Articles

Everything That You WantedTo Know About The Alphorn by Christian SchneiderHistory of the Alphorn   The blowing of tube instruments has been practised for a very long time. Already the people of the Stone Age blew into hollow bones (warning whistles). We know cave-drawings of the Australian Didgeridoo still being blown the present days; they have an estimated age of 100'000 years. The Jew have known the "Schofar" already for 2000 years - the "Trumpets of Jericho"! The Gauls must have known a similar horn too! Once they had impressed Julius Caesar with this horn: within a short time they...

by David Brown Although bowed instruments were known to the Arabs, Turks and other Oriental peoples before they were known in Europe, it is the European violin that is now most commonly played. Since Napoleon’s campaigns in Egypt, the violin has been played in the Middle East. Turks adopted it from the Italians, and it has spread to Iran. Known in Arabic and Turkish as keman (Iranians just say violin) it is held both in the usual under-chin fashion and gamba style on the knee. Moroccans play gamba style, Egyptians and Iranians under-chin, Turks employing both methods. Often Moroccans use...