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String instruments are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones. The most common instruments in the string family are guitar, sitar, rabab, electric bass, violin, viola, cello, double bass, banjo, mandolin, ukulele, and harp.

Types of instruments[link]

Construction[link]

String instruments can be divided in three groups.

1. Lutes - instruments in which the strings are supported by a neck and a bout ("gourd"), for instance a guitar, a violin, a saz.
2. Harps - instruments in which the strings are contained within a frame.
3. Zithers - instruments with the strings mounted on a body, such as a guqin, a cimbalom, an autoharp, or a piano.

It is also possible to divide the instruments in groups focused on how the instrument is played.

Types of playing techniques[link]

For a full list, see List of string instruments.

All string instruments produce sound from one or more vibrating strings, transferred to the air by the body of the instrument (or by a pickup in the case of electronically amplified instruments). They are usually categorized by the technique used to make the strings vibrate (or by the primary technique, in the case of instruments where more than one may apply.) The three most common techniques are plucking, bowing and striking.

Plucking[link]

Plucking is used as a method of playing on instruments such as the banjo, ukulele, guitar, harp, lute, mandolin, oud, sitar, and either by a finger or thumb, or by some type of plectrum. This category includes the keyboard instrument the harpsichord, which formerly used feather quills (now plastic plectra) to pluck the strings.

Instruments normally played by bowing (see below) may also be plucked, a technique referred to by the Italian term pizzicato.

Bowing[link]

Bowing (Italian: Arco) is a method used in some string instruments, including the violin, viola, cello, and the double bass (of the violin family) and the old viol family. The bow consists of a stick with many hairs stretched between its ends. Bowing the instrument's string causes a stick-slip phenomenon to occur, which makes the string vibrate.

Ancestors of the modern bowed string instruments are the rebab of the Islamic Empires, the Persian kamanche and the Byzantine lira. Other bowed instruments are the rebec, hardingfele, nyckelharpa, kokyū, erhu, igil, sarangi and K'ni. The hurdy gurdy is bowed by a wheel.

Rarely, the guitar can be played with a bow (rather than plucked) for unique effects.

Striking[link]

The third common method of sound production in stringed instruments is to strike the string.

Violin family string instrument players are occasionally instructed to strike the string with the side of the bow, a technique called col legno. This yields a percussive sound along with the pitch of the note. A well-known use of col legno for orchestral strings is the Gustav Holst's "Mars" movement from The Planets suite.

Other methods[link]

The aeolian harp employs a very unusual method of sound production: the strings are excited by the movement of the air.

Some instruments that have strings have attached keyboards that the player uses instead of directly manipulating the strings. These include the piano, the clavichord, and the harpsichord.

With these keyboard instruments too, the strings are occasionally plucked or bowed by hand. Composers such as Henry Cowell wrote music which asks for the player to reach inside the piano and pluck the strings directly, or to "bow" them with bow hair wrapped around the strings, or play them by rolling the bell of a brass instrument such as a trombone on the array of strings.

Other keyed string instruments, small enough for a strolling musician to play, include the plucked autoharp, the bowed nyckelharpa, and the hurdy gurdy, which is played by cranking a rosined wheel.

Steel-stringed instruments (such as the guitar, bass, violin, etc.) can be played using a magnetic field. An E-Bow is small hand-held battery-powered device which can be used to excite the strings of an electric guitar. It provides a sustained, singing tone on the string which is magnetically vibrated.

3rd Bridge is a plucking method where the string is divided in two pieces and struck at the side which is unamplified. The technique is mainly used on electric instruments, because these have a pickup that amplifies only the local string vibration. It's possible on acoustic instruments as well, but lesser convenient. For instance press on the 7th fret on a guitar and pluck it at the head side and a tone will resonate at the opposed part. At electric instruments this technique can generate multitone sounds remniscent of a clock or a bell.

Changing the pitch of a vibrating string[link]

There are three^{[citation needed]} ways to change the pitch of a vibrating string. String instruments are tuned by varying the strings' tension because adjusting length or mass per unit length is impractical. Instruments with a fingerboard are then played by adjusting the length of the vibrating portion of the strings. The following observations all apply to a string that is infinitely flexible strung between two fixed supports. Real strings have finite curvature at the bridge and nut, and the bridge, because of its motion, are not exactly nodes of vibration. Hence the following statements about proportionality are (usually rather good) approximations.

