Before Music by sales-abramsbooks

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Music doesn’t come out of nothing. It always starts somewhere . . .

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with something . . . with someone.

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WHERE INSTRUMENTS This is an advance, uncorrected proof. FROM or Not COME for resale, duplication,

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illustrated by

ANNETTE BAY PIMENTEL

MADISON SAFER

ABRAMS BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS NEW YORK

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BEFORE MUSIC, water drip . . . drip . . . drips. It washes away soil and eventually fractures the rock underneath. Someone selects a few of the stones . . .

and strikes their edges

tink tink tink

listening as he shapes the stone.

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He is making . . .

. . . A ROCK GONG.

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HOW DO ROCKS MAKE MUSIC? Striking a rock starts vibrations in the tiny molecules that form the rock. In turn, those vibrations start molecules in the air vibrating. We hear those vibrations as sound. But what sound do you get? A clear bell-like tone? Or just a thud? The answer depends on what type of rock you’ve chosen.

Sandstone, for example, is riddled with tiny holes. If you strike sandstone, the vibration doesn’t move easily through the rock. It falls dead when it reaches the holes, and you hear a flat thud.

Slate, on the other hand, is made of clay that has been compressed and then heated by redhot magma inside the earth. It is a dense stone

This is an advance, proof.If you strike with moleculesuncorrected packed close together. Notslate, for the resale, duplication, or from molecule to vibrations travel freely reposting. Pleaseand doyou not quote without molecule, hear a clear ringing sound. comparison to the finished book. You can rock out to the music of rocks . . . if you choose your rock carefully.

In Vietnam, archaeologists have dug up carefully shaped and tuned stones. The stones are ancient—up to 10,000 years old. Musicians laid them in sequence on a wooden frame. When struck, the stones made lovely, ringing tones.

MUSICAL INNOVATORS In the Lake District of England, it’s easy to find hornfels slate, a rock that rings when it is struck. Around 1827, a local man named Joseph Richardson began gathering pieces of slate. But he was more than just a rock collector. He wanted to make music. With rocks! He spent thirteen years choosing, chipping, and tuning stones. The longest stone he shaped was about three feet long, and the shortest was about six inches. He built a strong wooden frame to hold the rocks and nestled each rock on twisted straw. In 1840, he debuted his invention, a giant xylophone-like instrument that he called a rock harmonicon. Richardson and his three sons played music on the rocks by striking them with large mallets. Their repertoire included dances like waltzes and polkas, and classical pieces by Beethoven and Mozart. Richardson and his sons toured with their instrument, giving concerts throughout England. Even Queen Victoria invited them to perform for her. A few others built similar rock instruments around the same time. The Till family toured in America with their musical rocks, and Franz Weber

This is an advance, built his Lithokymbalon from slabs uncorrected of alabaster. Butproof. rock harmonicons

Not for resale, duplication, are heavy and difficult to transport, so they neverormade the leap into reposting. Please not without symphony orchestras. Today they do reside inquote museums. comparison to the finished book.

You may not hear rocks being played on the radio, but you too can experiment with making music from rocks in your own backyard.

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ROCK INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE STRUCK Boulders and slabs in Africa—sometimes found near ancient cave paintings. Music from these singing rocks might have accompanied people while they were creating or viewing art.

‘Ili‘ili from Hawai‘i—pieces of naturally shaped pa�hoehoe lava that fit neatly into hands. The musician strikes them together to accompany hula dancing.

Qing from China—stone, often jade, carved into an L shape and then suspended and struck with a wooden or padded mallet. Some qing This isancient an advance,

uncorrected proof. were made in tuned sets thatfor allowed a Not resale, duplication, or musician to play a scale. reposting. Please do not quote without comparison to the finished book.

Pyeonjong from Korea—L-shaped stone chimes made from a white-and-green “chime stone” that is quarried only in central Korea. The chimes come in sets of sixteen and are hung in two rows of eight. The musician strikes them with an animal horn.

ROCK INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE BLOWN Xun from China—an ancient vessel flute that can be made of stone.

Musical pillars in South India—granite pillars designed to be played either by striking them or by blowing into specially bored holes. They are located at several Hindu temples.

This is an advance, uncorrected proof. Not for resale, duplication, or reposting. Please do not quote without comparison to the finished book. Xiao from China—a vertically held flute made of jade in the late 1700s, when the precious stone became more available to artisans.

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BEFORE MUSIC . . . ocean waves swell and then crash onto the beach, tumbling shells onto the sand . . .

Someone picks up a giant snail shell, cuts off the tip

rasp rasp

and polishes the rough edges smooth.

shhhh shhhh

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He is making . . .

. . . A PUTUTU.

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HOW DO FOUND OBJECTS MAKE MUSIC? Humans are makers. Sometimes people make objects. But sometimes people use objects they find to make . . . music! The earliest musical instruments were probably sticks, bones, or shells that people picked up and used to make interesting sounds. If you’ve ever picked up two pot lids and struck them together like cymbals, you’ve done the same thing! Artisans sometimes tweak and shape found objects to make the sounds they want. But sometimes musicians use found objects because they want the actual sound from the real world rather than a musical instrument’s imitation of that sound. George Gershwin, for example, used real taxi horns in his composition An American in Paris to capture the actual sound of a city street. Whether found objects are used for the sounds they already make or are transformed to make new sounds, they remind us . . . the world is

is an advance, uncorrected proof. just waiting This to make music!

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Shell horns were made in ancient times by people in Europe, the Americas, and the Pacific Islands, as well as in Japan, Malaysia, China, Tibet, and India.

