What instruments were popular in the 17th century. Instrumental music of the 17th century

Music of the 17th and 18th centuries

At the turn of the 16th-17th centuries, polyphony, which dominated the music of the Renaissance, began to give way to homophony (from the Greek "homos" - "one", "same" and "background" - "sound", "voice"). Unlike polyphony, where all voices are equal, in homophonic polyphony one stands out, performing the main theme, and the rest play the role of accompaniment (accompaniment). The accompaniment is usually a system of chords (harmonies). Hence the name of the new way of composing music - homophonic harmonic.

Ideas about church music have changed. Now the composers sought not so much to ensure that a person renounces earthly passions, but to reveal the complexity of his spiritual experiences. There were works written on religious texts or plots, but not intended for mandatory performance in the church. (Such compositions are called spiritual, since the word "spiritual" has a broader meaning than "ecclesiastical".) The main spiritual genres of the 17th-18th centuries. - cantata and oratorio. The importance of secular music increased: it was played at the court, in the salons of aristocrats, in public theaters (the first such theaters were opened in the 17th century). There was a new kind of musical art - opera.

Instrumental music is also marked by the emergence of new genres, most notably the instrumental concerto. Violin, harpsichord, organ gradually turned into solo instruments. The music written for them made it possible to show talent not only for the composer, but also for the performer. First of all, virtuosity was valued (the ability to cope with technical difficulties), which gradually became an end in itself and artistic value for many musicians.

Composers of the 17th-18th centuries usually not only composed music, but also masterfully played instruments, studied pedagogical activity. The well-being of the artist largely depended on the specific customer. As a rule, every serious musician sought to get a place either at the court of a monarch or a wealthy aristocrat (many members of the nobility had their own orchestras or opera houses), or in a temple. Moreover, most composers easily combined church music-making with the service of a secular patron.

Oratorio and cantata

As an independent musical genre, the oratorio (Italian oratorio, from late Latin oratorium - "chapel") began to take shape in Italy in the 16th century. Musicologists see the origins of the oratorio in the liturgical drama (see the article "The Theater medieval Europe") - theatrical performances that tell about biblical events.

Similar actions were played out in temples - hence the name of the genre. At first, oratorios were written on the texts of the Holy Scriptures, and they were intended for performance in the church. IN XVII century composers began to compose oratorios on modern poetic texts spiritual content. The structure of the oratorio is close to that of an opera. This is a major work for solo singers, choir and orchestra, with a dramatic plot. However, unlike the opera, there is no stage action in the oratorio: it tells about events, but does not show them.

in Italy in the 17th century. another genre was formed - cantata (it. cantata, from lat. canto- "sing"). Like the oratorio, the cantata is usually performed by soloists, choir and orchestra, but it is shorter than the oratorio. Cantatas were written on spiritual and secular texts.

Music of Italy

At the end of the 16th century, the Baroque art style developed in Italy (from um. barocco - "strange", "bizarre"). This style is characterized by expressiveness, drama, entertainment, the desire for synthesis (connection) different types art. These features were fully manifested in the opera that arose at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries. One work combined music, poetry, dramaturgy and theatrical painting. Initially, the opera had a different name: "drama for music" (it. dramma per musica); the word "opera" (it. opera - "composition") appeared only in the middle of the 17th century. The idea of ​​"drama for music" was born in Florence, in the artistic circle Florentine Camerata. The meetings of the circle were held in a chamber (from the Italian camera - "room"), at home. From 1579 to 1592, enlightened music lovers, poets, scientists gathered in the house of Count Giovanni Bardi. It was also visited by professional musicians - singers and composers Jacopo Peri (1561 - 1633) and Giulio Caccini (circa 1550-1618), theorist and composer Vincenzo Galilei (circa 1520-1591), father of the famous scientist Galileo Galilei.

The participants of the Florentine Camerata were excited about the development of musical art. They saw its future in the combination of music and drama: the texts of such works (unlike the texts of complex choral polyphonic chants of the 16th century) would become understandable to the listener.

The members of the circle found the ideal combination of words and music in the ancient theater: verses were sung in a singsong voice, every word, every syllable sounded clear. So the Florentine camerata came up with the idea of ​​solo singing accompanied by an instrument - monody (from the Greek "monos" - "one" and "ode" - "song"). A new style singing began to be called recitative (from it. recitare - "to recite"): the music followed the text and the singing was a monotonous recitation. The musical intonations were unimpressive - the emphasis was on the clear pronunciation of words, and not on conveying the feelings of the characters.

Early Florentine operas were based on scenes from ancient mythology. The first works of the new genre that have come down to us are two operas under the same name "Eurydice" by the composers Peri (1600) and Caccini (1602). They were created on the plot of the myth of Orpheus. The singing was accompanied by an instrumental ensemble, which consisted of a cembalo (the forerunner of the piano), a lyre, a lute, a guitar, etc.

The heroes of the first operas were ruled by fate, and its will was proclaimed by messengers. The action opened with a prologue, in which the virtues and the power of art were sung. Further performance included vocal ensembles (opera numbers where several participants sing at the same time), a choir, and dance episodes. A musical composition was built on their alternation.

Opera began to develop rapidly, and above all as court music. The nobility patronized the arts, and such concern was explained not only by love for the beautiful: the prosperity of the arts was considered an indispensable attribute of power and wealth. In the major cities of Italy - Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples - their own opera schools have developed.

The best features of different schools - attention to the poetic word (Florence), a serious spiritual subtext of the action (Rome), monumentality (Venice) - were combined in his work by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643). The composer was born in Italian city Cremona in the doctor's family. As a musician, Monteverdi developed in his youth. He wrote and performed madrigals; played the organ, viola and other instruments. Monteverdi studied music composition with well-known composers of that time. In 1590, as a singer and musician, he was invited to Mantua, to the court of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga; later he led the court chapel. In 1612, Monteverdi left the service in Mantua and from 1613 settled in Venice. Largely thanks to Monteverdi in 1637, the world's first public opera house was opened in Venice. There, the composer led the chapel of the Cathedral of San Marco. Before his death, Claudio Monteverdi took holy orders.

Having studied the work of Peri and Caccini, Monteverdi created his own works of this genre. Already in the first operas - "Orpheus" (1607) and "Ariadne" (1608) - the composer managed to convey deep and passionate feelings by musical means, to create a tense dramatic action. Monteverdi is the author of many operas, but only three have survived - "Orpheus", "Return of Ulysses to his homeland" (1640; based on the plot of the ancient Greek epic poem "Odyssey") and "Coronation of Poppea" (1642).

Monteverdi's works harmoniously combine music and text. The operas are based on a monologue in which every word sounds clearly, and the music flexibly and subtly conveys the shades of mood. Monologues, dialogues and choral episodes smoothly flow into each other, the action develops slowly (three-four acts in Monteverdi's operas), but dynamically. The composer assigned an important role to the orchestra. In "Orpheus", for example, he used almost all the instruments known at that time. Orchestral music not only accompanies the singing, but itself tells about the events taking place on the stage and the experiences of the characters. In Orpheus, an overture first appeared (French ouverture, or Latin apertura - "opening", "beginning") - an instrumental introduction to a major piece of music. The operas of Claudio Monteverdi had a significant influence on Venetian composers and laid the foundations of the Venetian opera school.

Monteverdi wrote not only operas, but also sacred music, religious and secular madrigals. He became the first composer who did not oppose polyphonic and homophonic methods - the choral episodes of his operas include polyphonic techniques. In the work of Monteverdi, the new was combined with the old - the traditions of the Renaissance.

By the beginning of the XVIII century. an opera school was formed in Naples. Features of this school - increased attention to singing, the dominant role of music. It was in Naples that the bel canto vocal style (Italian bel canto - "beautiful singing") was created. Bel canto is famous for its extraordinary beauty of sound, melody and technical perfection. In the high register (the range of voice sounding), singing was distinguished by the lightness and transparency of the timbre, in the low register - by velvety softness and density. The performer had to be able to reproduce many shades of the timbre of the voice, as well as masterfully convey numerous fast sequences of sounds superimposed on the main melody - coloratura (it. coloratura - "decoration"). A special requirement was the evenness of the sound of the voice - in slow melodies, breathing should not be heard.

In the 18th century, opera became the main type of musical art in Italy, which was facilitated by the high professional level of singers who studied at conservatories (it. conservatorio, err lat. conserve - "I guard") - educational institutions that trained musicians. By that time, four conservatories had been created in the centers of Italian opera - Venice and Naples. The popularity of the genre was also served by the opera houses that opened in different cities of the country, accessible to all segments of society. Italian operas were staged in the theaters of major European capitals, and composers from Austria, Germany and other countries wrote operas based on Italian texts.

Significant achievements of the music of Italy XVII-XVIII centuries. and in the field of instrumental genres. The composer and organist Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643) did a lot to develop organ creativity. "In church music, he laid the foundation for a new style. His compositions for organ are detailed compositions of a fantasy (free) warehouse. Frescobaldi became famous for his virtuoso playing and the art of improvisation on the organ and clavier. Violin art flourished. By that time, violin production traditions had developed in Italy. The hereditary masters of the Amati, Guarneri, Stradivari families from the city of Cremona developed the design of the violin, the methods of its manufacture, which were kept in deep secret and passed down from generation to generation.The instruments made by these masters have an amazingly beautiful, warm sound, similar to the human voice. gained popularity as an ensemble and solo instrument.

The founder of the Roman violin school is Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713), one of the creators of the concerto grosso genre (um. concerto grosso - "great concert"). A concert usually features a solo instrument (or a group of instruments) and an orchestra. The "Grand Concerto" was built on the alternation of solo episodes and the sound of the entire orchestra, which in the 17th century was chamber and mostly strings. Corelli's soloists were mostly violin and cello. His concerts consisted of parts of different character; their number was arbitrary.

One of the outstanding masters of violin music is Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). He became famous as a brilliant violin virtuoso.

Contemporaries were attracted by his dramatic style of performance, full of unexpected contrasts. Continuing the traditions of Corelli, the composer worked in the genre of "great concert". The number of works written by him is enormous - four hundred and sixty-five concertos, forty operas, cantatas and oratorios.

Creating concerts, Vivaldi strove for bright and unusual sounds. He mixed voices different instruments, often included dissonances (sharp consonances) in music; he chose rare instruments at that time as soloists - bassoon, mandolin (it was considered a street instrument). Vivaldi's concertos consist of three parts, with the first and last performed at a fast pace, and the middle one is slow. Many Vivaldi concertos have a program - a title or even a literary dedication. The cycle "The Seasons" (1725) is one of the earliest examples of program orchestral music. Four concerts of this cycle - "Spring", "Summer", "Autumn", "Winter" - colorfully paint pictures of nature. Vivaldi managed to convey in music the singing of birds ("Spring", the first part), a thunderstorm ("Summer", the third part), rain ("Winter", the second part). Virtuosity, technical complexity did not distract the listener, but contributed to the creation of a memorable image. Vivaldi's concert work has become a vivid embodiment of the Baroque style in instrumental music.

Operaseria and operabuffa

In the XVIII century. opera genres such as opera seria (it. opera seria - "serious opera") and operabuffa (it. opera buffa - "comic opera") were formed. Operaseria established itself in the work of Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) - the founder and the largest representative Neapolitan opera school. During his life he composed more than a hundred such works. For the opera series, a mythological or historical plot was usually chosen. It opened with an overture and consisted of completed numbers - arias, recitatives and choruses. The main role was played by large arias; usually they consisted of three parts, and the third was a repetition of the first. In the arias, the characters expressed their attitude to the events taking place.

There were several types of arias: heroic, pathetic (passionate), mournful, etc. For each, a certain range of expressive means was used: in heroic arias - decisive, invocative intonations, peppy rhythm; in plaintive ones - short, intermittent musical phrases showing the excitement of the hero, etc. Recitatives, small fragments in size, served to unfold the dramatic narrative, as if moving it forward. The heroes discussed plans for further actions, told each other about the events that had happened. Recitatives were divided into two types: secco (from Italian secco - "dry") - a fast tongue twister to the mean chords of the harpsichord, and accompaniato (It. Assotraniato - "with accompaniment") - an expressive recitation to the sound of an orchestra. Secco was more often used to develop the action, accompaniato - to convey the thoughts and feelings of the hero. Choirs and vocal ensembles commented on what was happening, but did not take part in the events.

The number of active lias depended on the type of plot and was strictly defined; the same applies to the relationships of the characters. The types of solo vocal numbers and their place in the stage action were established. Each character had his own voice timbre: lyrical heroes - soprano and tenor, noble father or villain - baritone or bass, fatal heroine - contralto.

By the middle of the XVIII century. the shortcomings of the opera series became apparent. The performance was often timed to coincide with court celebrations, so the work had to end happily, which sometimes looked implausible and unnatural. Often the texts were written in an artificial, exquisitely mannered language. Composers sometimes neglected the content and wrote music that did not fit the character of the siena or the situation; there were a lot of stamps, unnecessary external effects. The singers demonstrated their own virtuosity, without thinking about the role of the aria in the work as a whole. Operuseria began to be called "a concert in costumes". The audience did not show serious interest in the opera itself, but went to performances for the famous singer's "crown" aria; during the action, spectators entered and left the hall.