Length[link]

Pitch can be adjusted by varying the length of the string. A longer string will result in a lower pitch, while a shorter string will result in a higher pitch. The frequency is inversely proportional to the length:

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): f \propto \frac{1}{l}

A string twice as long will produce a tone of half the frequency (one octave lower).

Tension[link]

Pitch can be adjusted by varying the tension of the string. A string with less tension (looser) will result in a lower pitch, while a string with greater tension (tighter) will result in a higher pitch. The frequency is proportional to the square root of the tension:

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): f \propto \sqrt{T}

Density[link]

The pitch of a string can also be varied by changing the linear density (mass per unit length) of the string^{[citation needed]}. The frequency is inversely proportional to the square root of the linear density:

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): f \propto {1 \over \sqrt{\mu}}

A string that is has a higher mass per unit length will produce a lower pitch.

String length or scale length[link]

The length of the string from nut to bridge on bowed or plucked instruments ultimately determines the distance between different notes on the instrument. For example, a double bass with its low range needs a scale length of around 42 inches (110 cm), whilst a violin scale is only about 13 inches (33 cm). On the shorter scale of the violin, the left hand may easily reach a range of slightly more than two octaves without shifting position, while on the bass' longer scale, a single octave or a ninth is reachable in lower positions.

Contact points along the string[link]

The strings of a piano

In bowed instruments, the bow is normally placed perpendicularly to the string, at a point half way between the end of the fingerboard and the bridge. However, different bow placements can be selected to change timbre. Application of the bow close to the bridge (known as sul ponticello) produces an intense, sometimes harsh sound, which acoustically emphasizes the upper harmonics. Bowing above the fingerboard (sul tasto) produces a purer tone with less overtone strength, emphasizing the fundamental, also known as flautando, since it sounds less reedy and more flute-like.

Similar timbral distinctions are also possible with plucked string instruments by selecting an appropriate plucking point, although the difference is perhaps more subtle.

In keyboard instruments, the contact point along the string (whether this be hammer, tangent, or plectrum) is a choice made by the instrument designer. Builders use a combination of experience and acoustic theory to establish the right set of contact points.

In harpsichords, often there are two sets of strings of equal length. These "choirs" usually differ in their plucking points. One choir has a "normal" plucking point, producing a canonical harpsichord sound; the other has a plucking point close to the bridge, producing a reedier "nasal" sound rich in upper harmonics.

Production of multiple notes[link]

A string at a certain tension and length will only produce one note, so to obtain multiple notes, string instruments employ one of two methods. One is to add enough strings to cover the range of notes desired; the other is to allow the strings to be stopped. The piano and harp are examples of the former method, where each note on the instrument has its own string or course of multiple strings. (Many notes on a piano are strung with a "choir" of three strings tuned alike.)

Some zithers combine stoppable (melody) strings with a greater number of "open" harmony or chord strings. On instruments with stoppable strings, such as the violin or guitar, the player can shorten the vibrating length of the string, using their fingers directly (or more rarely through some mechanical device, as in the nyckelharpa or the hurdy gurdy). Such instruments usually have a fingerboard attached to the neck of the instrument, that provides a hard flat surface athe player can stop the strings against. On some string instruments, the fingerboard has frets, raised ridges perpendicular to the strings that stop the string at precise intervals, in which case the fingerboard is also called a fretboard.

Moving frets during performance is usually impractical. The bridges of a koto, on the other hand, may be moved by the player, occasionally in the course of a single piece of music. Many modern Western harps include levers, either directly moved by fingers (on Celtic harps) or controlled by foot pedals (on orchestral harps), to raise the pitch of individual strings by a fixed amount. The middle Eastern zither, the qanun, is equipped with small levers called mandal that allow each course of multiple strings to be incrementally retuned "on the fly" while the instrument is being played. These levers raise or lower the pitch of the string course by a microtone, less than a half step.

Sympathetic strings[link]

Some instruments are employed with sympathetic strings, additional strings not meant to be plucked. These strings resonate along with the played notes. This system is for instance present on a sarangi.

Sound production[link]

Acoustic instruments[link]

It is sometimes said that the sounding board or soundbox "amplifies" the sound of the strings. Technically speaking, no amplification occurs, because all of the energy to produce sound comes from the vibrating string. What really happens is that the sounding board of the instrument provides a larger surface area to create sound waves than that of the string. A larger vibrating surface moves more air, hence produces a louder sound.

