A musical instrument is an instrument created or adapted to make musical
sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be a musical
instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical
instrument. The history of musical instruments dates to the beginnings of
human culture. Early musical instruments may have been used for ritual, such
as a trumpet to signal success on the hunt, or a drum in a religious ceremony.
Cultures eventually developed composition and performance of melodies for
entertainment. Musical instruments evolved in step with changing applications.
The date and origin of the first device considered a musical instrument is
disputed. The oldest object that some scholars refer to as a musical
instrument, a simple flute , dates back as far as 67,000 years. Some consensus
dates early flutes to about 37,000 years ago. However, most historians believe
that determining a specific time of musical instrument invention is impossible
due to the subjectivity of the definition and the relative instability of materials
used to make them. Many early musical instruments were made from animal
skins, bone, wood, and other non-durable materials.
Musical instruments developed independently in many populated regions of the
world. However, contact among civilizations caused rapid spread and
adaptation of most instruments in places far from their origin. By the Middle
Ages, instruments from Mesopotamia were in Maritime Southeast Asia , and
Europeans played instruments from North Africa. Development in the Americas
occurred at a slower pace, but cultures of North, Central, and South America
shared musical instruments. By 1400, musical instrument development slowed
in many areas and was dominated by the Occident .
Musical instrument classification is a discipline in its own right, and many
systems of classification have been used over the years. Instruments can be
classified by their effective range, their material composition, their size, etc.
However, the most common academic method, Hornbostel-Sachs, uses the
means by which they produce sound. The academic study of musical
instruments is called organology .
Definition and basic operation
A musical instrument makes sounds. Once humans moved from making
sounds with their bodies—for example, by clapping—to using objects to create
music from sounds, musical instruments were born. [1] Primitive instruments
were probably designed to emulate natural sounds, and their purpose was
ritual rather than entertainment. [2] The concept of melody and the artistic
pursuit of musical composition were unknown to early players of musical
instruments. A player sounding a flute to signal the start of a hunt does so
without thought of the modern notion of "making music". [2]
Musical instruments are constructed in a broad array of styles and shapes,
using many different materials. Early musical instruments were made from
"found objects" such a shells and plant parts. [2] As instruments evolved, so
did the selection and quality of materials. Virtually every material in nature has
been used by at least one culture to make musical instruments. [2] One plays
a musical instrument by interacting with it in some way—for example, by
plucking the strings on a string instrument.[2]
Archaeology
Researchers have discovered archaeological evidence of musical instruments
in many parts of the world. Some finds are 67,000 years old, however their
status as musical instruments is often in dispute. Consensus solidifies about
artifacts dated back to around 37,000 years old and later. Only artifacts made
from durable materials or using durable methods tend to survive. As such, the
specimens found cannot be irrefutably placed as the earliest musical
instruments. [3]
Found in Slovenia, the Divje Babe Flute
is considered the world's oldest known
musical instrument
In July 1995, Slovenian archaeologist Ivan Turk discovered a bone carving in
the northwest region of Slovenia. The carving, named the Divje Babe Flute ,
features four holes that Canadian musicologist Bob Fink determined could
have been used to play four notes of a diatonic scale. Researchers estimate
the flute's age at between 43,400 and 67,000 years, making it the oldest
known musical instrument and the only musical instrument associated with
the Neanderthal culture. [4] However, some archaeologists and
ethnomusicologists dispute the flute's status as a musical instrument.[5]
German archaeologists have found mammoth bone and swan bone flutes
dating back to 30,000 to 37,000 years old in the Swabian Alps. The flutes were
made in the Upper Paleolithic age, and are more commonly accepted as being
the oldest known musical instruments. [6]
Archaeological evidence of musical instruments was discovered in excavations
at the Royal Cemetery in the Sumerian city of Ur (see Lyres of Ur ). These
instruments, one of the first ensembles of instruments yet discovered, include
nine lyres , two harps , a silver double flute , sistra and cymbals . A set of reed-
sounded silver pipes discovered in Ur was the likely predecessor of modern
bagpipes. [7] The cylindrical pipes feature three side-holes that allowed players
to produce whole tone scales.[8] These excavations, carried out by Leonard
Woolley in the 1920s, uncovered non-degradable fragments of instruments and
the voids left by the degraded segments that, together, have been used to
reconstruct them. [9] The graves these instruments were buried in have been
carbon dated to between 2600 and 2500 BC, providing evidence that these
instruments were used in Sumeria by this time. [10]
Archaeologists in the Jiahu site of central Henan province of China have found
flutes made of bones that date back 7,000 to 9,000 years, [11] representing
some of the "earliest complete, playable, tightly-dated, multinote musical
instruments" ever found. [11][12]
History
Scholars agree that there are no completely reliable methods of determining
the exact chronology of musical instruments across cultures. Comparing and
organizing instruments based on their complexity is misleading, since
advancements in musical instruments have sometimes reduced complexity.
For example, construction of early slit drums involved felling and hollowing out
large trees; later slit drums were made by opening bamboo stalks, a much
simpler task. [13]
German musicologist Curt Sachs, one of the most prominent musicologists [14]
and musical ethnologists [15] in modern times, argues that it is misleading to
arrange the development of musical instruments by workmanship since
cultures advance at different rates and have access to different raw materials.
He maintains, for example, that contemporary anthropologists comparing
musical instruments from two cultures that existed at the same time but
differed in organization, culture, and handicraft cannot determine which
instruments are more "primitive" . [16] Ordering instruments by geography is
also not totally reliable, as it cannot always be determined when and how
cultures contacted one another and shared knowledge.
Sachs proposed that a geographical chronology until approximately 1400 is
preferable, however, due to its limited subjectivity. [17] Beyond 1400, one can
follow the overall development of musical instruments by time period. [17]
The science of marking the order of musical instrument development relies on
archaeological artifacts, artistic depictions, and literary references. Since data
in one research path can be inconclusive, all three paths provide a better
historical picture. [3]
Two Aztec slit drums, called teponaztli.
The characteristic " H" slits can be
seen on the top of the drum in the
foreground.
Until the 19th century AD, European written music histories began with
mythological accounts of how musical instruments were invented. Such
accounts included Jubal, descendant of Cain and "father of all such as handle
the harp and the organ", Pan , inventor of the pan pipes , and Mercury, who is
said to have made a dried tortoise shell into the first lyre. Modern histories
have replaced such mythology with anthropological speculation, occasionally
informed by archeological evidence. Scholars agree that there was no
definitive "invention" of the musical instrument since the definition of the term
"musical instrument" is completely subjective to both the scholar and the
would-be inventor. For example, a Homo habilis slapping his body could be
the makings of a musical instrument regardless of the being's intent. [18]
Among the first devices external to the human body that are considered
instruments are rattles , stampers, and various drums. [19] These earliest
instruments evolved due to the human motor impulse to add sound to
emotional movements such as dancing. [20] Eventually, some cultures assigned
ritual functions to their musical instruments, using them for hunting and
various ceremonies. [21] Those cultures developed more complex percussion
instruments and other instruments such as ribbon reeds, flutes, and trumpets.
Some of these labels carry far different connotations from those used in
modern day; early flutes and trumpets are so-labeled for their basic operation
and function rather than any resemblance to modern instruments. [22] Among
early cultures for whom drums developed ritual, even sacred importance are
the Chukchi people of the Russian Far East , the indigenous people of
Melanesia , and many cultures of Africa. In fact, drums were pervasive
throughout every African culture. [23] One East African tribe, the Wahinda ,
believed it was so holy that seeing a drum would be fatal to any person other
than the sultan. [24]
Humans eventually developed the concept of using musical instruments for
producing a melody. Until this time in the evolutions of musical instruments,
melody was common only in singing. Similar to the process of reduplication in
language, instrument players first developed repetition and then arrangement.
An early form of melody was produced by pounding two stamping tubes of
slightly different sizes—one tube would produce a "clear" sound and the other
would answer with a "darker" sound. Such instrument pairs also included
bullroarers , slit drums, shell trumpets, and skin drums. Cultures who used
these instrument pairs associated genders with them; the "father" was the
bigger or more energetic instrument, while the "mother" was the smaller or
duller instrument. Musical instruments existed in this form for thousands of
years before patterns of three or more tones would evolve in the form of the
earliest xylophone . [25] Xylophones originated in the mainland and archipelago
of Southeast Asia, eventually spreading to Africa, the Americas, and Europe.
