What is shelf?

What Does shelf Mean

The etymology of anacora is unclear. According to the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ), the term could come from the Portuguese word anacara , which refers to a military drum that was used in the East.

As a wind instrument
The idea of ​​anacora is used to refer to various musical instruments , such as the cornet , the clarion , the hunting horn and the French horn . All these elements are wind instruments : they sound when the air vibrates inside them, without requiring membranes or strings.

Among the most popular anacoras is the trumpet

To understand what an anacora is, therefore, it is necessary to know the characteristics of the instruments that can be named in this way. The use of the notion, however, is rare.

Useful term to compare
The definition of these artifacts is often done by comparison. A cornet , for example, is an anacora similar to a bugle , but lower in sound and larger. A bugle , meanwhile, is similar to a trumpet , although with a sharper and smaller sound.
The tubes , on the other hand, are anacoras formed with a tube threaded in a circular manner, which narrows from the pavilion to the mouthpiece. In the case of the hunting horn , it is specifically a trunk that hunters often use.
The trunk
The character of the horn is especially versatile since with a very small number of cylinders it is capable of reaching a wide range . This means that it covers a wide range of notes, counting from the lowest to the highest. It can also produce sounds of different textures and intensities, from sweet to hard.
The tube that forms the horn, mentioned above, begins at the neck , the part where the mouthpiece is attached. At present, the most used are those in F and B flat sharp. Another widely used anacora of this type is the double horn , which has a special cylinder for tuning in one or the other, depending on the piece to be executed.
The Horn
This anacora, particularly the hunting one , is the ancestor of the trunk. It is among the oldest and least complex wind instruments , since it is made with an animal horn, the tip of which is pierced to use it as a mouthpiece . In almost all models, the musician plays with his lips directly on the horn, although others have an intermediate accessory.

The animals most used for the first versions of this anacora are rams, antelopes, goats and bulls. At that time, the most common application was communication over long distances and the performance of ritual melodies. Over time they began to be made of metal, wood or clay.
The clarin
This instrument is made of metal and, as the name implies, is moderate in size. The part that comes into contact with the musician's mouth, that is, the mouthpiece , is cup-shaped, and its other end, the pavilion , resembles a bell .

The bugle is smaller than the trumpet

Given the dimensions of this shelf, it is not uncommon for it to have a sharp tessitura. Some models have valves that are used to control the tuning, lowering it by a quarter, but most rely exclusively on natural harmonics. The most used is in B flat.
Similar terms
Finally, it is important not to confuse the notion of anacora with other similar terms. An anchor is an anchor and Ancorar is a verb that refers to anchor, while a hermit is an individual who indulges in penance on a secluded place. The anchorite leads a life of anacoresis (isolation).

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