July 31 marks an interesting cultural holiday – Uncommon Musical Instrument Awareness Day.
Music (from the Greek musike, literally – «art of the muses») – is an art form in which the means of embodying artistic images are organized musical sounds in a certain way, reproduced using various instruments. Music has always attracted people, and humanity has been familiar with this type of art since ancient times. According to archaeological excavations, musical instruments were used in China at least two thousand years ago, during the Han Dynasty.
And this is not surprising, because music has enormous power and plays a great aesthetic and educational role in people’s lives, without aging and losing its relevance. In addition, different nations have their own songs, their own musical preferences and instruments, which are known to many, not even specialists from the world of music. Traditionally, instruments are divided into several categories: percussion, string, wind, keyboard, reed and electronic.
Among the currently existing instruments, the flute is considered the oldest. According to scientists, its age is about 40 thousand years. This was confirmed by a discovery in one of the caves in Germany – the discovered flutes were made from bird bones and mammoth tusk. Other most famous instruments include – guitar, drums, violin, piano, trumpet, saxophone, harpsichord, piano, organ, clarinet, cello, pipe and others. And a number of these instruments and the musicians who play them have their own holiday.
However, there are also very rare musical instruments in the world, that is, those that are not used on a large scale and, therefore, are not so widely known. Today's holiday is dedicated to them. Among these – clavichord, harp, quitarron, recorder, glucophone, hang, didgeridoo, organ grinder, harp... And there are also absolutely amazing ones. For example, the – cat piano in 19th century sources has an image of pets seated in a row, the tails of which are connected to the piano keyboard, and, when the keys were pressed, the cats felt pain and began to make loud sounds somewhat reminiscent of a melody; or a hydralophone (resulting from the conversion of fluid vibrations into sounds); or a huge organ in the Boardwalk Concert Hall in Atlantic City, containing more than 33 thousand pipes; or an Indonesian bonang made of bronze gongs standing in a row on a wooden stand (clay hemispheres are suspended above the gongs as resonators).
Amazing sounds can be heard performed by Zimbabwean mbira, Indian sea shell bugle and African tanbur. And melodies released by tambourine and harp are considered part of shamanic rituals and can « open the gates to the world of spirits». The list of unusual devices for music reproduction is quite large. In addition, there are many unusual instruments as a result of modifications of traditional – cheese drums, vegetable pipes, a large number of modified harps, organs, guitars and wind instruments.
Although today's holiday does not have official status, this does not prevent people from around the world from celebrating it annually, discovering new music performed by unusual instruments. The date in honor of rare, ancient and experimental instruments encourages not only to enjoy their music, but also broadens the horizons of people interested in the art of music. After all, you can not only discover new instruments and learn to play them, but also contribute to the world of music by creating your own unusual musical instruments. Therefore, the holiday is celebrated by both professionals and music lovers, for whom it is a source of inspiration, pleasure and new discoveries.