Spartan Gold: flugelhorn and more

pg 379

The captain lifted a polished flugelhorn from beneath the helm console...

The flugelhorn, from German, wing horn, is a brass instrument that resembles a trumpet but has a wider, conical bore. Some consider it a member of the saxhorn family developed by Adolphe Sax (who also developed the saxophone). Other historians assert that it derives from the valve bugle designed by Michael Saurle (father) in Munich in 1832 (Royal Bavarian privilege for a "chromatic Flügelhorn" 1832), which predates Adolphe Sax's work

"Knock wood"

Knocking on wood, or to touch wood, refers to the apotropaic tradition in western folklore of literally touching/knocking on wood, or merely stating that you are doing or intend same, in order to avoid "tempting fate" after making a favourable observation, a boast, or declaration concerning one's own death.

Cultural origins
In some countries, such as Spain, it is traditional literally to touch wood after an event occurs that is considered to bring bad luck, such as crossing paths with a black cat or walking under a ladder or noticing it's Friday the 13th. This is usually done when there's no salt at hand to spill over your shoulder, which is considered the "traditional" way of avoiding the bad luck caused by those situations.[citation needed] In Italy, "tocca ferro" (touch iron) is used, especially after seeing an undertaker or something related to death.[unreliable source?]

In old English folklore, "knocking on wood" also referred to when people spoke of secrets – they went into the isolated woods to talk privately and "knocked" on the trees when they were talking to hide their communication from evil spirits who would be unable to hear when they knocked.[citation needed] Another version holds that the act of knocking was to perk up the spirits to make them work in the requester's favor. Yet another version holds that a sect of Monks who wore large wooden crosses around their necks would tap or "knock" on them to ward away evil.

In Romania, there is also a superstition that one can avoid bad things aforementioned by literally knocking on wood ("a bate în lemn"). One of the possible reasons could be that there is a monastery practice to call people to pray by playing / knocking the simantron (Simantra (or simantron) is a Greek percussion instrument used in Greek liturgical service and consisting of a block of wood, essentially a specific length of cut dried lumber like a two-by-four, mounted (resembling a sawhorse) and struck with a mallet. It has been used by classical composers include Iannis Xenakis (Persephassa) and in Michael Gordon's piece Timber (2011).

Less intense in sound than tom-toms and snare drums, they are comparatively rich in overtones compared to the bars of percussion such as a marimba or xylophone, where the fundamental is primary. The tone appears to vary based how near or far from the center the mallets strike the board.)

famed Salzburg artist Josef Schmidt

Unable to find any information about this artist. (There's a Jewish actor of that name who died in an internment camp during WWII, but no artist.)