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In this book an attempt is made first, to describe our modern orchestral instruments, where they sprang from, how they developed, and what they are to-day; next, to trace the types of music which have been reflected in these constructional changes and, in especial, the types most familiar since Beethoven's time. Without some knowledge on these points the student is working in the dark. He is like a Lascar turned loose in a dynamo-house. It is true that one may show him the button, and, if he presses it, he will get a terrific blaze of light. But what is behind the button? How were the wires laid? Why is one type of engine better than another for its own purpose? How is the shop to be run in the most economical way ? All these questions call for answers, and, on the musical
side of the analogy, the answers are not difficult to find. For the facts
that underlie instrumentation are few and simple: a skin or a metal plate bo
be beaten; a column of air in a brass or wooden tube with some sort of
mouthpiece or embouchure; a string or two—four is a good number—to be bowed,
plucked, or struck. These are the essentials and, if the student grasps
them, he will soon be brought to see that change comes but slowly and
rarely, and that, when it comes, it is more apparent than real. Edwards I.'s
"Rogero leTroumpour"
sounds very ancient in 1914, but he made exactly the same music for his
sovereign in Carnvrvor as the cavarly trumpeters now make for George V. at
Aldershot. And, even if we leave the Long Valley for the more rarefied
atmosphere of Queen's Hall, W., we can only record an additional tube or two
each with a mechanical air-switch. This is the point for the practical
musician. The old persists in the new and, without an understanding of the
weapon itself, we cannot wield it.
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