Musicon / Musical education / Piano – The tone formation and production
In the intricacy of its mechanism the piano stands next to the organ. The farther removed from direct utterance we are the more difficult is it to speak the true language of music. The violin player and the singer, and in a less degree the performers upon some of the wind instruments, are obliged ::More
Musicon / Musical education / Piano: A lack of sustaining power
Despite all the skill, learning, and ingenuity which have been spent on its perfection, the piano can be made only feebly to approximate that sustained style of musical utterance which is the soul of melody, and finds its loftiest exemplification in singing. To give out a melody perfectly, ::More
Musicon / Musical education / The double-bassoon (contra bassoon)
A swelling martial fanfare may be made absurd by changing it from trumpets to a weak-voiced wood-wind. It is only the string quartet that speaks all the musical languages of passion and emotion. The double-bassoon is so large an instrument that it has to be bent on itself to bring it under the ::More
Musicon / Musical education / The wood-winds choir
Since the instruments of the wood-wind choir are frequently used in solos, their acquaintance can easily be made by an observing amateur. To this division of the orchestra belong the gentle accents in the instrumental language. Violent expression is not its province, and generally when the band ::More
Musicon / Beethoven / Musical education / The Viola
The viola is next in size to the violin, and is tuned at the interval of a fifth lower. Its highest string is A, which is the second string of the violin, and its lowest C. Its tone, which sometimes contains a comical suggestion of a boy’s voice in mutation, is lacking in incisiveness and ::More