Achieving a tonal characteristic that is effective and pleasing to the player's and listener's ear is something of an art, and the makers of string instruments often seek very high quality woods to this end, particularly spruce (chosen for its lightness, strength and flexibility) and maple (a very hard wood). Spruce is used for the sounding boards of instruments from the violin to the piano. Instruments such as the banjo use a drum, covered in natural or synthetic skin as their soundboard.

Acoustic instruments can also be made out of artificial materials, such as carbon fiber and fiberglass (particularly the larger instruments, such as cellos and basses).

In the early 20th century, the Stroh violin used a diaphragm-type resonator and a metal horn to project the string sound, much like early mechanical gramophones. Its use declined beginning about 1920, as electronic amplification came into use.

Electronic amplification[link]

Most string instruments can be fitted with piezoelectric or magnetic pickups to convert the string's vibrations into an electrical signal that is amplified and then converted back into sound by loudspeakers. Some players attach a pickup to their traditional string instrument to "electrify" it. Another option is to use a solid-bodied instrument, which reduces unwanted feedback howls or squeals.

Amplified string instruments can be much louder than their acoustic counterparts, which allows them to be used in relatively loud rock, blues, and jazz ensembles. Amplified instruments can also have their amplified tone modified by using electronic effects such as distortion, reverb, or wah-wah.

Bass-register string instruments such as the double bass and the electric bass are amplified with bass instrument amplifiers that are designed to reproduce low-frequency sounds. To modify the tone of amplified bass instruments, a range of electronic bass effects are available, such as distortion and chorus.

See also[link]

• 3rd Bridge
• "Essay on the fingering of the violoncello and on the conduct of the bow"
• List of string instruments
• Luthier (maker of stringed instruments)
• Musical acoustics
• Musical instrument
• Ravanahatha
• String instrument extended technique
• String instrument repertoire
• String orchestra
• Strings (music)
• Vibrating string
• Stringed instrument tunings

External links[link]

• The physics of the bowed string
• Instruments in Depth: The Viola, an online feature presented by Bloomingdale School of Music (2010)
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Stringed instruments". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Ellen Fullman (1957– ) is a composer, instrument builder, and performer. She was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and is currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Known for the 70-foot (21-meter) long string instrument, an instrument tuned in just intonation and played with rosin-coated fingers.

Biography and work[link]

Fullman studied sculpture at the Kansas City Art Institute before moving to New York in the early 1980s. In Kansas City she created and performed in an amplified metal sound-producing skirt and wrote art songs which she recorded in New York for a small cassette label. In 1981, she began developing the Long String Instrument at her studio in Brooklyn, consisting of dozens of metallic strings played with rosin-coated fingers and producing a chorus of organ-like partials. This instrument has been compared to the experience of standing inside an enormous grand piano. She has recorded extensively with this unusual instrument and has collaborated with such luminary figures as composer Pauline Oliveros, choreographer Deborah Hay, the Kronos Quartet, and Francis-Marie Uitti.

Recognition[link]

Fullman has been the recipient of numerous awards, commissions and residencies including: a McKnight Visiting Composer Residency from American Composers Forum (2010), Artist-In-Residence, Headlands Center for the Arts (2008); Center for Cultural Innovation Investing in Artists Grant (2008); Japan/U.S. Friendship Commission/NEA Fellowship for Japan (2007); DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program residency (2000); Artist Trust/Washington State Arts Commission Fellowship (1999); and Meet the Composer, Reader's Digest Consortium Commission (1993). Her recent performance with Austin New Music Co-op at the Seaholm Power Plant was given a Critic's Table Award for Best Chamber Performance, 2009-2010.

Fullman has performed in numerous festivals, art spaces, and museums, including: New Albion at Bard SummerScape, a Norway tour presented by NY Musik, Instal, Glasgow, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Festival van Vlaanderen, Brussels, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Other Minds, San Francisco, Romanische Sommer Köln, Columbia University, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Walker Art Center, ISCM World Music Days, and New Music America 1980, 1984 and 1986. Her music has been represented in exhibits including: The American Century; Art and Culture, 1950–2000, Whitney Museum of American Art; Listening, Pompidou Center (2004); and Volume: Bed of Sound, P.S.1 (2000).

