a hard flat surface the player can stop the strings against. On some string instruments, the fingerboard has
frets
, raised ridges perpendicular to the strings, that stop the string at precise intervals, in which case the fingerboard is also called a
fretboard
.
Moving frets during performance is usually impractical. The bridges of a
koto
, on the other hand, may be moved by the player occasionally in the course of a single piece of music. Many modern Western harps include levers, either directly moved by fingers (on Celtic harps) or controlled by foot pedals (on orchestral harps), to raise the pitch of individual strings by a fixed amount. The Middle Eastern zither, the
qanun
, is equipped with small levers called
mandal
that let each course of multiple strings be incrementally retuned "on the fly" while the instrument is being played. These levers raise or lower the pitch of the string course by a microtone, less than a half step.
Sympathetic strings
[
edit
]
Some instruments are employed with
sympathetic strings
?which are additional strings not meant to be plucked. These strings
resonate
with the played notes, creating additional tones. Sympathetic strings vibrate naturally when various intervals, such as the
unisons
or the
octaves
of the notes of the sympathetic strings are plucked, bowed or struck. This system is used on the
sarangi
, the
grand piano
, the
hardanger fiddle
and the
rubab
.
Sound production
[
edit
]
Acoustic instruments
[
edit
]
A vibrating string strung on a very thick log, as a hypothetical example, would make only a very quiet sound, so string instruments are usually constructed in such a way that the vibrating string is coupled to a hollow resonating chamber, a
soundboard
, or both. On the violin, for example, the four strings pass over a thin wooden bridge resting on a hollow box (the body of the violin). The normal force applied to the body from the strings is supported in part by a small cylinder of wood called the
soundpost
. The violin body also has two "f-holes" carved on the top. The strings' vibrations are distributed via the bridge and soundpost to all surfaces of the instrument, and are thus made louder by matching of the
acoustic impedance
. The correct technical explanation is that they allow a better match to the
acoustic impedance
of the air.
[
citation needed
]
It is sometimes said that the sounding board or soundbox "amplifies" the sound of the strings. In reality, no power amplification occurs, because all of the
energy
to produce
sound
comes from the vibrating string. The mechanism is that the sounding board of the instrument provides a larger surface area to create
sound waves
than that of the string and therefore acts as a matching element between the acoustic impedance of the string and that of the surrounding air. A larger vibrating surface can sometimes produce better matching; especially at lower frequencies.
All
lute
type instruments traditionally have a bridge, which holds the string at the proper action height from the fret/finger board at one end of the strings. On acoustic instruments, the bridge performs an equally important function of transmitting string energy into the "sound box" of the instrument, thereby increasing the sound volume. The specific design, and materials used in the construction of the bridge of an instrument, have a dramatic impact upon both the sound and responsiveness of the instrument.
Achieving a tonal characteristic that is effective and pleasing to the player's and listener's ear is something of an art and craft, as well as a science, and the makers of string instruments often seek very high quality woods to this end, particularly
spruce
(chosen for its lightness, strength and flexibility) and
maple
(a very hard wood). Spruce is used for the sounding boards of instruments from the violin to the piano. Instruments such as the banjo use a drum, covered in natural or synthetic skin as their soundboard.
Acoustic instruments can also be made out of artificial materials, such as
carbon fiber
and
fiberglass
(particularly the larger, lower-pitched instruments, such as cellos and basses).
In the early 20th century, the
Stroh violin
used a diaphragm-type
resonator
and a metal horn to project the string sound, much like early mechanical gramophones. Its use declined beginning about 1920, as electronic amplification through
power amplifiers
and
loudspeakers
was developed and came into use. String instrument players can electronically amplify their instruments by connecting them to a
PA system
or a
guitar amplifier
.
Electronic amplification
[
edit
]
Most string instruments can be fitted with
piezoelectric
[24]
or magnetic
pickups
to convert the string's vibrations into an electrical signal that is amplified and then converted back into sound by loudspeakers. Some players attach a pickup to their traditional string instrument to "electrify" it. Another option is to use a solid-bodied instrument, which reduces unwanted
feedback
howls or squeals.