MUSICAL INNOVATORS Can you imagine laws against drumming? It happened on the Caribbean island of Trinidad. Enslaved people used materials they found on the island to make drums like those they had used in Africa. Their drums were important for dance and worship. But when Great Britain took over Trinidad in 1797, the new rulers were uneasy with the power that drums had to draw people together, so they passed laws banning certain types of drumming. Even after slavery was outlawed in 1834, the government continued to prohibit the use of nonEuropean instruments. An 1883 law outlawed drumming by “rogues and vagabonds,” which local officials understood to mean people of color. Riots broke out when police enforced the law, and four people were killed in the violence. Deprived of their traditional drums, Trinidadians used what was around them to beat out rhythms. By the 1930s, young people were using car parts, tin boxes, and metal garbage cans as drums. Winston “Spree” Simon

is of ana garbage advance, proof. pounded theThis bottom can uncorrected into a dome shape and was delighted

Nottones for resale, ordome. Ping-uh-duhby the bright metallic he heardduplication, when he hit the

reposting. dohitnot without pang-pong. Depending onPlease where he the quote drum, the pitch changed, and comparison to the finished book.

he could even play tunes on his domed garbage can drum! At the start of World War II, the United States opened a military base in Trinidad and shipped in hundreds of drums of oil. Simon’s friend Ellie Mannette got hold of an empty drum. He pounded its flat base into a well instead of a dome. Everyone loved the sound of the concave-shaped drumhead. In 1951, Mannette made drums for and performed with the Trinidad All-Steel Percussion Orchestra. They toured England and made recordings. The memorable sound of steel drum music swept the world. And it all started with a garbage can.

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BLOWN INSTRUMENTS MADE FROM FOUND THINGS Ancient flute from Germany—a 35,000-yearold vulture bone flute with finger holes was found by archaeologists. An ivory flute made from a mammoth tusk was found nearby.

Shiwaya from South Africa—a flute made from a hollow bush orange shell.

Shofar from Israel—a horn made from a ram’s horn.

PLUCKED INSTRUMENTS MADE FROM FOUND THINGS This is an advance, uncorrected proof. Barbitos from ancient Greece— a lyre with a turtle-shell body, long wooden Not for resale, duplication, or arms,quote and five without to seven strings, which the reposting. Please do not plucked. comparison to the musician finished book.

Charango from South America—a stringed instrument with an armadillo-shell body.

Washtub bass from the United States—an instrument with a body made from an upsidedown metal washtub and a stick or broom handle neck. The musician plucks a clothesline that runs from the body to the neck.

SHAKEN INSTRUMENTS MADE FROM FOUND THINGS Turtle shell rattle from North America—a turtle shell filled with pebbles or seeds. These rattles are made by Native groups such as Cherokee, Shawnee, Muscogee, Tsoyaha, Chickasaw, and Seminole.

Mussel shell jingle from South America— mussel shells strung to create a bracelet or anklet. They sound as the musician or dancer moves.

Seed pod from South America— a dried seedcase used as a rattle. Some modern compositions use pacay, or ice cream tree, seed pods.

RUBBED INSTRUMENTS MADE This is an advance, uncorrected proof. FROM FOUND THINGS Not for resale, duplication, or reposting. Please do not quote without comparison to the finished book.

Musical glasses from Europe—drinking glasses or glass bowls filled with varying amounts of water. Rubbing a wet finger around the rim creates a tone.

Washboard from North America—a ridged laundry board rubbed with a wooden spoon or a thimble.

Áyotl from Central America—a turtle shell scraped with an antler.

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BEFORE MUSIC . . . mud squishes and squelches underfoot.

Someone digs up clay and pinches, presses, slaps.

thwap She nestles the clay in the center of firewood and strikes a spark.

hiss

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She is making . . .

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. . . AN OCARINA.

HOW DOES CLAY MAKE MUSIC? Clay is made of tiny bits of rock that have eroded away from mountains and fallen into water and rotting plants. Clay is highly pliable—it can be shaped into just about anything you can imagine! But the sound you get from air-dried clay pales next to the sound from instruments made with fired clay. For millennia, clay has been baked, or fired, in hot kilns. In fire, the chemical properties of clay change—the molecules in the clay rearrange themselves into tight crystals. Blowing into a fired clay instrument starts its molecules vibrating. The vibrations move quickly and efficiently through the tight crystal structures, creating strong vibrations that, in turn, start the air around the instrument vibrating. We hear those vibrations as music. So, when you play with instruments made of clay . . . you’re really playing with fire!

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Pottery ocarinas are found throughout the world. Archaeologists have found some that are thousands of years old in India, China, Europe, and the Americas.

CLAY ALL AROUND YOU Clay isn’t only for musical instruments.

Appliance cord. Talc, a clay mineral, is used to coat electrical wire. It stands up to and insulates against heat.

Chalk. Blackboard chalk is made with kaolin, another clay mineral.

Tires. Rubber is mixed with kaolin and talc to make automobile and

is an advance, uncorrected proof. bicycle tires.This The clay minerals Not for make rubber last longer andresale, duplication, or

reposting. Please lower the price because they are do not quote without comparison to the finished book.

relatively inexpensive to mine.

Toothpaste. Smectite clay is sometimes used to make toothpaste squeezable.

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CLAY INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE BLOWN Whistling jar from Latin America—a clay vessel flute that is designed to make a warbling sound when it is partially filled with water. It is often shaped like a bird.

Quena from Peru—a tubular flute held vertically while it’s played. Today this instrument is often made of clay or reed, but it was also made of bone, wood, gourd, or metal in ancient times.

This is an advance, uncorrected proof. Not for resale, duplication, or reposting. Please do not quote without comparison to the finished book. Singing windmills from Portugal— windmills with clay jars attached to their sails. As the sails turn, wind blows into the jars and makes a haunting tone. In the past, millers listened to the tone to assess wind speed and check that the mill was working properly. Today most are tourist sites rather than functioning mills.

CLAY INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE STRUCK Ghatam from South India—a waterpot made of clay that is held in the lap and struck with hands to make sound.

Jal tarang from India—clay pots tuned to different pitches by adding water to them. The musician strikes the pots with a bamboo beater.

Duggi from South Asia—a clay drum small enough to hold in one hand. It is beaten with fingers. Some people fasten it to their waist and play it as they dance.

This is an advance, uncorrected proof. Udu from Nigeria—a percussion pot with Not for resale, duplication, or a spherical body, a tall neck, and a sound reposting. Please do not quote without hole in the belly. The musician holds the comparison to the instrument finishedinbook. his lap and strikes different parts of the pot to get different sounds.

