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A fife is a small, high-pitched, transverse flute, that is similar to the piccolo, but louder and shriller due to its narrower bore. The fife originated in medieval Europe and is often used in military and marching bands. Someone who plays the fife is called a fifer. The word ''fife'' comes from the German ''Pfeife'', or pipe, which comes from the Latin word ''pipare''. The fife is a simple instrument usually consisting of a tube with 6 finger holes, and diatonically tuned. Some have 10 or 11 holes for added chromatics. The fife also has an embouchure hole, across which the player blows, and a cork or plug inside the tube just above the embouchure hole. Some nineteenth-century fifes had a key pressed by the little finger of the right hand in place of a seventh finger hole. Fifes are made mostly of wood: grenadilla, rosewood, mopane, pink ivory, cocobolo, boxwood and other dense woods are superior; maple and persimmon are inferior but often used. Some Caribbean music makes use of bamboo fifes. Military and marching fifes have metal reinforcing bands around the ends to protect them from damage. These bands are called ferrules. Fifes used in less strenuous conditions sometimes have a lathe-turned, knob-like decoration at the ends for similar reasons. Some fifes are entirely made of metal or plastic. Some modern fifes are of two-piece construction with a sliding tuning joint similar to some recorders. == Key and range == The names of different varieties of fife follow the conventions of ''a'') defining the key in which a transposing instrument sounds as the major key whose tonic is the lowest pitch producible by that instrument without fingering or other manipulation and then ''b'') naming different subtypes of a given transposing instrument after the respective keys in which those subtypes sound. (Note that these conventions are specific to transposing instruments. By contrast, for example, although the trombone and the tuba each produce a B-flat when played at their lowest harmonic position with the slide not extended or with no valves depressed, respectively, the trombone's music parts are not transposed, and the tuba's music parts are transposed only across octaves, such that the note sounded by a tuba bears the same name as the note read by the tubist.) * The standard fife is an A-flat transposing instrument, meaning that prevailing scoring conventions dictate that the C position on a fife-part staff should correspond to a concert A-flat. Unlike the A-flat clarinet, which sounds a major third below written, the standard fife sounds a minor sixth above written (the equivalent of a major-third drop followed by an octave increase). * The typical marching fife is a B-flat transposing instrument, likewise sounding above written (in this case a minor seventh above written), with the effect that to yield a concert C a scorer must write and a marching fifer must read the D-natural below that C. * Fifes pitched (''i.e.'', constructed so as to sound) in the keys of D and of C are also common. * Fifes in various other keys are sometimes played in musical ensembles. A common convention specific to fife music and contradictory to those above is for fife music to be written in the key of D regardless of the key in which the fife in question sounds. The general effect is to define sounded notes in terms of scale degree, as with a movable-do system, and then to express any pitch having a given scale degree in the context of a given musical piece, regardless of that pitch's absolute value, in terms of a staff position defined as corresponding to that scale degree. The more specific effect is to treat fife subtypes sounding in different keys as comparable to transposing-instrument subtypes (''e.g.'', of clarinet) sounding in those keys except that the tonic of the key in which a given fife sounds is set as corresponding to D rather than C, such that the written key signature for fife music played in a given concert key would have two fewer sharps or two more flats than would the written key signature used in music written for other transposing-instrument subtypes sounding in the same key. Like the Irish flute and the tinwhistle, the fife is a six-hole simple system flute. These flutes are unable to play all chromatic pitches, while many of the chromatic pitches they can play are grossly out of tune. This tuning irregularity is part of the unique sound of the fife. Because of these restrictions on available notes, the common six-hole fife is for practical purposes capable of playing in only the written keys of G (concert E-flat) major, D (concert B-flat) major, A (concert F) major, and those keys' relative minors. An experienced fife player can play 3 full octaves although the fingering patterns necessary for playing in the third octave can be daunting to a beginner. Marching bands typically play only in the second and third octave since these are the loudest and most penetrating. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Fife (instrument)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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