Amplified string instruments can be much louder than their acoustic counterparts, so musicians can play them in relatively loud rock, blues, and jazz ensembles. Amplified instruments can also have their amplified tone modified by using electronic effects such as distortion, reverb, or
wah-wah
.
Bass-register string instruments such as the double bass and the electric bass are amplified with
bass instrument amplifiers
that are designed to reproduce low-frequency sounds. To modify the tone of amplified bass instruments, a range of electronic
bass effects
are available, such as distortion and chorus.
Symphonic strings
[
edit
]
The string instruments usually used in the
orchestra
,
[25]
and often called the "symphonic strings" or
string section
are:
[26]
- Violins
(divided into two sections?first violins and second violins; these sections play exactly the same instruments; the difference is that the first violins play higher-register lines and the second violins play lower-register parts,
accompaniment
parts or
counter-melodies
)
- Violas
- Cellos
- Double basses
When orchestral instrumentation specifies "strings", it often means this combination of string parts. Orchestral works rarely omit any of these string parts, but often include additional string instruments, especially the
concert harp
and piano. In the
Baroque orchestra
from the 1600s?1750 (or with modern groups playing
early music
) harpsichord is almost always used to play the
basso continuo
part (the written-out
bass line
and improvised chords), and often a
theorbo
or
lute
or a
pipe organ
. In some classical music, such as the
string quartet
, the double bass is not typically used; the cello plays the bass role in this literature.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
Sachs, Curt (1940).
The History of Musical Instruments
. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. pp.
463?467
.
ISBN
9780393020687
.
- ^
a
b
Sachs 1940
, p.
464
- ^
Campen, Ank van.
"The music-bow from prehistory till today"
.
HarpHistory.info
.
Archived
from the original on April 2, 2015
. Retrieved
March 26,
2015
.
A cave-painting in the "Trois Freres" cave in France dating from about 15,000 years ago. The magician-hunter plays the musical bow.
- ^
"Trois Freres Cave"
.
Archived
from the original on March 18, 2015
. Retrieved
March 27,
2015
.
- ^
a
b
Jahnel, Franz (1965).
Manual of Guitar Technology: The History and Technology of Plucked String Instruments
. Fachbuchreihe "Das Musikinstrument", vol. 37. p. 15.
ISBN
0-933224-99-0
.
There have been some uncertain presumptions concerning the "invention" of the bowed harp...The "musical bow" conjectured by many music scholars is not definitely recognizable in any cave paintings. The fact that some African negroes held the end of their bow-shaped harp in their mouths in order to improve the tone...should not be taken as proof that the first European bowmen were also conversant with the musical bow.
- ^
Campos, Fredeliza Z.; Hull, Jennifer R.; H?ng, V??ng Thu (2023).
"In search of a musical past: evidence for early chordophones from Vietnam"
.
Antiquity
.
97
(391): 141?157.
doi
:
10.15184/aqy.2022.170
.
ISSN
0003-598X
.
S2CID
257039609
– via Cambridge Core.
- ^
"The Deceased is the Young Lutaia Lupata Who is Shown Playing the Lute or Pandurium"
. 20 September 2014 – via flickr.
Museum information sign for the stele. Circa 2nd century AD memorial
stele
from
Augusta Emerita
in modern Spain for a Roman boy, Lutaia Lupata, showing him with his pandurium, the Roman variant of the Greek Pandura. Kept at the Museo Arqueologico,
Merida, Spain
.
- ^
a
b
Dumbrill 2005
, p. 321
- ^
"Cylinder seal"
.
British Museum
.
Archived
from the original on 2017-07-02
. Retrieved
2017-06-15
.
Culture/period Uruk, Date 3100BC (circa1), Museum number 141632
- ^
Dumbrill, Richard J.
(2005).
The Archaeomusicology of the Ancient Near East
. Victoria, British Columbia: Trafford Publishing. pp. 319?320.
ISBN
1-4120-5538-5
.
OCLC
1020920823
.
