Books › A special loan exhibition of musical instruments, manuscripts, books, portraits, and other mementoes of music and musicians, formed to commemorate the tercentenary of the granting by King James I of a charter of incorporation to the Worshipful company of musicians in 1604 .., 1904 › scan 100
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A special loan exhibition of musical instruments, manuscripts, books, portraits, and other mementoes of music and musicians, formed to commemorate the tercentenary of the granting by King James I of a charter of incorporation to the Worshipful company of musicians in 1604 .., 1904
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1Instruments of Percussion.
3PREFACE.
5We are indebted to the Orientals for our knowledge of instruments of this kind, which have been in use from very early times. With the exception of the Kettledrum, no great improvement has been made in them by Western nations.
7They can only be called "musical instruments" by courtesy, as none of them (again excepting the Kettledrum and the Glockenspiel) produce sounds of definite pitch. They are, however, valuable as emphasising accent and rhythmic patterns. The membrane is to these instruments what the reed is to the wind and the cord to the stringed instruments—the source of the sound—vibration. The membrane may be stretched either on a hoop as in the tambourine, in which case the simple sound of the skin is alone produced, or this sound may be intensified by a resonator as in the Drum.
9The simplest form of Drum is the Tabor, which in conjunction with a little pipe, was much used 300 years ago at rural merry-makings, such as Morris Dancing (specimens are in the Exhibition). The performer held the pipe in his left hand, and the Tabor was suspended by a string from the little finger, being struck by a drumstick held in the right hand. The Side Drum or Military Drum derives its characteristic rasping nasal tone partly from its shallow depth, partly from a double strand of catgut (called the "snares") stretched across the lower of its two heads.
11The ordinary Drum, called in the orchestra the Bass-Drum or Grosse caisse, is chiefly used in military bands to mark, by its powerful thud, the time in
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