Operabuffa was also formed by the Neapolitan masters. The first classical example of such an opera is The Maid's Servant (1733) by the composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736). If in the opera seria in the foreground - arias, then in the opera buffa - colloquial dialogues, alternating with vocal ensembles. In operebuffa, completely different main characters. These are, as a rule, ordinary people - servants, peasants. The plot was based on an entertaining intrigue with dressing up, fooling a stupid rich owner by servants, etc. From the music, elegant lightness was required, from the action - swiftness.

Operubuffa was greatly influenced by the Italian playwright, creator of the national comedy Carlo Goldoni. The most witty, lively and vibrant works of this genre were created by Neapolitan composers: Niccolo Piccinni (1728-1800) - "Chekkina, or the Good Daughter" (1760); Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816) - "The Barber of Seville" (1782), "The Miller" (1788); singer, violinist, harpsichordist and composer Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801) - "Secret Marriage" (1792).

String instruments

The forerunners of modern stringed bowed instruments - violin, viola, cello and double bass - are violas. They appeared at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century. and soon, thanks to their soft and gentle sound, they began to play a leading role in orchestras.

Gradually, the violas were replaced by new, more advanced stringed bowed instruments. In the XVI-XVII centuries, entire schools of craftsmen worked on their creation. The most famous of them are the dynasties of violin makers that arose in the north of Italy - in the cities of Cremona and Brescia.

The founder of the Cremonese school is Andrea Amati (about 1520 - about 1580). Nicolo Amati (1596-1684), his grandson, was especially famous for his art. He made the device of the violin almost perfect, strengthened the sound of the instrument; at the same time, the softness and warmth of the timbre were preserved. The Guarneri family worked in Cremona in the 17th-18th centuries. The founder of the dynasty is Andrea Guarneri (1626-1698), a student of Nicolò Amati. The outstanding master Azuseppe Guarneri (1698-1744) developed a new violin model, different from the Amati instrument.

The traditions of the Amati school were continued by Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737). He studied with Nicolò Amati, and in 1667 opened his own business. Stradivari, more than other masters, managed to bring the sound of the violin closer to the timbre of the human voice.

The Magini family worked in Breche; the best violins were made by Giovanni Magini (1580-1630 or 1632).

The highest register stringed bowed instrument is the violin. It is followed by viola, cello, contrabass in descending order of sound range. The shape of the body (or resonant box) of the violin resembles the outlines of the human body. The body has a top and bottom deck (German Decke - "lid"), with the first made of spruce and the second made of maple. Decks serve to reflect and amplify sound. On the top there are resonator holes (in the form of the Latin letter f; it is not by chance that they are called "efs"). A neck is attached to the body; usually it is made of ebony. It is a long narrow plate over which four strings are stretched. Pegs are used to tension and tune the strings; they are also on the fretboard.

Viola, cello and double bass are similar in structure to the violin, but larger than it. The viola is not very large, it is held at the shoulder. The cello is larger than the viola, and when playing, the musician sits on a chair, and puts the instrument on the floor, between the legs. The double bass is larger than the cello, so the performer has to stand or sit on a high stool, and place the instrument in front of him. During the game, the musician leads the strings with a bow, which is a wooden cane with horsehair stretched; the string vibrates and produces a melodious sound. The sound quality depends on the speed of the bow movement and the force with which it presses on the string. With the fingers of the left hand, the performer shortens the string, pressing it in various places against the fretboard - in this way he achieves different pitches. On instruments of this type, the sound can also be extracted by plucking or striking the string with the wooden part of the bow. The sound of bowed strings is very expressive, the performer can give the music the finest nuances.

Wind instruments are the oldest type of musical instruments that came to the Middle Ages from antiquity. However, in the process of development and formation of medieval Western civilization, the scope of wind instruments is greatly expanded: some, like, for example, oliphant, belong to the courts of noble seigneurs, others - flutes - are used both in the folk environment and among professional musicians, and still others, such as the trumpet become exclusively military musical instruments.

The oldest representative wind instruments in France should probably be considered fretel (fretel), or "Pan's flute". A similar instrument can be seen on a miniature from an 11th-century manuscript. in the National Library of Paris (Fig. I). This is a multi-barreled flute, consisting of a set of pipes (reed, reed or wood) of different lengths, with one end open and the other closed. Fretel is often mentioned along with other types of flutes in the novels of the XI-XII centuries. However, already in the XIV century. the fretel is spoken of only as a musical instrument played at village holidays, it becomes an instrument of the common people.

The flute (fluûte), on the contrary, is experiencing a "rise": from a common folk instrument to a court one. The most ancient flutes were found on the territory of France in the Gallo-Roman cultural layer (I-II centuries AD). Most of them are bone. Until the 13th century the flute is usually double, as in a miniature from a 10th century manuscript. from the National Library of Paris (Fig. 3), and the tubes can be either the same or different lengths. The number of holes on the flute's barrel may have varied (from four to six, seven). Flutes were usually played by minstrels, jugglers, and often their play preceded the appearance of a solemn procession or some high-ranking person.

The minstrels also played a double flute with trumpets of different lengths. Such a flute is shown on a vignette from a 13th-century manuscript. (Fig. 2). In the miniature picture, you can see an orchestra of three minstrels: one plays the viol; the second on a similar flute similar to the modern clarinet; the third strikes a square tambourine made of leather stretched over a frame. The fourth character pours wine for the musicians to refresh them. Similar orchestras of flute, drum and violin existed in the villages of France until the beginning of the 19th century.

In the XV century. flutes made of boiled leather began to appear. Moreover, the flute itself could be both round and octagonal in cross section, and not only straight, but also wavy. A similar tool has been preserved in private collection Mr. Fo (Fig. 4). Its length is 60 cm, at its widest point the diameter is 35 mm. The body is made of black boiled leather, the decorative head is painted. Such a flute served as a prototype for the creation of the serpan pipe. Serpan flutes were used both during divine services in churches and at secular festivities. Transverse flutes, as well as flageolets, are first mentioned in texts of the 14th century.

Another type of wind musical instruments are bagpipes. There were also several types of them in medieval France. This is a chevrette - a wind instrument consisting of a goat skin bag, an air tube and a duda. A musician playing this instrument (Fig. 6) is depicted in a 14th-century manuscript. "The Romance of the Rose", from the National Library of Paris. Some sources separate the chevret and the bagpipe, while others simply refer to the chevret as "little bagpipes". The tool, which in its appearance is very reminiscent of a chevret, back in the 19th century. met in the villages of the French provinces of Burgundy and Limousin.

Another type of bagpipe was the horo or horum (choro). According to a description found in a manuscript from the abbey of St. Blaise (IX century), this is a wind instrument with a pipe for supplying air and a pipe, and both pipes are located in the same plane (they are, as it were, a continuation of each other). In the middle part of the horo there is a reservoir for air, made of dressed leather, and with a perfect spherical shape. Since the skin of the “bag” began to vibrate when the musician blew into the horo, the sound was somewhat rattling and sharp (Fig. 6).

Bagpipe (coniemuese), the French name for this instrument comes from the Latin corniculans (horned) and is found in manuscripts only from the 14th century. Neither its appearance nor its use in medieval France differed from the traditional Scottish bagpipes known to us, as can be seen from an image from a 14th-century manuscript. (Fig. 9).

Horns and horns (corne). All these wind instruments, including the great oliphant horn, differ little from each other in design and use. They were made of wood, boiled leather, ivory, horn and metal. They were usually worn on the belt. The range of sounding horns is not wide, but the hunters of the XIV century. simple melodies composed of certain signals were played on them. Hunting horns, as we have already said, were worn first at the waist, then, until the 16th century, on a sling over the shoulder; a similar pendant is often found in images, in particular in Gaston Phoebe's Book on Hunting (Fig. 8). The hunting horn of a noble lord is a precious thing; so, Siegfried in the "Song of the Nibelungs" carried with him a golden horn of fine workmanship with him to hunt.

Separately, it should be said about the alifant - a huge horn with metal rings made specifically so that the oliphant can be hung on the right side of its owner. They made oliphants from elephant tusks. Used in hunting and during military operations to signal the approach of the enemy. A distinctive feature of the oliphant is that it could only belong to the sovereign seigneur, in whose subordination are the barons. The honorary nature of this musical instrument is confirmed by the sculpture of the 12th century. from the abbey church in Vaselles, where an angel is depicted with an oliphant on its side, announcing the Nativity of the Savior (Fig. 13).

Hunting horns were different from those used by minstrels. The latter used an instrument of a more advanced design. On the capital of a column from the same abbey church in Vazelle, a minstrel (Fig. 12) is depicted playing a horn, on which holes were made not only along the pipe, but also on the bell, which made it possible to modulate the sound, giving it a greater or lesser volume.

Pipes were represented by the actual pipe (trompe) and curved pipes more than a meter long - busine. Elderberries were made from wood, boiled leather, but most often from brass, as can be seen in a miniature from a 13th-century manuscript. (Fig. 9). Their sound was sharp and loud. And since it was heard far away, the elders were used in the army for the morning wake-up call, they gave signals to remove the camp, to sail the ships. They also announced the arrival of royalty. So, in 1414, the entry into Paris of Charles VI was announced with the sounds of elders. Due to the special loudness of the sound in the Middle Ages, it was believed that by playing the elderberry, the angels would announce the beginning of the Day of Judgment.

The trumpet was exclusively a military musical instrument. She served to raise in the army fighting spirit, to gather troops. The pipe is smaller than elderberry and is a metal pipe (straight or several times bent) with a socket at the end. The term itself appeared by the end of the 15th century, but an instrument of this type (straight pipes) had been used in the army since the 13th century. By the end of the XIV century. the shape of the pipe changes (its body bends), and the pipe itself is necessarily decorated with a pennant with a coat of arms (Fig. 7).

A special type of pipe - a serpan (serpent) - served as a prototype for many modern wind instruments. In the collection of Mr. Fo there is a sickle (Fig. 10), made of boiled leather, its height is 0.8 m, and the total length is 2.5 m. The musician held the instrument with both hands, while the left hand held the curving part (A), and the fingers of the right hand went over the holes made on the upper section of the sickle. The sound of the serpan was powerful, this wind instrument was used both in military bands and in church services.

The organ (orgue) stands somewhat apart in the family of wind instruments. This keyboard-pedal instrument with a set of several dozen pipes (registers) set into sound by blown air by bellows is currently associated only with large stationary organs - church and concert (Fig. 14). However, in the Middle Ages, perhaps, another type of this instrument, the hand organ (orgue de main), was more widespread. It is based on the "Pan's flute", which is set into sound with the help of compressed air, which enters the pipes from a tank with openings closed by valves. However, already in antiquity, in Asia, Ancient Greece and Rome, large organs with hydraulic control were known. In the West, these instruments appeared only in the 8th century, and even then as gifts presented to Western monarchs from the Byzantine emperors (Konstantin V Copronymus sent such an organ as a gift to Pepin the Short, and Konstantin Curopolat to Charlemagne and Louis the Good).

Images of hand organs appear in France only in the 10th century. With his right hand, the musician sorts through the keys, and with his left he presses the bellows that pump air. The instrument itself is usually located on the musician's chest or stomach. In manual organs, there are usually eight pipes and, accordingly, eight keys. During the 13th-14th centuries, hand organs practically did not change, but the number of pipes could vary. Only in the 15th century did a second row of pipes and a double keyboard (four registers) appear in manual organs. Pipes have always been metal. Manual organ of German work of the 15th century. available in the Munich Pinotek (Fig. 15).

Hand organs became widespread among itinerant musicians who could sing along with accompanying themselves on the instrument. They sounded in city squares, at village holidays, but never in churches.

Organs, smaller than church ones, but more than manual ones, at one time were placed in castles (at the court of Charles V, for example) or could be installed on street platforms during solemn ceremonies. So, several similar organs sounded in Paris, when Isabella of Bavaria made her solemn entry into the city.

Perhaps there is no civilization that has not invented a musical instrument similar to the drum. A dried skin stretched over a pot, or a hollowed out log - that's already a drum. However, although drums have been known since ancient Egypt, they were little used in the early Middle Ages. Only from the time of the Crusades did the mention of drums (tambour) become regular, and starting from the 12th century. under this name there are instruments of a wide variety of forms: long, double, tambourines, etc. By the end of the 12th century. this instrument, which sounds on the battlefield and in the banquet hall, already attracts the attention of musicians. At the same time, it is so widespread that in the 13th century. Trouvers, who claim to preserve ancient traditions in their art, complain about the "dominance" of drums and tambourines, which are replacing "more noble" instruments.

Tambourines and drums accompany not only singing, performances of trouveurs, they are also picked up by wandering dancers, actors, jugglers; women dance, accompanying their dances with playing the tambourines. At the same time, the tambourine (tambour, bosquei) is held in one hand, and the other, free, rhythmically strikes it. Sometimes minstrels, playing the flute, accompanied themselves on a tambourine or drum, which they fastened on their left shoulder with a strap. The minstrel played the flute, accompanying its singing with rhythmic blows to the tambourine, which he made with his head, as can be seen on the sculpture of the 13th century. from the facade of the House of Musicians in Reims (Fig. 17).

