Scan 254
The American History and Encyclopedia of Music, 1924
14 lines. Read by computer on 15 September 2026. Printed page 200. See the scan on archive.org.
1RANA-SHRINGA — Cup Mouthpiece. India. A metal trumpet shaped like the European serpent. See serpent.
3RANAT EK — Sonorous Substances. Siam. A wooden frame shaped like a boat supporting strips of wood laid side by side. Sounded with wooden beaters, and greatly suggestive of the xylophone. See xylophone.
5RAPPAKAI, HORANOKAI, HORAGAI — Cup Mouthpiece. Japan. Conch-shell trumpet used for signals.
7REBAB ESH SHA'ER — Bowed Strings. Syria. A stringed instrument quadrangular in frame with unequal sides and covered with snake skin. A bow is used. This is sometimes called the poet's viol.
9REBEC — Bowed Strings. Europe. This ancient instrument was one of the first of the ancestors of the violin. It had a pear-shaped body like the mandolin, and three strings but no finger-board. It was usually made of a single piece of wood hollowed out, with a carved figure at the end of the peg-box. It was held by the player with the tail piece resting violin-like under the chin or a trifle lower upon the breast. It has its counterpart in the Arabian rebab. The question remains whether the Spaniards derived the rebec from the Arabians, or the Arabians the rebab from the Spaniards. See rebab.
11RECORDER — Vertical Flute. Europe. An obsolete instrument existing from an uncertain date to the middle of the Eighteenth Century. It was of cylindrical bore and was held vertically for playing. This gained for it the name flute à bec, in recognition of a resemblance to the beak of a bird. Another name was flute douce, derived from its pleasant voice. The etymology of the name "recorder" baffles researchers, although the word is used by Shakespeare in the sense of "to sing" and this meaning no doubt led to its use as a name.
13Overblowing was not especially successful and the second octave was difficult to produce. An open pipe was furnished with a number of finger-holes, at least seven, and larger varieties fitted with one or more keys to lower the pitch.
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