[26] Along with xylophones, which ranged from simple sets of three "leg bars"
to carefully tuned sets of parallel bars, various cultures developed instruments
such as the ground harp, ground zither , musical bow , and jaw harp.[27]
Images of musical instruments begin to appear in Mesopotamian artifacts in
2800 BC or earlier. Beginning around 2000 BC, Sumerian and Babylonian
cultures began delineating two distinct classes of musical instruments due to
division of labor and the evolving class system. Popular instruments, simple
and playable by anyone, evolved differently from professional instruments
whose development focused on effectiveness and skill. [28] Despite this
development, very few musical instruments have been recovered in
Mesopotamia . Scholars must rely on artifacts and cuneiform texts written in
Sumerian or Akkadian to reconstruct the early history of musical instruments
in Mesopotamia. Even the process of assigning names to these instruments is
challenging since there is no clear distinction among various instruments and
the words used to describe them. [29]
Although Sumerian and Babylonian artists mainly depicted ceremonial
instruments, historians have been able to distinguish six idiophones used in
early Mesopotamia: concussion clubs, clappers, sistra , bells, cymbals, and
rattles. [30] Sistra are depicted prominently in a great relief of Amenhotep III ,
[31] and are of particular interest because similar designs have been found in
far-reaching places such as Tbilisi , Georgia and among the Native American
Yaqui tribe.[32] The people of Mesopotamia preferred stringed instruments to
any other, as evidenced by their proliferation in Mesopotamian figurines,
plaques, and seals. Innumerable varieties of harps are depicted, as well as
lyres and lutes, the forerunner of modern stringed instruments such as the
violin . [33]
Ancient Egyptian tomb painting
depicting lute players, 18th Dynasty
(c. 1350 BC)
Musical instruments used by the Egyptian culture before 2700 BC bore striking
similarity to those of Mesopotamia, leading historians to conclude that the
civilizations must have been in contact with one another. Sachs notes that
Egypt did not possess any instruments that the Sumerian culture did not also
possess. [34] However, by 2700 BC the cultural contacts seem to have
dissipated; the lyre, a prominent ceremonial instrument in Sumer, did not
appear in Egypt for another 800 years.[34] Clappers and concussion sticks
appear on Egyptian vases as early as 3000 BC. The civilization also made use
of sistra, vertical flutes, double clarinets, arched and angular harps, and
various drums. [35]
Little history is available in the period between 2700 BC and 1500 BC, as
Egypt (and indeed, Babylon) entered a long violent period of war and
destruction. This period saw the Kassites destroy the Babylonian empire in
Mesopotamia and the Hyksos destroy the Middle Kingdom of Egypt . When the
Pharaohs of Egypt conquered Southwest Asia in around 1500 BC, the cultural
ties to Mesopotamia were renewed and Egypt's musical instruments also
reflected heavy influence from Asiatic cultures. [34] Under their new cultural
influences, the people of the New Kingdom began using oboes, trumpets, lyres,
lutes, castanets, and cymbals. [36]
In contrast with Mesopotamia and Egypt, professional musicians did not exist
in Israel between 2000 and 1000 BC. While the history of musical instruments
in Mesopotamia and Egypt relies on artistic representations, the culture in
Israel produced few such representations. Scholars must therefore rely on
information gleaned from the Bible and the Talmud.[37] The Hebrew texts
mention two prominent instruments associated with Jubal , ugabs and kinnors.
These may be translated as pan pipes and lyres, respectively. [38] Other
instruments of the period included tofs, or frame drums, small bells or jingles
called pa'amon, shofars , and the trumpet-like hasosra. [39]
The introduction of a monarchy in Israel during the 11th century BC produced
the first professional musicians and with them a drastic increase in the
number and variety of musical instruments. [40] However, identifying and
classifying the instruments remains a challenge due to the lack of artistic
interpretations. For example, stringed instruments of uncertain design called
nevals and asors existed, but neither archaeology nor etymology can clearly
define them. [41] In her book A Survey of Musical Instruments , American
musicologist Sibyl Marcuse proposes that the nevel must be similar to vertical
harp due to its relation to "nabla", the Phoenician term for "harp". [42]
In Greece , Rome, and Etruria, the use and development of musical instruments
stood in stark contrast to those cultures' achievements in architecture and
sculpture. The instruments of the time were simple and virtually all of them
were imported from other cultures. [43] Lyres were the principal instrument, as
musicians used them to honor the gods.[44] Greeks played a variety of wind
instruments they classified as aulos (reeds) or syrinx (flutes); Greek writing
from that time reflects a serious study of reed production and playing
technique. [8] Romans played reed instruments named tibia featuring side-
holes that could be opened or closed, allowing for greater flexibility in playing
modes. [45] Other instruments in common use in the region included vertical
harps derived from those of the Orient , lutes of Egyptian design, various pipes
and organs, and clappers, which were played primarily by women. [46]
Evidence of musical instruments in use by early civilizations of India is almost
completely lacking, making it impossible to reliably attribute instruments to
the Munda and Dravidian language-speaking cultures that first settled the
area. Rather, the history of musical instruments in the area begins with the
Indus Valley Civilization that emerged around 3000 BC. Various rattles and
whistles found among excavated artifacts are the only physical evidence of
musical instruments. [47] A clay statuette indicates the use of drums, and
examination of the Indus script has also revealed representations of vertical
arched harps identical in design to those depicted in Sumerian artifacts. This
discovery is among many indications that the Indus Valley and Sumerian
cultures maintained cultural contact. Subsequent developments in musical
instruments in India occurred with the Rigveda , or hymns. These songs used
various drums, shell trumpets, harps, and flutes. [48] Other prominent
instruments in use during the early centuries AD were the snake charmer's
double clarinet , bagpipes, barrel drums, cross flutes, and short lutes. In all,
India had no unique musical instruments until the Middle Ages .[49]
A Chinese wooden fish, used in
Buddhist recitations
Musical instruments such as zithers appeared in Chinese writings around 12th
century BC and earlier. [50] Early Chinese philosophers such as Confucius
(551–479 BC), Mencius (372–289 BC), and Laozi shaped the development of
musical instruments in China, adopting an attitude toward music similar to
that of the Greeks. The Chinese believed that music was an essential part of
character and community, and developed a unique system of classifying their
musical instruments according to their material makeup. [51]
Idiophones were extremely important in Chinese music, hence the majority of
early instruments were idiophones. Poetry of the Shang Dynasty mentions
bells, chimes, drums, and globular flutes carved from bone, the latter of which
has been excavated and preserved by archaeologists. [52] The Zhou Dynasty
saw percussion instruments such as clappers, troughs, wooden fish, and yu .
Wind instruments such as flute, pan-pipes, pitch-pipes, and mouth organs
also appeared in this time period. [53] The xiao and various other instruments
that spread through many cultures, came into use in China during and after
the Han Dynasty.[54]
Although civilizations in Central America attained a relatively high level of
sophistication by the eleventh century AD, they lagged behind other
civilizations in the development of musical instruments. For example, they had
no stringed instruments; all of their instruments were idiophones, drums, and
wind instruments such as flutes and trumpets. Of these, only the flute was
capable of producing a melody.[55] In contrast, pre-Columbian South
American civilizations in areas such as modern-day Peru, Colombia , Ecuador,
Bolivia, and Chile were less advanced culturally but more advanced musically.