According to the sculpture of the House of Musicians, Saracen, or double, drums are also known (Fig. 18). In the era of the Crusades, they found distribution in the army, as they were easily installed on both sides of the saddle.

Another type of percussion musical instrument, common in the Middle Ages in France, was timbre (tymbre, cembel) - two hemispheres, and later - plates, made of copper and other alloys, used to beat the beat, rhythmic accompaniment of dances. In a Limoges manuscript of the 12th century. from the National Library of Paris, the dancer is depicted with this instrument (Fig. 14). By the 15th century refers to a fragment of sculpture from the altar from the abbey church in O, on which the timbre is used in the orchestra (Fig. 19).

Timbre should include a cymbal (cymbalum) - an instrument that was a ring with bronze tubes soldered to it, at the ends of which bells ring when shaken, the image of this instrument is known from a manuscript of the 13th century. from the Abbey of Saint Blaise (Fig. 20). The cymbal was common in France during early medieval and was used both in secular life and in churches - they were given a sign to start worship.

Bells (chochettes) also belong to medieval percussion instruments. They were very widespread, bells sounded during concerts, they were sewn to clothes, hung from the ceiling in dwellings - not to mention the use of bells in the church ... Dances were also accompanied by bells, and there are examples of this - images on miniatures, dating back to the beginning of the 10th century! In Chartres, Sens, Paris, on the portals of the cathedrals, you can find bas-reliefs on which a woman striking the hanging bells symbolizes music in the Liberal Arts family. King David was depicted as playing the bells. As can be seen in the miniature from the Bible of the 13th century, he plays them with the help of mallets (Fig. 21). The number of bells could vary - usually from five to ten or more.

Turkish bells - a military musical instrument - were also born in the Middle Ages (some people call Turkish bells cymbals).

In the XII century. the fashion for bells or bells sewn to clothes became widespread. They were used by both ladies and men. Moreover, the latter did not part with this fashion for a long time, until the XIV century. Then it was customary to decorate clothes with thick gold chains, and men often hung bells from them. This fashion was a sign of belonging to the high feudal nobility (Fig. 8 and 22) - the petty nobility and the bourgeoisie were forbidden to wear bells. But already in the XV century. bells remain only on jesters' clothes. Orchestral life of this percussion instrument continues to this day; and he hasn't changed much since then.

Of all the medieval bowed stringed instruments, the viola (vièle) is the noblest and most difficult to perform. According to the description of the Dominican monk Jerome of Moravia, in the XIII century. the viol had five strings, but earlier miniatures show both three- and four-stringed instruments (Fig. 12 and 23, 23a). At the same time, the strings are pulled both on the “horse” and directly on the deck. Judging by the descriptions, the viola sounded not loud, but very melodic.

The sculpture from the façade of the House of Musicians is interesting; it shows a life-size musician (Fig. 24) playing a three-stringed viola. Since the strings are stretched in the same plane, the bow, extracting sound from one string, could touch the others. The “modernized” for the middle of the 13th century deserves special attention. bow shape.

By the middle of the XIV century. in France, the shape of the viola approaches the modern guitar, which probably made it easier to play it with a bow (Fig. 25).

In the XV century. large violas appear - viola de gamba. They were played with the instrument between their knees. By the end of the fifteenth century, the viola de gamba becomes a seven-string. Later, the viola de gamba will be replaced by the cello. All types of violas were very widespread in medieval France, playing them accompanied both festivities and intimate evenings.

The viol was distinguished from the crouth by the double fastening of the strings on the soundboard. No matter how many strings there are on this medieval instrument (on the oldest circles there are three strings), they are always attached to the “horse”. In addition, the soundboard itself has two holes along the strings. These holes are through and serve to pass through them the left hand, the fingers of which alternately press the strings to the deck, then release them. The performer usually held a bow in his right hand. One of the oldest depictions of the kroot is found on a manuscript of the 11th century. from the Limoges abbey of St. Martial (Fig. 26). However, it must be emphasized that the krut is predominantly an English and Saxon instrument. The number of strings on a circle increases with time. And although it is considered the progenitor of all bowed stringed instruments, the krut never took root in France. Much more common after the 11th century. ruber or gigue is found here.

Gigue (gigue, gigle), apparently, was invented by the Germans, it resembles a viol in shape, but does not have an interception on the deck. The jig is a minstrel's favorite instrument. The performance capabilities of this instrument were significantly poorer than those of the viola, but it also required less skill in performance. Judging by the images, the musicians played the jig (Fig. 27) like a violin, putting the era to their shoulder, which can be seen on the vignette from the manuscript "The Book of the Wonders of the World", dating from the beginning of the 15th century.

Ruber (rubère) - stringed bowed instrument, reminiscent of the Arabic rebab. Similar in shape to a lute, the ruber has only one string stretched on a “ridge” (Fig. 29), as it is depicted in a miniature in a manuscript from the abbey of St. Blaise (IX century). According to Jerome Moravsky, in the XII - XIII centuries. the rubert is already a two-stringed instrument, it is used in ensemble playing, and always leads the “lower” bass part. Zhig, respectively, - "upper". Thus, it turns out that the monocord (monocorde) - a bowed string instrument that served to some extent as the progenitor of the double bass - is also a kind of ruber, since it was also used in the ensemble as an instrument that sets the bass tone. Sometimes it was possible to play the monochord without a bow, as can be seen in the sculpture from the facade of the abbey church in Vaselles (Fig. 28).

Despite widespread use and numerous varieties, the ruber was not considered an instrument equal to the viola. His sphere - rather, the street, folk holidays. It is not entirely clear, however, what the sound of the ruber actually was, since some researchers (Jerome Moravsky) talk about low octaves, while others (Aymeric de Peyrac) claim that the sound of the ruber is sharp and “loud”, similar to “female screech." Perhaps, however, we are talking about instruments of different times, for example, the XIV or XVI century ...

Probably, arguments about which instrument is ancient should be recognized as irrelevant, since the string instrument, the lyre, has become the emblem of music, with which we will begin the story of stringed plucked instruments.

The ancient lyre is a stringed instrument with three to seven strings stretched vertically between two posts mounted on a wooden soundboard. The strings of the lyre were either fingered or played with the help of a plectrum resonator. On a miniature from a manuscript of the X-XI centuries. (Fig. 30), stored in the National Library of Paris, you can see a lyre with twelve strings, collected in groups of three and stretched at different heights (Fig. 30a.) Such lyres usually have beautiful sculpted handles on both sides, for which it was possible to fasten the belt, which obviously made it easier for the musician to play.

The lyre was confused in the Middle Ages with the sitar (cithare), which also appeared in ancient Greece. Originally it is a six-string plucked instrument. According to Jerome of Moravia, the sitar in the Middle Ages was triangular in shape (more precisely, it had the shape of the letter "delta" of the Greek alphabet) and the number of strings on it varied from twelve to twenty-four. A sitar of this type (9th century) is depicted in a manuscript from the abbey of St. Vlasia (Fig. 31). However, the shape of the instrument could vary; an image of an irregularly rounded sitar with a handle is known to expose the game (Fig. 32). However, the main difference between the sitar and the psalterion (see below) and other stringed plucked instruments is that the strings are simply pulled on the frame, and not on some kind of “sounding container”.

The medieval guiterne (guiterne) also leads its origin from the sitar. The shape of these instruments is also varied, but usually resembles either a mandolin or a guitar (zither). Mentions of such instruments begin to be found from the 13th century, and they are played by both women and men. The gitern accompanied the performer's singing, but they played it either with the help of a resonator-plectrum, or without it. In the manuscript "The Romance of Troy" by Benoit de Saint-Maur (XIII century), the minstrel sings, playing the giter without a plectrum (Fig. 34) . In another case, in the novel "Tristan and Isolde" (mid-13th century), there is a miniature that depicts a minstrel accompanying the dance of his comrade by playing the hytern (Fig. 33). The strings on the hytern are stretched straight (without a filly), but there is a hole (rosette) on the body. A bone stick served as a mediator, which was held with the thumb and forefinger, which is clearly seen in the sculpture of a musician from the abbey church in O (Fig. 35).

Gitern, judging by the available images, could be an ensemble instrument. The lid of a casket from the collection of the Cluny Museum (XIV century) is known, where the sculptor carved a charming genre scene on ivory: two young men are playing in the garden, delighting the ear; one has a lute in his hands, the other has a hytern (Fig. 36).

Sometimes the guitern, like the sitar before, was called a company (rote) in medieval France, it had seventeen strings. The company was played in captivity by Richard the Lionheart.

In the XIV century. there is a mention of another instrument similar to the githeron - the lute (luth). By the 15th century its shape is already finally taking shape: a very convex, almost semicircular body, with a round hole on the soundboard. The "neck" is not long, the "head" is located at a right angle to it (Fig. 36). To the same group of instruments belong the mandolin, the mandora, which had in the 15th century. the most varied form.

The harp (harpe) can also boast of antiquity of its origin - its images are already found in Ancient Egypt. Among the Greeks, the harp is just a variation of the sitar; among the Celts, it is called the sambuk. The shape of the harp is unchanged: it is an instrument on which strings of different lengths are stretched over a frame in the form of a more or less open angle. Ancient harps are thirteen-stringed, tuned in the diatonic scale. They played the harp either standing or sitting, with both hands and strengthening the instrument so that its vertical stand was at the performer's chest. In the XII century, harps of small sizes with a different number of strings also appeared. A characteristic type of harp is presented on a sculpture from the facade of the House of Musicians in Reims (Fig. 37). Jugglers in their performances used only them, and entire ensembles of harpists could be created. The Irish and Bretons were considered the best harpists. In the XVI century. the harp practically disappeared in France and appeared here only centuries later, in its modern form.

Special mention should be made of the two plucked medieval instruments. These are the psaltery and the siphon.

The ancient psalterion is a triangular-shaped stringed instrument that vaguely resembles our harp. In the Middle Ages, the form of the instrument changed - square psalterions are also represented in the miniatures. The player held it on his lap and played twenty-one strings with his fingers or a plectrum (the instrument's range was three octaves). The inventor of the psalterion is King David, who, according to legend, used a bird's beak as a plectrum. A miniature from the manuscript of Gerard of Landsberg in the Strasbourg Library depicts the biblical king playing on his offspring (Fig. 38).

In medieval French literature, psalterions begin to be mentioned from early XII c., the shape of the instruments could be very different (Fig. 39 and 40), they were played not only by minstrels, but also by women - noble ladies and their retinue. By the XIV century. the psalterion gradually leaves the stage, giving way to the harpsichord, but the harpsichord could not achieve the chromatic sound that was characteristic of double-stringed psalterions.

To some extent, another medieval instrument, which practically disappeared already in the 15th century, is similar to the plasterion. This is a siphonia (chifonie) - a Western version of the Russian wheel harp. However, in addition to a wheel with a wooden brush, which, when the handle is rotated, touches three straight strings, the siphon is also equipped with keys that also regulate its sound. There are seven keys on the siphon, and they are located at the end opposite to that on which the wheel rotates. Usually two people played the siphon, the sound of the instrument was, according to sources, harmonious and quiet. Drawing from a sculpture on the capital of one of the columns in Boshville (XII century) demonstrates a similar way of playing (Fig. 41). The most widespread siphon was in the XI-XII centuries. In the XV century. the small siphonia, played by one musician, was popular. In the manuscript "The Romance of Gerard de Nevers and the beautiful Ariane" from the National Library of Paris, there is a miniature depicting the protagonist disguised as a minstrel, with a similar instrument on his side (Fig. 42).

CHAPTER 2. The Guitar Conquers Europe

In the 17th century, the guitar continued to conquer Europe.
One of the guitars of that time belongs to the museum of the Royal College of Music in London. Created in Lisbon in 1581 by a certain Melchior Dias.
The structure of this guitar has features that will be repeated in their work by masters of musical instruments for more than two centuries.

17th century Italian battente guitar from the collection of the Sforza Castle, Milan.

All guitars of that time were richly ornamented. For the manufacture of such an exquisite item, craftsmen use valuable materials: rare woods (in particular, black - ebony), ivory, tortoiseshell. The lower deck and sides are decorated with inlay. The top deck, on the contrary, remains simple and is made of coniferous wood (most often spruce). In order not to suppress vibration, only the resonator hole and the edges of the case along its entire circumference are trimmed with wooden mosaics.
The main decorative element is a rosette made of embossed leather. This rosette not only rivals the beauty of the entire cabinet, but also softens the sounds produced. Obviously, the owners of these luxurious instruments were interested not so much in strength and power as in the sophistication of sound.
One of the first examples of guitars of the 17th century that have come down to us is in the collection of the Museum of Musical Instruments of the Paris Conservatory. It bears the name of the craftsman, the Venetian Cristofo Coco, and the date 1602. The flat body is entirely made of ivory plates fastened with narrow strips of brown wood.

