Hornbostal-Sachs Instrument Classification System

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1. 
   How is sound produced in each category? What is the vibrating component?
   
2. 
   Which category was the easiest to decide whether the instrument fit?
   
3. 
   Which category was the hardest to decide whether the instrument fit?
   
4. 
   Which instruments would you like to know more about?
   

Accordion: Free reed instrument with a keyboard originating in Saxony and Bohemia, now common throughout the world in folk music. Various types include piano and button keyboards, and chromatic and diatonic tunings.

flute usually with seven finger holes and a thumb hole, some are top blown while others have a fipple.

Yesterday in class, we looked at instruments from all over the world. This week, you will pick an instrument from another country to write a two page typed paper. The instrument you pick cannot be from the orchestra. Here are the requirements for the paper.

1. Must be typed, double spaced, and use a 12 font for the body of the paper.
2. Must use standard margins.
3. Include a picture of the instrument on your title page.
4. The paper has to discuss the history of the instrument, historical, cultural, and religious significance of the instrument, how sound is produced on the instrument, how the instrument is constructed, and the range of the instrument.
5. The paper must be separated into paragraphs with a clear introduction, body, and conclusion.
6. Must not be plagiarized.
7. Use two references, and cite them on the last page of your paper.

Instrument Research

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Name of Instrument_____________________________________

Article #1

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Publishing Website_______________________________________________ Date of Article____________________

Article #2

Title of Article__________________________________________________

Author’s name__________________________________________________

Publishing Website_______________________________________________ Date of Article____________________

History of Instrument

Cultural and/or Religious Significance of Instrument

Sound Production

Construction of Instrument

Range of Instrument

Steel Drum History

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE STEEL DRUM  - Researched and written by Angela P. Smith, Austin Texas

 In the 1800s Trinidad was a sugar plantation society.  The French and English colonists brought natives from Central and West Africa as slaves for their plantations.  The Africans brought their musical traditions with them, especially their drumming and singing, and used it in much the same way as they had in Africa - for celebrations, religious ceremonies, to pass time when they were working, and for communication.  The colonists were threatened by the drumming, thinking - sometimes rightfully so - that the slaves were sending messages that might lead to a slave uprising. 

Drumming also was used to accompany kalinda or stick-fighting gangs.  These groups would walk the streets playing rhythms and singing.  When one "kalinda" gang met another, a fight would usually break out.   The fights intimidated the colonists and gave them more reason to oppose drumming. 

Carnival, the period before Ash Wednesday and the Christian period of Lent, was another opportunity for Africans to take to the streets, beating their drums.  Fights often broke out between drummers and the colonists.   The Europeans, again suspecting the drummers were passing coded messages that might lead to rioting and revolt, banned all drum parades in 1883. 

Without their drums, Africans began using bamboo sticks to play rhythms.  These groups became known as the tamboo bamboo bands.  During Carnival, the tamboo bamboo bands would parade, pounding bamboo tubes on the ground and beating spoons on glass bottles.  When rival bands met on the street, they would compete to see who could be the loudest.  These sometimes violent and messy clashes, which left streets littered with broken bamboo and glass, led to tamboo bamboo bands being outlawed in 1934. 

The late 1930s are considered birth years of the steel drum.  Tamboo bamboo bands had already started switching to steel because the players discovered metal was stronger and louder than the bamboo.  The new rhythm  groups were called iron bands.  Their instruments were mostly paint and biscuit tins.

The more inventive players discovered that bulges of different sizes in the bottom of a tin could produce various pitches.   Some  players started to tune the tins and play melodies on them.  Winston Spree Simon is generally considered the inventor of the first melodic steel pan.

No Carnivals were held during World War II for security reasons, but Simon and others continued experimenting with metal.   From 1939 to 1945, the first melody pans were introduced.    Players discovered 55-gallon oil drums abandoned by U.S. forces stationed on the island during the war provided an ideal metal for the instrument.

The early pioneers of the steel band movement  were considered outcasts and hoodlums,    Rival bands clashed and engaged in bloody turf battles.   Petty jealousy and disputes over women were often the cause of fights. 

The forming of the Trinidad and Tobago Steel Band Association in 1949 was the first successful effort by some of Trinidad?s influential leaders to end the hostilities.  For  the first time steel bands shifted their attention from fighting to pursuing common interests.  The music of the steel drum  was finally on its way to being recognized as a true art form.   Many who had looked on steel bands as breeding grounds for troublemakers now saw them in a new light.

Over a little more than half a century, the steel drum has made its way from the panyards of Trinidads poorest neighborhoods to the worlds most prestigious concert halls.  In 1991, the steel drum was officially recognized as the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago.  An instrument once scorned and ridiculed is now a source of great pride for a nation and played and appreciated around the world. 

NOTE: Angela P. Smith is a freelance Writer/Editor, a great Pan enthusiast and a customer of the Steel Drum Shop.  Thanks Angela! 

1. 
   How did adversity help Trinidad musicians to create a new instrument?
   

1. 
   What is the historical significance of the steel pans?
   
2. 
   What is the cultural significance?
   
3. 
   Is there any religious significance? Why?
   
4. 
   How is sound produced?
   
5. 
   How is the instrument constructed?
   
6. 
   What is the timbre of the instrument?
   

1. 
   Leslie is taking an intro. to music course at Olive Harvey College. She was given an assignment where she had to distinguish the timbre between brass instruments. She stated that the trumpet was high pitched and the trombone was low pitched. The teacher took off points because her answer was incomplete. What does Leslie need to include to make her answer complete? Use your definition for timbre to support your answer.
   