South American cultures of the time used pan-pipes as well as varieties of
flutes, idiophones, drums, and shell or wood trumpets. [56]
During the period of time loosely referred to as the Middle Ages, China
developed a tradition of integrating musical influence from other regions. The
first record of this type of influence is in 384 AD, when China established an
orchestra in its imperial court after a conquest in Turkestan. Influences from
Middle East, Persia, India, Mongolia, and other countries followed. In fact,
Chinese tradition attributes many musical instruments from this period to
those regions and countries. [57] Cymbals gained popularity, along with more
advanced trumpets, clarinets, oboes, flutes, drums, and lutes.[58] Some of the
first bowed-zithers appeared in China in the 9th or 10th century, influenced by
Mongolian culture. [59]
India experienced similar development to China in the Middle Ages; however,
stringed instruments developed differently as they accommodated different
styles of music. While stringed instruments of China were designed to produce
precise tones capable of matching the tones of chimes, stringed instruments of
India were considerably more flexible. This flexibility suited the slides and
tremolos of Hindu music. Rhythm was of paramount importance in Indian
music of the time, as evidenced by the frequent depiction of drums in reliefs
dating to the Middle Ages. The emphasis on rhythm is an aspect native to
Indian music. [60] Historians divide the development of musical instruments in
medieval India between pre-Islamic and Islamic periods due to the different
influence each period provided. [61]
In pre-Islamic times, idiophones such hand bells, cymbals, and peculiar
instruments resembling gongs came into wide use in Hindu music. The gong-
like instrument was a bronze disk that was struck with a hammer instead of a
mallet. Tubular drums, stick zithers named veena , short fiddles, double and
triple flutes, coiled trumpets, and curved India horns emerged in this time
period. [62] Islamic influences brought new types of drums, perfectly circular or
octagonal as opposed to the irregular pre-Islamic drums. [63] Persian influence
brought oboes and sitars , although Persian sitars had three strings and Indian
version had from four to seven.[64]
An Indonesian metallophone
Southeast Asian musical innovations include those during a period of Indian
influence that ended around 920 AD. [65] Balinese and Javanese music made
use of xylophones and metallophones , bronze versions of the former. [66] The
most prominent and important musical instrument of Southeast Asia was the
gong. While the gong likely originated in the geographical area between Tibet
and Burma , it was part of every category of human activity in Maritime
Southeast Asia including Java. [67]
The areas of Mesopotamia and the Arabian Peninsula experiences rapid growth
and sharing of musical instruments once they were united by Islamic culture
in the seventh century. [68] Frame drums and cylindrical drums of various
depths were immensely important in all genres of music. [69] Conical oboes
were involved in the music that accompanied wedding and circumcision
ceremonies. Persian miniatures provide information on the development of
kettle drums in Mesopotamia that spread as far as Java. [70] Various lutes,
zithers, dulcimers , and harps spread as far as Madagascar to the south and
modern-day Sulawesi to the east.[71]
Despite the influences of Greece and Rome, most musical instruments in
Europe during the Middles Ages came from Asia. The lyre is the only musical
instrument that may have been invented in Europe until this period. [72]
Stringed instruments were prominent in Middle Age Europe. The central and
northern regions used mainly lutes, stringed instruments with necks, while the
southern region used lyres, which featured a two-armed body and a crossbar.
[72] Various harps served Central and Northern Europe as far north as Ireland,
where the harp eventually became a national symbol.[73] Lyres propagated
through the same areas, as far east as Estonia . [74]
European music between 800 and 1100 became more sophisticated, more
frequently requiring instruments capable of polyphony. The Persian geographer
of the 9th century ( Ibn Khordadbeh ), mentioned in his lexicographical
discussion of music instruments that in the Byzantine Empire typical
instruments included the urghun ( organ ), shilyani (probably a type of harp or
lyre), salandj (probably a bagpipe ) and the Byzantine lyra (Greek: λύρα ~
lūrā). [75] Lyra was a medieval pear-shaped bowed string instrument with
three to five strings , held upright and is an ancestor of most European bowed
instruments, including the violin . [76]
The monochord served as a precise measure of the notes of a musical scale,
allowing more accurate musical arrangements. [77] Mechanical hurdy-gurdies
allowed single musicians to play more complicated arrangements than a fiddle
would; both were prominent folk instruments in the Middle Ages. [78][79]
Southern Europeans played short and long lutes whose pegs extended to the
sides, unlike the rear-facing pegs of Central and Northern European
instruments. [80] Idiophones such as bells and clappers served various
practical purposes, such as warning of the approach of a leper. [81]
The ninth century revealed the first bagpipes, which spread throughout Europe
and had many uses from folk instruments to military instruments. [82] The
construction of pneumatic organs evolved in Europe starting in fifth century
Spain , spreading to England in about 700. [83] The resulting instruments varied
in size and use from portable organs worn around the neck to large pipe
organs. [84] Literary accounts of organs being played in English Benedictine
abbeys toward the end of the tenth century are the first references to organs
being connected to churches.[85] Reed players of the Middle Ages were limited
to oboes; no evidence of clarinets exists during this period. [86]
Musical instrument development was dominated by the Occident from 1400
on, indeed, the most profound changes occurred during the Renaissance
period. [18] Instruments took on other purposes than accompanying singing or
dance, and performers used them as solo instruments. Keyboards and lutes
developed as polyphonic instruments, and composers arranged increasingly
complex pieces using more advanced tablature. Composers also began
designing pieces of music for specific instruments. [18] In the latter half of the
sixteenth century, orchestration came into common practice as a method of
writing music for a variety of instruments. Composers now specified
orchestration where individual performers once applied their own discretion.
[87] The polyphonic style dominated popular music, and the instrument makers
responded accordingly. [88]
The Duet , by Dutch painter Cornelis
Saftleven , c. 1635
Beginning in about 1400, the rate of development of musical instruments
increased in earnest as compositions demanded more dynamic sounds. People
also began writing books about creating, playing, and cataloging musical
instruments; the first such book was Sebastian Virdung's 1511 treatise Musica
getuscht und ausgezogen (English: Music Germanized and Abstracted). [87]
Virdung's work is noted as being particularly thorough for including
descriptions of "irregular" instruments such as hunters' horns and cow bells,
though Virdung is critical of the same. Other books followed, including Arnolt
Schlick's Spiegel der Orgelmacher und Organisten (English: Mirror of Organ
Makers and Organ Players ) the following year, a treatise on organ building and
organ playing.[89] Of the instructional books and references published in the
Renaissance era, one is noted for its detailed description and depiction of all
wind and stringed instruments, including their relative sizes. This book, the
Syntagma musicum by Michael Praetorius, is now considered an authoritative
reference of sixteenth century musical instruments. [90]
In the sixteenth century, musical instrument builders gave most instruments,
such as the violin, the "classical shapes" they retain today. An emphasis on
aesthetic beauty also developed—listeners were as pleased with the physical
appearance of an instrument as they were with its sound. Therefore, builders
paid special attention to materials and workmanship, and instruments became
collectibles in homes and museums. [91] It was during this period that makers
began constructing instruments of the same type in various sizes to meet the
demand of consorts , or ensembles playing works written for these groups of
instruments. [92]
Instrument builders developed other features that endure today. For example,
while organs with multiple keyboards and pedals already existed, the first
organs with solo stops emerged in the early fifteenth century. These stops
were meant to produce a mixture of timbres, a development needed for the
complexity of music of the time. [93] Trumpets evolved into their modern form
to improve portability, and players used mutes to properly blend into chamber
music .[94]
Baroque mounted Jacob Stainer violin
from 1658
Beginning in the seventeenth century, composers began creating works of a
more emotional style. They felt that a monophonic style better suited the
emotional music and wrote musical parts for instruments that would
complement the singing human voice. [88] As a result, many instruments that
were incapable of larger ranges and dynamics, and therefore were seen as
unemotional, fell out of favor. One such instrument was the shawm. [95]
Bowed instruments such as the violin, viola , baryton, and various lutes
dominated popular music. [96] Beginning in around 1750, however, the lute
disappeared from musical compositions in favor of the rising popularity of the
guitar .[97] As the prevalence of string orchestras rose, wind instruments such
as the flute, oboe, and bassoon were readmitted to counteract the monotony
of hearing only strings. [98]
In the mid-seventeenth century, what was known as a hunter's horn
underwent transformation into an "art instrument" consisting of a lengthened
tube, a narrower bore, a wider bell, and much wider range. The details of this
transformation are unclear, but the modern horn or, more colloquially, French
horn, had emerged by 1725. [99] The slide trumpet appeared, a variation that
includes a long-throated mouthpiece that slid in and out, allowing the player
infinite adjustments in pitch. This variation on the trumpet was unpopular due
to the difficulty involved in playing it. [100] Organs underwent tonal changes in
the Baroque period, as manufacturers such as Abraham Jordan of London
made the stops more expressive and added devices such as expressive
pedals. Sachs viewed this trend as a "degeneration" of the general organ
sound. [101]
During the Classical and Romantic periods of music, lasting from roughly 1750
to 1900, a great deal of musical instruments capable of producing new timbres
and higher volume were developed and introduced into popular music. The
design changes that broadened the quality of timbres allowed instruments to
produce a wider variety of expression. Large orchestras rose in popularity and,
in parallel, the composers determined to produce entire orchestral scores that
made use of the expressive abilities of modern instruments. Since instruments
were involved in collaborations of a much larger scale, their designs had to
evolve to accommodate the demands of the orchestra. [102]
Some instruments also had to become louder to fill larger halls and be heard
over sizable orchestras. Flutes and bowed instruments underwent many
modifications and design changes—most of them unsuccessful—in efforts to
increase volume. Other instruments were changed just so they could play their
parts in the scores. Trumpets traditionally had a "defective" range—they were
incapable of producing certain notes with precision.[103] New instruments
such as the clarinet, saxophone, and tuba became fixtures in orchestras.