Augustine Quesnel Guitarist 1610

In the 17th century, the razgueado style, brought from Spain, where it was popular, spread to a large part of Europe. The guitar immediately loses the importance it used to have for serious musicians. From now on, it is used only for accompaniment, in order to "sing, play, dance, jump ... stomp your feet," as Louis de Briseno writes in the preface to his "Method" (Paris, 1626).
The theorist from Bordeaux, Pierre Trichet, also notes with regret (c. 1640): "The guitar, or hyterna, is a widely used instrument among the French and Italians, but especially among the Spaniards, who use it so unrestrainedly as no other nation." She serves as a musical accompaniment to dances that dance, "twitching all over, gesticulating ridiculously and ridiculously, so that playing the instrument becomes unclear and confused." And indignant at what he has to observe, Pierre Trichet continues: “In France, ladies and courtesans who are familiar with Spanish fashion try to imitate it. In this they resemble those who, instead of eating well in their own home, go to a neighbor to eat bacon, onions and black bread.

David Teniers Junior Guitarist

Mattia Pretti Concert 1630s

Despite this, the guitar remains popular in France. The guitar is readily used in ballets. In The Fairy of Saint-Germain's Forest (1625) and The Rich Widow (1626), musicians dressed in Spanish costumes play the guitar for the sake of greater credibility. In the first ballet, the chaconne performers "adapt the sounds of their guitars to the nimble movements of their feet". In the second, staged by His Majesty in the Great Hall of the Louvre, the entre of the grenadiers is also unfolded to the accompaniment of the guitar. According to the Mercure de France, Louis XIII himself accompanied the two sarabande dancers on the guitar in this performance.

Gerrit van Honthorst Playing the Guitar 1624

Jan Vermeer Guitarist 1672

In the middle of the 17th century, a new heyday of the guitar begins. And this time the update comes from France. To teach the guitar to the young French king, the famous teacher and musician Francesco Corbetta (1656) is called to court. Not daring to claim (unlike some courtiers) that in eighteen months Louis XIV surpassed his teacher, one can, however, not doubt the king's true passion for the instrument. During his reign, the guitar again becomes the darling of the aristocracy and composers. And again the fashion for the guitar conquers all of Europe.

Engraving from the cover of an old edition of Pieces for Guitar. 1676

Francisco Goya Dance on the River Bank 1777

Francisco Goya The Blind Guitarist 1788

Ramon Baie A young man with a guitar. 1789 Prado Museum. Madrid

By the end of the reign of Louis XIV (d. 1715), a turning point in the history of the guitar comes - the royal court becomes indifferent to it.
However, it is still popular with the people. Mademoiselle de Charolais in the portrait commissioned by her is presented with a guitar in her hands, lightly plucking its strings. Watteau and Lancret introduce the guitar into the depiction of love scenes. And at the same time, it is a tool for farcical actors and itinerant comedians!
The work of Watteau and Lancret and the guitar is a separate page of French painting, so I decided to dedicate separate galleries to these artists in this material.

Jean Antoine Watteau
Jean Antoine Watteau

Rosalba Carriere Portrait of Jean-Antoine Watteau 1721

French painter and draftsman, founder and greatest master of the Rococo style. In 1698-1701 Watteau studied with the local artist Gerin, at whose insistence he copied the works of Rubens, Van Dyck and other Flemish painters. In 1702, Watteau left for Paris and soon found a teacher and patron in the person of Claude Gillot, a theater artist and decorator who painted scenes from the life of the modern theater. Watteau quickly surpassed his teacher in skill and approx. 1708 entered the studio of the decorator Claude Audran. In 1709, Watteau unsuccessfully tried to win the Grand Prix of the Academy of Arts, but his work attracted the attention of several influential people, among whom were the philanthropist and connoisseur of painting Jean de Julienne, the art dealer Edmond Francois Gersin, the banker and collector Pierre Crozat, in whose house the artist lived for some time, etc. In 1712 Watteau was introduced to the title of academician and in 1717 became a member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. Watteau died at Nogent-sur-Marne on July 18, 1721.

Jean-Antoine Watteau Italian comedy 1714

Jean Antoine Watteau View Through the Trees in the Park of Pierre Crozat 1714-16

Jean-Antoine Watteau Gilles with his family 1716

Jean Antoine Watteau Pierrot's story

Jean Antoine Watteau Song of Love 1717

Jean-Antoine Watteau Mezzetin 1717-19

Nicola Lancre
Nicolas Lancret

Nicolas Lancre Self-portrait 1720

French artist, born in Paris. He studied first with Pierre Dulin, and then from about 1712 he worked for several years under the guidance of Claude Gillot, through whom he met Jean Antoine Watteau, who had a great influence on his work. Lancre turned to the same subjects as Watteau: he wrote the characters of the Italian commedia dell'arte and scenes of "gallant festivities." In addition, he illustrated La Fontaine's fables and created genre paintings. Lancret died in Paris in 1743.

Nicola Lancret Concert in the Park 1720

Nicola Lancre Holiday in the garden

Nicola Lancre Concert in the Park

Nicola Lancre gallant conversation

The new rise of the guitar, according to Michel Brenet, is associated with the emergence of two talented singers performing in salons. They perform duets, accompanying themselves. These are the famous Pierre Geliot and Pierre de la Garde.
Michel Bartolomeo Olivier's famous painting Tea in English and a Concert at the House of the Princess de Conti conveys the atmosphere of these secular gatherings.

there is a huge number of paintings that depict musical instruments. Artists turned to similar subjects in different historical epochs: from ancient times to the present.

Brueghel the Elder, Jan
HEARING (fragment). 1618

The frequent use of images of musical instruments in works of art is due to the close relationship between music and painting.
musical instruments in the paintings of artists Not only give an idea of ​​the cultural life of the era and the development of musical instruments of that time, but also have some symbolic meaning.

Melozzo

yes forli
Angel
1484

It has long been believed that love and music are inextricably linked. And musical instruments have been associated with love feelings for centuries.

Medieval astrology considered all musicians to be "children of Venus", the goddess of love. In many lyrical scenes by artists of different eras, musical instruments play an important role.

Jan Mens Molenaer
The lady behind the back
17th century
For a long time, music has been associated with love, as evidenced by the 17th-century Dutch proverb: “Learn to play the lute and spinet, for the strings have the power to steal hearts.”

Andrea Solario
woman with lute

In some of Vermeer's paintings, music is main theme. The appearance of these paintings of musical instruments in the plots is interpreted as a subtle allusion to the refined and romantic relationships of the characters.

"Music Lesson" (, Royal Assembly, St. James's Palace).

The virginal, a type of harpsichord, was very popular as a musical instrument for home music. According to the accuracy of the image, experts were able to determine that it was made in the Ruckers workshop in Antwerp, famous throughout the world. The Latin inscription on the lid of the virginal reads: "Music is a companion of joy and a healer in sorrows."

Musicians often became characters in the paintings of the French painter, the founder of the Rococo style, Jean Antoine Watteau.

The main genre of Watteau's work are "gallant festivities": an aristocratic society,
located in the bosom of nature, busy with conversation, dancing, playing music and flirting

A similar circle of images was extremely popular in the creative circles of France. This is evidenced by the fact that some of Watteau's paintings have the same titles as pieces for harpsichord by the composer François Couperin, a French composer and contemporary of the artist. Finely sensitive connoisseurs appreciated not only the picturesqueness of Watteau, but also his musicality. “Watto belongs to the sphere of F. Couperin and C. F. E. Bach,” said the great art philosopher Oswald Spengler (Appendix II).

Also, musical instruments can be associated with mythological characters.

Many musical instruments symbolize the muses and are their indispensable attributes. So, for Clio, the muses of history are the trumpet; for Euterpe (music, lyric poetry) - a flute or some other musical instrument; for Thalia (comedy, pastoral poetry) - a small viola; for Melpomene (tragedy) - a bugle; for Terpsichore (dance and song) - viola, lyre or other stringed instrument;

for Erato (lyric poetry) - tambourine, lyre, less often a triangle or viola; for Calliope (epic poetry) - trumpet; for polyhymnia (heroic hymns) - a portable organ, less often - a lute or other instrument.

All the Muses, except Urania, have musical instruments among their symbols or attributes. Why? This is explained by the fact that in ancient era poems of various genres were sung in a singsong voice and included, to one degree or another, a musical element. Therefore, the muses, who patronized various poetic genres, each had their own instrument.

Dirk Hals
Musicians
16th century

The symbolic meaning of the instruments is associated precisely with these characters. For example, the harp in the European culture of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was strongly associated with the legendary author of the psalms, the biblical King David. The great king, politician, warrior was also the greatest poet and musician; through the symbolism of the ten strings of David's harp, Saint Augustine explained the meaning of the ten biblical commandments. In the paintings, David was often depicted as a shepherd playing this instrument.

Jan de Bray. David playing the harp. 1670

Such an interpretation biblical story brought King David closer to Orpheus, who pacified animals by playing the lyre.

(C) The golden harp was an attribute of the Celtic god Dagda. The Celts said that the harp was capable of producing three sacred melodies. The first melody is a melody of sadness and tenderness. The second is sleep-inducing: when you listen to it, the soul is filled with a state of peace and falls into sleep. The third melody of the harp is the melody of joy and the return of spring

In the sacred groves, to the sounds of the harp, the druids, the priests of the Celts, turned to the gods, sang their glorious deeds, and performed rituals. During the battles, bards with small harps crowned with green wreaths climbed the hills and sang martial songs, instilling courage in the warriors.-

Among all the countries of the world, only the coat of arms of Ireland depicts a musical instrument. This is a golden harp, the strings of which are silver. For a long time The harp was the heraldic symbol of Ireland. Since 1945, it has also been the coat of arms

W. Bosch - "Garden of earthly joys" -
there is an image of a man crucified on the strings of this instrument. Here, probably, ideas about the symbolism of string tension are reflected, expressing at the same time love and tension, suffering, shocks experienced by a person during his earthly life.

With the spread of Christianity and its sacred books, the depiction of angels with musical instruments by artists becomes frequent. Angels playing musical instruments appear in English manuscripts from the 12th century. In the future, the number of such images is constantly increasing.

Many musical instruments in the hands of angels give an idea of ​​their shape and design, the features of their combinations, and also allows you to learn about the musical ensembles that existed at that time.

In the Renaissance comes the finest hour» for angels. Masters of painting are increasingly inspired by these perfect and harmonious creations.

Scenes glorifying God turn into real angelic concerts in the works of Renaissance artists, through which you can study the musical culture of that time. Organ, lute, violin, flute, harp, cymbals, trombone,viola da gamba ... This is not a complete list of instruments played by angels.

Piero della Francesca.
Christmas. London. National Gallery. 1475

images of musical instruments can be divided into several groups:

1) musical instruments are used in lyrical plots;

2) the image of musical instruments has a connection with mythology, for example, ancient, where they symbolize the muses and are their indispensable attributes:

3) in plots related to Christianity, musical instruments most often personify the most exalted ideas and images and accompany the climaxes of biblical history;

4) images of instruments also give an idea of ​​instrumental ensembles and musical techniques,

existing in historical period creating a picture;

5) often the image of certain instruments carries philosophical ideas, as, for example, in still lifes on the theme of Vanitas;

6) the symbolism of the tools may vary depending on the artist's intention and the general content of the picture (context), as, for example, in Bosch's painting The Garden of Earthly Delights.
fascinating and I and, at times, the mysterious side of art.
After all, many vintage instruments, musical ensembles, playing techniques can now only be seen in the pictures.

Hendrik van Balen
Apollo and the Muses

Judith Leyster
Young flutist
1635

Lady with a harp
1818

John Meliush Stradwick Vespers
1897

Jean van Biglert
Concert

E. Degas
Bassoon (detail)

The flute is one of the most ancient musical instruments. They are transverse and longitudinal. The longitudinal ones are held straight ahead, blowing air into the hole at the upper end of the flute. The transverse ones are held in a horizontal direction, blowing air into the side hole of the flute.

The very first mention of the longitudinal flute exists in Greek mythology and the history of Egypt (third millennium BC).

In China, the first mention of a transverse flute with five or six finger holes dates back to the first millennium BC, just as in Japan and India. Revolutionary changes in the design of the flute happened in the very middle of the nineteenth century with the help of Theobald Boehm.

Although modern flutes are woodwind instruments, they are usually made from metal alloys using gold, silver and even platinum. This gives them a brighter sound and easier to play than the wooden flutes that preceded metal flutes in past centuries.

The flute is one of the most virtuoso instruments in a symphony orchestra. Her parias are full of arpeggios and passages.

Brass musical instruments

Brass instruments - group wind musical instruments , the principle of playing on which is to obtain harmonic consonances by changing the strength of the blown air flow or the position of the lips.

The name "copper" historically goes back to the material from which these tools were made, in our time, in addition to copper, they are often used for their manufacture. brass, less often silver , and some of the instruments of the Middle Ages and Baroque with a similar way of sound production (for example, serpent ) were made of wood.

Brass instruments include modern horn, trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn, trombone, tuba . A separate group is saxhorns . Ancient brass instruments - sackbut (predecessor of the modern trombone), serpent and others. Some folk instruments are also copper, for example, the Central Asian karnay.

History of brass instruments

The art of blowing the hollow horn animal or in a shell was already known in ancient times. Subsequently, people learned to make special tools out of metal, similar to horns and intended for military, hunting and religious purposes.

