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.
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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...)
How do other parts of an instrument affect the overtones, such as the sounding boards of pianos, the cases of violins (stringed instruments)? Is that what you mean by 'a couple places on the instrument?'
That, keesan, is the $16,000 question. First off, both the air inside an instrument and the material that the body is made out of will resonate. The larger the hollow cavityu inside the instrument, the better the air inside is at resonating to low pitches; the smaller the cavity, the better it is at resonating to high pitches. The solid material will resonate better to different pitches depending on its dimensions, and also on the material it's made out of. (This is why the metal body of a banjo gives a much higher tone than that of a guitar - it's smaller, and metal tends to reinforce high pitches better) It gets more complicated, though, because the shape also matters. This is why so much effort is put into bending wood to make violins and guitars the proper shape - yes, it would be possible to make a wooden box of the same volume, but there would be slight differences. And as if that weren't bad enough, different materials conduct vibrations at different speeds, and sometimes even the same piece of wood cut with or against the grain will ahve entirely different properties. In other words, it's damn complicated, and nobody really knows.
That's actually the $16,000,000 question - for some violins, for example. It all developed by trial and error, reinforced by a lot of people with the skills and understanding - and "ear" - to hear what most people would find most pleasing.
If a composer wants the string player to play harmonics, the notes are to be written with little o's over them (this is from recollection, I haven't consulted my book on this in ages since I've never had the need! :-). Re: flute's 4th octave: From middle C to 3rd space C the flute is breathy, has a unique sound, can't be played particularly loud. From 3rd space C to 2nd ledger line C is nominal flute range for most players. High C to double high C is for experienced players, with the upper range already shrill. A 4th ocatave above that is of no practical use. Being able to play notes in that range (through harmonics or whatever) is a novelty/skill, but not likely to be often employed! :-)
Larger speakers also play the low notes louder, and it helps if the speaker is dense enough not to resonate at certain frequencies, or if it does not have any dimensions which are multiples of others (which also reinforces certain notes). And if you are trying to block sounds, a larger wall cavity helps, along with thicker wallboard. Metal blocks lower sounds well, perhaps this is related to its vibrating at higher pitch? [I meant block low sounds.]
A friend is getting married next Friday. She is a Buddhist and not much into "things" for their home. She is also an accomplished musician and her fiance is just beginning an affair with the piano. So what to get them? On the advice of another Buddhist I visited Jewel Heart's store on Ashley and was totally captivated by something called Tibetan Singing Bowls. What an incredible instrument. You simply hold these old and tarnished brass (I think) bowls on one hand while dragging a wooden dowel around the rim with the other. There is a bit of technique involved but I found that after a few minutes of getting to know each bowl I was able to get each to vibrate and produce the most unusual sound - a clear and deep tone which seems to fill the room, coming from everywhere. Amazing stuff. I understand that in Tibet and Nepal the monks play these as a form of meditation, often in chorus, and the experience is quite profound. Has anyone else ever heard or played a singing bowl?
We used to use the same technique on goblets filled with water to different depths, to produce different pitches. You rub the rims with a wet finger. There is also a 'glass harmonica' on a similar principal.
I've heard a tape of those singing bowls, courtesy of raven, but I've never actually played one.
I have never been to the Jewel Heart store, but I did visit their website http://jewelheart.org/, when I linked it to the HVCN Religion Infocenter. They have a page for their store, too. It looks like an interesting place. I love the sound of a glass harmonica, but wonder if the sound of Tibetan Singing Bowls, though made on the same design principle, might be different in some way. I think I may have heard a recording of them once, but the memory is vague.
It sounds like the bowls are not filled with water. Perhaps they are heavy enough to resonate without having to add water. Are they lower pitched than the glass harmonica or wine glasses?
The bowl I bought sounds the C# just above middle C. They had smaller bowls which produced higher tones and a couple of larger bowls which had incredibly deep resonant voices. What amazes me about the sound is how it seems to come from everywhere, or nowhere in particular. It's like one of those painting where the portrait's subject seems to be looking right at you no matter where you stand. This music surrounds you everywhere in the room. I want a big one for my birthday. I should drop some hints.