CLAY INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE RUBBED Zambomba from Spain—a friction drum traditionally made from a clay jug topped with a taut membrane. A stick pierces the membrane, and the musician makes sound by rubbing the stick up and down.

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BEFORE MUSIC . . . a gourd grows in a field.

After the gourd dries in the sun, someone saws off its end,

swzswz

scours it

clean, and fills it with seeds.

ptptptpt

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She is making . . .

. . . A ZAABIA.

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HOW DO GOURDS MAKE MUSIC? Gourds can be used as food, as containers, and as musical instruments. But if you tried to make music with a gourd straight from your garden, you wouldn’t get a very good sound. Sure, striking a freshly picked gourd would start vibrations in the gourd shell. But those vibrations would dissipate in the liquid that remains in the gourd. You’d get a thwack, but not much more. For a gourd to make music, its walls need to be solid and dry. Then vibrations can move from molecule to molecule without stopping. Before it becomes an instrument, a gourd sun-dries for weeks or even months. At that point, its walls are so hard that an artisan needs a saw or drill to open it up and clean out the dried-up seeds. But then, dried and solid, it is ready to make music.

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In Ghana, certain families traditionally perform music at important community events. Typically, it is the women of the family who play the zaabia shaker.

MUSICAL INNOVATORS The Cahuilla people have lived in Palm Springs, California, for at least 5,000 years. For centuries, they have danced at celebrations and important events to rhythms beaten out by gourd rattles. Today Palm Springs is a bustling modern city with highways, subdivisions, and golf courses. Members of the Agua Caliente band of Cahuilla Indians live there, and some of their young people are working to move music forward by going back to their roots. They have founded a group called the Pai nik tem Bird Singers. They sing traditional Cahuilla songs, accompanied by gourd rattles. Performers make their own rattles. Every musician selects a gourd, opens it up, and cleans it out. They then fill the gourd with shakers. Some hike into local canyons to gather palm seeds from the native trees for their shakers. The rattle handles are cottonwood sticks, cut from local trees and whittled into a shape that fits snugly into the top of the gourd, closing off the hole used to clean out the gourd. Some musicians paint their rattles; others leave the natural gourd skin untouched.

This isPai annik advance, uncorrected proof.and outdoors As an ensemble, the tem Bird Singers perform indoors

Not for resale, duplication, or together and some at special events and community gatherings. They sing reposting. Please not quote without members may dance to the music.do They sometimes invite young children comparison to the finished book.

to perform with them . . . happy to help other young people celebrate their culture.

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GOURD INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE SHAKEN Maraca from Latin America—a hand-held gourd rattle. The shakers are traditionally the dried seeds of the gourd itself.

‘Ulı-‘ulı- from Hawai‘i—a gourd filled with canna flower seeds and decorated with feathers. Often used to accompany hula dancing.

GOURD INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE PLUCKED Sitar from South Asia—a gourd instrument with a long wooden neck and metal strings strung from the neck to the gourd.

Vina from India—a string instrument with

This is an advance, uncorrected proof. two resonators—one a wooden soundbox and the other a gourd. Not for resale, duplication, or reposting. Please do not quote without comparison to the finished book.

GOURD INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE BLOWN Hulusi from China—bamboo pipes fitted into a gourd body.

Ipu hokiokio from Hawai‘i— a nose flute made from a gourd.

Chigufe from East Africa—a vessel flute made from the hollowed-out fruit of the mutamba tree, often played by children. The player blows across a large hole that is bored into the top.

GOURD INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE RUBBED Güiro from Latin America—traditionally made from a hollowed-out gourd with ridges carved on the outside. The musician scrapes a stick along the ridges.

GOURD INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE STRUCK Ipu heke from Hawai‘i—two gourds fastened neck-to-neck with a glue made from breadfruit. The ipu is struck against the ground or beaten with hands to accompany hula dancing.

Balafon from West Africa—a xylophonestyle instrument that uses gourds to resonate the sound of each bar when it is struck.

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GOURD INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE WHIRLED Oeoe from Hawai‘i—a coconut shell on a long cord that is whirled in the air to make sound.

Whirling aerophone from Amazonia and Papua New Guinea—a gourd with a sound hole drilled out, which is then attached to twine and whirled in the air.

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BEFORE MUSIC . . . caterpillars munch mulberry leaves and spin cocoons.

Someone drops the cocoons in boiling water.

plop plop

When the water cools, she snatches up a cocoon and teases out a single, silken thread.

sssssss

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She is making . . .

. . . A GUQIN.

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HOW DO STRINGS MAKE SOUND? When you pluck a string or move a bow against it, the movement of the string causes the air around it to also move. Generally, though, the sound that a single string could make would be very, very quiet. To make the sound bigger, strings are fastened to resonator boxes that magnify the sound. For example, viola strings rest on a wooden bridge that connects to a wooden soundpost. When the string vibrates, its vibrations make the bridge and the soundpost vibrate, too. Their vibrations start the entire box of the viola vibrating, and we hear the box’s sound waves as music. A string can make a high-pitched or a low-pitched sound, depending on how thick and how long the string is. Thicker strings make lower sounds, and longer strings also make lower sounds. All the strings on a viola are the same length, but they are different thicknesses. To play different pitches on a single string, a musician presses on the string, effectively shortening its length and raising the pitch. A string may seem small . . . but it can set off a very big sound!

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Guqin have been made in China for 3,000 years. This silk-stringed zither is considered the instrument of sages and is traditionally played outdoors in moonlight.

MUSICAL STRINGS AROUND THE WORLD Silk. Silkworms are farmed in China. They feed on mulberry leaves until they are ready to spin a cocoon. Workers extract silk thread from the cocoon. Today silk musical strings are rarely used. Gut. Traditionally, many musical strings were made from the intestines of cows and sheep (though, strangely, they are called “catgut” strings). Today, gut strings are still sometimes used on violins in Western orchestras, on the ennanga in Uganda, and on other instruments. Metal. Some musical strings are made completely of steel or other metals, and even musical strings with a core of gut or nylon are often wrapped in thin metal wire. The single metal string on the Brazilian berimbau is often taken from the sidewall of an automobile tire. Nylon. Today, strings made of long strands of this plastic are used on guitars, violins, gayageum, and other instruments. Nylon strings were developed after World War II by a New York guitar maker, Albert Augustine, and his chemistry-teacher wife, Rose. At the time, gut and metal were both in short supply because of the war—gut was used for suturing and metal was used to build planes and ships. Nylon was a new product, not used for much beyond fishing line, women’s stockings, and toothbrush bristles. The Augustines worked with classical guitarist Andrés Segovia to perfect a guitar string

This is an advance, uncorrected proof. made of nylon. Not for resale, duplication, or reposting. Please do not quote without comparison to the finished book.