The ancestors of modern brass instruments were hunting horns, military horns, and post horns. These tools, which did not have a mechanism valves gave a few soundsnatural scale , retrieved only with the help of the performer's lips. From here appeared military and hunting fanfares and signals based on the sounds of the natural scale, which have become firmly established in musical practice.

With the improvement of the technology of metal processing and the production of metal products, it became possible to manufacture pipes for wind instruments of certain dimensions and the desired degree of finish. With the improvement of copper wind pipes and the development of the art of extracting a significant amount of sounds from the natural scale on them, the concept appearednatural instruments , that is, instruments without a mechanism, capable of producing only a natural scale.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the valve mechanism was invented, which dramatically changed the technique of performance and increased the capabilities of brass wind instruments.

Classification of copper instruments

Brass wind instruments are divided into several families:

• Valve tools have several gates (usually three or four) controlled by the fingers of the performer. The principle of the valve is to instantly include an additional crown in the main tube, which increases the length of the instrument and lowers its entire system. Several valves connecting tubes of different lengths make it possible to obtain a chromatic scale. Most modern brass instruments are valved - horns, trumpets, tubas, saxhorns, etc. There are two designs of the valve - "rotary" and "standing" (piston).
• Yoke tools use a special U-shaped retractable tube - a stage, the movement of which changes the length of the air in the channel, thus lowering or increasing the extracted sounds. The main rock instrument used in music is the trombone.
• natural instruments do not have any additional tubes and are able to extract only the sounds of the natural scale. In the 18th century, specialnatural horn orchestras . Until the beginning of the 19th century, natural instruments were widely used in music, then, with the invention of the valve mechanism, they fell into disuse. Natural instruments are also sometimes found in the scores of composers of the 19th-20th centuries (Wagner, R. Strauss, Ligeti) for special sound effects. Natural instruments include antique trumpets and French horns, as well asalpine horn , fanfare, bugle, signal horns (hunting, mail) and the like.
• Valve Instruments have holes on the body, opened and closed by the fingers of the performer, as onwoodwinds . Such instruments were widespread until the 18th century, but due to some inconvenience of playing them, then they also fell into disuse. Basic Valve Brass Instruments - cornet (zinc), serpent , ophicleid, valve pipe . They also include mail horn.

Nowadays, with the revival of interest in early music, playing on natural and valve instruments is again becoming a practice.

Brass instruments can also be classified according to their acoustic properties:

• Full― instruments on which you can extract the fundamental tone of the harmonic scale.
• half― instruments on which the main tone cannot be extracted, and the scale begins with the second harmonic consonance.

The use of brass instruments in music

Brass wind instruments are widely used in various musical genres and compositions. As part ofsymphony orchestra they form one of its main groups. The standard composition of a symphony orchestra includes:

• Horns (even number from two to eight, most often four)
• Pipes (from two to five, most often two to three)
• Trombones (usually three: two tenor and one bass)
• Tube (usually one)

In the scores of the 19th century, the symphony orchestra also often included cornets , however, with the development of performing techniques, their parts began to be performed on pipes. Other brass instruments appear only sporadically in the orchestra.

Copper instruments are the foundationbrass band , which, in addition to the above tools, also includes saxhorns different sizes.

Solo literature for brass is quite numerous - virtuoso performers on natural pipes and horns already existed in the early Baroque era, and composers willingly created their compositions for them. After some decline in interest in wind instruments in the era of romanticism, in the 20th century there was a discovery of new performing possibilities for brass instruments and a significant expansion of their repertoire.

In chamber ensembles, brass instruments are used relatively rarely, but they can themselves be combined into ensembles, of which the most common brass quintet (two trumpets, horn, trombone, tuba).

Trumpets and trombones play an important role in jazz and a number of other genres of contemporary music.

Xylophone

Xylophone(from Greek. ξύλον - tree + φωνή - sound) -percussion musical instrument with a certain pitch. It is a series of wooden blocks of different sizes, tuned to certain notes. The bars are struck with sticks with spherical tips or special hammers that look like small spoons (in the jargon of musicians, these hammers are called "goat legs").

Timbre the xylophone is sharp and clicky in forte and soft in piano.

History of the instrument

The xylophone has an ancient origin - the simplest instruments of this type have been and are still found among different peoples Africa, South-East Asia , Latin America .

In Europe, the first mention of the xylophone dates back to the beginning of the 16th century: Arnolt Schlick, in a treatise on musical instruments, mentions a similar instrument called hueltze glechter. Until the 19th century, the European xylophone was a rather primitive instrument, consisting of about two dozen wooden bars, tied into a chain and laid out on a flat surface for playing. The convenience of carrying such an instrument attracted the attention of itinerant musicians.

Xylophone improved by Guzikov

The improvement of the xylophone dates back to the 1830s. Belarusian musician Mikhoel Guzikov expanded its range to two and a half octaves, and also changed the design, arranging the bars in a special way in four rows. This model of the xylophone was used for more than a hundred years.

On a modern xylophone, the bars are arranged in two rows like piano keys, equipped with resonators in the form of tin tubes and placed on a special table-stand for ease of movement.

The role of the xylophone in music

The first known use of the xylophone in an orchestra is Seven Variations.Ferdinand Cauer written in 1810 year. The French composer Kastner included his parts in his works. One of the most famous compositions in which the xylophone is involved is a symphonic poemCamille Saint-Saens "Dance of Death" ( 1872 ).

Currently, the xylophone is used insymphony orchestra , on the stage, extremely rarely - as a solo instrument ("Fantasy on the themes of Japanese engravings" for xylophone and orchestra, Op. 211, ( 1964) Alana Hovaness).

Domra

Domra is an old Russian plucked stringed musical instrument. His fate is amazing and unique in its kind.

Where it came from, how and when domra appeared in Rus', still remains a mystery to researchers. In historical sources, little information about domra has been preserved, even fewer images of ancient Russian domra have come down to us. And whether domras are depicted on documents that have come down to us, or some other plucked instruments common in those days, is also unknown. The first mention of domra was found in the sources of the 16th century. They talk about domra as an instrument that was already quite common in Rus' at that time.

At the moment, there are two most probable versions of the origin of domra. The first and most common is the version about the eastern roots of Russian domra. Indeed, instruments similar in design and method of sound extraction existed and still exist in the musical cultures of the countries of the East. If you have ever seen or heard the Kazakh dombra, Turkish baglama or Tajik rubab, then you might have noticed that they all have a round or oval shape, a flat soundboard, the sound is extracted by striking a plectrum of different frequency and intensity. It is generally accepted that all these instruments had one ancestor - the eastern tanbur. It was the tanbur that had an oval shape and a flat soundboard; they played it with a special chip, carved from improvised materials - a plectrum. Presumably, the instrument, which later transformed into a domra, was brought either during the time of the Tatar-Mongol yoke, or in the course of trade relations with the countries of the East. And the very name "domra" undoubtedly has a Turkic root.

Another version proceeds from the assumption that domra leads its pedigree from the European lute. In principle, in the Middle Ages, any stringed plucked instrument that had a body, neck and strings was called a lute. The lute, in turn, also originated from an oriental instrument - the Arabic al-ud. Perhaps the appearance and design of the domra was influenced by the instruments of the Western, European, Slavs, for example, the Polish-Ukrainian kobza and its improved version - the bandura. Just the bandura borrowed a lot directly from the lute. Given that the Slavs in the Middle Ages were constantly in complex historical and cultural relationships, of course, domra can also be considered akin to all European stringed-plucked instruments of that time.

Thus, based on the knowledge and research accumulated to date, we can conclude that the domra was a typical Russian instrument that combined, like much in the culture and history of our state, both European and Asian features.

Nevertheless, whatever the true origin of the domra, it is well established that an instrument with this name existed in Rus' and was an integral part of Russian culture in the 16th-17th centuries. It was played by buffoon musicians, as evidenced by the well-known proverb to researchers “I am glad the buffoons are about their domras”. Moreover, at the royal court there was a whole “Amusement Chamber”, a kind of musical and entertainment group, the basis of which were buffoons with their domras, harps, horns and other ancient Russian musical instruments. In addition, according to some researchers, domra at that time had already formed a family of ensemble varieties. The smallest and squeaky was called "domrishka", the largest and lowest sounding - "bass domra".

It is also known that domra and domra performers - buffoons and "domrachi", enjoyed considerable popularity among the people. All kinds of celebrations, festivities and folk festivals at all times and among all peoples were accompanied by songs and playing musical instruments. In Rus' in the Middle Ages, entertaining the people was the lot of "domracheev", "goosemen", "skrypotchikov" and other musicians. On domra, like a harp, they accompanied the folk epos, epics, legends, and in folk songs the domra supported the melodic line. It is authentically known that handicraft production of domras and domra strings was established, records of the deliveries of which to the court and to Siberia are preserved in historical documents ...

Presumably, the technology for making domra was as follows: a body was hollowed out from a single piece of wood, a stick-vulture was attached to it, strings or animal veins were pulled. They played with a sliver, a feather, a fish bone. A relatively simple technology, apparently, allowed the instrument to be widely used in Rus'.

But here in the history of domra comes the most dramatic moment. Worried about the development of secular culture, the ministers of the church took up arms against the musicians and declared the performances of buffoons "demonic games." As a result, in 1648, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich issued a decree on the mass extermination of innocent instruments - the tools of "demonic games". The famous decree reads: “Where will domras, and surns, and beeps, and psaltery, and hari, and all sorts of buzzing vessels ... ordered to seize and, having broken those demonic games, ordered to burn.” According to the 17th-century German traveler Adam Olearius, Russians were banned from instrumental music in general, and once several carts loaded with instruments taken from the population were taken across the Moscow River and burned there. Both musicians and buffoonery in general were persecuted.

Perhaps such a truly tragic twist of fate has not happened to any musical instrument in the world. So, whether as a result of barbaric extermination and prohibition, or for other reasons, but after the 17th century, researchers do not find any significant mention of the old domra. The history of the ancient Russian instrument ends here, and one could put an end to it, but ... Domra was destined to literally be reborn from the ashes!

This happened thanks to the activities of an outstanding researcher and musician, an unusually talented and extraordinary person - Vasily Vasilyevich Andreev. In 1896, in the Vyatka province, he discovered an unknown instrument with a hemispherical body. Assuming by its appearance that this is domra, he went to famous master Semyon Ivanovich Nalimov. Together they developed the design of a new instrument, based on the shape and design of the found one. Historians are still arguing about whether the instrument found by Andreev was really an old domra. Nevertheless, the instrument reconstructed in 1896 was called "domra". A round body, a medium length neck, three strings, a fourth system - this is how the reconstructed domra looked like.

By that time, Andreev already had a balalaika orchestra. But in order to realize his brilliant idea, the Great Russian Orchestra needed a leading melodic group of instruments, and the restored domra, with its new capabilities, was ideal for this role. In connection with the history of the creation of the Great Russian Orchestra, it is worth mentioning one more outstanding person, without which, perhaps, the idea would not have found its embodiment. This is the pianist and professional composer Nikolai Petrovich Fomin, Andreev's closest associate. It was thanks to Fomin's professional approach that Andreev's circle, at first amateur, studied musical notation, stood on a professional basis and then conquered listeners both in Russia and abroad with their performances. And if Andreev was primarily a generator of ideas, then Fomin became the person thanks to whom, in fact, domras and balalaikas embarked on the path of development as full-fledged academic instruments.

But back to domra. In the period 1896-1890. V. Andreev and S. Nalimov designed ensemble varieties of domra. And the first few decades after its new birth, domra developed in line with orchestral and ensemble performance.

However, almost immediately, some limitations on the capabilities of the Andreev domra were revealed, in connection with which attempts were made to improve it constructively. The main task was to expand the range of the instrument. In 1908, at the suggestion of the conductor G. Lyubimov, master S. Burov created a four-string domra with a fifth system. The “four-string” received a violin range, but, unfortunately, was inferior to the “three-string” in terms of timbre and color. Subsequently, its ensemble varieties and an orchestra of four-string domras also appeared.

Interest in domra grew every year, musical and technical horizons expanded, virtuoso musicians appeared. Finally, in 1945, the first instrumental concerto for domra with an orchestra of Russian folk instruments was created. famous concert g-moll Nikolai Budashkin was written at the request of the concertmaster of the orchestra. Osipov Alexey Simonenkov. This event opened new era in the history of domra. With the advent of the first instrumental concert, domra becomes a solo, virtuoso instrument.

In 1948, the first department of folk instruments in Russia was opened in Moscow at the State Musical and Pedagogical Institute named after I.I. Gnesins. Became the first domra teacher outstanding composer Yu. Shishakov, and then the young soloists of the orchestra. Osipova V. Miromanov and A. Alexandrov - the creator of the first school of playing the three-stringed domra. Thanks to higher professional education, the originally folk instrument domra in a short time passed the path on the academic stage, which took centuries for the instruments of the symphony orchestra (after all, the violin was once a folk instrument!).