Peter Esmonde directed a documentary film on Fullman's work, 5 Variations on a Long String. The film is currently making festival rounds. Using archival footage, Fullman edited Suspended Music, a documentary film on her collaboration with Pauline Oliveros's Deep Listening Band, which premiered at the Pacific Film Archive, UC Berkeley (2004). Fullman wrote an article on her work for MusikTexte (Cologne 2002), subsequently published in MusicWorks (Toronto 2003). She has been interviewed for NPR's Morning Edition, the Wire and Signal to Noise. Releases include: Fluctuations, with trombonist Monique Buzzarté (Deep Listening Institute), selected as one of the top 50 recordings of 2008 by The Wire (London) and awarded an Aaron Copeland Fund for Music Recording Program Grant; Ort, recorded with Berlin collaborator Konrad Sprenger (Choose Records), selected as one of the top 50 recordings of 2004 by The Wire; Suspended Music, in collaboration with Deep Listening Band (Periplum); Change of Direction (New Albion); and Body Music (XI).

Fullman's commissioned works include: Post Futurist Reverie, for the project: Music for 16 Futurist Noise Intoners, curated by Luciano Chessa and presented by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and a piece for Trimpin's Klavier Nonette, an installation of nine MIDI-controlled toy pianos. Fullman has presented numerous lectures on her work including: the Songlines series, Center for Contemporary Music, Mills College; and Improv:21 a lecture series presented by Rova:Arts, San Francisco. Forthcoming performances and projects include: Issue Project Room, Propensity of Sound series, May 22, 2011; and a split LP release with Eleh on Important Records.

External links[link]

• Ellen Fullman
• Epitonic.com: Ellen Fullman featuring a track from Change of Direction
• surround sound DVD
• John Henken (September 25, 1989). "Music Reviews Ellen Fullman Plays Her Long String Instrument". Los Angeles Times: pp. 3. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/66556425.html?dids=66556425:66556425&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Sep+25%2C+1989&author=-JOHN+HENKEN&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=Music+Reviews+Ellen+Fullman+Plays+Her+Long+String+Instrument&pqatl=google. 
• Matthew Erikson (October 26, 2007). "Q&A ELLEN FULLMAN: Composer sculpts a distinctive sound" (October 26, 2007). Fort Worth Star-Telegram. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/premium/0286/0286-33282795.html. 

Moses Williams (2 March 1685 – 2 March (buried) 1742) was a Welsh antiquarian scholar.^[1]

He was born the son of Samuel Williams, Vicar of Llan Dyfriog and Rector of Llan Gynllo, Cardiganshire, and his wife, Margaret, daughter of Jenkin Powell Prytherch, in Y Glaslyn, near Llandysul, Ceredigion, in south-west Wales.

He was ordained a deacon in 1708 and a priest in 1713. he was made Curate of Chiddingstone, Kent (1708–1713), Vicar of Llanwenog, Cardiganshire (1715–1742), Vicar of Devynock of Defynnog, Breconshire (1716–1732), Rector of Chilton Trinity, Somerset and lastly Vicar of St Mary, Bridgewater (1732–1742).

He supervised new editions of the Bible and Prayer Book in Welsh; his library, containing many Welsh books and manuscripts came into the possession of William Jones and then into the library of George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield at Shirburn Castle. He worked closely with Edward Lhuyd on the Archaeologia Britannica (1707) and with William Wotton on the Leges Wallicae, a parallel text edition of the laws of Hywel Dda published in 1730.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1719.^[2]

He died in Bridgewater, Somerset. He had married Margaret Davies of Cwm Wysg, Defynnog.

References[link]

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William Close
Born	William Taliaferro Close (1924-06-07)June 7, 1924 Greenwich, Connecticut
Died	January 15, 2009(2009-01-15) (aged 84) Big Piney, Wyoming
Spouse	Bettine Moore
Children	Glenn, Tina, Jessie, Alexander, Tambu
Parents	Edward Bennett Close, Elizabeth Taliaferro

William Taliaferro Close (June 7, 1924 – January 15, 2009) was an American surgeon who played a major role in stemming a 1976 outbreak of the Ebola virus in Zaire, the first major outbreak of the viral hemorrhagic fever in Central Africa, and preventing its further spread. He was also the father of actress Glenn Close.

