- Today we're going to study about...
- Ancient history?
- Love and mystery?
- Mathematics?
- Acrobatics?
- Reading?
- Spelling?
- Storytelling?
No, no, no!
The study of musical instruments
is the subject for today.
# The study of musical instruments
# Is the subject for today #
Did you ever stop to think
when the band plays rink dink,
where all the music comes from?
From a toot and a whistle
and a plunk and a boom.
# That's where the music comes from
Did you ever understand
that a symphony so grand,
so bright and yet sentimental?
# Add a toot and a whistle
and a plunk and a boom
# How very instrumental
- # For the horns go toot
- # The woodwinds whistle
# The strings go plunk, plunk too
# Then the drums boom, boom
with a bing, zing, zoom
# And it comes out fine in tune
So remember what I say
when the band begins to play
just where the music comes from.
# From a and a
And a and a
# That's where the music comes from #
Now, students, fly with me
to the dawn of history.
We'll start investigating
the toot and the whistle
and the plunk and the boom.
It's very stimulating.
Oops.
OK, boys, you're on.
# Goo ah ga ug
# Goo ah ga uh
When a caveman blew
through an old cow's horn,
right then and there
the first toot was born.
Duh.
Now, let's look ahead in history,
and here we are in Egypt, 2000 BC.
# And now on the banks
of the River Nile
# The toot has certainly
changed its style
# And the kind of a note
that the caveman blows
# Is not good enough
for the old pharaohs
# No, it's not good enough
for the old pharaohs #
Now, the longer they made
these ancient trumpets,
the lower they sounded.
One day someone
bumped into a very startling fact.
He had discovered
that changing a trumpet's shape
did not in the least
change its pitch.
The curled or curved bass horn
had been invented.
Ah. But this horn could
produce only certain notes.
To play a simple tune, you would have
to use four horns of different lengths.
Now, cut off these extra lengths,
attach them to one horn,
add valves to control the passage
of air through the extra lengths.
Now you can play your tune
on just one horn.
And this is a basic principle
of our modern brass horns.
Now, let's go back to our whistle.
# Goo ah ga ga
When this caveman
blew on a tube of grass,
the very first whistle came to pass.
In order to make his cavegirl smile,
he had to improve his whistle's style.
And when he saw he was doing fine,
he added more holes,
about eight or nine.
By using his head instead of his feet,
some genius found a way
to beat this problem
in a manner neat.
# Roo ah ga uh
When our third caveman
plunked on the string of his bow,
it was the first plunk,
as far as we know.
# First you take the bow
and sometime later
# Add a little jar
to make a resonator
- # Add a few strings
- # Listen, how it rings
# Change the jar to a box of wood
- # Slide the box down
- # Ah, pretty good
# Add a few pegs
to tune it fine and sharp
- # Change the shape a little
- # Now it looks like a harp #
Here there are two ways to go.
You can either plunk it...
...or play it with a bow.
# Goo ah ga uh
# Goo ah ga uh
From our last caveman
with his rhythmic slap
have come all things
that click or tap.
Came rattles,
bells,
and, we presume, all other
instruments that go "boom."
# With a toot
# And a whistle
# And a plunk
# And a boom right
from the old Stone Ages
# Everywhere you hear a band
or a symphony so grand
# In music Oriental
# The toot and the whistle
and the plunk and the boom
# Are very instrumental
# Or the trombone's toot
# The calliope's whistle
# The banjo's plucka-wucka-wucka too
# Then the drum boom, boom
with a click, clack, zoom
# In a Latin rhythm too
# So remember what we say
# When the band begins to play
# Where all the music comes from
# From a toot
# And a whistle
# And a plunk
# And a boom
# That's where the music
That's where the music
# That's where the music comes from #