Music

Google Ngrams: Musical Instruments

~ Danielle Koppie

For this assignment, I decided to use the category that I had failed to find information for in the Book Traces assignment: music. I plugged in names of Nineteenth Century composers such as Beethoven, Chopin, and Tchaikovsky, but none of the comparisons were significant enough for me to write about. I then decided to steer away from composers and look more into some instruments. I knew that this time period was incredibly important in the field of music, so I figured the instruments had to have seen some interesting developments. I plugged the words “trumpet,” “flute,” and “piano” into the Ngram Viewer, with the default settings. I saw that at first, the word “trumpet” was significantly more popular than either “flute” or “piano.” Flute was low but stayed fairly consistent until the end of the century. The most interesting increase, however, was definitely in the word “piano.” Its frequency more than tripled between the years 1850 and 1900. It went from least popular of the three to most popular by far. Some quick research explained that throughout the Nineteenth Century, the piano became more and more affordable, as companies began to mass produce the instruments. This allowed for many families to purchase pianos for their homes.

Some research on the flute showed that in about 1847, a man named Theobald Boehm invented a new type of flute that became the premise for the instrument we use today. Toward the end of the century, workshops began to adopt and modify Boehm’s design, and it was used in orchestras all across Europe and America. This explains the increase in the word “flute” from about 1887 to 1898.

As for the trumpet, its graph was fairly consistent throughout, and there was not much information on the Nineteenth Century trumpet alone. I did find out that around that time, similar to the flute and piano, the basis for the modern day trumpet was invented, but it was in the key of F, rather than today’s standard B♭. On the graph around 1810, there is a rather large spike, but I could not find any information that explained it.

I found this to be an interesting assignment because it relies on us making assumptions, which is what historians are forced to do when they are researching various trends on graphs like our Ngrams. This tool could definitely be valuable for anyone who is researching a topic from many years ago. Google has scanned millions of books into its system, which makes the research incredibly accurate. Also, I got to learn about the instruments I enjoy, which was fun.

Ngram

 

Works Cited

“The History and Development of the Modern Piano.” Renner USA. N.p., n.d.               Web. 07 Oct. 2015.

Estrella, Espie. “History of the Trumpet.” About Education. About.com, n.d.                   Web. 07 Oct. 2015.

“Theobald Boehm (1794-1881).” FluteHistory.com. Flutehistory.com, n.d. Web.             07 Oct. 2015.

“Nineteenth-century Flutes.” FluteHistory.com. Flutehistory.com, n.d. Web. 07           Oct. 2015.

Music of the Past

~ Annie Swafford

The late 1700’s was a very well-known time for musicians, such as Ludwig Beethoven. Often, I had found that a majority of the books with musical compilations had told of the years that the music was published, not the book itself. Within the book “Contemporary Composers” by Daniel Gregory Mason (published by The Macmillan company in 1918), it shows multiple moments where someone has underlined certain points.
DH Book (Pg. 138)
In the first portion of the underlined section the person who had underlined the text made a point to take notice of what was written there. This section mentions how even though a musician knows what they are playing, an “untrained” listener, or a listener who is not so widely educated in the ways of music, will not know exactly how in depth the music goes. As a musician, I have found this to be true in multiple forms, and often forget that the audience does not truly understand the music. Knowing exactly the extent of the audience’s listening and comprehending abilities can help the musician to alter their performance in such a way that the audience will be as close to the same level as the performer.
DH Book 2 (Pg. 139)

Continued from the pervious page to the top of page 139, the underlined section also goes on to talk about how music is not just about playing the notes correctly and with the right inflections, but the emotions that are laced into the notes. The composer does not create these emotions entirely; that is entirely to the performer. A good performer can change a song that is typically known as a slow and beautiful piece, to music that is riddled with fear and despair. The composer is a guide, the performer is the leader.