INSTRUMENTS WITH STRINGS THAT ARE PLUCKED Pedal harp from France—this fortyseven-string harp is a standard orchestra instrument. The strings are usually made of gut or nylon, and the pedal changes the pitch by pinching a string to effectively change its length.

Shamisen from Japan—a popular threestringed lute made of sandalwood, mulberry, or quince wood. The strings are made of silk.

This is an advance, uncorrected proof. Balalaika from Russia—a wooden Not for resale, duplication, instrument withor a long neck, a reposting. Please do not quote without triangular body, and three wire strings. comparison to the Maple, finished book. fir, and spruce are used to construct the body.

N’goni from West Africa—an instrument with a gourd or wooden body, wooden neck, and strings made traditionally of animal hide but now usually of nylon. It is played at hunts.

INSTRUMENTS WITH STRINGS THAT ARE STRUCK Santour from the Middle East—a trapezoidal box with metal strings stretched across it. The musician strikes the strings with hammers.

Bass from Europe—a large, low-pitched string bass that is often plucked or bowed. A musician can also strike the strings, using a technique called slap bass, to provide percussive accompaniment. Slap bass can also be played on bass guitars.

Kalinga from South Africa—a ground bow with strings fastened to a board that covers a pit that has been dug in the ground. The pit acts as the resonator, and a branch the neck of theuncorrected This isforms an advance,

proof. instrument. The strings are played by strikingduplication, or Not for resale, them with sticks. Traditionally Please the stringsdo werenot quote without reposting. made from animal sinews or plant fibers, comparison to but the finished book. they may also be wire or animal hair.

INSTRUMENTS WITH STRINGS THAT ARE RUBBED Tsii’Edo’a’tl from North America—a two-stringed spike fiddle constructed from an agave flower stalk. It is made by Apache artisans in the Southwestern United States.

Umrhubhe from southern Africa— a musical bow made by the Xhosa people. A single wire or string is fastened to each end of a curved stick. One end of the stick goes into the musician’s mouth (which acts as the resonator), and the musician rubs the string with a stalk.

Gusle from the Balkans—a single string made from twisted horsehair, attached to a wooden body shaped like a spoon. The musician plays the gusle with a horsehair bow.

INSTRUMENTS WITH STRINGS THAT AREuncorrected SWUNG proof. This is an advance, Not for resale, duplication, or reposting. Please do not quote without Bullroarer from Papua New Guinea—a comparison long, thin piece of wood fastened to a to longthe finished book. string and then whirled to make sound.

Waldteufel from Germany—a drum attached to a cord. The player whirls it and sound is produced as the string rubs on the drumhead. It is a traditional Christmas novelty.

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BEFORE MUSIC . . . a cache of ore lurks underground.

Someone scoops out rocks, crushes them,

scccreek

and melts them into red-hot molten metal.

szzzzzl

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They are making . . .

. . . A BELL. This is an advance, uncorrected proof. Not for resale, duplication, or reposting. Please do not quote without comparison to the finished book.

HOW DOES METAL IN A BELL MAKE SOUND? When a bell is struck—either by a clapper hanging inside it or by a hammer striking against its outside—the metal begins to vibrate. It vibrates the air around it, creating sound waves. To stop the sound, you must stop the vibrations. If you touch the bell, you stop the vibration and halt the sound waves. The larger the bell, the deeper the pitch of the bell. After they are cast, bells can be tuned to exactly the desired pitch by grinding or shaving away metal at carefully chosen spots on the bell.

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Bellmakers pour molten bronze into a mold. After the bell cools, they check the tone of the bell. If the tone is off pitch, they can tune it.

FAMOUS BELLS AROUND THE WORLD Mingun Bell, Myanmar, was cast of bronze in 1808. For almost two centuries it was the world’s heaviest functioning bell. It has no clapper but is rung by musicians striking its outer edge.

Bell of Good Luck, China, was cast in 2000. It is currently the world’s heaviest functioning bell. It is more than 26 feet tall and weighs 127 tons. It hangs in a Buddhist temple.

This is an advance, uncorrected proof. Korea, was Bell of King Seongdeok, Not for resale, duplication, made of bronze or more than 1,000 years reposting. Please do not quote without ago. It is considered one of the national comparison to the treasures finished book. of Korea.

− Ogane, Japan, is a large (70-ton) bell cast in 1636 to hang in the Chion-in Temple in Kyoto. Every New Year’s Eve a team of bellringers swings ropes fastened to a large log to strike the bell’s outer edge 108 times.

Big Ben, England, was cast of bronze in 1858 and hangs in the clock tower of the Parliament building. It tolls the time every hour and is a British cultural icon.

Liberty Bell, United States, was cast in England in 1751 and hung in the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall). It has been said that it cracked the first time it was rung. Local Pennsylvania bellmakers who repaired it may have miscalculated the proportions of copper and tin needed for bronze. After about ninety years of use, the bell cracked so severely that it was put out of commission as a musical instrument, but it still serves as a cultural icon for the United States.

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BRONZE OR BRASS, POURED OR FOLDED Bronze and brass are still common musical metals. Bronze is a mixture of copper and tin, and brass is a mixture of copper and zinc. Bronze instruments like bells are shaped by pouring molten metal into a mold. Brass instruments get their shape in a completely different way. At the foundry, molten metal is poured on large flat surfaces to form sheet metal. Artisans bend and curve those sheets of brass to form trumpets, trombones, tubas, French horns, and other brass instruments.

