This Section
nextCLASSIFICATION OF INSTRUMENTS.
Orchestral instruments are, as a rule, grouped together under the four headings "Percussion," "Brass," "Wood," and "Strings." This rough-and-ready arrangement is perhaps quite as good as any other for use in a book mainly devoted to the artistic and historical aspects of Instrumentation. It is, however, by no means a scientific classification.
In the first place, the four groups are not mutually exclusive. A Stringed Instrument, such as the Dulcimer or the Pianoforte, in which the sound is produced by means of percussion, can be classed in either the first or the last group. In the next place, certain Brass Instruments have all the characteristics of the Wood-Wind, except the actual material of which their tubes are made. For instance, the Saxophone is played with a single-beating-reed, very much like that of the Clarinet. It differs from that instrument principally in the fact that its tube is conical, not cylindrical, and made of brass, not of wood. Then, again, we find wooden instruments whose method of tone-production is practically the same as that used on most Brass Instruments. For instance, the obsolete Serpent was played with a big cup-mouthpiece somewhat like that of our modern " Tubas." It was, however, always made of wood.
Furthermore, if any one fact is certain with regard to the Wind Instruments, it is that the material of which their tubes are made has very little, if anything, to do with their tone-quality. That seems to depend partly on the bore, shape, and proportions of the tube which contains the air-column, but chiefly on what we may call the " mouthpiece". Now, it is quite obvious that if we adopt the rough classification of " Percussion," " Brass," " Wood," and " Strings," we must be prepared to place such an instrument as the Saxophone arbitrarily under the heading "Brass" simply because of the material of its tube. That plan has its advantages. It serves as a mnemonic, and it does not preclude a description of the technical differences of the instrument from the "Wood-Wind" on the one hand, and from the "Brass-Wind" on the other. The student must, however, bear in mind that this is merely a matter of convenience in arrangement. It carries us no distance at all in the direction of a scientific classification.
Gevaert actually classes the Serpent as a Brass Instrument played with keys.