FUNDAMENTALS
Some of your favourite tunes have musical instruments that you may not have heard of. Take this musical journey on rare instruments in popular music. Write in with your suggestions, questions (with answers) to senjam@gmail.com.
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
1. Marimba, a musical instrument originally developed by African slaves in central America, is the national instrument of Guatemala. Why are many people across the world familiar with the sound of this instrument? 2. This instrument was very popular in the 17th and 18th century before it went out of fashion. It entered popular imagination when Bread used it for Everything I Own and Yardbirds featured this instrument in For Your Love. What are we talking about? 3. Which three-string Russian folk instrument can you hear in Boney M’s popular number Rasputin? 4. Clarence Fender, the man behind the iconic Fender stratocaster, was neither a musician nor a musical instrument maker. What was his original business that attracted the patronage of musicians? 5. The Maracas can be heard in You Can’t Always Get What You Want by The Rolling Stones. What is this musical instrument traditionally made from? 6. If I rise by Dido and A.R. Rahman features a 24-stringed instrument that sounds like a guitar but is played like a keyboard. Identify the instrument. 7. Many popular songs have used both the xylophone and glockenspiel. Frank Zappa, Rolling Stones have featured the Xylophone while Jimi Hendrix and Radio Head have used the glockenspiel. Both are essentially the same instruments but with a fundamental difference. What?
ANYTHING GOES
1. What happens when soil-dwelling bacteria, known as actinomycetes, release chemicals in the air and combine with oils secreted by plants in the air? (Jevetha Vijayadasan, Vellore) 2. Dr Carl Djerassi is known as a novelist and playwright. However, he is remembered by the world for another contribution. What? (Cdr G.R. Balakrishnan (Retd), Chennai) 3. J. Calvin Coffey, a researcher at the University Hospital, Limerick proposed to reclassify something called Mesentery. How did this proposal for reclassification create news in medical sciences? (Philip Joshua, Secunderabad) 4. In Test cricket what connects R.E. Foster (England), L.G. Rowe (West Indies), M. Sinclair (New Zealand), J. Rudolph (South Africa) and B. Kuruppu (Sri Lanka)? (B.K. Harinath, Mysuru) 5. What does Radio Paramaribo, Surinam, South America, broadcast for 15 minutes at 7 pm, Amsterdam everyday? (A.S.M. Rao, Vijaywada) 6. Jimmy Matthews of Australia achieved a Test cricket record in 1912 that has never been surpassed or equalled. What? (P.S. Nivritee Sreelekha, Secunderabad) 7. Who is the most famous member of the Filoviridae family? (Rajeev G. Pillai, Kochi) 8. Made entirely from raw material that is tanned and cured using only natural ingredients without chemicals, these objects are known for their versatility. Over the last one year, the raw materials used for them have become sharply more expensive for both producers and consumers. What objects are these, known by the place of their manufacture? Why the decline recently? (D. Sharanya, Hyderabad)