In the 19th century the pendulum swung from the restraint of the classic .... instrument bass

Families of instruments again became important, and new tone colours were introduced. Around the first quarter of the century, the period of major orchestral works, more keys were added to existing woodwinds, and evidence from one passage in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony implies that the fourth horn player already had one valve on his instrument. The Bhm experiments changed the character of the flute considerably, producing more volume and a more brilliant tone; with his improvements, along with the subsequent minor changes, the flute became one of the most versatile instruments of the orchestra, performing superbly in all keys. By the end of the 19th century the alto flute, a weak instrument dynamically, joined the orchestra but was exploited most effectively by the French composers of the early 20th centuryfor example, Claude Debussy. The gained importance as the most effective wind double bass and the lowest instrument of the orchestra. Since 1590 a wooden cup-mouthpieced in! strument, the , had been built to support voices in French choirs; but by the mid-18th century it was serving as a double bass for the woodwind choir. The , the bass of the keyed bugle, was prominent in the second quarter of the 19th century as a brass double bass. The invention of the bass by a German instrument builder named in 1835 provided a more reliable and more even brass bass. Built in tenor and bass ranges, the instruments fulfill their purpose admirably. The 19th century gave rise to families of reed instruments. The Belgian instrument maker patented the in 1846, combining a wide conical bore with a large single reed and producing an instrument that overblows at the octave and covers a written range of b? The Chinese , which had reached Europe in the late 18th century, inspired the invention of three distinct musical instruments in the West: the mouth organ, the accordion, and the reed organ. It was a free-reed instrument with a foot-operated bellows providing win! d pressure to vibrate reeds whose access was controlled by a k! eyboard. An instrument operating on sucker bellows was later developed and became especially popular in the United States; in fact, all such suction instruments are commonly known as . In the 19th century the reed organ, mellow in tone and inexpensive, became an important instrument in homes and small churches. instrument bass