An elastic lamina of natural vegetable tissue (bamboo, leaf, straw or wood), metal, plastic or other material which, under the influence of an airstream from a wind player’s lungs or from bellows, will vibrate at a frequency determined by its dimensions, mass and elasticity. This vibration is used to excite periodic pressure waves in an air column within the tube of an instrument. The frequency of these waves and hence the note sounded is mainly determined by the form and dimensions of the air column which are the more important factors in such a coupled acoustic system. Reeds are categorized as ‘beating’ or ‘free’, the former being again divided into ‘single’ and ‘double’. For instruments used in Western art music, reeds are made from the large semi-tropical grass Arundo donax or Arundo sativa, commonly called ‘cane’, which is indigenous to many countries but is grown for this purpose chiefly in the Var region of France. The earliest discussion of the cultivation and preparation of cane for musical reeds is found in Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, iv.11 (see Aulos, §I, 5(iv)). The stems are harvested when of suitable size and somewhat unripe, and are then matured in the open air, a process which calls for careful judgment. The rough slips are cut to length, flattened on the inner side, and on the other scraped down to a feather edge at one end (fig.1a).
The single beating reed, typified by that of the clarinet or saxophone (see Clarinet (ii)), is a tapered piece of cane fastened at its thicker end with cord or a metal ligature to a mouthpiece that is roughly conical with a flat ‘table’ tangential to the base (fig.1b). The thinner portion of the reed is positioned over the opening of the mouthpiece and vibrates as the air is introduced. This motion periodically closes and opens the aperture, thus transmitting bursts of energy to the air column within the instrument. By means of his or her embouchure the player may determine the maximum aperture, and can also modify the characteristics of the reed’s vibrations by selectively dampening the harmonics. The player’s tongue controls the quality of the attack and transient, and this also affects the reed’s tonal characteristics.
In reed pipes of organs (fig.2) the action is similar but in this case a slight curve is applied to the metal blade or the tongue instead of to the table (see Reed-work). In some cases the tongue is loaded with a supplementary weight to lower its natural frequency. The structure equivalent to the mouthpiece of a woodwind is called the shallot, or by organ builders a reed – a curious reversal of usage.
The body of some non-European instruments is itself a length of cane; a reed is formed by splitting a section of cane from below a natural knot. Such instruments are termed ‘idioglot’, and are exemplified by the Near Eastern zummarah. Detached reeds of similar construction are widely used in the drones of bagpipes in both Western and non-Western cultures.
The beating double reed of the oboe or bassoon is made from one piece of cane folded on itself and bound, with the concave faces joining, onto a metal tube or staple (oboe), or the cane itself is formed into a tube and fastened with wire (bassoon). The bark is removed and the surfaces scraped before the tip is slit to form the two blades. When blown the elliptical gap between the ends of the blades opens and closes, again giving bursts of energy to the air column. As is the case with single reeds, the form and degree of ‘scrape’ applied to the tip of the reed has a profound influence on its behaviour and sonority; styles vary considerably from player to player and between different national styles. The scrape of typical American oboe reeds is longer and less evenly tapered than European, particularly German, styles.
Both double and single reeds are found in reed and wind-cap instruments where the player’s lips do not come into contact with the reed, e.g. the Crumhorn and Bagpipe. These reeds are housed in a closer chamber with a single aperture through which the player blows, or into which air is forced from a bellows. The construction of double reeds for reed-cap instruments is similar to that for instruments where the player’s lips are in contact with the reed. In general these reeds need to be lighter so that the air pressure alone will set them in vibration. (Certain instruments such as the Shawm and the Arabic zurna function in a similar way, because the reed is taken whole in the player’s mouth, meaning the player’s lips have only minimal influence on the reed’s vibration.)
In Western musical instruments the Free reed (fig.3c) is less common than the beating type and is chiefly found in certain organ pipes and bellows-blown instruments such as the accordion and reed organ. Here the tongue does not close against the slot in the shallot or mounting plate, but can pass freely through it. The common Mouth organ and the traditional Chinese sheng are two of the few examples of mouth-blown free reeds.
In many Asian cultures, dried and smoke-cured leaves of different plants are fashioned into reeds; many of these are double, but some instruments require reeds of four or six blades. Throughout the 20th century Western musicians have sought viable substitutes for arundo donax as the raw material for reeds. Silver, whalebone, lancewood, fibreglass, plastic and partially laminated cane have all been tried, but while orchestral musicians have been reluctant to replace the traditional material, fibreglass and other synthetic substitutes are widely used by jazz musicians. Plastic single and double reeds have proved indispensable both for musicians who work in environments such as marching bands and military ensembles where the reeds are exposed to a greater degree of wear and tear, and players who lack the expertise to carry out the constant adjustments required by cane reeds if they are to function optimally.
In some organological contexts, the word ‘reed’ is used to describe somewhat different acoustic elements. Lip-energized brass instruments are frequently called ‘lip reeds’ since the player’s lips form with the mouthpiece the vibrating element of the tone generator, and the term ‘air reed’ sometimes refers to the generating element in organ pipes, recorders, or transverse flutes. In both of these cases the mode of sound generation differs acoustically from the reeds described above.
For further illustrations see Reed instruments.
R.E. Perdue: ‘Arundo Donax’, Economic Botany, xii (1958), 368–404
B. Haynes: ‘Making Reeds for the Baroque Oboe’, EMc, iv (1976), 31–4, 173–82
D.A. Ledet: Oboe Reed Styles (Bloomington, IN, 1981)
B. Haynes: ‘Double Reeds, 1660–1830: a Survey of Surviving Written Evidence’, Journal of the International Double Reed Society, xii (1984), 14–33
T.E. Hoeprich: ‘Clarinet Reed Position in the 18th Century’, EMc, xii (1984), 49–55
P. White: ‘Early Bassoon Reeds: a Survey of Some Important Examples’, JAMIS, xi (1985), 69–96
Le roseau et la musique (Aix-en-Provence, 1988) [incl. exhibition catalogue]
G. Burgess and P. Hedrick: ‘The Oldest English Oboe Reeds? An Examination of Twenty Surviving Examples’, GSJ, xlii (1988), 32–69
D.H. Smith: Reed Design for Early Woodwinds (Bloomington, IN, 1992)
P.J. White: The Early Bassoon Reed in Relation to the Development of the Bassoon from 1636 (diss., U. of Oxford, 1993)
G. Burgess: ‘Historical Oboe Reeds: Avenues for Further Research or “Now, what do we do with all these measurements?”’, A Time of Questioning: Utrecht 1994, 205–22
D.J. Casadonte: The Clarinet Reed: an Introduction to its Biology, Chemistry and Physics (DMA diss., Ohio State U., 1995)
K.E. McCarthy: ‘A Bibliography of Sources Pertaining to the Oboe Reed: its Manufacture, Physical Aspects, and Ethereal Qualities’, Journal of the International Double Reed Society, xxvi (1998), 113–16
PHILIP BATE/GEOFFREY BURGESS