ORCHESTRAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 



799 



1690 by Deniier, of Nuremberg. It resembles the oboe in the 

 structure of the tube, but sound is produced in it by means of a 

 single instead of a double reed. Like all the instruments treated, 

 it was very imperfect up to thirty years ago. It occupies the 

 place of the orchestral violin in reed — ordinarily called military — 

 bands. Meanwhile, the clarionet was not an " invention " in the 

 exact sense, owing to the fact that it had a predecessor of the 

 oboe family known as the schalmey or ciialamean (from calamus, 

 a reed). J. C. Bach, son of the master, first introduced it to 



Fio. 5. — The Bassoon, an Important Auxiliary in Orchestras and Military Bands. 



notice in his opera of Orione, in 1760, and its general adoption 

 followed. It was given a leading place, in military bands in par- 

 ticular, as a treble instrument from the moment of its inception. 

 Within the past half-century larger forms of the instrument ap- 

 peared — alto, tenor, barytone, and bass — for military band pur- 

 poses, their artistic use being to soften the brasses and lend color 

 to the ensemble and to special effects. 



Saxophones are a production of this cent- 

 ury, and indispensable in full reed or military 

 bands. They are played with a clarionet mouth- 

 piece, and resemble the clarionet, only that they 

 are made of brass instead of wood. Saxophones 

 are the invention of the celebrated Antoine 

 Sax, of sax-horn and musical-instrument fame. 

 While working in his father's shop, in Dinant, 

 Belgium — in which city he was born in 1814 — 

 he conceived the idea of their construction. 

 Settling in Paris in 1842, Sax won a leading 

 place as a maker of wood and brass wind-in- 

 struments. He secured a patent for his saxo- 

 phones in 1846, and in time introduced them 

 into the French military bands, other nations 

 acquiring them subsequently. They have been 

 improved largely since their production, and, 

 though not ranking high as solo instruments, 

 they enjoy an important place in large bands 

 as instruments essential to artistic aims in 

 ensemble. 



We arrive now at brass instruments, such as the horn and 

 cornet, in which sound is produced by means of the lips vibrat- 

 ing in the moutli-piece. To readers acquainted with the common 

 bugle the principle will be easily apparent. The origin of the 



Fig. 6. — Saxophone. 