Instruments such as the clarinet also grew into entire "families" of
instruments capable of different ranges: small clarinets, normal clarinets, bass
clarinets, and so on. [102]
Accompanying the changes to timbre and volume was a shift in the typical
pitch used to tune instruments. Instruments meant to play together, as in an
orchestra, must be tuned to the same standard lest they produce audibly
different sounds while playing the same notes. Beginning in 1762, the average
concert pitch began rising from a low of 377 vibrations to a high of 457 in
1880 Vienna. [104] Different regions, countries, and even instrument
manufacturers preferred different standards, making orchestral collaboration a
challenge. Despite even the efforts of two organized international summits
attended by noted composers like Hector Berlioz , no standard could be agreed
upon. [105]
Headstock of a Fender Stratocaster
electric guitar
The evolution of traditional musical instruments slowed beginning in the
twentieth century. [106] Instruments like the violin, flute, french horn, harp, and
so on are largely the same as those manufactured throughout the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries. Gradual iterations do emerge; for example, the "New
Violin Family" began in 1964 to provide differently sized violins to expand the
range of available sounds. [107] The slowdown in development was practical
response to the concurrent slowdown in orchestra and venue size.[108]
Despite this trend in traditional instruments, the development of new musical
instruments exploded in the twentieth century. The sheer variety of
instruments developed overshadows any prior period. [106]
The proliferation of electricity in the twentieth century lead to the creation of
an entirely new category of musical instruments: electronic instruments, or
electrophones .[109] The vast majority of electrophones produced in the first
half of the twentieth century were what Sachs called "electromechanical
instruments". In other words, they have mechanical parts that produce sound
vibrations, and those vibrations are picked up and amplified by electrical
components. Examples of electromechanical instruments include organs and
electric guitars.[109] Sachs also defined a subcategory of "radioelectric
instruments" such as the theremin , which produces music through the player's
hand movements around two antennas. [110]
The latter half of the twentieth century saw the gradual evolution of
synthesizers —instruments that artificially produce sound using analog or
digital circuits and microchips. In the late 1960s, Bob Moog and other
inventors began an era of development of commercial synthesizers. One of the
first of these instruments was the Moog synthesizer . [111] The modern
proliferation of computers and microchips has spawned an entire industry
around electronic musical instruments. Since electronic musical instruments
may produce sound without human interaction, there is debate in the modern
music community as to whether or not computer musicians may be
considered instrumentalists.[citation needed ]
Classification
Main article: Musical instrument classification
There are many different methods of classifying musical instruments. Various
methods examine aspects such as the physical properties of the instrument
(material, color, shape, etc.), the use for the instrument, the means by which
music is produced with the instrument, the range of the instrument, and the
instrument's place in an orchestra or other ensemble. Most methods are
specific to a geographic area or cultural group and were developed to serve
the unique classification requirements of the group. [112] The problem with
these specialized classification schemes is that they tend to break down once
they are applied outside of their original area. For example, a system based on
instrument use would fail if a culture invented a new use for the same
instrument. Scholars recognize Hornbostel-Sachs as the only system that
applies to any culture and, more important, provides only possible
classification for each instrument.[113][114]
An ancient system named the Natya Shastra , written by the sage Bharata
Muni and dating from between 200 BC and 200 AD, divides instruments into
four main classification groups: instruments where the sound is produced by
vibrating strings; percussion instruments with skin heads; instruments where
the sound is produced by vibrating columns of air; and "solid", or non-skin,
percussion instruments. [113] This system was adapted to some degree in
12th-century Europe by Johannes de Muris, who used the terms tensibilia
(stringed instruments), inflatibilia (wind instruments), and percussibilia (all
percussion instruments). [115] In 1880, Victor-Charles Mahillon adapted the
Natya Shastra and assigned Greek labels to the four classifications:
chordophones (stringed instruments), membranophones (skin-head percussion
instruments), aerophones (wind instruments), and autophones (non-skin
percussion instruments). [113]
Erich von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs adopted Mahillon's scheme and
published an extensive new scheme for classification in Zeitschrift für
Ethnologie in 1914. Hornbostel and Sachs used most of Mahillon's system,
but replaced the term autophone with idiophone .[113]
The original Hornbostel-Sachs system classified instruments into four main
groups:
Idiophones, which produce sound by vibrating the primary body of the
instrument itself; they are sorted into concussion, percussion, shaken, scraped,
split, and plucked idiophones, such as claves, xylophone , guiro , slit drum ,
mbira, and rattle .[116]
Membranophones , which produce sound by a vibrating a stretched
membrane; they may be drums (further sorted by the shape of the shell),
which are struck by hand, with a stick, or rubbed, but kazoos and other
instruments that use a stretched membrane for the primary sound (not simply
to modify sound produced in another way) are also considered
membranophones. [117]
Chordophones, which produce sound by vibrating one or more strings; they
are sorted into according to the relationship between the string(s) and the
sounding board or chamber. For example, if the strings are laid out parallel to
the sounding board and there is no neck, the instrument is a zither whether it
is plucked like an autoharp or struck with hammers like a piano. If the
instrument has strings parallel to the sounding board or chamber and the
strings extend past the board with a neck, then the instrument is a lute ,
whether the sound chamber is constructed of wood like a guitar or uses a
membrane like a banjo .[118]
Aerophones, which produce a sound by with a vibrating column of air; they
are sorted into free aerophones such as a bullroarer or whip , which move
freely through the air; flutes , which cause the air to pass over a sharp edge;
reed instruments, which use a vibrating reed; and lip-vibrated aerophones
such as trumpets, for which the lips themselves function as vibrating reeds.
[119]
Sachs later added a fifth category, electrophones , such as theremins, which
produce sound by electronic means. [109] Within each category are many
subgroups. The system has been criticised and revised over the years, but
remains widely used by ethnomusicologists and organologists .[115][120]
Andre Schaeffner, a curator at the Musée de l'Homme , disagreed with the
Hornbostel-Sachs system and developed his own system in 1932. Schaeffner
believed that the pure physics of a musical instrument, rather than its specific
construction or playing method, should always determine its classification.
(Hornbostel-Sachs, for example, divide aerophones on the basis of sound
production, but membranophones on the basis of the shape of the
instrument). His system divided instruments into two categories: instruments
with solid, vibrating bodies and instruments containing vibrating air. [121]
Main article: Range (music)
Musical instruments are also often classified by their musical range in
comparison with other instruments in the same family. This exercise is useful
when placing instruments in context of an orchestra or other ensemble.
These terms are named after singing voice classifications:
Soprano instruments: flute , violin , soprano saxophone, trumpet , clarinet ,
oboe, piccolo
Alto instruments: alto saxophone, french horn, english horn, viola , alto horn
Tenor instruments: trombone , tenor saxophone, guitar , tenor drum
Baritone instruments: bassoon, baritone saxophone, bass clarinet , cello,
baritone horn, euphonium
Bass instruments: double bass , bass guitar , bass saxophone, tuba, bass
drum
Some instruments fall into more than one category: for example, the cello may
be considered tenor, baritone or bass, depending on how its music fits into the
ensemble, and the trombone may be alto, tenor, baritone, or bass and the
French horn, bass, baritone, tenor, or alto, depending on the range it is played
in. Many instruments have their range as part of their name: soprano
saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone horn, alto flute , bass guitar , etc.
Additional adjectives describe instruments above the soprano range or below
the bass , for example: sopranino saxophone, contrabass clarinet . When used in
the name of an instrument, these terms are relative, describing the
instrument's range in comparison to other instruments of its family and not in
comparison to the human voice range or instruments of other families. For
example, a bass flute's range is from C 3 to F♯ 6, while a bass clarinet plays
about one octave lower.
