Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/821

 1690 by Denner, 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 chalamean (from calamus, a reed). J. C. Bach, son of the master, first introduced it to



notice in his opera of Orione, in 1760, and its general adoption followed. It was given a leading place, in military bands in particular, as a treble instrument from the moment of its inception. Within the past half-century larger forms of the instrument appeared—alto, tenor, barytone, and bass—for military band purposes, their artistic use being to soften the brasses and lend color to the ensemble and to special effects.

Saxophones are a production of this century, and indispensable in full reed or military bands. They are played with a clarionet mouthpiece, 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-instruments. He secured a patent for his saxophones 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 vibrating in the mouth-piece. To readers acquainted with the common bugle the principle will be easily apparent. The origin of the