Essential Baroque Musical Instruments and Their Sounds

The Harpsichord: A Precursor to the Piano

The harpsichord is a horizontally strung stringed keyboard instrument and a precursor of the piano. It is triangular in shape, consisting usually of two manuals controlling various sets of strings plucked by pivoted plectrums mounted on jacks. With horizontal strings which run perpendicular to the keyboard in a long tapering case, its sound features are gentle, metallic, and blurring.

The Baroque Flute and Its Construction

The baroque flute is made of wood, of which the most commonly used are boxwood, ebony, and grenadilla. It has a conical bore that is wide at the end with the embouchure hole and tapers to become significantly more narrow at the bottom. It has relatively small embouchure and finger holes. It has six finger holes plus a seventh hole on the far end that is closed unless opened by a single key. Its body is divided into three or four joints: a head joint that contains the embouchure hole, one or two middle joints with six finger holes divided among them, and a foot joint having a seventh hole and key. Sound features: airy and light.

The Violin: Master of the Fretless Fingerboard

The violin has a fretless fingerboard. Its strings are hitched to tuning pegs and to a tailpiece, passing over a bridge held in place by the pressure of the strings. The bridge transmits the strings’ vibrations to the soundboard.

The Viola: The Alto of the Violin Family

The viola is the alto instrument of the violin family (violin, viola, cello). It is constructed using the same components as the violin, the only difference being the larger size. Its stately and dark timbre contrasts sharply with that of the violin. Its bow is a little heavier than the violin bow and the horsehair a little broader. Sound features: stately, reedy, and warm.

The Cello: Tenor and Bass of the Strings

The cello is the tenor and bass instrument of the violin family. It is constructed using the same components as the violin, the only difference being the larger size. The bow is about 2 cm shorter and a quarter as heavy again as the violin bow.

The Oboe: A Double-Reed Woodwind

The oboe is made of boxwood in three sections: head, middle, and bell, that are connected by tenon-and-socket joints. Though the instrument's exterior profile is ornately turned and curvaceous, internally it has a conical bore that is at its narrowest at the reed end and its broadest at the bell end. There are a total of eleven tone holes of varying sizes drilled into the body. Sound features: clear and bright.

The Bassoon: Deep Tones and Double Reeds

Like the oboe, the bassoon is a double-reed instrument because the mouthpiece has two reeds that lie very close together. Unlike the oboe, the shawm-like sound that this mouthpiece produces is tempered by the U-shaped bend of its wind duct, so that bassoon notes are not a homogeneous continuation of the lowest notes of the oboe’s compass. Sound features: tense, long, and delicate.

The Baroque Trumpet: Mastery of the Embouchure

The trumpet in the baroque era did not have valves; different pitches were achieved using the embouchure alone. Only the notes along the harmonic series were playable, and notes outside of this had to be bent up or down to sound in tune. Sound features: metallic, bright, and intense.