Construction
The materials used in making musical instruments vary greatly by culture and
application. Many of the materials have special significance owing to their
source or rarity. Some cultures worked substances from the human body into
their instruments. In ancient Mexico, for example, the material drums were
made from might contain actual human body parts obtained from sacrificial
offerings. In New Guinea, drum makers would mix human blood into the
adhesive used to attach the membrane .[122] Mulberry trees are held in high
regard in China owing to their mythological significance—instrument makers
would hence use them to make zithers. The Yakuts believe that making drums
from trees struck by lightning gives them a special connection to nature. [123]
Musical instrument construction is a specialized trade that requires years of
training, practice, and sometimes an apprenticeship. Most makers of musical
instruments specialize in one genre of instruments; for example, a luthier
makes only stringed instruments. Some make only one type of instrument
such as a piano. Whatever the instrument constructed, the instrument maker
must consider materials, construction technique, and decoration, creating a
balanced instrument that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing. [124]
Some builders are focused on a more artistic approach and develop
experimental musical instruments , often meant for individual playing styles
developed by the builder himself.
User interfaces
Regardless of how the sound in an instrument is produced, many musical
instruments have a keyboard as the user-interface. Keyboard instruments are
any instruments that are played with a musical keyboard . Every key generates
one or more sounds; most keyboard instruments have extra means ( pedals for
a piano, stops for an organ) to manipulate these sounds. They may produce
sound by wind being fanned ( organ) or pumped ( accordion ), [125][126]
vibrating strings either hammered ( piano ) or plucked ( harpsichord ), [127][128]
by electronic means ( synthesizer ), [129] or in some other way. Sometimes,
instruments that do not usually have a keyboard, such as the glockenspiel , are
fitted with one.[130] Though they have no moving parts and are struck by
mallets held in the player's hands, they have the same physical arrangement
of keys and produce soundwaves in a similar manner.
sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be a musical
instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical
instrument. The history of musical instruments dates to the beginnings of
human culture. Early musical instruments may have been used for ritual, such
as a trumpet to signal success on the hunt, or a drum in a religious ceremony.
Cultures eventually developed composition and performance of melodies for
entertainment. Musical instruments evolved in step with changing applications.
The date and origin of the first device considered a musical instrument is
disputed. The oldest object that some scholars refer to as a musical
instrument, a simple flute , dates back as far as 67,000 years. Some consensus
dates early flutes to about 37,000 years ago. However, most historians believe
that determining a specific time of musical instrument invention is impossible
due to the subjectivity of the definition and the relative instability of materials
used to make them. Many early musical instruments were made from animal
skins, bone, wood, and other non-durable materials.
Musical instruments developed independently in many populated regions of the
world. However, contact among civilizations caused rapid spread and
adaptation of most instruments in places far from their origin. By the Middle
Ages, instruments from Mesopotamia were in Maritime Southeast Asia , and
Europeans played instruments from North Africa. Development in the Americas
occurred at a slower pace, but cultures of North, Central, and South America
shared musical instruments. By 1400, musical instrument development slowed
in many areas and was dominated by the Occident .
Musical instrument classification is a discipline in its own right, and many
systems of classification have been used over the years. Instruments can be
classified by their effective range, their material composition, their size, etc.
However, the most common academic method, Hornbostel-Sachs, uses the
means by which they produce sound. The academic study of musical
instruments is called organology .
Definition and basic operation
A musical instrument makes sounds. Once humans moved from making
sounds with their bodies—for example, by clapping—to using objects to create
music from sounds, musical instruments were born. [1] Primitive instruments
were probably designed to emulate natural sounds, and their purpose was
ritual rather than entertainment. [2] The concept of melody and the artistic
pursuit of musical composition were unknown to early players of musical
instruments. A player sounding a flute to signal the start of a hunt does so
without thought of the modern notion of "making music". [2]
Musical instruments are constructed in a broad array of styles and shapes,
using many different materials. Early musical instruments were made from
"found objects" such a shells and plant parts. [2] As instruments evolved, so
did the selection and quality of materials. Virtually every material in nature has
been used by at least one culture to make musical instruments. [2] One plays
a musical instrument by interacting with it in some way—for example, by
plucking the strings on a string instrument.[2]
Archaeology
Researchers have discovered archaeological evidence of musical instruments
in many parts of the world. Some finds are 67,000 years old, however their
status as musical instruments is often in dispute. Consensus solidifies about
artifacts dated back to around 37,000 years old and later. Only artifacts made
from durable materials or using durable methods tend to survive. As such, the
specimens found cannot be irrefutably placed as the earliest musical
instruments. [3]
Found in Slovenia, the Divje Babe Flute
is considered the world's oldest known
musical instrument
In July 1995, Slovenian archaeologist Ivan Turk discovered a bone carving in
the northwest region of Slovenia. The carving, named the Divje Babe Flute ,
features four holes that Canadian musicologist Bob Fink determined could
have been used to play four notes of a diatonic scale. Researchers estimate
the flute's age at between 43,400 and 67,000 years, making it the oldest
known musical instrument and the only musical instrument associated with
the Neanderthal culture. [4] However, some archaeologists and
ethnomusicologists dispute the flute's status as a musical instrument.[5]
German archaeologists have found mammoth bone and swan bone flutes
dating back to 30,000 to 37,000 years old in the Swabian Alps. The flutes were
made in the Upper Paleolithic age, and are more commonly accepted as being
the oldest known musical instruments. [6]
Archaeological evidence of musical instruments was discovered in excavations
at the Royal Cemetery in the Sumerian city of Ur (see Lyres of Ur ). These
instruments, one of the first ensembles of instruments yet discovered, include
nine lyres , two harps , a silver double flute , sistra and cymbals . A set of reed-
sounded silver pipes discovered in Ur was the likely predecessor of modern
bagpipes. [7] The cylindrical pipes feature three side-holes that allowed players
to produce whole tone scales.[8] These excavations, carried out by Leonard
Woolley in the 1920s, uncovered non-degradable fragments of instruments and
the voids left by the degraded segments that, together, have been used to
reconstruct them. [9] The graves these instruments were buried in have been
carbon dated to between 2600 and 2500 BC, providing evidence that these
instruments were used in Sumeria by this time. [10]
Archaeologists in the Jiahu site of central Henan province of China have found
flutes made of bones that date back 7,000 to 9,000 years, [11] representing
some of the "earliest complete, playable, tightly-dated, multinote musical
instruments" ever found. [11][12]
History
Scholars agree that there are no completely reliable methods of determining
the exact chronology of musical instruments across cultures. Comparing and
organizing instruments based on their complexity is misleading, since
advancements in musical instruments have sometimes reduced complexity.
For example, construction of early slit drums involved felling and hollowing out
large trees; later slit drums were made by opening bamboo stalks, a much
simpler task. [13]
German musicologist Curt Sachs, one of the most prominent musicologists [14]
and musical ethnologists [15] in modern times, argues that it is misleading to
arrange the development of musical instruments by workmanship since
cultures advance at different rates and have access to different raw materials.
He maintains, for example, that contemporary anthropologists comparing
musical instruments from two cultures that existed at the same time but
differed in organization, culture, and handicraft cannot determine which
instruments are more "primitive" . [16] Ordering instruments by geography is
also not totally reliable, as it cannot always be determined when and how
cultures contacted one another and shared knowledge.
Sachs proposed that a geographical chronology until approximately 1400 is
preferable, however, due to its limited subjectivity. [17] Beyond 1400, one can
follow the overall development of musical instruments by time period. [17]
The science of marking the order of musical instrument development relies on
archaeological artifacts, artistic depictions, and literary references. Since data
in one research path can be inconclusive, all three paths provide a better
historical picture. [3]
Two Aztec slit drums, called teponaztli.
The characteristic " H" slits can be
seen on the top of the drum in the
foreground.
Until the 19th century AD, European written music histories began with
mythological accounts of how musical instruments were invented. Such
accounts included Jubal, descendant of Cain and "father of all such as handle
the harp and the organ", Pan , inventor of the pan pipes , and Mercury, who is
said to have made a dried tortoise shell into the first lyre. Modern histories
have replaced such mythology with anthropological speculation, occasionally
informed by archeological evidence. Scholars agree that there was no
definitive "invention" of the musical instrument since the definition of the term
"musical instrument" is completely subjective to both the scholar and the
would-be inventor. For example, a Homo habilis slapping his body could be
the makings of a musical instrument regardless of the being's intent. [18]
Among the first devices external to the human body that are considered
instruments are rattles , stampers, and various drums. [19] These earliest
instruments evolved due to the human motor impulse to add sound to
emotional movements such as dancing. [20] Eventually, some cultures assigned
ritual functions to their musical instruments, using them for hunting and
various ceremonies. [21] Those cultures developed more complex percussion
instruments and other instruments such as ribbon reeds, flutes, and trumpets.
