Do you have a favorite musical instrument or instruments for 
listening to?  What pieces feature it?

64 responses total.

I like both the French horn (as in Mozart's horn concerto) and the cello
(Dvorak).  All I can think of that they have in common is the range, which
is such that I can hum along.  I would appreciate suggestions of other
composers and pieces that feature either or both.  (By the way, what range
do cello and horn usually play?)  What makes the French horn sound so
different from the other brass instruments?

The cello has a four octave range (not counting a high funky
harmonic).  The lowest note is played on an open C string
which is two octaves below middle C.  A cellist reads three
clefs - base, tenor and treble.

If I were attempting to seduce someone into loving the cello
I'd suggest one work above all others, Bach's Six Suites
for Unaccompainied Cello.

Probably violin, although I confess I've been falling in love with Bach's
organ music of late.

The different sound of the french horn comes from the fact that its bore -
the way the walls of the brass tube angle - is different, and it has a
differently shaped mouthpiece.

Obviously, I have to put a good word in for the bass here, but I have to admit
that I'm not really all that fond of bass solo music.  I suppose if I was
trying to convince someone to love the bass, I'd sit them down and make them
listen to some Mahler (Although not too much.... Mahler tends to get a trife
long, but definately teh opening of hte third movement of teh first symphony),
some jazz, perhaps one of the Bach unaccompanied cello suites played at pitch
on the bass (we read bass clef, and sound an octave below where it is
written), though only by a good bass player (not Gary Karr!), and some of
Edgar Meyer's recordings.  
        Other than that, I'd have to say that I'm very fond of the English
Horn... if it is played well... poorly played, it sounds like a sick goose.

#2.  My range is also centered on middle C, though it is much narrower than
that of the cello.  What range is English horn?  And are there any nice pieces
that feature it?  (I also like the Bach cello suites.)

Mozart's written some good horn concerti, I belive.

Well, mu stupid music theory book doesnt' list the range of the English horn,
but from expreince, the range is somewhat lower than that of an obew, though
nt nearly so low as a basson.... (Just to make sure it's clear, the instrument
I'm talking about is the English horn, which is a double reed instrument which
looks like a big oboe with an  onion stuck in the bell.  The French horn is
that bras instrument with all the nifty curvy tubing)... a good peice for
English Horn would be Dvorak's New World Symphony or the middle section of
the William Tell Overture by Rossini.
        The Range of the French Horn is From roughly a C two octaves below
middle C (though it isn't areally pretty note), to the F on the top line of
teh treble clef staff.

Again, it sounds like my range is centered in the middle of the range of the
French horn, maybe English horn is the same?

According to Walter Piston's _Orchestration_, the English Horn's lowest note
is the F below middle C.  It doesn't list a high note, but since the English
Horn is more or less an Oboe pitched a fifth lower, I'd guess it to be around
the C above the staff.

Thank you.

Which instrument normally plays in the range closest to:
E below middle C through E above high C (or a bit lower, I sound
rather squeaky by the time I attempt high C)?

Would that be a clarinet?

I have one around somewhere that I played a long time ago, should check.

The Bb Clarinet (which sounds a whole step lower than the notes it plays)
ranges from the [concert] D below middle C to (practically speaking) the G
above the treble clef.  So orinoco is right on.  As was as his/her (? :-)
comments about the English Horn:  Though capable of fingering/playing notes
to above its written C above the treble clef, it would sound much like a goose
being strangled at that upper limit.

If by the G above the treble clef you mean G above high C, then the clarinet
range (B flat) is identical with the range they expected of the second altos
in a choir I once sang in.  I doubt anyone managed the whole range.
        Of the three tapes I pulled out to listen to while insulating on
Sunday, one was Gluck for flute, one was the Mozart Horn Concerto and one was
Bach's cellos suites (totally random selection, I did not look first).  I
tried singing along, and found that both cello and french horn top notes are
well within my upper range on both tapes, but both go a couple of notes lower,
however I could sing the horn part an octave up and it sounded fine.  Does
the french horn have a lot of volume on the higher harmonics?  How does the
frequency distribution compare for french horn and other brass, and for brass
and strings or woodwinds?
        Which instrument has a frequency distribution closest to human?

Well, both instruments get compared to the human voice quite often, as does
the baritone sax, which also operates in a similar range.  Beyond that, I
don't really know...

Re: Bb Clarinet top range:  4th ledger line high [concert] G.

Wow...that a much broader range than I'd expected

Yes, but I don't think the clarinet often plays that high.

Depends on what kind of music.  Jazz clarinetist routinely roam around above
the staff lots.  Orchestral works, probably not routinely or a whole lot. 
Band music, where clarinets are surrogate violins, the first section will play
many passages in the written range of C to F, sometimes G or even A; this is
very common in marches.

I find that the higher ranges of most instruments, including voice, are
painful to listen to.  Maybe that's why I like cello and horn.  Why have
sopranoes been so popular, is it that people like the sound or admire their
ability to sing near-impossible notes?

