Tag Archives: Instruments
John Philip Sousa, violinist
While the composer of iconic marches is famous for directing the U.S. Marine Band and his own world-famous ensembles, John Philip Sousa’s early life as a violin prodigy is relatively unknown. A sickly child, Sousa was home-schooled, and from the … Continue reading
Filed under Curiosities, Instruments, Popular music, Romantic era
A guqin resource
The open-access online resource John Thompson on the guqin silk string zither presents extensive materials on the guqin (古琴, “goo-chin”) including classic handbooks and commentaries; organological details; depictions of the guqin in art, poetry, and song; notation and sound files; playing instructions; … Continue reading
Filed under Asia, Instruments, Resources, World music
Air guitar and gender
Like real rock guitar playing, air guitar—miming electric guitar playing without an instrument—is heavily informed by gendered practices in rock, where the electric guitar functions as a signifier of masculine power and implied sexual prowess, and performing on it involves … Continue reading
Filed under Instruments, Popular music, Women's studies
George Breed’s electrified guitar
On 2 September 1890, U.S. Navy officer George Breed (1864–1939) was granted a patent for a design for an electrified guitar (Method of and apparatus for producing musical sounds by electricity, patent no. 435,679); it appears to be the first … Continue reading
Filed under Curiosities, Instruments, Science
The American wind band
In 2010 Scarecrow Press launched the series The American wind band with A history of the trombone by David M. Guion; the book is a comprehensive account of the development of the instrument from its initial form as a 14th-century … Continue reading
Filed under Instruments, New series, Popular music
Vincenzo Bellini, zampognaro
When he was growing up in Catania, Sicily, Bellini undoubtedly heard the peasants from the far side of Mount Etna who came to town every Advent with their zampogne (bagpipes). The young prodigy was influenced by these traditional musicians in … Continue reading
Filed under Curiosities, Instruments, Opera, Romantic era
Liszt’s monster instrument
In September 1854 Liszt wrote to the cellist Bernhard Cossmann “My monster instrument with three keyboards arrived about a fortnight ago and seems to be a great success.” The 3000-pound instrument, a seven-octave grand piano plus two five-octave harmonium keyboards, … Continue reading
Filed under Curiosities, Instruments, Romantic era
Afghanistan at peace
Music in the Afghan north, 1967–1972 presents materials from Mark Slobin’s research in Afghanistan before successive waves of war and Islamist rule began to decimate its traditional culture. The site involves three layers of organization, with increasing access to the study’s technical … Continue reading
Filed under Ethnomusicology, Asia, World music