2. 
   While working on a new song for K.O.B., Marshawn decided to use some dynamics to give his song more flavor. At the end of the verse, he wanted the dynamics to go from mezzo forte to pianissimo. What is the correct dynamic term to use? Support your answer with your definitions from tempo and dynamics.
   

3. 
   Shawn had been singing tenor in the choir since he was 13. Now that he is 17, something wasn’t quite right. He had to strain to sing the tenor note, and the bass notes were too low for him. He wanted to quit the choir, but a friend told him that there is another part for him to sing. What vocal type fits Shawn? Support your answer with your definitions from the vocal lesson last week.
   

By

• 
  The Elephant Sleeps But Still Remembers
  
• 
  Zim Ngqawana: Sound, Song, and Humanity
  
• 
  Malian Strings: Kora & Guitar
  
• 
  Dance: Arabia, Turkey and Beyond
  
• 
  South Africa: A Rough Guide & Vusi Mahlasela
  

“ The soul of the mbira is poetry — ”

Listeners who come to traditional African music from the American variety will find it a refreshingly organic experience. The sonorities reflect a variety of instruments both ancient and modern, including drums and percussion instruments (of course) but also extending far beyond to strings, flutes, and a wide range of plucked or hammered metal and wood instruments. The mbira, from the latter category, is this month's subject.

The mbira, constructed by attaching a series of tuned metal strips to a wooden platform, is best known in Western circles as the thumb piano. While that term may help us to understand the construction of the instrument, it does not do the mbira justice. The mbira is more a medium than a piece of hardware. In the Shona tradition of Zimbabwe, mbira musicians represent the wise men of the culture; their performance often serves as a catalyst for spiritual awakening. They usually perform in groups that include at least two mbiras, a hosho (shaker), and at least one singer. Instrumentalists most commonly also sing.

In a large ceremonial gathering called a bira, musicians provide a framework for group participation—including dance and song, but also a passage into trance. At some point, performers may put down their instruments and step forward into a sort of awakening. Younger musicians refer to the high-level performance of ancient Shona poetry as "deep Shona," a language that only elders can truly understand.

The four mbira discs under consideration this month include three traditional recordings and one modern interpretation.

The first three represent a portion of the traditional African material recently released by Nonesuch as part of its Explorer Series (which in time will be huge). These recordings originally appeared decades ago, and have just been revised (remastered and beautifully packaged) for reissue. The final disc, by Stella Chiweshe, is an interesting cross-cultural fusion of Shona mbira music with other styles. Look here for prominent use of the marimba, an instrument which originated in Zimbabwe.

Of the three Nonesuch mbira records, The African Mbira offers the greatest sense of continuity. That's because the entire recording was made by the same group of musicians: Dumisani Maraire (the leader) on mbira and vocals, Nkosana Maraire on hosho (shaker) and vocals, and Shukuti Chiora on vocals. The single mbira voice is somewhat unusual in Shona music, since two mbiras usually duet in performance. But that leaves more space for the hosho player and vocalists to fill with color and accent. Almost no mbira music features drums, and this recording is no exception.

While one might expect the instruments to play a lead role in Shona music, reality often turns out quite the opposite. They provide a framework for vocal performance by the leader and his accompanists, lending both a strong sense of time (through the prominent pulse of the hosho and the polyrhythmic energy of the mbira) and melody (a parameter specified by each tune and developed over time on the mbira). Each song is rooted in repertoire, which in total extends to over a hundred pieces.

The formal lyrics of a given piece are often quite vague, from a sentence to a phrase to a single word. Dumisani fills in the rest as he goes. Like a blues man, Dumisani relates a mood, accompanying himself on the mbira as he goes. Vocal perfection in our usual sense is irrelevant; emotional transparency and spirituality come first. The subjects relate to sorrow, endurance, respect, and praise. And like the blues man, Dumisani does not travel far from main themes. Repetition exists everywhere, at times becoming the primary thematic figure. While the words here may be unfamiliar to American audiences, the liner notes do an excellent job of relating central ideas.

The mbira maintains a constant forward rhythm throughout each song, presented in short motifs that cycle indefinitely through simple harmonies. Its rich timbral sound—generated by thumbs and index finger on the actual instrument as it sits within a resonant gourd with rattles—reflects both the mbira's own characteristic warm glow and the higher pitched events that come and go with each stroke. The counterpoint achieved by simultaneously playing two parts gives the feel of two players, which is particularly dramatic in this setting. (Interestingly, the harmonies on this record occasionally bring to mind the three-part mbaqanga styles of South Africa, which borders Zimbabwe on the south.)

Go back through this article and research the following.

7. 
   What is the historical significance of the mbira?
   
8. 
   What is the cultural significance?
   
9. 
   Is there any religious significance? Why?
   
10. 
    How is sound produced?
    
11. 
    How is the instrument constructed?
    
12. 
    What is the timbre of the instrument?
    

Title: O Fortuna

Artist: Carl Orff

Go on You Tube, watch the video, and use the lyrics below to write your music review. All paragraphs must be at least 5 sentences long.

Introduction and song meaning.

Description of music when listening to the song.

Your critique of the song with supporting evidence.

Conclusion