METAL INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE STRUCK Saron from Bali and Java—bronze or iron bars set on a wooden box that can be shaped like a dragon. The musician strikes the bars with a beater made from wood or buffalo horn.

Ghungru from India—small metal jingle bells that are worn to provide music to accompany dancing.

Tam âm la from Vietnam—three small metal disks of different sizes suspended in a single frame. The musician strikes them to produce different tones. They are used in some Buddhist ceremonies.

This is an advance, uncorrected proof. Not for resale, duplication, or reposting. Please do not quote without to the finished book. Double bell from comparison Cameroon—two iron bells joined into one instrument with lashed handles. The musician strikes the bells with a wooden beater.

METAL INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE BLOWN Cornu from Ancient Rome—a circular trumpet associated with military leaders.

Dung-chen from Tibet—copper and brass horns so long (six to ten feet in length) that they must be supported when they’re played. They are usually played in pairs. Their low tones accompany chanting of religious texts.

Western transverse flutes from Europe— flutes that are usually made of silver or nickel alloy, though they can also be made of wood, plastic, or even crystal. They are now played in orchestras all over the world.

METAL INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE PLUCKED Mbira from Africa—a box topped by metal slats that are fixed at one end. Traditionally, the metal was locally forged iron, but today it might be steel from a bicycle or car. The musician plucks the metal bars to create tones. This instrument may also be called sanza or kalimba.

METAL This INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE RUBBED is an advance, uncorrected proof. Not for resale, duplication, or reposting. Please do not without Singing bowlquote from Tibet or India—a water-filled comparison to the finished bowl. Musicians rub a book. leather-wrapped mallet around the rim of the bowl to create tones. It’s often used as a meditation aid.

Musical saw from the United States—a handsaw. A musician bends the saw and rubs a bow against its metal edge.

Metal brush from the United States—a wire brush that is rubbed against a drum to produce a soft “swish” sound.

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BEFORE MUSIC . . . a tree sways in the forest.

Someone fells the tree,

zoop pah and stacks the pieces. clack After months or years, skilled hands shape the wood.

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She is making . . .

. . . A VIOLIN.

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HOW DOES WOOD MAKE SOUND? You need slow-growing trees to make instruments like violins. In those trees, the growth rings are close together and the wood cells are small and tightly clustered. After the tree is harvested, artisans let the cut wood dry slowly, further shrinking and contracting the wood. Then they make the wood into thin shapes—strong but flexible, so the wood can move as it vibrates. In some trees, a fungus attacks cells in the wood, thinning the walls of the cells. Wood infected by this fungus makes excellent musical instruments because the delicate cell walls can so easily be set vibrating. Sometimes you just need the slow march of time . . . and a helpful fungus . . . to make beautiful music.

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Artisans who make violins are called luthiers. Even today they learn their craft through apprenticeship. Luthiers make all sorts of instruments that have a wooden soundbox and neck: violas, cellos, string basses, guitars, lutes, etc.

MUSICAL INNOVATORS Carleen Maley Hutchins wanted to make music with her friends, but her trumpet overpowered their stringed instruments. So, Hutchins took up viola. She liked playing viola but hated the sound of her cheap instrument. Fed up, she told her friends she would make herself a new viola. They were doubtful. Making stringed instruments is tricky! One friend promised to eat her hat if Hutchins succeeded—a promise she kept in 1949. She served a hat-shaped cake after Hutchins had, indeed, built a good-sounding viola. Hutchins was hooked. When she wasn’t teaching high school science, she spent time with luthiers, studying the art of making violins. But Hutchins wondered if science could help with her new hobby. She chose violins with rich, beautiful sounds and took them apart. She poured tiny particles of glitter onto their front plates and then vibrated them with lab equipment. As the plates vibrated, she noticed that the glitter always settled into one of just a few patterns. When she tried carving the front plates of her own violins so that glitter formed the same patterns, her violins sounded better. Today this method she invented, known as

This is an advance, uncorrected proof. free-plate tuning, is widely used by luthiers.

Not for resale, duplication, or reposting.the Please not quote without Hutchins established CatgutdoAcoustical Society, a collective of comparison to the finished book. musicians and scientists interested in violins. It continues Hutchins’s work of making music better through science.

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WOODEN INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE BLOWN Alphorn from Switzerland—an instrument over eleven feet long made from a young fir tree.

Gaita hembra from Colombia—a cactus stalk stripped of thorns and hollowed out, then fitted with a mouthpiece made from a duck or turkey feather.

Recorder from Europe—a vertical flute made of wood, originally made most often of maple or boxwood. Today they are also made of plastic.

WOODEN INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE STRUCK Wansak from California—a clapper stick made by the Chumash people from a partially

This is an advance, split uncorrected proof. stick of elderberry wood. The musician Not for resale, shakes duplication, or it as a rattle or strikes it on his hand to reposting. Please domake nota loud quote without clapping sound. comparison to the finished book.

Cypress knee drum from Florida—drums made by Seminole people from cypress knees, the protuberances on cypress trees’ shallow roots.

Lali from Fiji—a hardwood instrument shaped like a canoe. It is beaten with sticks to announce celebrations or meetings.

WOODEN INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE PLUCKED Celtic harp from Ireland—a harp made of willow, which grows near Irish bogs. The triangular wooden frame holds twenty-two to thirty-eight strings.

Scheitholt from Germany—a boxy zither whose name, literally translated, means “firewood.” Early creators made it from any piece of wood that was handy—including wood off the firewood stack.

WOODEN INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE RUBBED Yu from China—a wooden crouching tiger with a ridged back, scraped with bamboo. It is used in Confucian rites.

This is an advance, uncorrected proof. Not for resale, duplication, or Cello from Europe—an instrument whose sound reposting. Please do not quote without originates with rubbed strings. Its resonator box, comparison to the finished book. made of maple and spruce, magnifies the sound.

Buhai from Romania—a wooden bucket covered by an animal skin drumhead with a shank of horsehair running through a hole in its center. To produce sound, musicians pull the hair, rubbing it against the drumhead.

