# Most influential instrument??



## Mahler Maniac (Sep 26, 2006)

What do you think is the most influential instrument in musical history???

I say the Horn 

What do you think?


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## 3rdplanetsounds (Nov 23, 2006)

*Influential Instruments.*

I think the most influencial instrument must be the human vocal cord.It must be the basis from which all other manmade musical instruments were formilated by;such as pitch,sound formation and variables in colour,to which instruments were slowley developed to enhance, amplify and explore so as to relate back to our own reconisable way of formilating a language of sound.The other must be the humble drum,a instrument that replicates our own rythem of the heart beating inside us.


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## 4/4player (Nov 17, 2006)

I think the most influencial instrument could be the piano. Knowing it's wide range of notes, it would have been very useful to many composers as it can play the melodies and harmonies(don't forget chords) together at the same time. It also becomes very useful for beginner musicians since it helps develop the knowledge of all notes in the scale, regardless of which instrument is learned. It is also very versatile in any type of music.I may wrong(im not a piano player)...hope didn't offend anybody! Though, I believe 3rdplanetsounds might be correct....hmm....


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## Hexameron (Oct 7, 2006)

I absolutely agree wth 3rdplanetsounds: The voice is the reason we even have instruments today. Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass provided a foundation and inspiration for the earliest instruments of the late Medieval and Renaissance period. The voices in Gregorian chant lead to the ensembles of the Renaissance and evolved to the orchestra we know today. I wonder if we would even have music if we never had our voices?

But I also agree with 4/4player. Would we have such great orchestral/chamber music from our beloved composers if they didn't have a fine keyboard to help them compose? All of Beethoven's, Schumann's, Brahms's, and Wagner's music was devised with the help of the keyboard. Sometimes the keyboard rendition was so convincing that the composer treated it as a separate composition. Beethoven's piano arrangement of his Grosse Fuge and Brahms's many four-hand arrangements (like his Piano Quintet Op. 34, which on the piano was a Sonata in F minor) are examples.


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## Guest (Dec 1, 2006)

Mahler Maniac said:


> What do you think is the most influential instrument in musical history???
> 
> I say the Horn
> 
> What do you think?


I agree with those that say the voice, 
Or did you mean manufactured instruments ?


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## linz (Oct 5, 2006)

It would need to be the 'flute', 'harp', or 'drum', because all three have been around for many thousands of years!


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## mahlerfan (Mar 31, 2007)

I would have to agree with the Horn, though the Piano or percussion could easily be the most influential as well.


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## Lisztfreak (Jan 4, 2007)

If we consider crafted instruments with tuned pitch, I'd say it's piano and violin. The entire 19th-century music era revolved around the piano.


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