Piccolo

The piccolo is played horizontally as it is a transverse flute. Having the same fingerings, it is commonly considered a younger sibling of the flute. It also has notes that are an octave higher than that of a flute's and has half of a common flute's size. This gave rise to its name, Piccolo, which is Italian for small.

History

The piccolo gets its origins from the flute and made its first appearance in the orchestra on 1700. "Rinaldo" by Handel in 1711 was the earliest known performance with a piccolo. It was constructed with two sections with an E-flat key during the Baroque era. It was constituted in the orchestra around the middle of 1700 but was usually used in performances with a military disposition. It started to be used in symphonies after Beethoven wrote parts for it in his 5th Symphony.

Michael Janusch, a flute teacher, created the multi-key piccolo. It was like the flute with 6 keys which was traditional at that time. This gave rise to its development during the 19th century. The D-flat piccolo was used in many famous solos but is not heard of in the modern times.

Mollenhauer later revised the D-flat piccolo and this made the piccolo a popular instrument during the 20th century. It is now played as an integral element of the orchestra.

Castanets

Also referred to as palillos, the castanets are plausibly the most sophisticated percussion instruments. It is used in Portuguese, Italian, Moorish, Spanish, Latin American, and Ottoman music. Generally, it is a pair of concave shells joined at an edge by a string. These are hand-held and produce clicking or rattling sounds used for rhythmic accents.

Castanets are also played in the orchestra. At times, these are fastened to the handle or placed on a base forming machine castanets. It is very uncommon to play the castanet in the Spanish style in the modern orchestra. This is not because it is very complicated to master and employ but because there are no more than four known professional castanet players all over the world. To compensate for this, a castanet machine is used. The cups of a castanet machine are attached to a piece of wood which ends in a handle that is held and shaken.

Possible origin

There is no known definite origin of the castanets. The Egyptians and the Greeks were known to have created music by clicking sticks together using one hand.

There are nevertheless several theories on its development. One is that castanets are the descendants of the Iberian crusmata which were two shells, wooden sticks, or flat stones. Also, the Greeks played the krotola in religious affairs but it is proven that castanets were also found in Italian, Latin, and Portuguese music among many others.

Flute

The most basic instrument in the woodwind family is the flute. Also known as an aerophone, it is a reedless wind instrument that creates sound from the flow of air from an opening. Flutes are often made of wood in Europe while silver is the main flute construction material in the United States.

Theobald Boehm invented the modern flute. He connected a bowl-shaped head to a cylindrical centre with large finger holes and open-standing keys. Several small developments have been made after that.

Flute Construction

Modern flutes are often around twenty-six inches long and 0.75 inches wide. There are two open ends which makes it an open cylinder. There are sixteen openings in total; eleven are closed by seven fingers, one is closed by the left thumb, and four can be opened or blocked by arranged keys.

Flute Categories

For most flutes, the flute player blows straight across from the edge of the embouchure. These are called end-blown. Another basic type is the side-blown flute. Here, the player blows through the hole located at the side of the tube. Another model is the fipple flute which manoeuvres the air through a duct onto the edge. Fipple flutes are easier to play and has a well defined timbre compared to other flutes. Here are the categories of flutes based on origin:

Saxophone

The saxophone, more casually referred to as sax, is another member of the large woodwind family. It consists of a cone-shaped tube made of thin metal which is usually brass and at times plated with nickel, silver, or gold. It is played with a mouthpiece that is single-reed just like that of the clarinet.

History

This magnificent instrument was invented by Adolphe Sax from Belgium. Akin to his father, Charles Joseph Sax, he was an instrument maker. The saxhorn, his first successful creation, was made public some time after he transferred to France. Adolphe Sax completed several developments to the bass clarinet prior to focusing on the saxophone.

The saxophone was created around 1846. Sax's primary key work was very basic which made wide intervals quite hard to finger. To make playing less difficult, many developers and instrument makers added alternate fingerings and more keys. One of the most substantial advancements in its key work was that both tone holes can be controlled by the left thumb using one octave key. This configuration is now common to all modern saxophones.