Domra performance is moving forward at a gigantic pace. In 1974, the I All-Russian competition of performers on folk instruments was held, the winners of the competition were outstanding domra virtuosos - Alexander Tsygankov and Tamara Volskaya (see the section whose creative activity determined the direction of development of domra art for decades to come, both in the field of performing itself and domra repertoire.

Today, domra is a young promising instrument with a huge, primarily musical and expressive potential, which has truly Russian roots and, nevertheless, has risen to the heights of the academic genre. What will be his further fate? The word is yours, dear domrists!

Balalaika

Description
The body is glued from separate (6-7) segments, the head of the long neck is slightly bent back. Metal strings (In the 18th century, two of them were veined; modern balalaikas have nylon or carbon strings). On the fingerboard of a modern balalaika there are 16-31 metal frets (until the end of the 19th century - 5-7 forced frets).

The sound is loud but soft. The most common techniques for extracting sound: rattling, pizzicato, double pizzicato, single pizzicato, vibrato, tremolo, fractions, guitar tricks.

build

Until the transformation of the balalaika into a concert instrument at the end of the 19th century by Vasily Andreev, it did not have a permanent, ubiquitous system. Each performer tuned the instrument according to his style of performance, the general mood of the pieces played, and local traditions.

The system introduced by Andreev (two strings in unison - the note "mi", one - a quart higher - the note "la" (and "mi" and "la" of the first octave) became widespread among concert balalaika players and began to be called "academic". There is also "folk" system - the first string is "salt", the second - "mi", the third - "do". In this system, triads are easier to take, the disadvantage of it is the difficulty of playing on open strings. In addition to the above, there are also regional traditions of tuning the instrument. rare local settings reaches two dozen ..

Varieties

In a modern orchestra of Russian folk instruments, five varieties of balalaikas are used: prima, second, viola, bass and double bass. Of these, only the prima is a solo, virtuoso instrument, while the rest are assigned purely orchestral functions: the second and viola implement chord accompaniment, while the bass and double bass perform the bass function.

Prevalence

Balalaika is a fairly common musical instrument, which is studied in academic musical educational institutions in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

The term of training on the balalaika in a children's music school is 5-7 years (depending on the age of the student), and in a secondary educational institution - 4 years, in a higher educational institution 4-5 years. Repertoire: arrangements of folk songs, arrangements of classical works, author's music.

Story
There is no single point of view on the time of the appearance of the balalaika. It is believed that the balalaika has been spreading since the end of the 17th century. Improved thanks to V. Andreev together with the masters Paserbsky and Nalimov. A family of modernized balalaikas has been created: piccolo, prima, second, viola, bass, double bass. The balalaika is used as a solo concert, ensemble and orchestral instrument.

Etymology
The very name of the instrument is already curious, it is typically folk, conveying the character of playing on it with the sound of syllables. The root of the words "balalaika", or, as it was also called, "balabayka", has long attracted the attention of researchers by its kinship with such Russian words as balakat, balabonit, balabolit, joker, which means to chat, empty calls (go back to the common Slavic *bolbol of the same meaning ). All these concepts, complementing each other, convey the essence of the balalaika - an instrument of light, funny, "strumming", not very serious.

For the first time, the word "balalaika" is found in written monuments dating back to the reign of Peter I.

The first written mention of the balalaika is contained in a document dated June 13, 1688 - “Memory from the Streltsy order to the Little Russian order” (RGADA), which, among other things, reports that in Moscow, the Streltsy order were brought “<...>townsman Savka Fedorov<...>Yes<...>peasant Ivashko Dmitriev, and with them a balalaika was brought so that they rode a chariot horse in a cart to the Yausky gates, sang songs and played the balalaika in toi, and guard archers who stood at the Yausky gates on guard scolded<...>».

The next written source in which the balalaika is mentioned is the "Register" signed by Peter I, referring to 1715: in St. Petersburg, during the celebration of the jester's wedding of "Prince-Papa" N. M. Zotov, in addition to other instruments carried by mummers, four balalaikas were named.

For the first time, the word was attested in the Ukrainian language of the early 18th century (in documents of 1717-1732) in the form of "balabaika" (obviously, this is its older form, also preserved in the Kursk and Karachev dialects). In Russian for the first time in V. I. Maikov's poem "Elisey", 1771, song 1: "You tune me a whistle or a balalaika."

Cello (Italian violoncello, abbr. cello, German Violoncello, French violoncelle, English cello)

A bowed stringed musical instrument of the bass and tenor register, known from the first half of the 16th century, of the same structure as the violin or viola, but much larger. The cello has wide expressive possibilities and carefully developed performance technique, it is used as a solo, ensemble and orchestral instrument.

The history of the emergence and development of the instrument

The appearance of the cello dates back to the beginning of the 16th century. Initially, it was used as a bass instrument to accompany singing or playing an instrument of a higher register. There were numerous varieties of the cello, which differed from each other in size, number of strings, and tuning (the most common tuning was a tone lower than the modern one).
In the 17th-18th centuries, the efforts of the outstanding musical masters of the Italian schools (Nicolo Amati, Giuseppe Guarneri, Antonio Stradivari, Carlo Bergonzi, Domenico Montagnana, etc.) created a classical cello model with a firmly established body size. At the end of the 17th century, the first solo works for cello appeared - sonatas and ricercars by Giovanni Gabrieli. By the middle of the 18th century, the cello began to be used as a concert instrument, owing to its brighter, fuller sound and improving performance technique, finally displacing the viola da gamba from musical practice. The cello is also part of the symphony orchestra and chamber ensembles. The final approval of the cello as one of the leading instruments in music occurred in the 20th century through the efforts of the outstanding musician Pablo Casals. The development of performance schools on this instrument has led to the emergence of numerous virtuoso cellists who regularly perform solo concerts.
The cello repertoire is very wide and includes numerous concertos, sonatas, unaccompanied compositions.


]Technique of playing the cello

Mstislav Rostropovich with a Duport cello by Stradivari.
The principles of playing and strokes when performing on the cello are the same as on the violin, however, due to the larger size of the instrument and the different position of the player, the technique of playing the cello is somewhat limited. Flageolets, pizzicato, thumb bet and other game techniques are used. The sound of the cello is juicy, melodious and tense, slightly compressed in the upper register.
Cello string structure: C, G, d, a (do, salt of a large octave, re, la of a small octave), that is, an octave below the viola. The range of the cello, thanks to the developed technique of playing on the a string, is very wide - from C (to a large octave) to a4 (A of the fourth octave) and higher. Notes are written in bass, tenor and treble clefs according to the actual sound.


the instrument was held by the calves of the legs
When playing, the performer rests the cello on the floor with a capstan, which became widespread only at the end of the 19th century (before that, the instrument was held by the calves of the feet). On modern cellos, the curved capstan, invented by the French cellist P. Tortellier, is widely used, which gives the instrument a flatter position, somewhat facilitating the playing technique.
The cello is widely used as a solo instrument, the cello group is used in string and symphony orchestras, the cello is an obligatory member of the string quartet, in which it is the lowest (except for the double bass, which is sometimes used in it) of the instruments in terms of sound, and is also often used in other chamber ensembles. ensembles. In the orchestral score, the cello part is written between the parts of violas and double basses.

The history of the creation of the violin

The history of music considers that the violin in its most perfect form arose in the 16th century. By that time, all bowed instruments that were active throughout the Middle Ages were already known. They were located in certain order and the scholars of that time knew, with a greater or lesser probability, their entire genealogy. Their number was huge and now there is no need to delve into the depths of this matter.

The latest researchers have come to the conclusion that the violin is in no way a reduced "viola da gamba". Moreover, it has been established with sufficient accuracy that both these types of instruments in their device have sharply different features from each other. All instruments related to the "viole da gamba" had a flat back, flat edges, a neck divided by frets, a head less often in the form of a trefoil and more often with an image of an animal or a human head, cutouts on the upper surface of the instrument in the outlines of the Latin letter "C", and finally , string tuning in fourths and thirds. On the contrary, the "viola da brachio", as the immediate predecessor of the modern violin, had a fifth tuning of the strings, a convex back, the edges are somewhat raised, the fingerboard without any frets, the head in the form of a scroll and notches or "efs", in the outline of the lowercases facing each other Latin f in italics.
This circumstance led to the fact that the family of viols proper was composed of a successive reduction of the gamba. Thus arose full squad an old "quartet" or "quintet", composed only of viols of various sizes. But, along with the emergence of a complete family of viols, an instrument developed and improved that had all the distinctive and most characteristic features of the modern violin. And this instrument, in fact, is not even a "hand viola" in direct meaning words, but the so-called "hand lyre", which, as a folk instrument of the Slavic lands, formed the basis of the modern family of violins. The great Raphael (1483-1520), in one of his paintings from 1503, gives an excellent depiction of this instrument. Contemplating it, there is not the slightest doubt that there is very little left for the complete transformation of the "hand lyre" into the perfect violin of our time. The only difference that distinguishes the image of Raphael from the modern violin lies only in the number of strings - there are five of them in the presence of two bass ones - and in the outline of the pegs, which still strongly resemble the pegs of an old viol.
Since then, the evidence has multiplied at an incredible rate. The insignificant corrections that could be made to the image of the ancient "lyre da brachio" would give it the most impeccable resemblance to the modern violin. These testimonies, in the form of an old violin, date as far back as 1516 and 1530, when a Basel bookseller chose old violin with your trade mark. At the same time, the word "violin", in its French style violon, first appeared in French dictionaries of the early 16th century. Henri Pruneer (1886-1942) claims that as early as 1529 this word is contained in some business papers of the time. However, indications that the concept of "violon" appeared around 1490 should be considered doubtful. In Italy, the word violonista in the meaning of a viol player began to appear from 1462, while the word violino itself in the meaning of "violin" came into use only a hundred years later, when it became widespread. The English adopted the French spelling of the word only in 1555, which, however, was replaced three years later by the completely English "violin".
In Rus', according to the testimony of the most ancient monuments, bowed instruments were known for a very long time, but none of them developed so much as to later become an instrument of a symphony orchestra. The oldest ancient Russian bow instrument is the beep. In its purest form, it had an oval, somewhat pear-shaped wooden body, with three strings stretched over it. They played the whistle with an arched bow, which had nothing to do with the modern one. The time when the whistle originated is not exactly known, but there is an assumption that the "beep" appeared in Rus' along with the penetration of "eastern" instruments - domra, surna and smyk. This time is usually determined by the second half of the XIV and the beginning of the XV century. It is hard to say when "violins" appeared in the literal sense of the word. It is only known with certainty that the first mentions of the violinist in the alphabet books of the 16th-17th centuries "equally show that the interpreters had no idea about it." In any case, according to P. F. Findeisen (1868-1928), this instrument was not yet known in the domestic and public life of Moscow Rus', and the first violins in their completely completed form appeared in Moscow, apparently, only at the beginning XVIII century. However, the compilers of the alphabet books, who at one time had never seen a genuine violin, only understood that this instrument had to be a stringed instrument, and therefore erroneously likened it to "gusli" and "Little Russian lira", which, of course, was definitely not true.
More or less detailed descriptions of the new violin in the West begin to appear only from the middle of the 16th century. Thus, Philibert Jambes de Fair (1526-1572), outlining the features and distinctive features of the contemporary violin, cites a number of names from which it can be concluded that the "family of violins" was built on the model and likeness of the viola. It was from that time, from 1556, that the violin existed until the end of the 17th century in several varieties, known as French names dessus, quinte, haute-contre, tailee and basse. In this form, the composition of the family of violins was established by the time when Peer Maryann (1588-1648) began to write about him. "Gang of twenty-four" - as Les vingt-quatre was called at one time - consisted of the same instruments, but with the names already moved. The dessus was followed by the haute-contre, and the quinte was between the tailee and the basse, but their volumes exactly corresponded to the earlier data, which have just been mentioned. Later there was another change in this composition of the violins, due to which the haute-contre disappeared completely, giving way to the dessus, and the tailee united with the quinte, adopting the latter's order. Thus, a new type of four-part bow combination was established, in which dessus corresponded to the first and second violins, tailee or quinte - violas and basse - cellos.
Now it is difficult to establish with accuracy when the final completion of that instrument, which is now known under the name "violin", took place. Most likely, this improvement went on in a continuous series, and each master brought something of his own. Nevertheless, it can be clearly stated that the 17th century was the “golden age” for the violin, when the final completion of the relationships in the structure of the instrument took place and when it reached that perfection that no attempt to “improve” it could already step over. History has retained the names of the great violin transducers in its memory and linked the development of this instrument with the names of three families of violin makers. First of all, this is the Amati family of Cremonese masters, who became the teachers of Andrea Guarneri (1626?-1698) and Antonio Stradivari (1644-1736). However, the violin owes its final completion most of all to Giuseppe-Antonio Guarneri (1687-1745) and in particular to Antonio Stradivari, who is revered as the greatest creator of modern violin.
But not everyone liked everything in the violin that had already been established by that time by the great Cremonese. Many tried to change the ratios adopted by Stradivari, and no one, of course, succeeded in this. Most curious of all, however, was the desire of some of the most backward masters to return the violin to the recent past and impose on it the obsolete features of the viola. As you know, the violin had no frets. This made it possible to expand its sound volume and perfect the technique of violin playing. However, in England these qualities of the violin seemed "doubtful", and the "intonation" of the instrument was not accurate enough. Therefore, the frets on the fretboard of the violin were introduced in order to eliminate the possible "inaccuracy" in the extraction of sound, and the publishing house, led by John Playford (1623-1686?), from 1654 until 1730 reprinted a manual compiled according to the "modal tablature" . Justice, however, requires to say that it was in general the only case, famous in the history of violin playing. Other attempts to improve and facilitate the playing of this instrument have been reduced to string tuning or the so-called "scordatura". This made sense, and many prominent violinists, like Tartini (1692-1770), Lolli (1730-1802), Paganini (1784-1840) and a few others, each tuned their instrument in their own way. Sometimes this method of string tuning is used even now, pursuing special, artistic goals.
Stradivarius violin. Photo from gruhn.com So, the violin received its most perfect incarnation by the end of the 17th century. Antonio Stradivari was the last to bring it to its present state, and François Tourt, an 18th-century master, is revered as the creator of the modern bow. But in the development of the violin and its implementation in real life, things were less successful. It is very difficult to convey in a few words the whole long and varied history of this development and improvement of violin technique. Suffice it to say that the appearance of the violin caused a lot of opponents. Many simply regretted the lost beauties of the viola, while others came up with entire "treatises" directed against the uninvited stranger. Only thanks to the great violinists, who moved the technique of violin playing decisively forward, did the violin take the place that it rightfully deserved. In the 17th century, these virtuoso violinists were Giuseppe Torelli and Arcangelo Corelli. In the future, Antonio Vivaldi (1675-1743) put a lot of work for the benefit of the violin, and, finally, a whole galaxy of wonderful violinists headed by Niccolò Paganini. The modern violin has four strings tuned in fifths. The top string is sometimes called the fifth, and the bottom string is called the bass. All strings of the violin are veined or intestinal, and only the "bass" is entwined with a thin silver thread or "gimp" for greater fullness and beauty of the sound. At present, all violinists use a metal string for the "fifth" and exactly the same, but only wrapped with a thin aluminum thread for softness, the A string, although some musicians also use a pure aluminum A string without any "gimp". In this regard, the metal string for mi and aluminum for la, made it necessary to strengthen the sonority of the re string, which was then still veined, which was done with the help of an aluminum "gimp" that wrapped around, like a "basque", this latter and, by the way, which served her good. Nevertheless, all these events greatly upset the true connoisseurs, because the ringing and sharpness of the sound of metal strings in other cases is very noticeable and unpleasant, but there is nothing to do and one has to put up with the circumstances.
The strings of the violin, tuned in accordance with the requirements of the instrument, are called open or empty, and sound in the order of descending pure fifths from mi of the second octave to a small salt. The order of the strings is always considered from the top to the bottom, and this custom has been preserved since ancient times in relation to all bowed and stringed instruments "with a handle" or "neck". Notes for violin are written only in " treble clef" or key Salt.
The concept of "open" or in orchestral usage - an empty string, implies the sound of the string throughout its length from the stand to the nut, that is, between those two points that determine its actual height during tuning. The length of the string is usually determined by the same points, since in the orchestra it is the sounding part of the string that is taken into account, and not its "absolute value" enclosed between the sub-neck and the pegs. In sheet music, an open string is indicated by a small circle or zero placed above or below the note.
In some cases, when the musical fabric of the work requires it, you can tune the string down a semitone in order to get a F sharp of a small octave for the "basque" or a second D sharp for the "fifth".
Source music-instrument.ru

