MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, mechanical devices from which musical sounds are pro duced by the vibration of strings, the movement of air-columns in tubes and the vibration of solid and hollow bodies of resonant materials. Of very ancient origin, their earliest forms were probably derived from suggestions offered by inanimate nature. The earliest authentic record of a musical instrument giving a com plete diatonic scale is that of a flute of g tian origin; but it is more than the first instruments were those of percussion, such as drums, cymbals and gongs, which were suggested by the clapping of the hands, the stamping of the feet and the resonance of hollow trees under the impact of blows. These were followed by the wind instruments, such as whistles and flutes, suggested by the sighing of the wind through standing reeds and bamL boo grooves. They were first used, probably, for hunting purposes; subsequently, to express human emotions and for purposes of amuse ment.
When the human ear learned to recognize variations of pitch and to distinguish tune from time, the twanging of bowstrings probably sug gested the stringed instruments, such as the harp, lute and lyre.
These three stages of the development of musical instruments are very clearly established by existing examples of gongs of stone and flutes of bone, found among the flint imple ments of the ancient cave-dwellers and in the tracings of the later forms— stringed instru i ments, in the sculpture of ancient Babylonia, Egypt and Greece. It is impossible, however, to determine the exact origin of any one of the higher classes, such as those of the third stage; since even that of the lyre is ascribed by Egyptian and Greek mythology to the god Toth (Hermes), thus throwing the entire ques tion of origin beyond the pale of written history.
Prehistorical forms of musical instruments have their counterparts among the many savage tribes and nations of civilized mankind who inhabit the various parts of the world at the present time. African Kaffirs, the Caribs, Peruvians and Indian races of the American continents and the wild inhabitants of Aus tralia, New Zealand and the other Polynesia Islands, use various forms of gongs, flutes and harps. The war trumpets of the Maoris are of remarkable power, the sounds of which are capable of being heard at a distance of several miles. Among the more highly civilized na tions, the Chinese possessed a system of music and its instruments centuries before the birth of the Greek and Roman empires. The inven
tion of these is ascribed to a traditional em peror, Kai-tien-chai, who ruled about 2500 s.c. The eight instruments he made are supposed to reproduce the sounds of eight substances— tanned skin, stone, metal, clay, strings of silk, wood, bamboo and calabash or gourd. They consisted of drums, musical stones, bells, clay whistles or flutes, called the akin,* a form of lyre with seven strings, the ache," of 25 strings, and the a pan-pipe of 16 bamboo pipes bound' together. All of them are used at the present time, together with the echeng,s an elementary reed organ equipped with a calabash, which supplies the necessary resonance. Trumpets and banjoes are also used, and a stringed instrument on a frame resembling a mallet, the sounds of which are of the most execrable character. Its value in an orchestra appears to be quite beyond the ap preciation of any but a Chinese ear. They have two scales corresponding to the white and black keys of the modern piano, and, although by employing both of these scales they could reproduce modern Occidental music, they ap pear to be satisfied to confine themselves to the five-note scale, and produce a slow music overlaid with a great amount of noise and clatter, through which it is impossible to dis tinguish the underlying truly musical notes of great rhythmic beauty.
Almost all of the Chinese instruments, slightly modified, are used by the Japanese. The akin" and ache" are represented by the ulcoto,n of 6 to 13 strings. They have also the °samisen" of three strings, which are plucked by a plectrum, and the °kokiri," an elementary violin played with a horse-hair bow. Their orchestra is usually composed of one large drum, two small drums, two little bells, a pair of modern clappers and a flute, which is the only one of the seven capable of giving more than a single tone. Bells and metal in other forms, such as chains and gongs of various sizes, are extensively used in all Oriental coun tries to produce metallic music. In Pegu, Siam and Burmah, arrangements consisting of 20 bells united in one instrument, which is sounded by being struck with a stick, are frequently employed. The Javanese bells, usually arranged in sets of 12, when heard at a distance sound like an orchestra of stringed instruments.