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The earliest musical instruments were most probably those of percussion. Music consists of two parts: rhythm and tone. To produce a tone requires a certain amount of constructive ingenuity; to obtain a variety of tones from one instrument requires considerably more; whereas rhythm may be produced by beating together any solid substances, or even by clapping the hands. By degrees, various as well as improved qualities of rhythmical sound would be discovered; and the stretching of skins over hoops or hollow vessels would soon suggest itself. In the latter case, especially, a musical tone or note would be the result.
∗ Mr. Ward told me that in the course of his experiments he had found that the note given by a drum under a tension of 37 cwt. was an octave above that given by the same drum with a tension of only 11 cwt.Google Scholar