Some of these labels carry far different connotations from those used in
modern day; early flutes and trumpets are so-labeled for their basic operation
and function rather than any resemblance to modern instruments. [22] Among
early cultures for whom drums developed ritual, even sacred importance are
the Chukchi people of the Russian Far East , the indigenous people of
Melanesia , and many cultures of Africa. In fact, drums were pervasive
throughout every African culture. [23] One East African tribe, the Wahinda ,
believed it was so holy that seeing a drum would be fatal to any person other
than the sultan. [24]
Humans eventually developed the concept of using musical instruments for
producing a melody. Until this time in the evolutions of musical instruments,
melody was common only in singing. Similar to the process of reduplication in
language, instrument players first developed repetition and then arrangement.
An early form of melody was produced by pounding two stamping tubes of
slightly different sizes—one tube would produce a "clear" sound and the other
would answer with a "darker" sound. Such instrument pairs also included
bullroarers , slit drums, shell trumpets, and skin drums. Cultures who used
these instrument pairs associated genders with them; the "father" was the
bigger or more energetic instrument, while the "mother" was the smaller or
duller instrument. Musical instruments existed in this form for thousands of
years before patterns of three or more tones would evolve in the form of the
earliest xylophone . [25] Xylophones originated in the mainland and archipelago
of Southeast Asia, eventually spreading to Africa, the Americas, and Europe.
[26] Along with xylophones, which ranged from simple sets of three "leg bars"
to carefully tuned sets of parallel bars, various cultures developed instruments
such as the ground harp, ground zither , musical bow , and jaw harp.[27]
Images of musical instruments begin to appear in Mesopotamian artifacts in
2800 BC or earlier. Beginning around 2000 BC, Sumerian and Babylonian
cultures began delineating two distinct classes of musical instruments due to
division of labor and the evolving class system. Popular instruments, simple
and playable by anyone, evolved differently from professional instruments
whose development focused on effectiveness and skill. [28] Despite this
development, very few musical instruments have been recovered in
Mesopotamia . Scholars must rely on artifacts and cuneiform texts written in
Sumerian or Akkadian to reconstruct the early history of musical instruments
in Mesopotamia. Even the process of assigning names to these instruments is
challenging since there is no clear distinction among various instruments and
the words used to describe them. [29]
Although Sumerian and Babylonian artists mainly depicted ceremonial
instruments, historians have been able to distinguish six idiophones used in
early Mesopotamia: concussion clubs, clappers, sistra , bells, cymbals, and
rattles. [30] Sistra are depicted prominently in a great relief of Amenhotep III ,
[31] and are of particular interest because similar designs have been found in
far-reaching places such as Tbilisi , Georgia and among the Native American
Yaqui tribe.[32] The people of Mesopotamia preferred stringed instruments to
any other, as evidenced by their proliferation in Mesopotamian figurines,
plaques, and seals. Innumerable varieties of harps are depicted, as well as
lyres and lutes, the forerunner of modern stringed instruments such as the
violin . [33]
Ancient Egyptian tomb painting
depicting lute players, 18th Dynasty
(c. 1350 BC)
Musical instruments used by the Egyptian culture before 2700 BC bore striking
similarity to those of Mesopotamia, leading historians to conclude that the
civilizations must have been in contact with one another. Sachs notes that
Egypt did not possess any instruments that the Sumerian culture did not also
possess. [34] However, by 2700 BC the cultural contacts seem to have
dissipated; the lyre, a prominent ceremonial instrument in Sumer, did not
appear in Egypt for another 800 years.[34] Clappers and concussion sticks
appear on Egyptian vases as early as 3000 BC. The civilization also made use
of sistra, vertical flutes, double clarinets, arched and angular harps, and
various drums. [35]
Little history is available in the period between 2700 BC and 1500 BC, as
Egypt (and indeed, Babylon) entered a long violent period of war and
destruction. This period saw the Kassites destroy the Babylonian empire in
Mesopotamia and the Hyksos destroy the Middle Kingdom of Egypt . When the
Pharaohs of Egypt conquered Southwest Asia in around 1500 BC, the cultural
ties to Mesopotamia were renewed and Egypt's musical instruments also
reflected heavy influence from Asiatic cultures. [34] Under their new cultural
influences, the people of the New Kingdom began using oboes, trumpets, lyres,
lutes, castanets, and cymbals. [36]
In contrast with Mesopotamia and Egypt, professional musicians did not exist
in Israel between 2000 and 1000 BC. While the history of musical instruments
in Mesopotamia and Egypt relies on artistic representations, the culture in
Israel produced few such representations. Scholars must therefore rely on
information gleaned from the Bible and the Talmud.[37] The Hebrew texts
mention two prominent instruments associated with Jubal , ugabs and kinnors.
These may be translated as pan pipes and lyres, respectively. [38] Other
instruments of the period included tofs, or frame drums, small bells or jingles
called pa'amon, shofars , and the trumpet-like hasosra. [39]
The introduction of a monarchy in Israel during the 11th century BC produced
the first professional musicians and with them a drastic increase in the
number and variety of musical instruments. [40] However, identifying and
classifying the instruments remains a challenge due to the lack of artistic
interpretations. For example, stringed instruments of uncertain design called
nevals and asors existed, but neither archaeology nor etymology can clearly
define them. [41] In her book A Survey of Musical Instruments , American
musicologist Sibyl Marcuse proposes that the nevel must be similar to vertical
harp due to its relation to "nabla", the Phoenician term for "harp". [42]
In Greece , Rome, and Etruria, the use and development of musical instruments
stood in stark contrast to those cultures' achievements in architecture and
sculpture. The instruments of the time were simple and virtually all of them
were imported from other cultures. [43] Lyres were the principal instrument, as
musicians used them to honor the gods.[44] Greeks played a variety of wind
instruments they classified as aulos (reeds) or syrinx (flutes); Greek writing
from that time reflects a serious study of reed production and playing
technique. [8] Romans played reed instruments named tibia featuring side-
holes that could be opened or closed, allowing for greater flexibility in playing
modes. [45] Other instruments in common use in the region included vertical
harps derived from those of the Orient , lutes of Egyptian design, various pipes
and organs, and clappers, which were played primarily by women. [46]
Evidence of musical instruments in use by early civilizations of India is almost
completely lacking, making it impossible to reliably attribute instruments to
the Munda and Dravidian language-speaking cultures that first settled the
area. Rather, the history of musical instruments in the area begins with the
Indus Valley Civilization that emerged around 3000 BC. Various rattles and
whistles found among excavated artifacts are the only physical evidence of
musical instruments. [47] A clay statuette indicates the use of drums, and
examination of the Indus script has also revealed representations of vertical
arched harps identical in design to those depicted in Sumerian artifacts. This
discovery is among many indications that the Indus Valley and Sumerian
cultures maintained cultural contact. Subsequent developments in musical
instruments in India occurred with the Rigveda , or hymns. These songs used
various drums, shell trumpets, harps, and flutes. [48] Other prominent
instruments in use during the early centuries AD were the snake charmer's
double clarinet , bagpipes, barrel drums, cross flutes, and short lutes. In all,
India had no unique musical instruments until the Middle Ages .[49]
A Chinese wooden fish, used in
Buddhist recitations
Musical instruments such as zithers appeared in Chinese writings around 12th
century BC and earlier. [50] Early Chinese philosophers such as Confucius
(551–479 BC), Mencius (372–289 BC), and Laozi shaped the development of
musical instruments in China, adopting an attitude toward music similar to
that of the Greeks. The Chinese believed that music was an essential part of
character and community, and developed a unique system of classifying their
musical instruments according to their material makeup. [51]
Idiophones were extremely important in Chinese music, hence the majority of
early instruments were idiophones. Poetry of the Shang Dynasty mentions
bells, chimes, drums, and globular flutes carved from bone, the latter of which
has been excavated and preserved by archaeologists. [52] The Zhou Dynasty
saw percussion instruments such as clappers, troughs, wooden fish, and yu .
Wind instruments such as flute, pan-pipes, pitch-pipes, and mouth organs
also appeared in this time period. [53] The xiao and various other instruments
that spread through many cultures, came into use in China during and after
the Han Dynasty.[54]
Although civilizations in Central America attained a relatively high level of
sophistication by the eleventh century AD, they lagged behind other
civilizations in the development of musical instruments. For example, they had
no stringed instruments; all of their instruments were idiophones, drums, and
wind instruments such as flutes and trumpets. Of these, only the flute was
capable of producing a melody.[55] In contrast, pre-Columbian South
American civilizations in areas such as modern-day Peru, Colombia , Ecuador,
Bolivia, and Chile were less advanced culturally but more advanced musically.
