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double bass

(Encyclopedia)double bass, bowed stringed musical instrument, the contrabass of the modern orchestral string section. It originated as a double-bass viol, an instrument described as early as 1566. A true double-bas...

psaltery

(Encyclopedia)psaltery sôlˈtərē, –trē [key], stringed musical instrument. It has a flat soundboard over which a variable number of strings are stretched. Its origin was in the Middle East, and it is referred...

stethoscope

(Encyclopedia)stethoscope stĕthˈəskōpˌ [key] [Gr.,=chest viewer], instrument that enables the physican to hear the sounds made by the heart, the lungs, and various other organs. The earliest stethoscope, devis...

Wells-Barnett, Ida Bell

(Encyclopedia)Wells-Barnett, Ida Bell, 1862–1931, African-American civil-rights advocate and feminist, b. Holly Springs, Miss. Born a slave, she attended a freedman's school and was orphaned at 16. She moved (188...

crumhorn

(Encyclopedia)crumhorn, J-shaped, double-reed musical instrument used throughout Europe from the 15th cent. through the 17th cent. It possesses a soft, reedy tone. The reed is enclosed by a wooden cap with a hole a...

Biwa

(Encyclopedia)Biwa bēˈwä [key], lake, c.40 mi (60 km) long and from 2 to 12 mi (3.2–19 km) wide, Shiga prefecture, S Honshu, Japan. The lake, shaped like the biwa, a musical instrument, is the largest in Japan...

celesta

(Encyclopedia)celesta sĭlĕˈstə [key], keyboard musical instrument patented in 1886 by Auguste Mustel of Paris. It consists of a set of steel bars fastened over wood resonators and struck by hammers operated fro...

Chladni, Ernst Florens Friedrich

(Encyclopedia)Chladni, Ernst Florens Friedrich ĕrnst flōˈrĕns frēˈdrĭkh klädˈnē [key], 1756–1827, German physicist. An authority on acoustics, he made studies of the transmission of sound in various gas...

ocarina

(Encyclopedia)ocarina ŏkərēˈnə [key], musical wind instrument with eight finger holes and two thumb holes, rather egg-shaped, and made of metal, terra-cotta or plastic. Unlike other wind instuments, it produce...

lyre

(Encyclopedia)lyre, generic term for stringed musical instruments having a sound box from which project curved arms joined by a crossbar. The strings are stretched between the crossbar and the sound box and are plu...