The long-necked lute in the OED is orthographed as tambura; tambora, tamera, tumboora; tambur(a) and tanpoora. We have an Arabic Ounbur; Persian tanbur; Armenian pandir; Georgian panturi, and a Serbo-Croat tamburitza. The Greeks called it pandura; panduros; phanduros; panduris or pandurion. The Latin is pandura. It is attested as a Nubian instrument in the third century BC. The earliest literary allusion to lutes in Greece comes from
Anaxilas
in his play
The Lyre-maker
as 'trichordos'... According to
Pollux
, the trichordon (sic) was
Assyrian
and they gave it the name pandoura...These instruments survive today in the form of the various Arabian
tunbar
...
- ^
"Barbat"
.
Encyclopædia Iranica
. 1988-12-15.
Archived
from the original on 2015-05-17
. Retrieved
2023-06-15
.
- ^
"Five Celestial Musicians"
.
LACMA.org
.
Archived
from the original on 10 October 2017
. Retrieved
15 May
2017
.
Views 3 & 4 show a musician playing a 4th- to 5th-century lute-like instrument, excavated in Gandhara, and part of a Los Angeles County Art Museum collection of
Five Celestial Musicians
- ^
"Bracket with two musicians 100s, Pakistan, Gandhara, probably Butkara in Swat, Kushan Period (1st century-320)"
. The Cleveland Museum of Art.
Archived
from the original on April 2, 2015
. Retrieved
March 25,
2015
.
- ^
Michael Chanan (1994).
Musica Practica: The Social Practice of Western Music from Gregorian Chant to Postmodernism
. Verso. p. 170.
ISBN
978-1-85984-005-4
.
- ^
a
b
"Oxford Music Online by subscription"
.
www.oxfordmusiconline.com
.
Archived
from the original on 2011-02-24
. Retrieved
2015-09-17
.
- ^
Scott, Heather K. (January 5, 2004).
"The Differences Between Dark and Amber Rosin"
.
Strings Magazine
. Retrieved
February 1,
2020
.
- ^
Piston, Walter
(1955).
Orchestration
, p. 5.
- ^
Wooster, Patricia McNulty.
"Pedal Harp 101"
.
harp spectrum.org
. Retrieved
March 18,
2021
.
- ^
Brenner, Patrick.
"Early History of the Steel Guitar"
.
steelguitaramerica.com
. Patrick Brenner
. Retrieved
March 17,
2021
.
- ^
Mottola, R. M. (1 January 2020).
Mottola's Cyclopedic Dictionary of Lutherie Terms
. LiutaioMottola.com. p. 122.
ISBN
978-1-7341256-0-3
.
- ^
Aguilar, Jorge (2003).
"String Instruments"
.
University of Florida
. Archived from
the original
on January 30, 2019
. Retrieved
February 1,
2020
.
- ^
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music
. Oxford University Press. 1964. pp.
412
.
ISBN
0-19-311302-3
.
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
1.
Idiophone
(
list
)
| 11.
Struck
|
- 111. Directly
- 111.1. Concussion
- 111.2. Percussion
- 112. Indirectly
- 112.1. Shaken/
rattle
- 112.2. Scraped/rasp
|
---|
12.
Plucked
|
- 121. Frame
- 122. Comb
- 122.1. Lace (
Mbira
)
- 122.2. Cut out
|
---|
13.
Friction
|
- 131. Stick
- 132. Plaque
- 133. Vessel
|
---|
14.
Blown
| |
---|
|
---|
2.
Membran-
ophone
(
list
)
| 21. Struck
|
- 211. Directly
- 212. Shaken
|
---|
22. Plucked
| |
---|
23. Friction
|
- 231. Stick
- 232. Cord
- 233. Hand
|
---|
24. Singing
|
- 241. Free
- 242. Tube/vessel
|
---|
|
---|
3.
Chordophone
(
list
)
| 31. Simple
/
zither
| |
---|
32.
Composite
| |
---|
|
---|
4.
Aerophone
(
list
)
| 41. Free
|
- 411. Displacement
- 412. Interruptive
- 412.1. Idiophonic/reed
- 412.11. Concussive
- 412.12. Percussive
- 412.13.
Free reed
- 412.14. Band/Ribbon
- 412.2. Non-idiophonic
- 412.21. Rotating
- 412.21. Whirling
- 413. Plosive
|
---|
42.
Non-free
| |
---|
|
---|
5.
Electrophone
(
list
)
| |
---|
|