WOODEN INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE WHIRLED Cog rattle from Europe—a rattle with a cog that sits at the top of a handle. A small piece of wood, fixed at one end, clicks around the cog as the player whirls the handle.

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BEFORE MUSIC . . . tall reeds rustle at a river’s edge.

Someone yanks a reed out,

grrrrp cuts it in

lengths, and planes it flat.

shshshsh

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She is making . . .

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. . . A CLARINET.

HOW DO REEDS MAKE SOUND? Reeds are a type of giant grass. They are made of long, thin fibers of cellulose. Sometimes a length of hollow reed is used as a flute or whistle. When you blow in one end, you start a wave of air bouncing inside the reed. The vibrating wave spills out through the other end of the reed into the air, making music. Reeds can also be cut into pieces to use atop the mouthpieces of woodwind instruments. When you blow on the piece of reed, its long fibers vibrate. The reed’s vibrations make the column of air inside the instrument vibrate too, creating sound. Single-reed instruments, like the clarinet or saxophone, use one reed that vibrates against the instrument’s mouthpiece. Some instruments, like the oboe, use a double reed—you blow between two reeds that vibrate against each other. All that music . . . from a piece of grass.

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The body of a clarinet can be made from many different materials—both plastic and wood are common—but the music of the clarinet comes when the musician blows on a reed mouthpiece.

MUSICAL INNOVATORS Elise Boyer Hall became a saxophonist by accident. Hall was rich, but that didn’t keep her from getting sick often. A doctor advised her that playing a wind instrument would strengthen her lungs and improve her health. She was ready to try anything. But the only music teacher she could find in the small town where she was living at the time was a saxophonist, so she took up saxophone. She adored playing the saxophone. In 1897, when she moved back to her hometown of Boston, she convinced her friends to form a musical group so she would have more chances to play. But the saxophone was a new instrument—it was invented in 1846—so most of the music the Boston Orchestral Club played didn’t have parts for saxophone. Hall was frustrated. She didn’t want to sit out while her friends played! A professional musician suggested she start commissioning composers—paying them to write pieces for the saxophone. Hall used her wealth to commission sixteen composers. They wrote twenty-

anher, advance, uncorrected proof. Perhaps the two orchestral This piecesisfor each featuring the saxophone. NotDebussy, for resale, or in 1901. She had most famous was Claude whomduplication, Hall commissioned

reposting. Please do notbut quote without to wait seventeen years for his composition, in 1918 she finally received comparison to the finished book.

his Rapsodie pour Orchestre et Saxophone.

The pieces Hall commissioned started the classical saxophone repertoire and brought this newly invented instrument into the Western orchestra.

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REED INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE BLOWN Panpipes from Greece—open reeds are fastened together, raftlike. The musician blows across the top of the reeds.

Pungi from India—a pipe with fingerholes inserted into the top of a gourd that holds two reeds. The musician blows into the pipe, changing pitch by covering holes. Another pipe inserted into the bottom of the gourd acts as a drone, making a continuous harmonizing tone when the musician blows. The pungi is played by snake charmers.

Mijwiz from the Middle East—a double clarinet with two reeds joined with tarred cotton strings. The musician holds the instrument parallel to the ground, blowing both reeds.

This is an advance, uncorrected proof. Not for resale, duplication, or in wisteria bark and string, and then finished reposting. Please do not quote without with a coat of lacquer. comparison to the finished book. Hichiriki from Japan—a bamboo oboe wrapped

REED INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE STRUCK Kä‘eke‘eke from Hawai‘i—native Hawaiian bamboo cut at the node so one end is closed. The musician strikes the open end on the ground.

Slit drum from Papua New Guinea— a cylinder of bamboo with a slit carved down its length. The musician strikes the instrument near the slit.

Kagul from Philippines—a bamboo drum with a slit on one side and notches on the other. The musician uses two beaters, one to scrape along the notches and the other to strike near the slit.

REED INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE PLUCKED Valiha from Madagascar—a section of bamboo strung with fourteen to twenty metal strings that are plucked.

REED INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE SHAKEN Kayamba from East Africa—a box-shaped rattle with wooden sides and a top and bottom made from small reeds, fastened together like rafts. The musician shakes the instrument to make the pebbles inside sound.

This is an advance, Angklung from Indonesia—a set of pitched uncorrected

proof. Not for bamboo rattles that are played in resale, ensemble. duplication, or Pleaserattle do not quote without Each musicianreposting. shakes the appropriate comparison when that pitch is required, much liketo the finished book. Western bell choirs.

Pu¢ili from Hawai‘i—a shaker made from bamboo, cut just below a natural node. One end of the tube is closed and the other end is fringed with many slits. The musician shakes the instrument to accompany hula.

REED INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE WHIRLED Ower-ower from Java—a piece of bamboo tied to a string and whirled to make sound.

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BEFORE MUSIC . . . sheep frolic.

baaaa

Someone clips the fleece,

bzzzz pounds it flat, poompoom and glues it to wooden hammers.

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He is making . . .

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. . . A PIANO.

HOW DO FLEXIBLE SHEETS MAKE MUSIC? If you held up a piece of leather with one hand and hit it, the leather would swing, but it wouldn’t make any sound except slap. But if you took that same piece of leather and fastened it over a box, pulling it taut all around, and then hit it, you would hear a resonant tone. What makes the difference? The taut leather compresses the air underneath it. The wave of compressed air hits the bottom of the box and sends a wave of air back toward the taut drumhead, starting a vibration. Those vibrations send sound waves out through the air. Flexible sheets can also change the sound of a striker. When drummers want a gentler tone, they may wrap strikers with a flexible sheet like felt, flannel, or leather. The felt on piano hammers softens the sound of the wooden hammer hitting the metal string, and also protects the wood from being damaged by the wire.

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Piano makers wrap wooden hammers with thick layers of wool felt. When a pianist strikes a key, a lever moves the felt-wrapped hammer, causing it to strike a metal string.