I actually don't like the tone of the traditional operatic soprano voice -
it's too shrill and almost sickly-sounding for me.  I think the shrillness
of the high ranges of even low instruments comes from the fact that their
bodies are made to resonate well to much lower notes.

Sopranos are so popular because they sing beautifully. Those terms "painful"
and "shrillness" are entirely in the listener (obviously), and I don't
share those opinions. 

High notes, done well, sound precarious and thrilling, especially when
they are sustained and solo.  It's a little like watching a high-wire act,
you know it's dangerous and failure won't be pretty.  It's a high-brow
adrenaline rush. ;-) 

Thanks, Mary, finally a logical explanation.  People also like horror movies
and lots of TV violence, all of which they know won't hurt them.  Are live
sopranos more popular than recorded ones, since there is a chance of failure?
It is always nice to hear from people with different opinions, and good
reasons for them, it gives me new ways to think about the world.  But I still
prefer cellos and tenors.  Maybe I dislike high notes because as a second alto
they made us sing the G above high C, and it hurt as well as sounding awful.
My throat seems to tense up when I hear them.  Same when I hear high
instrumental sounds, except piano, nothing like the human voice.

It's not so much the high pitch that bothers me about operatic soprano voices
as it is the tone.  I don't really know how to describe it.

Like a sheep bleating?  ;-)

I don't share Mary's "high-wire act" explanation. On the contrary, a
soprano sings so naturally and unforced that it is an exquisite vocal
exploration of the upper registers. I get that "high brow adrenaline rush"
as readily from a basso as from a soprano (and everything in between).
It is, in fact, somewhat disparaging to consider the soprano voice as
somehow less natural than any other. 

My sense of the high notes being more fragile extend not just
to voice but also to the highest register of individual
instruments.  Like when James Galloway goes for that
octave leap in during the final bars of Londonderry Air when 
his already way up there.  It's like, "Whew, he made it."

Too many typos.  Need sleep. ;-)

Why don't any radio stations play high soprano before 10 am?

Does Gallway think "Whew, I made it"? I doubt it. But I acknowledge that
there are limits to what an instrument or voice can do, and when
performers play near those limits - and not all performers can - the
audience is often impressed. But for the best performers, performing at
those limits still strikes me as effortless.

Which reminds me to ask, since you are a string performer (I used to know
this when I played the violin as a child, but I forget): what is it called
when you play a note an octave higher (I think) by just barely touching
the string? It came up recently as a physics question. One plays the
fundamental of the string normally, but another harmonic when just
touching the string, and I can't recall which harmonic - and its name,
musically. Our daughter now does this on the flute by blowing differently.

This response has been erased.

Boy, don't know, Rane.  On the cello each string as a true harmonic
which sounds the note two octaves above the sound of the open string
and one octave above the fretted point directly below the harmonic
position.  But I don't know of any special name other than true
harmonic.  False harmonics are played elsewhere (not the center of
the length of the string), are difficult to pull-off, and well
beyond anything I'd attempt without a net. ;-)

The only instrument with reliable harmonics other than the middle harmonic
is the bass.  (And I'm really not just asing this to stroke my own ego... I
promise)  That's only because the string is so darn long-- there's the octave
harmonic, in the middle, then above that, there's a fifth, then the double
octave.... depending on the instrument, it is possible to get up to the
seventh of a given fundemental.  Then, because the octave harmonic rings so
true, even when the string isn't touched (poor bowing can cause teh fifth or
the octave to sound, rather than the true pitch), there is a harmonic half
way between the nut and the octave.... and there are some fals harmonics that
I wouldn't attepmt without at least a disclaimer in teh program warning
pregnant women and small children that there are health risks involved.

My daughter demonstrated the four octaves she can reach on the flute by
the way she blows. Three are octaves, but the highest has to be keyed
to be an octave. She does not know what note it is unkeyed (I shall
attempt to measure it....). 

re #35, are you saying that the strings will vibrate even when you are bowing
some other string?  (Do you two ever get any sleep?  3:37 a. m.?!)  How much
progress has been made in synthesizing sounds of real instruments?  IN theory
you should be able to add in all the harmonics, but it sounds rather
complicated if unbowed strings are also involved.

The best electronic "pianos" simulate other instruments quite well by
including all the harmonics. The effect of other string going into
sympathetic vibration occurs on all undamped string instruments, but
is most noticeable on the piano when pedalled. The effect is used
intentionally by composers. I cannot say for sure if this is included
in the pedal mode of electronic pianos. The coupling is hard to design
so is very different for different instruments (and is probably part of
the difference between violins that make them "better" or "worse").

There are a couple places on the instrument with really strong sympathetic
vibrations, and the lowest string has a nasty tendancy to sound somewhere else
in the overtone series, just to be nasty, particularly if one isn't careful.
But often, a note will cause another string to vibrate if it is in the
overtone series of that note.  (an example is that the D string will
occasionally vibrate when an A above it is played....)  
(Sure I sleep.... and to me, its an hour earlier...)

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