Terminology and Glossary
Woodwind terminology | Brasswind terminology | String bows terminology
Woodwind Terminology
Barrel
The section of an instrument located between the mouthpiece, head joint or crook and the main sections. A separate section in this location enables the player to adjust overall tuning.
Bell
The bottom or last section of a wind instrument, usually flared.
Crook
In double reed instruments, a section of bent or curved tubing, usually metal, that connects the reed to the main body of the instrument.
Flap
The part of the key which covers the sound hole. It is usually made air-tight by a pad of leather, cork or cloth attached to the underside of the flap or a plug. See illustration 1.
Joints
The individual sections of wind instruments usually where the main keywork is located.
Plug
See key flap designs.
Shank
The part of the key that connects touch and flap. A hole drilled through the edge of the shank accommodates a metal wire or screw on which the key then pivots. See illustration 1.
Spring
Springs, usually metal, are used to return the key to its original position after being depressed by the player. Springs can be attached to the body of the instrument or to the material of the keys.
Flat spring or Leaf spring - a hammered metal spring (usually brass or steel) attached by screw or rivet to the finger end of a key. It is also sometimes screwed into the key mount assembly, so that it exerts an upward pressure on the rear of the key. Keys mounted in metal saddles were frequently sprung in this optional reverse manner in the early stages.
Needle spring - to some of the post and rod key designs in which round, tapered springs wedged into small post holes controlled key return for some or all of the keys that pivoted on a hinge rod assembly. They usually work in parallel to the axis of the key, and the narrow end of the spring is engaged by a small hook brazed to a key element.
Touch plate or Finger plate
The part of the key on which the finger or thumb presses to activate the key. See illustration 1.
Key mounts
There are numerous ways in which makers have mounted keys onto the body of an instrument. The following are the main ones found on instruments in the Collection:
Ring - A raised ridge on the body formed during turning, with a square or round cross-section. Keys are usually secured to rings by metal pins. See illustration 1.
Block - A ring reduced to the minimum amount of wood needed to mount a key. Keys are usually secured to blocks by metal pins. See illustration 1.
Saddle - A metal u-shaped channel screwed through its flat bottom to the wood body surface. It may be of varying length depending on its application. Some later saddles have extended foot-plates to provide screw-holes outside the key channel itself.
Pillars or Post and Axle Mounts
The pillars are the most common means of mounting keys for the last 150 years. The pillars may be screwed into the wood, soldered onto the metal body or may be first attached to a metal strap or bed-plate, which is then attached to the body. See illustration 2.
Recessed into body
A shallow channel is cut into the body; the key has a projecting lug that fits into the channel, pivoting on a wire.
Key flap designs
Where appropriate, key flap designs have been indicated. Designs represented in the Collection include:
Salt spoon - found on instruments from the late nineteenth century onwards, salt spoon key flaps are concave and contain a stuffed leather pad.
Modern - style key cup refers to those early key designs having a modern style pad retainer or cup. Early examples of such key cup designs were similar to the modern recessed key cup form, which takes a disc-shaped stuffed pad, but were otherwise old-fashioned with respect to mounts and other elements.
Pewter plug - a type of pad made from soft pewter that fits into the hole in a metal plate attached to the wood body, patented by Potter in 1785. They were used during the first three quarters of the nineteenth century, principally for open-standing keys, especially those on a flute foot-joint, although some flutes, especially if made in England, were outfitted completely with plug keys. See item 2.9 for an example.
Swallow Tail - a type of touch plate design enabling the player to operate the key using either left or right hands. See item 3.4, ‘Moore’ oboe.
Parts of Instruments
Recorder - Head joint (including embouchure hole and lip), main joint (includes most the finger holes), and foot joint (usually including one or two finger holes and the bell).
Flute - Head joint, (including embouchure hole), barrel, joints (upper and lower, including key work and finger holes), foot joint (usually including finger hole(s) and/or key work.
Oboe - Upper joint (including crook or staple receiver, finger holes and key work), lower joint (including finger holes and key work), bell (including vent holes).
Clarinet - Mouthpiece (attached to which is a single reed), barrel, joints (upper and lower, including key work and finger holes), bell.
Bassoon - Wing joint (including crook receiver, finger holes and key work), butt joint (including finger holes and key work), bass joint, and bell.
Key work Systems
Key systems are stated for each instruments and described in full where appropriate.
Brasswind Terminology
Bezel
See Rim.
Clapper key
A key found on early 19th century valved trumpets, cornets and cornopeans to enable an easy execution of trills, invented by McFarlane in 1834. See 10.11 for an example in the Collection.
