Percussion instruments
Percussion instruments category
Last group of the orchestra’s instruments is of percussion instruments.
These are operated by striking with batons.The most common percussion instruments are the drums, used in all world cultures and indispensable in dances or military marches.An interesting thing about the origin of drums, is that in the past they were used as a vessel for cooking, covered with an extended and tense leather. Large drums, called kettledrums can generate a wide range of notes.By pressing a pedal, the tension of the drum membrane is changed and thus the tonality of the sound is changed as well.
The bells are part of percussion instruments, too.These instruments are made of dense and heavy metals which vibrate a long period of time after they are blown.Their sounds remember of the starting or ending moments in the church services, creating a sacred atmosphere.
Cymbals are obtained from brass, and they produce a serious sound after the percussion with a hammer. They don’t have a well defined tonality, but produce strong emotions, making your body vibrate with every beat of the hammer.
Class of keyboard instruments
All these instruments are unique in their way they give birth to sounds.Each of them manage to raise you at the maximum rate, to wake up contradictory feelings or on the contrary, sweet memories.They take you from heaven to earth, make you wince, or stay stood until the ending of the composition. All these states are comple each other, especially when the piano,the soloist instrument, appears on the stage.
We have been wondering if the piano is part of the orchestra because it can exist independent, too. Mr.Manciu helped us again, telling us that the piano is not part of the orchestra, but many composers used it in their creations: Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, and dozens of other classical music instrumentalists.
Centuries ago, when there were no disks and concerts were not spread among the public, people listened to musical compositions for orchestra by their piano transcription. Piano’s predecessor was the harpsichord. It had some devices called “plectru”, which piched the cords with the help of the keyboard. Involuntary, Mr Manciu introduced us in the class of keyboard instruments, telling us some of the functioning secrets.
When a piano keyboard is pressed,a hammer wrapped in felt strikes a chord.The displacement speed of the hammer is controlled by the strength which the musician hits the keyboards with. This allows controling the volume and therefore the instrument is called pianoforte.(slow-loud).
The organ
The organ is a part of this class, and we’ll refer to some aspects, even if is not part of the symphonic orchestra.
In our town, in one of the largest Catholic churches, St. Michael, the organ is played during each liturgy.We wanted to know about how it works and we asked for some information to the man who plays it. He said that the tubes organ is an instrument with air operated with a keyboard and some pedals. The air feed is produced by a mechanical action and directed to the tubes valves.In the church, the echo of the tube organ is particular and the sound penetrates in every hidden corner, amplifying the divine atmosphere.
The electronic organ imitate sounds produced by the tube organ using electronic tone generators and magnifiers.This is how the synthesiser was born.It can imitate any other instrument or create original sounds.