The sound from everywhere may have something to do with reflection off the insides of the bowl. A parabolic bowl might just send sound in one direction.
The outside vibrates too. Even the inside has to vibrate in the correct mode and phase relations to focus the sound. It doesn't. A plane sound wave *entering* a parabolic reflector is focused - to the focal point. There is no sound being *generated* at the focal point, so that mode of directionality is invalid too.
Re #50, last sentence: You just dropped a big one. :)
As a matter of fact, the "sound from everywhere" might have something to do with the fact that the whole instrument's vibrating, not just a single resonator. Hmm....
It is a single "resonator". However physical objects have very complex *modes* of vibration, depending on where and how they are struck/bowed.
(sorry, I meant "the whole instrument's vibrating, not jsut part of it")
Well, the singing bowl now has a proper Buddhist home. I shall miss it.
My favorite instrument is the Trumpet. It really depends on who is playing it and whose music is being played on it. My favorite jazz piece is "Flamingo" played by Carl H. (Doc) Severinson. The piece starts out slow, almost feeble, then builds into a full blossoming melody that floats on the air. The finale of the piece features Doc doing some really heavy crescendos and a killer solo in the bridge. No matter how many times I hear it, my spirit always soars to Heaven. I have a few classical pieces that stand out. The first is "Fanfare for the Common Man" by Aaron Copland and performed by the Cincinnati Pops. Copland's use of the entire horn section was a stroke of pure genius. The mid section, where the french horns speak regally is something worthy of gods. The second piece is "Rondeau" by Jean-Joseph Mouret played by Wynton Marsalis. He is absolutly flawless in his performance and it is definitly another soul stirrer. Not quite as stirring as Fanfare for the Common Man, but indeed beautiful. Marsalis also does a piece called "Prince of Denmark March" which is also great. Incidentally, Rondeau is the Masterpiece Theatre theme. I have many other Trumpet records and peformers to list; Herb Alpert, Wynton Marsalis, Maynard Ferguson, Chuck Mangione, among others are simply awesome to hear. There is something about a Trumpet's sound cutting through the air.
My favorite instrument is the piano... it is incredibly versatile, can express such a wide range of emotions, can play many different genres of music so effectively, has the rare ability of being able to fill out chords with itself, and has some wonderful music written for it. The only instrument that I love more than the piano is the full orchestra as a unit. There are so many pieces that feature the piano that I wouldn't know where to begin describing them. I, too, enjoy the French Horn. The horn has a full, rich sound (when played correctly) which is very enjoyable to listen to. The French Horn is often described as having a "singing" quality to it, and is often likened to a human voice. The range of the French Horn is, for practical purposes, from the C two ledger lines below the bass clef staff to the C two ledger lines above the treble clef staff. The range can be overreached, but I don't think that that's done very often. There's a good quantity of works for horn and piano, which remind me a bit of art songs (probably because of the horn's singing quality). Although my collection of horn music is not at all extensive, I recommend the CD "A Horn Museum: The Valved Horn" by Willard Zirk (the Horn professor at EMU) as a good collection of some of these pieces. Besides these two instruments, which I'm probably biased towards because I play both of them, I also like the sound of the double-reeded instrument family, though I'm not really familiar with any of the literature written for them. Of the string family, I'm probably most fond of the cello, but I enjoy the others, too.
For sheer sound of individual instruments, I enjoy the viola, oboe, and trombone - dark-hued (well, two of them are) middle instruments without the glamour of their orchestral neighbors the cello, clarinet, and trumpet. Preferences for groups of instruments playing together is another matter.
Jeff, I'm not surprised you would favor the cello among stringed instruments, as the octal range is almost identical. I too enjoy the lustier sound of a base voice but I prefer the cello to brass because it doesn't involve spit. For the most part. ;-)
That is a downside... but whenever I empty my horn, I comfort myself by saying "it's mostly condensation." :P
Ack, s/bass voice/base voice. Comes closer to what I meant. ;-)
Also s/octal/octave/ ?? <dave tries to imagine a base-8 (or bass-8?) voice>
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