South American cultures of the time used pan-pipes as well as varieties of
flutes, idiophones, drums, and shell or wood trumpets. [56]
During the period of time loosely referred to as the Middle Ages, China
developed a tradition of integrating musical influence from other regions. The
first record of this type of influence is in 384 AD, when China established an
orchestra in its imperial court after a conquest in Turkestan. Influences from
Middle East, Persia, India, Mongolia, and other countries followed. In fact,
Chinese tradition attributes many musical instruments from this period to
those regions and countries. [57] Cymbals gained popularity, along with more
advanced trumpets, clarinets, oboes, flutes, drums, and lutes.[58] Some of the
first bowed-zithers appeared in China in the 9th or 10th century, influenced by
Mongolian culture. [59]
India experienced similar development to China in the Middle Ages; however,
stringed instruments developed differently as they accommodated different
styles of music. While stringed instruments of China were designed to produce
precise tones capable of matching the tones of chimes, stringed instruments of
India were considerably more flexible. This flexibility suited the slides and
tremolos of Hindu music. Rhythm was of paramount importance in Indian
music of the time, as evidenced by the frequent depiction of drums in reliefs
dating to the Middle Ages. The emphasis on rhythm is an aspect native to
Indian music. [60] Historians divide the development of musical instruments in
medieval India between pre-Islamic and Islamic periods due to the different
influence each period provided. [61]
In pre-Islamic times, idiophones such hand bells, cymbals, and peculiar
instruments resembling gongs came into wide use in Hindu music. The gong-
like instrument was a bronze disk that was struck with a hammer instead of a
mallet. Tubular drums, stick zithers named veena , short fiddles, double and
triple flutes, coiled trumpets, and curved India horns emerged in this time
period. [62] Islamic influences brought new types of drums, perfectly circular or
octagonal as opposed to the irregular pre-Islamic drums. [63] Persian influence
brought oboes and sitars , although Persian sitars had three strings and Indian
version had from four to seven.[64]
An Indonesian metallophone
Southeast Asian musical innovations include those during a period of Indian
influence that ended around 920 AD. [65] Balinese and Javanese music made
use of xylophones and metallophones , bronze versions of the former. [66] The
most prominent and important musical instrument of Southeast Asia was the
gong. While the gong likely originated in the geographical area between Tibet
and Burma , it was part of every category of human activity in Maritime
Southeast Asia including Java. [67]
The areas of Mesopotamia and the Arabian Peninsula experiences rapid growth
and sharing of musical instruments once they were united by Islamic culture
in the seventh century. [68] Frame drums and cylindrical drums of various
depths were immensely important in all genres of music. [69] Conical oboes
were involved in the music that accompanied wedding and circumcision
ceremonies. Persian miniatures provide information on the development of
kettle drums in Mesopotamia that spread as far as Java. [70] Various lutes,
zithers, dulcimers , and harps spread as far as Madagascar to the south and
modern-day Sulawesi to the east.[71]
Despite the influences of Greece and Rome, most musical instruments in
Europe during the Middles Ages came from Asia. The lyre is the only musical
instrument that may have been invented in Europe until this period. [72]
Stringed instruments were prominent in Middle Age Europe. The central and
northern regions used mainly lutes, stringed instruments with necks, while the
southern region used lyres, which featured a two-armed body and a crossbar.
[72] Various harps served Central and Northern Europe as far north as Ireland,
where the harp eventually became a national symbol.[73] Lyres propagated
through the same areas, as far east as Estonia . [74]
European music between 800 and 1100 became more sophisticated, more
frequently requiring instruments capable of polyphony. The Persian geographer
of the 9th century ( Ibn Khordadbeh ), mentioned in his lexicographical
discussion of music instruments that in the Byzantine Empire typical
instruments included the urghun ( organ ), shilyani (probably a type of harp or
lyre), salandj (probably a bagpipe ) and the Byzantine lyra (Greek: λύρα ~
lūrā). [75] Lyra was a medieval pear-shaped bowed string instrument with
three to five strings , held upright and is an ancestor of most European bowed
instruments, including the violin . [76]
The monochord served as a precise measure of the notes of a musical scale,
allowing more accurate musical arrangements. [77] Mechanical hurdy-gurdies
allowed single musicians to play more complicated arrangements than a fiddle
would; both were prominent folk instruments in the Middle Ages. [78][79]
Southern Europeans played short and long lutes whose pegs extended to the
sides, unlike the rear-facing pegs of Central and Northern European
instruments. [80] Idiophones such as bells and clappers served various
practical purposes, such as warning of the approach of a leper. [81]
The ninth century revealed the first bagpipes, which spread throughout Europe
and had many uses from folk instruments to military instruments. [82] The
construction of pneumatic organs evolved in Europe starting in fifth century
Spain , spreading to England in about 700. [83] The resulting instruments varied
in size and use from portable organs worn around the neck to large pipe
organs. [84] Literary accounts of organs being played in English Benedictine
abbeys toward the end of the tenth century are the first references to organs
being connected to churches.[85] Reed players of the Middle Ages were limited
to oboes; no evidence of clarinets exists during this period. [86]
Musical instrument development was dominated by the Occident from 1400
on, indeed, the most profound changes occurred during the Renaissance
period. [18] Instruments took on other purposes than accompanying singing or
dance, and performers used them as solo instruments. Keyboards and lutes
developed as polyphonic instruments, and composers arranged increasingly
complex pieces using more advanced tablature. Composers also began
designing pieces of music for specific instruments. [18] In the latter half of the
sixteenth century, orchestration came into common practice as a method of
writing music for a variety of instruments. Composers now specified
orchestration where individual performers once applied their own discretion.
[87] The polyphonic style dominated popular music, and the instrument makers
responded accordingly. [88]
The Duet , by Dutch painter Cornelis
Saftleven , c. 1635
Beginning in about 1400, the rate of development of musical instruments
increased in earnest as compositions demanded more dynamic sounds. People
also began writing books about creating, playing, and cataloging musical
instruments; the first such book was Sebastian Virdung's 1511 treatise Musica
getuscht und ausgezogen (English: Music Germanized and Abstracted). [87]
Virdung's work is noted as being particularly thorough for including
descriptions of "irregular" instruments such as hunters' horns and cow bells,
though Virdung is critical of the same. Other books followed, including Arnolt
Schlick's Spiegel der Orgelmacher und Organisten (English: Mirror of Organ
Makers and Organ Players ) the following year, a treatise on organ building and
organ playing.[89] Of the instructional books and references published in the
Renaissance era, one is noted for its detailed description and depiction of all
wind and stringed instruments, including their relative sizes. This book, the
Syntagma musicum by Michael Praetorius, is now considered an authoritative
reference of sixteenth century musical instruments. [90]
In the sixteenth century, musical instrument builders gave most instruments,
such as the violin, the "classical shapes" they retain today. An emphasis on
aesthetic beauty also developed—listeners were as pleased with the physical
appearance of an instrument as they were with its sound. Therefore, builders
paid special attention to materials and workmanship, and instruments became
collectibles in homes and museums. [91] It was during this period that makers
began constructing instruments of the same type in various sizes to meet the
demand of consorts , or ensembles playing works written for these groups of
instruments. [92]
Instrument builders developed other features that endure today. For example,
while organs with multiple keyboards and pedals already existed, the first
organs with solo stops emerged in the early fifteenth century. These stops
were meant to produce a mixture of timbres, a development needed for the
complexity of music of the time. [93] Trumpets evolved into their modern form
to improve portability, and players used mutes to properly blend into chamber
music .[94]
Baroque mounted Jacob Stainer violin
from 1658
Beginning in the seventeenth century, composers began creating works of a
more emotional style. They felt that a monophonic style better suited the
emotional music and wrote musical parts for instruments that would
complement the singing human voice. [88] As a result, many instruments that
were incapable of larger ranges and dynamics, and therefore were seen as
unemotional, fell out of favor. One such instrument was the shawm. [95]
Bowed instruments such as the violin, viola , baryton, and various lutes
dominated popular music. [96] Beginning in around 1750, however, the lute
disappeared from musical compositions in favor of the rising popularity of the
guitar .[97] As the prevalence of string orchestras rose, wind instruments such
as the flute, oboe, and bassoon were readmitted to counteract the monotony
of hearing only strings. [98]
In the mid-seventeenth century, what was known as a hunter's horn
underwent transformation into an "art instrument" consisting of a lengthened
tube, a narrower bore, a wider bell, and much wider range. The details of this
transformation are unclear, but the modern horn or, more colloquially, French
horn, had emerged by 1725. [99] The slide trumpet appeared, a variation that
includes a long-throated mouthpiece that slid in and out, allowing the player
infinite adjustments in pitch. This variation on the trumpet was unpopular due
to the difficulty involved in playing it. [100] Organs underwent tonal changes in
the Baroque period, as manufacturers such as Abraham Jordan of London
made the stops more expressive and added devices such as expressive
pedals. Sachs viewed this trend as a "degeneration" of the general organ
sound. [101]
During the Classical and Romantic periods of music, lasting from roughly 1750
to 1900, a great deal of musical instruments capable of producing new timbres
and higher volume were developed and introduced into popular music. The
design changes that broadened the quality of timbres allowed instruments to
produce a wider variety of expression. Large orchestras rose in popularity and,
in parallel, the composers determined to produce entire orchestral scores that
made use of the expressive abilities of modern instruments. Since instruments
were involved in collaborations of a much larger scale, their designs had to
evolve to accommodate the demands of the orchestra. [102]
Some instruments also had to become louder to fill larger halls and be heard
over sizable orchestras. Flutes and bowed instruments underwent many
modifications and design changes—most of them unsuccessful—in efforts to
increase volume. Other instruments were changed just so they could play their
parts in the scores. Trumpets traditionally had a "defective" range—they were
incapable of producing certain notes with precision.[103] New instruments
such as the clarinet, saxophone, and tuba became fixtures in orchestras.