Youth, education and military service[link]

Close was born in Greenwich, Connecticut on June 7, 1924, minutes after his twin brother, into a well-off background, the son of Elizabeth (née Taliaferro) and Edward Bennett Close, an attorney.^[1][2] His mother was a descendant of the Taliaferro family. Raised in France, he attended Summer Fields School, Harrow School in England, and then St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire.^[3] Close enrolled in Harvard University in 1941, leaving the school two years later to marry Bettine Moore in a ceremony held February 6, 1943 at the home of her parents in Greenwich, and to become a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II.^[4] He served as the personal pilot and interpreter for General Joseph Harper.^[3]

Following his military service, he attended the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and trained in surgery at Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan after receiving his medical degree.^[4]

In Zaïre[link]

He traveled to Zaire in 1960, where he practiced medicine and ran the 1,500-bed Mama Yemo hospital in the capital city of Kinshasa, with the goal of getting health care into rural areas of the country. He served President Mobutu Sese Seko as his personal doctor and was chief physician of the nation's army.^[4]

In the mid-1970s, the Ebola virus broke out at a missionary hospital in rural Yambuku, near the Ebola River. The disease, which was characterized by severe sore throat, rash, abdominal pain and bleeding from multiple sites, had killed 11 of the 17 medical staff at the hospital, forcing it to close. Panic was in the air, with roads blocked, river traffic stopped and commercial air travel restricted. The army would not enter the area and President Mobutu was said to have left the county and fled to France, in the face of fears that the disease could spread to others as those infected with the disease tried to escape the center of the outbreak.^[4]

On his way back home to the United States for a home leave, Dr. Close returned to Kinshasa from Geneva, discussing the issue on the flight with two physicians from the Centers for Disease Control, Joel G. Breman and Peter Piot, who discovered the Ebola virus. Back in Zaire, Close obtained planes and pilots from the Ministry of Health to transport medical equipment to the affected area, using his personal connection to President Mobutu to obtain the access he needed. Close coordinated efforts in the area, ensuring that medical supplies were directed to where they were needed most. After providing protective equipment for hospital workers, sterilizing medical supplies and quarantining patients, the team was able to break the chain of transmission of the virus, with almost 90% of the 318 people infected left dead.^[4]

Blood samples that Close had collected in the 1970s were used to investigate the progress of the AIDS pandemic, showing that the rate of infection had been stable at 0.8% by comparing new samples to the older ones that had been collected in Zaire, one of the few sets of historical specimens available to perform this analysis. This showed that HIV infection rates could have been stable in rural Africa before it spread throughout the world.^[4]

Last years[link]

Disillusioned with Mobutu's policies, Dr. Close left Zaire in 1977. He moved to Big Piney, Wyoming, where he became a country doctor, making his final house call a month before his death.^[4] During the 1995 Ebola outbreak he was a liaison between the CDC and the Zairian government.

Close wrote four books, which included chronicles of his experiences as a doctor in Zaire and Wyoming.

Close died at age 84 on January 15, 2009, in his home in Big Piney due to a heart attack. He was survived by his wife, three daughters, two sons, nine grandchildren and a twin brother.^[4]

Honors and accolades[link]

• Fellow, American College of Surgeons
• Fellow, American Academy of Family Physicians
• Honorary degree: Doctor of Humane Letters (University of Utah)

Books[link]

• Zuster Veronica, Het drama van Yambuku [ Dutch: "Sister Veronica, The Tragedy of Yambuku"] (1991), Uitgeverij De Fontein, Baarn, Holland.
  • Ebola: A Documentary Novel of Its First Explosion in Zaire by a Doctor who was There [English version] (1995), New York: Ballantine Books.
  • Ebola: Through the Eyes of the People (2002), Expanded, revised edition, Marbleton, Wyoming: Meadowlarks Springs Productions. Illustrations by Itoko Maeno.
• A Doctor's Story: From City Surgeon to Country "Doc" (1996), Ivy Books (and Ballantine Books paperback)
  • A Doctor's Life: Unique Stories (2001), Expanded, revised version, Marbleton, Wyoming: Meadowlarks Springs Productions.
• Subversion of Trust (2002), Marbleton, Wyoming: Meadowlarks Springs Productions [a novel].
• Beyond the Storm: Treating the Powerless and the Powerful in Mobutu's Congo/Zaire (2006), with [Malonga Miatudila]http://www.panaforum.com, Marbleton, Wyoming: Meadowlarks Springs Productions.

References[link]