History of building electric guitar (electric guitar)

The development of technology in the 20th century did not disregard the cultural side of human existence. The emergence of electronic devices for playback and, most importantly, sound processing, in the end, could not but affect the musical instruments themselves. In addition to attempts to create fundamentally new musical instruments, attempts were also made to "modernize" the well-known old ones. So Lloyd Loher in 1924 designed the first magnetic pickup, a device that converts the vibrations of a metal string into an electrical signal. This talented engineer worked at that time, where would you think? - at the Gibson! But as you understand, before the creation Les Paul still far enough - as much as a long 28 years, so that the first mass-produced electric guitars were not released by Gibson. And this was done by a company called the Electro String Company, one of the founders of which was Adolf Rickenbacker, who subsequently founded, as you probably already guessed, the very famous Rickenbacker company that released a signature guitar for John Lennon - 325JL. The bodies of these first guitars were made of aluminum, which is why they received the sincere name "frying pans". This event took place in 1931. I don’t know if there were any other attempts to attach a pickup to a guitar, probably there were, but only in 1951 they acquired those very classic and recognizable forms. And Leo Fender did this by releasing his famous Telecaster and it was already a breakthrough, something like putting a spacecraft into orbit with a man, of course, on board. The hull was made of wood, although it had nothing in common in design with classical guitar. For some reason, many people think that electric guitars are made of who knows what: metal, plastic, and some other ultra-modern materials, no - guitars were made and are made to this day, mainly from wood, just like a person is 70% water.
From that moment on, the electric guitar can be said to have taken place as a musical instrument and a cultural phenomenon. Gibson, of course, did not lag behind and released their legendary Les Paul in 1952. And the test shot came in 1954, when Fender launched the Stratocaster into orbit. Blues, rock and country musicians began to play guitars of these models and manufacturers. Of course, there have been many different beautiful and not very popular and not popular guitars since then, but it is unlikely that to this day, someone has come up with something more significant, if you do not take sound processing into account. There are, of course, various innovations, such as the addition of a seventh and even an eighth string (as a rule, these are guitars intended for bands and musicians of extreme styles and trends), but all these are phenomena that “did not come close” in their significance to those listed above "discoveries".
But the most interesting thing is that the guitar still remained a guitar. For some reason, many people who are far from music think that the electric guitar is a musical instrument that has nothing to do with the classical guitar. Of course, the difference is great, ranging from appearance to playing techniques, but still it is one and the same instrument with the same (with some exceptions) tuning and chord fingerings, which means that knowing the chords of the songs, they can be performed with equal success on both electric and on acoustic guitars.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE GUITAR AND ITS PRESENT STATE

The guitar is, as you know, the national Spanish instrument. Until now, the origin of the guitar has not been exactly established. It must be assumed that its prototype is the Assyrian-Babylonian kefara or the Egyptian cithara. It could have been brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans (Latin guitar) or the Arabs (Moorish guitar). On the first one, they played with the "punteado" technique, that is, with a pinch, on the second, which had a sharper sonority, they played with the "rasgueado" technique, that is, by rattling the strings with all the fingers of the right hand.

The guitar of the modern type, or in any case close to it, probably originated from the fusion of these two varieties of the ancient cithara not earlier than the 16th century. We have an indirect indication of this dual origin of the guitar in a different manner of playing it to the present: folk - "rasgueado", - originating from playing the Moorish guitar, and professional - "punteado", - originating from the Latin guitar.

By the time of penetration into other European countries (XVI-XVII centuries), the guitar had five strings, tuned in a quarter ratio, like the related lute. It is not certain whether the sixth string was added in Germany or Italy. In this final form, the guitar acquired the rights of a serious instrument. Based on this increase in its musical possibilities, the six-string guitar experienced its first heyday (from the end of the 18th century to the middle of the 19th century). During this period the guitar advanced whole line brilliant virtuosos and composers, such as the Spaniards Aguado and Sor and the Italians Giuliani, Leniani, Carcassi, Carulli, Tsani de Ferranti, Regondi, Moretti and others. The concert activity of these guitarists in European countries raised the guitar to a high professional level and won it many adherents from among the largest musicians, poets and writers. Some of them - the composers Monteverdi, Rossini, Gretry, Ober, Donizetti, Verdi, Massenet - used the guitar in their operas; others - the composers Lully, Weber, Diabelli, Berlioz, Gounod - played the guitar themselves; others - Glinka, Tchaikovsky - loved to listen to the guitar. It should be especially noted that the famous violinist Paganini was at the same time an excellent guitarist and wrote a number of works for the guitar. Poets and writers: Goethe, Kerner, Lenau, Byron, Shelley, Derzhavin, Pushkin, Lermontov, L. Tolstoy, Baudelaire and many others loved the guitar and devoted more than one page to it in their works.

The heyday of the guitar, which lasted almost until the end of the 19th century, was replaced by its decline, mainly due to the appearance of the pianoforte. However, since the beginning of the 20th century, we have been witnessing a period of a new heyday of the guitar, apparently caused by a change in the attitude of the general public towards it, as an ancient and one of the most expressive folk instruments. As a result, a number of exceptionally gifted guitar virtuosos, mostly Spaniards, appeared: Tarrega, Llobet, Segovia, Pujol and others, who perfected the art of playing the guitar and put the guitar on a par with other traditional solo instruments. And again, as in the era of the first heyday, the guitar attracts many friends from among the most prominent composers, such as Turin, de Falla, Pons, Roussel and others.

In our country, it was widely distributed along with six-string guitar its variety is a seven-string guitar, mainly with a tertian tuning.

Accordion, button accordion

History and varieties reed instruments(accordion, button accordion, etc.)

An accordion is a musical instrument in which sounds are made by freely slipping metal reeds - thin plates vibrating under the action of an air stream pumped by bellows. With the left hand, the performer controls the bellows, and also presses the bass and chord buttons to accompany the melody, which is played with the right hand.

In Russia, in Moscow, there is the best and most extensive Museum of Harmonics in the world (there are 4 such museums in the world: there is also the Museum of National Harmonics in Germany in Klingenthal, the Museum of Harmonics in Italy in Castelfidardo and the Accordion Museum in the USA in .Super Ior-Delucy).

General history of the development of reed instruments

The first known instrument with the reed principle of sound extraction is the ancient Eastern Sheng (originated in Burma, Tibet, Laos and China). The exact date this instrument was created is unknown, but it is believed to be over 2,000 years old. It was considered a "pure" instrument, that is, suitable for the performance of sacred music. Around 700 AD The sheng was an improved popular instrument that could be played in 12 keys, and a harmony textbook was created for these instruments.



The appearance of harmonicas, button accordions and accordions in Russia

The appearance of harmonics in Russia dates back to the beginning of the 40s of the XIX century. privileged segments of the population, as indicated in literary sources, bought hand harmonicas abroad, and through serf servants, harmonicas appeared and became popular in the villages. There is an assumption that the harmonicas could be imported by foreign craftsmen, ordered to the Tula arms factories.
Among Tula artisans, there was an opinion that gunsmiths Sizov and Shkunaev invented harmonicas. According to some reports, they were produced in the 30s of the XIX century. in the Tula province, however, it is not known what kind of harmonics they are talking about - about mouthpieces or manual ones.



General information about the device of harmonics

Harmonica can be called all musical instruments, the sound in which is reproduced by a metal tongue (voice) that freely slips through, vibrating under the action of a stream of air. The air in the harmonicas is supplied with the help of a hand or foot bellows (hand harmonicas, harmoniums), a fan (organolas, organets) or exhaled and inhaled by the lungs of the performer (mouth harmonicas). In all modern harmonicas, the reed is fastened with riveting at one end on a metal base, called the frame (chassis). The frame together with the riveted tongue is called the bar.



Sheng (gonofui, ken, lusheng)

Sheng is one of the oldest instruments of the harmonica family, originating in Burma, Tibet, Laos and China. According to ancient Chinese manuscripts (2-3 thousand years BC), scientists have established the earliest name of the instrument - Yu. Then it began to be called chao, ho, sheng - depending on the shape and material used for its manufacture. Other varieties of sheng are also known - chonofui or gonofui (Japan), ken (Laos), lusheng and hulusheng (Southwestern China). In Russia and other European countries, shengs were sometimes called Chinese mouth organs.



Bibelharmonica, orchestrion, elodicon

When the first musical instruments built on the new principle of sound production (a slipping metal tongue) appeared in Europe, organ makers used the old forms of musical instruments: portable organ, regalia, positive (portable) organ, etc. This is clearly seen in the example of the first instruments of such kind.

Synthesizer

An electronic musical instrument that synthesizes sound using one or more sound wave generators. The desired sound is achieved by changing the properties of the electrical signal (in analog synthesizers) or by adjusting the parameters of the central processor (in digital synthesizers).

A synthesizer made in the form of a case with a keyboard is called a keyboard synthesizer.
A synthesizer made in the form of a case without a keyboard is called a synthesizer module and is controlled from a MIDI keyboard.
If a keyboard synthesizer is equipped with a built-in sequencer, it is called a workstation.
Types of synthesizers:

Depending on the technology used, synthesizers are divided into several types:

Analog synthesizers implement additive and subtractive types of synthesis. The main feature of analog synthesizers is that the sound is generated and processed using real electrical circuits. Often the connection of various synthesis modules is made using special cables - patch-wires, hence the “patch” is the common name for a certain timbre of a synthesizer among musicians.

The main advantage of analog synthesizers is that all changes in the nature of the sound over time, such as the movement of the filter cutoff frequency, occur extremely smoothly (continuously). The disadvantages include high level noise, the problem of tuning instability has now been overcome. The most famous analog synthesizers in use today include: Mimimoog Voyager, LittlePhatty, Prophet '08, Andromeda A6.

