Burnet High School Mr. Goodman Music Appreciation notes for test 2

1. Elements: Instruments
Woodwinds
Music Appreciation
Unit 2

2. Woodwinds
• The woodwinds are so called because they all used to be
made of wood.
• In past times, especially during the Baroque period (1600-
1750), the woodwinds were all wooden but today the
flute, piccolo and saxophone are made of metal.
• In addition most woodwinds have a single or double reed.
• A reed is a very thin piece of bamboo, which vibrates
against the mouthpiece of instrument.
• The clarinet and saxophone are single reed instruments
(one piece of cane) and the oboe is a double reed
instrument (two pieces of cane vibrating against itself).

3. Flute
• The high voice of the woodwind family but not
the highest.
• The flute player holds the instrument sideways
and blows air across the mouth piece.
• The tone is produced similar to when one blows
across the top of a bottle.
• Flutes used to be made of wood but a modern
flute today is usually made of silver and
sometimes even gold.

4. Flute
• Flutes date back to ancient time when stone age man
would make whistles from bone, clay or wood.
• The earliest flutes didn’t have any openings or finger
holes.
• Once holes or openings bored into the flute’s side were
added, a wider number of tones were possible to create
melodies.
• The piccolo (or small flute) is the highest pitched
instrument of the woodwinds and the highest instrument
of the orchestra.
• It is an octave higher than the flute and produces a
penetrating and shrill sound which adds brilliants to top
end of an orchestras sound.

5. Flute
• There is a countrified feeling (pastoral
feeling) conveyed in the sound of the flute.
• Composers have used it to invoke a feeling of
loneliness which is often experienced by
shepherds who use flutes to pacify time
while tending sheep in the country side.
• http://www.musicappreciation.com/flute.mp3
• http://www.musicappreciation.com/fluteexce
rptwithharp.mp3

6. Oboe
• The most expressive of the woodwinds the
oboe’s tone is produced by a player exhaling
into two thin strips of reed (double reed).
• Oboists spend much of their time making and
shaping their reeds.
• The thinner and narrower the reed the more
agreeable the sound.
• The oboe produces a sharp twang or nasal
sound but composers have used the oboe for
some of the symphonic repertoire’s most
expressive writing.

7. Oboe
• Popular in Egypt, Greece and Turkey the early
oboe (aulos or shawm) was the instrument that
could make a snake dance out of a basket.
• Because of it’s position in the orchestra and it’s
pointed tone, it is the oboe in today’s orchestra
that gives the pitch “A” for all the instruments to
tune to.
• http://www.musicappreciation.com/oboe.mp3
• http://www.musicappreciation.com/oboeexcerpt
.mp3

8. Clarinet
• The single reed member of the woodwind family.
• This means one piece of heavy cane is made to flutter
against the mouth piece of the players clarinet.
• The clarinet has a fairly narrow body (not as narrow
as the oboe), a tube about two feet long and seven
holes bored into it’s side.
• As the single reed vibrates at the mouth piece, the
players breath travels through the clarinet and comes
out at the other end which is called the bell.

9. Clarinet
• The clarinet was invented in 1675 by Johan
Denner of Nuremberg, Germany and is typically
made of ebony an extremely hard, black wood.
• The clarinet has a richly expressive range of
dynamics from a hushed piano to a swelled
crescendo.
• It blends well with the strings and has a very
mellow smooth sound.
• Also it is able to freely play fast passages of
scales and arpeggios in low and high registers.

10. Clarinet
• The clarinet is most often used in the symphony
orchestra and was a favorite instrument of
Mozart’s during its early invention.
• But one also frequently hears the clarinet in a
jazz and dance band settings were squealing,
laughing tones are not uncommon.
• http://www.musicappreciation.com/clarinet.mp3
• http://www.musicappreciation.com/clarinetexcer
pt.mp3

11. Saxophone
• Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a
single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet.
• The saxophone family was invented by the Belgian
instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1840.
• Sax wanted to create a group or series of instruments that
would be the most powerful and vocal of the woodwinds,
and the most adaptive of the brass—that would fill the
vacant middle ground between the two sections.
• The saxophone has proved very popular in military band
music, and is commonly used in jazz and classical music.
• There is substantial repertoire of concert music in the
classical idiom for the members of the saxophone family.

12. Saxophone
• Soprano Saxophone
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_EsuAtt7ig
• Alto Saxophone
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3tSRkDtLyo
• Tenor Saxophone
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLFQl7KHQ1w
• Baritone Saxophone
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx8V4OGIgkk

13. Bassoon
• The bass of the woodwind family.
• The bassoon’s tube has a length of over eight
feet and in the lowest register it has a heavy
dark tone.
• The bassoon often plays amusing and humorous
music and is sometimes referred to as the
“clown of the orchestra.;” but it can also play
serious, beautiful music including concertos.
• Like an oboe but much larger, the bassoon is a
double reed instrument.

14. Bassoon
• It was invented in 1650 and a player must have
large hands to comfortably control the finger
holes the instrument.
• The rich sound of the bassoon takes on the
character of grandfather in Prokofiev’s famous
Peter and the Wolf.
• http://www.musicappreciation.com/bassoon.mp
3
• http://www.musicappreciation.com/bassoonexce
rpt.mp3