MUSICAL INNOVATORS Remo Belli started out as a drummer, accompanying famous midtwentieth-century singers like Anita O’Day, Mae West, and Betty Hutton. In addition to his performance work, Belli opened a drum shop in Los Angeles, California. At the time, drumheads were made of calfskin wrapped around a wooden hoop. They’d been made that way for generations, but the material frustrated musicians. As humidity in the air changed, the way the calfskin responded to drumsticks changed, too. Sometimes changes in humidity even split the calfskin, ruining the drumhead. Inventors were experimenting with other materials—nylon, silk, airplane cloth, and polyester—to find a replacement material. One polyester film, Mylar, seemed particularly promising, but it tore easily. Belli joined forces with a chemist, Sam Muchnick, and they refined the Mylar drumhead to make it more durable and easier to use. In 1957, they started selling the Weather King, a drumhead made of Mylar that kept its shape however the humidity of the surrounding air might change.

This is an uncorrected proof. The new drumhead wasadvance, easy for amateurs to master and a bestseller

for resale, duplication, orit simple to massin Belli’s shop. It Not transformed the industry, making reposting. Please quote without produce inexpensive drums. The do easynot accessibility of drums gave many comparison to the finished book.

more people the chance to learn to drum, and it fueled the rise of garage bands and rock and roll. All because a drummer was willing to try a new material under his drumsticks.

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STRUCK INSTRUMENTS MADE WITH THIN FLEXIBLE SHEETS Tabla from India—two drums, originally fastened together but today played as a pair. One is made of clay or metal and the other is made of wood. Each is topped with a layer of goat hide. The musician strikes one drum with the right hand and the other with the left.

Riq from Egypt—a drum, similar to the tambourine, that has jingles around the frame of the drum and a fish-skin drumhead.

Puniu from Hawai‘i—a coconut shell covered with sharkskin. The drum is tied to the musician’s leg and struck with a stick.

Kundu from Papua New Guinea—an hourglass-shaped wooden drum topped with monitor-lizard skin.

This is an advance, uncorrected proof. Not for resale, duplication, or reposting. Please do not quote without comparison to the finished book. Qilaut from Alaska and Canada—an Inuit frame drum covered with skin from caribou, seal, bear, or walrus. Recently some have been made with sailcloth or the material from a weather balloon. It is beaten on the rim with a seal rib or a piece of driftwood.

BLOWN INSTRUMENTS MADE WITH THIN FLEXIBLE SHEETS Gajde from the Balkans—a bagpipe made of sheep or goat skin. The piper blows into the bag and then squeezes it to propel the air through pipes.

Highland pipes from Scotland—bagpipes with a drone pipe, which plays continuous harmonizing tones when the instrument is blown. It’s traditionally made from sheepskin, though now it’s sometimes made from Gore-Tex fabric.

Pulai or leaf trumpet from Polynesia—a large ti or pandanus leaf rolled into a spiral tube and blown through. It’s often made by children.

PLUCKED INSTRUMENTS MADE WITH THIN FLEXIBLE SHEETS Kora from West Africa—an open gourd covered by antelope or cow hide. Twenty-one nylon strings stretch across this resonator and are fixed to a hardwood neck.

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RUBBED INSTRUMENTS MADE WITH THIN FLEXIBLE SHEETS Cuíca or monkey drum from Brazil—a single-headed drum topped with a thin, flexible sheet that is pierced by a thin stick. The musician grasps the stick inside the drum and rubs it with a damp cloth to make a distinctive howling noise. Pressing on the drumhead changes the pitch.

Sarinda from India and Afghanistan—a heart-shaped fiddle. The bottom of its face was traditionally covered with leather such as monitor-lizard skin, but today it’s covered with parchment. The strings are played with a bow.

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BEFORE MUSIC . . . a child dances in the warm summer air.

She opens her mouth, breathes in deep,

huuuu

and . . .

sings!

AHHHHHHH

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She and all of nature are making . . .

. . . MUSIC.

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HOW SINGING WORKS Babies and toddlers manage to figure out how to work their voices without any classroom training, but singing and speaking require different parts of the human body to work together in a complicated way.

1 2

Air control. A large muscle, your diaphragm, rests under your lungs. Its movements fill your lungs with air and also help you breathe out. Your chest

muscles are also involved in breathing in and out. Making sound. The voice box, or larynx, in your throat contains your vocal cords, or vocal folds. Muscles in the larynx move the vocal folds to open and close

a small hole. Sound is produced when air from your lungs moves through the opening and vibrates the vocal folds.

Amplifying sound. The sound made by the vibration of your vocal folds is actually quite soft. Open spaces in your head—your throat, your mouth, and your

sinuses—allow the sound waves to resonate and increase in volume.

All so you can open your mouth and sing!

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Some scientists believe that humans sang before they ever spoke.

SPECIAL SINGING TECHNIQUES Singing is singing, but the human voice can do some amazing things.

Falsetto. Using only the vocal folds at the outer edge of the larynx allows a musician to sing in a register much higher than normal. This is called falsetto voice.

Yodeling. When the voice moves rapidly back and forth between low and high registers, the resulting sound is called, in the Western world, yodeling. It is especially well-known as a vocal technique in the Alps in Europe, but the technique is used in many places, including in Persia, where it is called tahrir, and in West Africa.

This is an advance, uncorrected proof. Not for resale, duplication, or reposting. Please do not quote without comparison to the finished book. Polyphonic Overtone Singing. Singers can train themselves to sing two notes at once. They learn to use their mouth, tongue, lips, and larynx to divide the air tract into two separate parts and to produce sound in both of them. This overtone, or throat singing, is traditional to the Tuva people of Russia, the Inuit of North America, and the Xhosa of Africa.

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ORGANOLOGY Organology is the study of how musical instruments are classified. In 1914, German organologists Erich von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs suggested classifying instruments by looking at the science of how musical sounds are produced. They proposed dividing musical instruments into the string, woodwind, brass, and percussion families. But over time and across cultures, people have classified musical instruments in many different ways. The T’boli people in the Southern Philippines classify musical instruments according to how they are used in performance. They divide instruments according to whether they are used in solos, in duets, in trios, or in larger ensembles. Around 300 BCE, Buddhist thinkers started classifying musical instruments according to how the audience receives the music— whether the instruments make music that the audience will dance to or music that the audience will listen to. Ancient Greeks distinguished between music made directly by the human body (organon psychon), as in singing, and by materials

is an advance, uncorrected proof. that theThis human body manipulates (organon apsychon).

