Materials. Nearly all saxophones are made from brass. After completing the instrument, manufacturers usually apply either a coating of clear or colored lacquer, or plating of silver or gold, over the bare brass. The lacquer or plating serves to protect the brass from corrosion, to enhance sound quality, and/or to give the saxophone an interesting visual appearance.
Other materials have been tried with varying degrees of success. Prior to 1960, some instruments were plated with nickel as a cheaper alternative to silver; prior to 1930, it was common for instruments to be sold with a bare brass finish (without lacquer or plating).
Words
band music оркестровая музыка
bass бас, басовый
brass instrument медный духовой инструмент
clarinet кларнет
flute флейта
jazz джаз
oboe гобой
wind instrument духовой инструмент
bell раструб (в частности у духовых музыкальных инструментов), расширение
body корпус
bore отверстие
finger plate наборный диск, пластина
keys клапаны, клавиатура
mouthpiece мундштук
opening отверстие
reed язычок в музыкальных инструментах (в фаготе, гобое, саксофоне)
gold золото
lacquer лак
nickel никель
silver серебро
appearance внешний вид
brassy металлический (о звуке)
finesse тонкость, изящество
flexibility гибкость, переналаживаемость
level уровень
mellow мягкий, неторопливый
tone звук, тон
create создавать
curve изгибать
enhance усиливать, улучшать
protect защищать, предохранять
realize осуществлять, выполнять
reveal открывать; показывать
desire желать
enhance усиливать, улучшать
intend намереваться
possess обладать
resemble напоминать
suit подходить, соответствовать
EXERCISES
a. Complete the table using information from the text.
b. Complete the diagram using information from the text.
Write a summary of the text using the table and the diagram above as a support.
The main points of your summary should include history of the invention of the saxophone and the elements of its construction.
Answer the following questions:
a. What kind of music is the saxophone associated with?
b. What kind of music was the saxophone originally intended for?
c. Why did Sax name the instrument “the voice of Sax”?
d. What qualities did Sax try to harness in his instrument?
2.3 Microphone
A microphone, sometimes referred to as a mike or mic, is an acoustic to electric transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, tape recorders, hearing aids, motion picture production, live and recorded audio engineering, in radio and television roadcasting and in computers for recording voice and numerous other computer applications.
Invention. The word “microphone” (Greek mikros “small” and phone “sound”) originally referred to a mechanical hearing aid for small sounds.Invention of a practical microphone was crucial to the early development of the telephone system. Emile Berliner[3] invented the first microphone on March 4, 1877, but the first commercially practical microphone was the carbon microphone invented in October, 1876 by Thomas Edison. Carbon microphones found use as early telephone repeaters, making long distance phone calls possible in the era before vacuum tubes. Many early developments in microphone design took place at Bell Laboratories.
All microphones capture sound waves with a thin, flexible diaphragm (or ribbon in the case of ribbon microphones). The vibrations of this element are then converted by various methods into an electrical signal that is an analog of the original sound. Most microphones in use today use electromagnetic generation (dynamic microphones), capacitance change (condenser microphones) or piezoelectric generation to produce the signal from mechanical vibration.