Crook
A length of tubing used to change the pitch of a brass
instrument, found on valved and valveless instruments.
Ferrule
A sleeve fitted over the joint between two sections of tubing.
Garland
Annular strip of metal fixed to the outside of the bell of some brass instruments at the rim.
Garnishing
Decorative ferrule.
Gusset
Triangular section of metal inserted into the sheet of metal of a bell before it is formed, to provide extra expansion and ease of forming.
Knuckle
Small piece of tubing, usually angled, connecting the valve casing to other tubing.
Leadpipe
The first section of tubing of a brass instrument extending from the mouthpiece receiver to the next joint. This is usually integral to the main body of the instrument and usually tapers, unless it is equipped with a tuning slide.
Rim
Ring of metal, usually semicircular in cross-section, added to the outside edge of a brass instrument bell to provide rigidity.
Shank
Straight piece of tubing for an instrument such as a trumpet fitting into the instrument at one end and receiving the mouthpiece or tuning bit at the other. See 10.11 for an example in the Collection.
Slide
A section of airtight telescopic tubing.
Springs
On brass instruments with piston valves, springs are used to return the piston to its natural position, found on top or underneath the piston inside the casing. Springs are also used to facilitate the water key.
Stay
Component of folded or coiled brass instruments which strengthens their structure by rigidly connecting two parallel or nearly parallel sections of tube.
Touchpiece
A circular button on top of the piston which is pressed to operate the valves.
Tuning Slide
Airtight telescopic joint used to vary the length of the instrument and thus alter the pitch of the notes that can be sounded.
Valve
Mechanical device to channel air into different lengths of tubing and thereby changing the instrument’s harmonic series and making more notes available to the player. Piston valves are represented in items 6.4 - 6.11 in the Collection. The two main types of piston valves are Stölzel and Périnet. Heinrich Stölzel first applied valves to a horn in 1814 and patented his design in 1818 in Vienna. François Périnet invented his type of piston valve in 1838 and patented it the following year. With Stölzel valves, the main tubing enters the piston from below (as can be seen clearly on in the cornopean by Wigglesworth, item 6.11), and with Périnet valves the main tubing enters from the side. In both systems, the inlet tubing is positioned on a different level to the outlet tubing. The piston is held at rest by a spring, which is placed either on top (top-sprung) or below (bottom-sprung) the piston. It is the Périnet valve which has become the standard for trumpets in most countries, except in Germany and Austria where rotary valves are favoured.
Water key
Key used to release water from the instrument. They are most often located at the first 180° bend in the tubing. See item 7.7 for an example in the Collection.
String Bows Terminology
All references of orientation are standardised as follows: The front of the bow is where the head is located, the back is where the frog is located. A bow held upright will have the stick at the top and the frog and hair at the bottom. The left and right sides of the bow are also referred to as thumb and finger sides respectively.
Adjuster
The mechanism used to tighten the bow hair. Turning the adjuster tightens the screw located in the cavity of the bow stick. The screw is attached to the frog which pulls the hair tight.
Buttefly
Decorative button, usually of ivory.
Button
Knob at the back of the stick attached to the adjuster to enable tightening of the bow hair.
Chamfer
The bevelled edge connecting the back sides of the head. On Cramer and earlier style heads, there is little or no chamfer.
Eye
A round decorative inset found at the sides of the frog, often of mother of pearl.
Facets
Decorative insets found on some buttons, usually of mother of pearl.
Fittings
A general term used for the non stick parts of the bow.
Frog
The block of wood, ivory, ebony designed to hold the bow hair to the stick.
Frog shapes
There are many different shapes of frog design, even within this small collection. The basic shapes are illustrated below.
Handle
The part of the stick, at the back of the bow, the player holds when playing.
Head shapes
Cramer head - See item 10.13. From the 1770s, François Xavier Tourte and his younger brother Léonard Tourte began developing the forerunner of the modern style head shape, known as the Cramer bow.
Swan head - A late 18th century design, transitional between the Baroque, pike style, and Cramer style head. See 10.1.
Lapping
A band of leather, wound silver wire or whalebone that covers the bow stick in the frog area, designed to protect the stick from wear and assist the player’s grip.
Mortise
A cavity cut into the stick wood found on the head and frog, into which the bow hair is secured by a wedge.
Ring and eye
A type of decoration found on the frog consisting of an eye surrounded by small ring bands often of gold.
Stick
The main part of the bow, made of wood and often cambered and shaped. Stick profiles can be fluted (usually early eighteenth century and before), octagonal (along the whole stick or just above the frog to facilitate an easy fixture to the wood) or round.