Virtual analog synthesizers are a hybrid between an analog synthesizer and a digital one, carrying a software component in their body. The most famous among them are: Access Virus TI, Nord Lead 2x, Nord Modular, DSI Poly Evolver.

Digital synthesizers include digital synthesizers themselves, as well as their variations: virtual synthesizers-plugins / standalone and interactive synthesizers. They implement various types of synthesis. For creating and playing original waveforms, modifying the sound with filters, envelopes, etc. digital devices based on one central processor and several coprocessors are used.

In fact, a digital synthesizer is a highly specialized computer. The most advanced models of modern digital synthesizers (Korg OASYS, Roland Fantom, Yamaha Tyros), like personal computers, allow you to update the operating system, contain page menus, built-in help files, screen savers, etc.

Virtual synthesizers are a subset of digital synthesizers, but they are a special kind of software. To create sound, the central processor and RAM of a personal computer are used, and to output sound to a playback device, a PC sound card is used.

Virtual synthesizers can be both stand-alone software products and plug-ins of a certain format (VST, DXi, RTAS, TDM, LADSPA, etc.) designed to run inside the host program, usually a multi-channel recorder (Cubase VST, Cakewalk Sonar, Logic Pro, Pro Tools, Ardour, etc.). High availability leads to the growing popularity of virtual synthesizers, including models of real-life instruments (for example, Native Pro53 - Prophet synthesizer emulator, Novation V-Station - Novation K-Station synthesizer emulator, Korg Legacy - Korg M1 synthesizer emulators, Wavestation, PolySix, MS20 etc.).

>Interactive or home synthesizers are also a variety of digital synthesizers designed specifically for home and salon amateur music making, as well as for interactive music education. Typically, these synthesizers do not have the means for advanced sound editing, including real-time controls. Emphasis is placed on realistic imitation of a variety of orchestral instruments and the use of the automatic accompaniment function. In this case, in order to play any piece of music, the performer does not need to program voices or record parts into the sequencer - just select a ready-made voice for a melody and a style for auto accompaniment.

Of course, the control of such synthesizers is much simpler than that of professional performing models and is often accessible even to a child. Many synthesizers of this type include educational games such as “guess the note” or “guess the chord”, collections of ready-made music for listening and learning, a karaoke function with displaying lyrics on the screen, etc. This category of synthesizers includes the Yamaha PSR, Casio CTK / WK, Roland E / VA / EXR families, etc.

Sound synthesis types:

Depending on the method of generating sound waves and their transformation, sound synthesis can be classified as follows:

Summing (additive) synthesis, which uses the principle of superposition (superposition) of several waves of a simple (usually sinusoidal) shape with different frequencies and amplitudes. By analogy with electric organs, these waves are called registers and are denoted as 16' (tone one octave lower than taken), 8' (initial tone), 4' (tone one octave higher than taken), etc. (the figure is the pipe length of the corresponding organ register in feet). In its pure form, it is found in electric organs (Hammond, Farfisa) and their digital emulators (Korg CX-3, Roland VK-8, etc.). The sound of the instrument is richer, the more registers are used in the design.

Subtractive (subtractive) synthesis, in which the original arbitrary waveform changes timbre as it passes through a variety of filters, envelope generators, effects processors, etc. As a subset, this type of synthesis is widely used in almost all modern synthesizer models.

Operator (FM, from the English Frequency Modulation) synthesis, in which the interaction (frequency modulation and summation) of several waves of a simple form takes place. Each wave, together with its characteristics, is called an operator, a certain configuration of operators constitutes an algorithm. The more operators used in the design of the synthesizer, the richer the sound of the instrument becomes. For example, the Yamaha DX-7 synthesizer (1984), which is still popular to this day, has 6 operators, which are configured by 36 different algorithms.

Physical synthesis, in which, due to the use of powerful processors, real physical processes are simulated in musical instruments of one type or another. For example, for wind whistle instruments such as a flute, the parameters will be the length, profile and diameter of the pipe, air flow rate, body material; for string instruments - body size, material, string length and tension, etc. Physical synthesis is used by such instruments as Yamaha VL-1, Korg OASYS, Alesis Fusion, etc.

Wavetable (PCM) synthesis, in which the sound is created by playing fragments of the sound of real musical instruments (samples and multisamples) previously recorded in the instrument's memory. The most famous synthesizer in this group is the Waldorf Wave, also known as the most expensive synthesizer in the world.

Hybrid synthesis, which uses one or another combination of different sound synthesis methods, for example, “summing + subtracting”, “wave + subtracting”, “operator + subtracting”, etc. Most modern instruments are created on the basis of hybrid synthesis, since it has very powerful tools for varying the timbre over the widest range.

Control of a modern synthesizer:

The control of a modern professional synthesizer is a complex process associated with the control of several hundreds, or even thousands, of various parameters that are responsible for certain aspects of the sound. Some parameters can be controlled in real time using rotary knobs, wheels, pedals, buttons; other parameters are used for pre-programmed changes in time of certain characteristics. In this regard, timbres (patches) of digital synthesizers are also often called programs.

Keyboard and dynamic tracking are used to track the position and velocity of a keystroke. For example, when moving from the lower keys to the upper ones, the timbre can smoothly change from cello to flute, and with a more vigorous pressing of the key, timpani are added to the overall sound.

An envelope is used to change a certain parameter of a sound non-periodically. Typically, the envelope graph is a broken line consisting of attack (Attack), decay (Decay), support (Sustain) and decay (Release) (see also ADSR envelope), however, in various synthesizer models they are found as simpler ( ADR) as well as more complex multi-stage envelopes. The total number of envelopes is an important characteristic of a synthesizer.

The filter is used to cut out a certain frequency band from the total signal spectrum. Often, the filter is also equipped with resonance, which makes it possible to sharply increase the frequency band at the cutoff boundary. Changing the filter characteristics with real-time controls, keyboard tracking and/or envelopes allows you to get extremely diverse sound options. The total number of filters is an important characteristic of a synthesizer.

Ring-modulator allows you to modulate the original signal with another signal with a certain (fixed or floating) frequency, due to which there is a significant enrichment with harmonics. The name “Ring” (eng. “call”) is due to the fact that this node often serves to obtain a “bell-like” sound of the instrument.

The Low Frequency Oscillator is used to periodically change certain parameters of the sound, such as pitch, volume, filter cutoff frequency, etc. In the case of a cyclic change in volume, a tremolo effect is created, a change in pitch creates a vibrato effect, a periodic change in the filter cutoff frequency is called the “wah-wah” effect.

Effects processing is used to finalize the sound. Modern synthesizers are usually equipped with a fairly large number of effect processors (for example, Korg Karma - 8 processors, Roland Fantom - 6 processors, etc.). The processors operate independently of each other, although they can be combined into serial circuits if desired. Modern effect processors implement a large number of spatial (reverb, delay, echo), modulation (flange, chorus, phaser) and other (overamp, frequency shift, harmonic enrichment) effect algorithms.

The most advanced models have the means to control effect parameters from real-time controls, envelopes, LFOs, and more.

The mechanics of the modern piano was invented by the Italian master Cristofori at the end of the 17th century (the official date is ca. 1709), in his design the hammers were under the strings. The instrument was called gravicembalo col piano e forte, - pianoforte - and later the name of the piano was fixed.

The invention of Cristofori marked the beginning of the development of the mechanics of the English system. Other types of mechanics were developed by Marius in France (1716) and Schroeter in Germany (1717-21). Sebastian Erard invented the double rehearsal mechanic, which made it possible to extract sound by quickly pressing the key again from halfway. In the mechanics of the English system, such a repetition was possible only when the key was fully raised.

In Russia, the piano business was primarily associated with St. Petersburg. In the 18th century alone, more than 50 piano masters worked there. The development of factory production of pianos in the first half of the 19th century was influenced by the activities of the first Russian piano manufacturer, supplier of the Imperial Court, the English master G. Faverier, the German masters I.-A. Tischner, K.-I. Wirth, A.-H. Schroeder, I. -F. Schroeder and, since 1840, the Belgian G.-G. Lichtental. To date, the names of more than 600 piano masters who worked in Russia before the revolution of 1917 are known. Piano master of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, candidate of philological sciences Sergeev M. V. is engaged in these studies.
In the middle of the 19th century, the factories of J. Blutner, K. Bechstein opened in Germany, in the USA - Steinway and Sons, who had no equal for many years.
In the 20th century, fundamentally new instruments appeared - electronic pianos and synthesizers, as well as a special form of sound production - a prepared piano.

The first piece of music written specifically for the piano appeared in 1732 (sonata by Lodovico Giustini). However, en masse, composers began to focus on the piano rather than the harpsichord forty or fifty years later, in the days of Haydn and Mozart.

Pianos are divided into grand pianos - instruments with horizontal strings - and upright pianos. The first known vertical piano is attributed to K.-E. Friederici (Gera, Germany), who created it in 1745. However, already in 1742, a similar instrument came out of the workshop of Johann Söcher in Zanthofen (Bavaria), and in 1748 such G. Silbermann also made the same instruments. Varieties of vertical pianos - pyramidal, piano-lyre, piano-bureau, piano-harp, etc. Since the middle of the 19th century, only pianos and grand pianos have been produced.

Sound in the piano is produced by striking the strings with a hammer. The strings are stretched on a cast-iron frame with the help of pins (pegs), passing through the treble and bass pegs glued to the resonant deck (in the piano, the deck is in a vertical position, in grand pianos - in a horizontal position). For each sound there is a choir of strings: three for the middle and high ranges, two or one for the low. The range of most pianos is 88 semitones from A subcontroctave to the 5th octave (older instruments may be limited to the A note of the 4th octave from above; you can find instruments with a wider range). In the neutral position, the strings, except for the last one and a half to two octaves, are in contact with dampers (mufflers). When the keys are pressed, a device of levers, straps and hammers, called piano mechanics, is activated. After pressing, the damper leaves the corresponding choir of strings so that the string can sound freely, and a hammer, upholstered with felt (felt), strikes it.
Piano pedals
Modern pianos have two or three (the newest models have four) pedals. In earlier instruments, retractable levers were used for the same purpose, which the pianist had to press with his knees.
The right pedal (sometimes referred to simply as the "pedal" because it is used most often) raises all the dampers at once, so that when the key is released, the corresponding strings continue to sound. In addition, all other strings of the instrument also begin to vibrate, becoming a secondary source of sound. The right pedal is used for two purposes: to make the sequence of extracted sounds inseparable (legato playing) where it is impossible to do it with fingers due to technical difficulties, and to enrich the sound with new overtones. There are two ways to use the pedal: a direct pedal - pressing the pedal before pressing the keys to be held, and a delayed pedal, when the pedal is pressed immediately after the key is pressed and before it is released. In sheet music, this pedal is denoted by the letter P (or the abbreviation Ped.), and its removal is indicated by an asterisk. In the music of composers of the eras of romanticism and impressionism, these designations are often found, usually to give the sound a special flavor.
The left pedal is used to attenuate the sound. In grand pianos, this is achieved by shifting the hammers to the right, so that instead of the three strings of the choir, they strike only two (in the past, sometimes only one). In a piano, the hammers move closer to the strings. This pedal is used much less often. In sheet music, it is marked una corda, its removal is marked tre corde or tutte le corde. In addition to attenuating the sound, using the left pedal when playing the piano allows you to soften the sound, make it warmer and more beautiful due to the vibration of the released choir strings.
The middle (or third, since it was historically added last) pedal, or sostenuto pedal, serves to selectively raise the dampers. When the middle pedal is depressed, the dampers raised when the keys are pressed remain raised until the pedal is removed. It, like the right pedal, can be used for playing legato, but will not enrich the sound with the vibration of the other strings. This pedal is absent from most pianos today and is present on most grand pianos. There are pianos in which the middle pedal “slides” to the left and thus is fixed, while a special fabric is placed between the hammers and strings, due to which the sound becomes very quiet, which allows the musician to play, for example, at night.
The piano can be used both as a solo instrument and together with an orchestra (for example, in piano concertos with an orchestra). Playing the piano is an activity that requires good technique, attention and dedication. It is recommended to start training at childhood. In children's music schools (DMSH) in Russia, training takes 5 or 7 years, depending on the program, some students stay an additional one or two years after graduation before entering a music school. After a music school or equivalent training, you can continue your studies at a music school or college, and then at a conservatory, university, becoming a professional pianist. In the music school, general piano is also a compulsory subject for almost all majors. Outstanding pianists of the 20th century - Sergei Rachmaninov, Emil Gilels, Svyatoslav Richter, Vladimir Horowitz, Arthur Rubinstein, Glenn Gould and others.
The piano requires the right conditions of maintenance, as well as regular tuning, as over time the tension of the instrument's strings is weakened. The frequency of tuning depends on the class of the instrument, the quality of its manufacture, its age, conditions of maintenance and operation. Tuning, as a rule, is not done by the performer himself, but by a specialist - a master piano tuner, although, theoretically, having an electronic tuner at hand and knowing the exact frequency characteristics of each of the strings, anyone can do the tuning, even if he does not have a musical ear.
It is one of the nominations of the Delphic Games.