Not for resale, duplication, or Please do not without In Indiareposting. and Java, many thinkers havequote traditionally classified comparison to the finished book. musical instruments by the actions the musician uses to create music. They sort instruments according to whether they are struck, plucked, shaken, blown, or rubbed. As long ago as 2200 BCE, Chinese thinkers classified instruments according to the materials they are made of—stone, clay, gourd, silk, metal, bamboo, wood, and skin. In writing this book, I was inspired by the ancient Chinese system, which focused on the materials instruments are made of. As I sorted instruments, I realized that many could be placed in more than one category. Some types of ocarinas, for example, are made of stone; violins require strings as well as wood; and pianos require wood, metal, and strings as well as felt on their hammers. So how did I choose

where to put things? I considered which material is most commonly used for their construction, which material is most closely linked to sound production, and which material would demonstrate the range of materials available to instrument makers. I subdivided instrument lists using the Indian and Javanese focus on the actions that musicians take to get sound from their instruments.

SELECTED SOURCES Dournon, Genevieve. Guide for the Collection of Traditional Musical Instruments. Geneva, Switzerland: United National Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 1981. Grinnell College Musical Instrument Collection. tinyurl.com/c9knwsx5 Libin, Laurence, et al. ed. The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, Volumes 1-5. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. Marcuse, Sibyl. Musical Instruments: A Comprehensive Dictionary. New York: W.W. Norton, 1975. Midgley, Ruth, et al., editors. Musical Instruments of the World: an Illustrated Encyclopedia. Paddington Press, The Two Continents Publishing Group, 1976. Montagu, Jeremy. Origins and Development of Musical Instruments. Lanham,

This is an advance, uncorrected proof. Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2007. Not for resale, duplication, or reposting. do not quote without “Musical Instrument Guide.”Please Yamaha Corporation. comparison to the finished book. tinyurl.com/4psp6at3 “Musical Instruments.” Metropolitan Museum of Art. tinyurl.com/ap7k738b “Traditional Instruments.” Ka‘Imi Na-Auao O Hawai‘i Nei Institute website. tinyurl.com/ywut3yvb I’m grateful to those who answered my nitpicky questions: luthier Paul Hill, Scott Pryne of American Felt and Filter, and Professor Bret Pimentel. Quote on p. 12 is from Aho, William R. “Steel Band Music in Trinidad and Tobago.” Latin American Music Review / Revista De Música Latinoamericana 8, no. 1 (1987): 26-58. doi:10.2307/948067.

MAKING YOUR OWN INSTRUMENT You can use items around your house or from your recycling bin to make musical instruments. You may see objects in a new light if you think about ways music can be made: • striking

• plucking

• shaking

• blowing

• rubbing

• whirling

What new musical instrument can you invent? Here are some ideas to get you started: Tin can drum. Clean an empty tin can. If there are sharp edges, ask a grown-up to tamp them down or cover them with tape. Stretch a nylon stocking over the top of the can. Secure it with a rubber band. To play, pinch the nylon covering, pull up, and then let go. Variations: Try cutting off the bottom of the can. Try stretching two

is an uncorrected proof.the nylon nylons over This the can, oneadvance, on top of the other. Try stretching for resale, over a small jar orNot drinking glass. duplication, or

reposting. Please do not quote without comparison to the finished book.

Rubber Band Ukelele. Gather rubber bands of different widths. Stretch them across a loaf pan. To play, pluck the rubber bands. Variations: Try cutting a three- to four-inch diameter circle in the center of one side of an empty cereal box, and then string the rubber bands around the box and over the hole. Try stringing rubber bands over the inner hoop of an embroidery hoop, fixing them in place with the outer hoop.

Bobby Pin Kalimba. Pry a bobby pin open slightly. Turn a sturdy paper plate upside down. Tape the flat side of the bobby pin to the center of the back of the plate. To play, pluck the bobby pin. Variations: Try taping on more than one bobby pin. Try taping on different-sized bobby pins. Try using a sturdy paper bowl instead of a paper plate. Popsicle Stick Reed Instrument. Trace around a large Popsicle stick on a piece of paper. Cut inside your lines so that the paper shape is smaller than the Popsicle stick. Snap a toothpick in half (have a grownup snap off the sharp ends). Lay one piece of toothpick diagonally near the end of the Popsicle stick. Lay the paper on top of the toothpick. Place the other piece of toothpick diagonally at the opposite end of the Popsicle stick on top of the paper. Place a second Popsicle stick on top. Secure it by wrapping a rubber band around each end, so the paper is easily vibrated. To play, hold the edge of the Popsicle sticks to your mouth and blow to make the paper reed vibrate.

This is an advance, uncorrected proof. Not for resale, duplication, orwaxed paper Variations: Try different widths of Popsicle sticks. Try reposting. instead of writing paper. Please do not quote without comparison to the finished book.

BEFORE MUSIC, MEI-LING TCHII, TERA SCHAUMANN, IGOR RUKHADZE, TRISH HUISMAN, LINDA MINKE, KRISTEN TOPHAM, AND SUE CLARK TAUGHT OUR CHILDREN. THANK YOU. —A .B.P. IN LOVING MEMORY OF MY GRANDMA MARY. MY WORK WOULD NOT BE THE SAME WITHOUT HER LOVING GUIDANCE AND ENCOURAGEMENT. —M.S. The illustrations for this book were created with watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil.

This is an advance, uncorrected proof. Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for and may be obtained from the Library of Congress. Not for resale, duplication, or ISBN 978-1-4197-4555-3 reposting. Please do not quote without Text copyright © 2022 Annette Bay Pimentel comparison to the finished book. Illustrations copyright © 2022 Madison Safer Book design by Heather Kelly Published in 2022 by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. Printed and bound in Thailand 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Abrams Books for Young Readers are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for premiums and promotions as well as fundraising or educational use. Special editions can also be created to specification. For details, contact specialsales@abramsbooks.com or the address below. Abrams® is a registered trademark of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.