Who invented music?

The most musical inventions

1. The earliest metronome

Invented in 1816, the inventor was Johann Nepomuk Mayer of Germany Zell. He is the creator of mechanical musical instruments and has developed the harp (mechanical band), hearing aids and musical metronomes. In 1816, the first relatively complete metronome he invented was presented to the public for the first time in Vienna, the capital of Austria. Since then, the metronome has spread like wildfire and become the pet of music lovers all over the world.

2. The three most famous violin-making masters

The piano is called the "king" of musical instruments, and the violin is the "queen" of musical instruments. The development of violin art is closely related to the production and innovation of violins. The person responsible for this move was the famous Italian violin maker Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737), who moved the violin holding method from the knee to the jaw. In addition, there are two great figures in the history of violin making, they are Amati and Guarnieri. These three master violin makers all live in the small town of Cremona in northern Italy. Nowadays, violins made by three master makers in Cremona are often worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The reason why they are so expensive is that in addition to their practical value in music, they are also beautiful works of art themselves.

3. The most contributory inventor of the key system of wind instruments

It has taken several centuries for woodwind instruments to go from prototype to basic shape. Among the reform inventors, Germany has made the greatest achievements. Theold Bohm, flutist and instrumental reformer from Munich. He successfully trial-produced a ring-keyed flute, designed a set of reasonable new fingering methods, and theoretically obtained accurate data on the quarter of the flute near the mouthpiece and the diameter of the tube close to a parabola. Three-quarters of the tube body was By changing to a cylindrical tube, the effective tube length of the flute reaches 30 times the tube diameter, so that the octave relationship of each tone is accurate. In addition, he also changed the oval blow hole into a rounded rectangle and enlarged the diameter of the sound hole to make the sound fuller and brighter. Later, people called the flute mechanical mechanism system he developed the "Boehm system" and transplanted it to other woodwind instruments, making the structure of the woodwind instruments basically perfect.

4. The earliest recording device

The phonograph designed by American Thomas Alba Edison in 1877 is the world's earliest recording device. On December 6 of the same year, Edison's assistant and machinist John Clucy built the first prototype and used it to record Edison's song "Mary's Goat." On April 24, 1878, the Edison Phonograph Company was established on Broadway Street in New York and began its sales business. They combined this kind of record machine with many cylinder records made of tin foil and rented them out to street performers. The earliest home phonograph was the Edison Para gramophone produced in 1978, priced at $10 each.

5. The earliest string quartet

The "original band" before the 18th century did not have any fixed establishment. The number of band members and the types of instruments were hired by the nobles. conditions or the composer’s requirements.

In 1755, the 23-year-old Austrian composer Haydn was hired by Count von Berg to compose full-time music for the court. The popular instrumental music at that time consisted of two violins playing the same melody, accompanied by a harpsichord. Due to the weak volume of the harpsichord, the bass part sometimes has to be strengthened by the cello. Count von Berg's band had only four people at first, two violins, a viola and a cello, but no harpsichord. Such a band formation troubled Haydn quite a bit. After repeated research, he divided the two violins into two parts, letting the viola act as the inner part, making the harmonic effect richer, and completely replacing the harpsichord with the cello to play the bass part. Thus, the first string quartet was formed.

Haydn composed 77 string quartets during his lifetime. To this day, the string quartet is still considered the most elegant and expressive form of music.

6. The fastest piano tuning

The string frame of modern pianos is made of cast iron, while the old-fashioned string frame has unreasonable materials and structures, so the strings can easily go. The music often has to be temporarily adjusted during the concert. Therefore, for early piano solo concerts, the performer had to hire a piano tuner to ensure the accuracy of the piano's tone.

Based on the above reasons, musical instrument reformers have carried out a series of innovative innovations, but most of them ended in failure. As a result, the only thing that can be improved on piano timbre and pitch issues is the tuner's skills. The first is the tuner's concept of pitch; the second is the speed of tuning.

In 1980, the Dante Piano Factory in New York, USA, held a professional tuner competition. The competition method is: all participating pianos are tuned up by one semitone, and the tuner is required to restore all the notes to their original pitches as quickly as possible. In the end, tuner Steve Fairchild won the championship with the fastest tuning speed of 4 minutes and 20 seconds.

7. The longest rest

American musician John Cage (1912-) is a tireless music experimenter who abandoned traditional playing techniques and composition techniques .

He is famous as the pioneer of the "added piano", which puts various objects on or between the strings of a traditional piano to change the original sound and timbre.

Cage studied the music of opportunity, the musiclessness of electronic music, which narrows or indirectly excludes the role of the composer. His work "4 Minutes and 33 Seconds" is the most famous and unprecedented silent piece. The rest of the piece is 4 minutes and 33 seconds long, setting a world record for the longest rest.

8. The earliest tape recorder

The earliest tape recorder to use tape was the "Bratnavon" type recorder. In 1929, this tape recorder was used at Blattner Color and Sound Studios in Erdsley, England, to synchronize sound and photography. This was based on the patent of German sound technician Kurt Schütieri and designed by producer Louis Blattner. It was also the first recorder to use electronic amplifiers. In 1931, the BBC purchased Blattner's first tape recorder.

9. Chinese gong

The Chinese gong is a percussion instrument that people are very familiar with. It is a great invention of music by the Chinese. So far, the earliest unearthed object is a gong from the early Western Han Dynasty from the Bowan No. 1 Tomb in Guixian County, Guangxi, which has a history of 2,000 years.

A foreign musician once said: "A symphony orchestra without a Chinese gong would be somewhat inferior." "A symphony orchestra" composed by the famous Russian composer Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) In the "Sixth Symphony" ("Pathetique"), the Chinese gong was appropriately used, which deeply touched the heartstrings of the audience. The world's oldest symphony orchestra, the Dresden Symphony Orchestra, uses a large Chinese gong. It was made during the Qing Dynasty in my country. It was the first Chinese instrument to enter a Western orchestra. To this day, the gong is still the only Chinese musical instrument required in Western orchestras and symphony orchestras.

10. The greatest invention in modern music

The saxophone invented by the Belgian Saxophone in 1840 is recognized as the greatest invention of musical instruments in hundreds of years. The saxophone was created by the inventor Saxophone by combining the partial structures of brass instruments and woodwind instruments. It is produced by blowing a single reed, and the playing method is similar to that of a woodwind instrument; but the pipe body is made of copper, and the pronunciation method of the instrument is more similar. Brass instruments. This musical instrument has rich sound quality and rich colors, and is a very popular new musical instrument. By this century, due to the popularity of jazz music, the saxophone has increasingly become an important instrument in modern music.