Instruments such as the clarinet also grew into entire "families" of
instruments capable of different ranges: small clarinets, normal clarinets, bass
clarinets, and so on. [102]
Accompanying the changes to timbre and volume was a shift in the typical
pitch used to tune instruments. Instruments meant to play together, as in an
orchestra, must be tuned to the same standard lest they produce audibly
different sounds while playing the same notes. Beginning in 1762, the average
concert pitch began rising from a low of 377 vibrations to a high of 457 in
1880 Vienna. [104] Different regions, countries, and even instrument
manufacturers preferred different standards, making orchestral collaboration a
challenge. Despite even the efforts of two organized international summits
attended by noted composers like Hector Berlioz , no standard could be agreed
upon. [105]
Headstock of a Fender Stratocaster
electric guitar
The evolution of traditional musical instruments slowed beginning in the
twentieth century. [106] Instruments like the violin, flute, french horn, harp, and
so on are largely the same as those manufactured throughout the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries. Gradual iterations do emerge; for example, the "New
Violin Family" began in 1964 to provide differently sized violins to expand the
range of available sounds. [107] The slowdown in development was practical
response to the concurrent slowdown in orchestra and venue size.[108]
Despite this trend in traditional instruments, the development of new musical
instruments exploded in the twentieth century. The sheer variety of
instruments developed overshadows any prior period. [106]
The proliferation of electricity in the twentieth century lead to the creation of
an entirely new category of musical instruments: electronic instruments, or
electrophones .[109] The vast majority of electrophones produced in the first
half of the twentieth century were what Sachs called "electromechanical
instruments". In other words, they have mechanical parts that produce sound
vibrations, and those vibrations are picked up and amplified by electrical
components. Examples of electromechanical instruments include organs and
electric guitars.[109] Sachs also defined a subcategory of "radioelectric
instruments" such as the theremin , which produces music through the player's
hand movements around two antennas. [110]
The latter half of the twentieth century saw the gradual evolution of
synthesizers —instruments that artificially produce sound using analog or
digital circuits and microchips. In the late 1960s, Bob Moog and other
inventors began an era of development of commercial synthesizers. One of the
first of these instruments was the Moog synthesizer . [111] The modern
proliferation of computers and microchips has spawned an entire industry
around electronic musical instruments. Since electronic musical instruments
may produce sound without human interaction, there is debate in the modern
music community as to whether or not computer musicians may be
considered instrumentalists.[citation needed ]
Classification
Main article: Musical instrument classification
There are many different methods of classifying musical instruments. Various
methods examine aspects such as the physical properties of the instrument
(material, color, shape, etc.), the use for the instrument, the means by which
music is produced with the instrument, the range of the instrument, and the
instrument's place in an orchestra or other ensemble. Most methods are
specific to a geographic area or cultural group and were developed to serve
the unique classification requirements of the group. [112] The problem with
these specialized classification schemes is that they tend to break down once
they are applied outside of their original area. For example, a system based on
instrument use would fail if a culture invented a new use for the same
instrument. Scholars recognize Hornbostel-Sachs as the only system that
applies to any culture and, more important, provides only possible
classification for each instrument.[113][114]
An ancient system named the Natya Shastra , written by the sage Bharata
Muni and dating from between 200 BC and 200 AD, divides instruments into
four main classification groups: instruments where the sound is produced by
vibrating strings; percussion instruments with skin heads; instruments where
the sound is produced by vibrating columns of air; and "solid", or non-skin,
percussion instruments. [113] This system was adapted to some degree in
12th-century Europe by Johannes de Muris, who used the terms tensibilia
(stringed instruments), inflatibilia (wind instruments), and percussibilia (all
percussion instruments). [115] In 1880, Victor-Charles Mahillon adapted the
Natya Shastra and assigned Greek labels to the four classifications:
chordophones (stringed instruments), membranophones (skin-head percussion
instruments), aerophones (wind instruments), and autophones (non-skin
percussion instruments). [113]
Erich von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs adopted Mahillon's scheme and
published an extensive new scheme for classification in Zeitschrift für
Ethnologie in 1914. Hornbostel and Sachs used most of Mahillon's system,
but replaced the term autophone with idiophone .[113]
The original Hornbostel-Sachs system classified instruments into four main
groups:
Idiophones, which produce sound by vibrating the primary body of the
instrument itself; they are sorted into concussion, percussion, shaken, scraped,
split, and plucked idiophones, such as claves, xylophone , guiro , slit drum ,
mbira, and rattle .[116]
Membranophones , which produce sound by a vibrating a stretched
membrane; they may be drums (further sorted by the shape of the shell),
which are struck by hand, with a stick, or rubbed, but kazoos and other
instruments that use a stretched membrane for the primary sound (not simply
to modify sound produced in another way) are also considered
membranophones. [117]
Chordophones, which produce sound by vibrating one or more strings; they
are sorted into according to the relationship between the string(s) and the
sounding board or chamber. For example, if the strings are laid out parallel to
the sounding board and there is no neck, the instrument is a zither whether it
is plucked like an autoharp or struck with hammers like a piano. If the
instrument has strings parallel to the sounding board or chamber and the
strings extend past the board with a neck, then the instrument is a lute ,
whether the sound chamber is constructed of wood like a guitar or uses a
membrane like a banjo .[118]
Aerophones, which produce a sound by with a vibrating column of air; they
are sorted into free aerophones such as a bullroarer or whip , which move
freely through the air; flutes , which cause the air to pass over a sharp edge;
reed instruments, which use a vibrating reed; and lip-vibrated aerophones
such as trumpets, for which the lips themselves function as vibrating reeds.
[119]
Sachs later added a fifth category, electrophones , such as theremins, which
produce sound by electronic means. [109] Within each category are many
subgroups. The system has been criticised and revised over the years, but
remains widely used by ethnomusicologists and organologists .[115][120]
Andre Schaeffner, a curator at the Musée de l'Homme , disagreed with the
Hornbostel-Sachs system and developed his own system in 1932. Schaeffner
believed that the pure physics of a musical instrument, rather than its specific
construction or playing method, should always determine its classification.
(Hornbostel-Sachs, for example, divide aerophones on the basis of sound
production, but membranophones on the basis of the shape of the
instrument). His system divided instruments into two categories: instruments
with solid, vibrating bodies and instruments containing vibrating air. [121]
Main article: Range (music)
Musical instruments are also often classified by their musical range in
comparison with other instruments in the same family. This exercise is useful
when placing instruments in context of an orchestra or other ensemble.
These terms are named after singing voice classifications:
Soprano instruments: flute , violin , soprano saxophone, trumpet , clarinet ,
oboe, piccolo
Alto instruments: alto saxophone, french horn, english horn, viola , alto horn
Tenor instruments: trombone , tenor saxophone, guitar , tenor drum
Baritone instruments: bassoon, baritone saxophone, bass clarinet , cello,
baritone horn, euphonium
Bass instruments: double bass , bass guitar , bass saxophone, tuba, bass
drum
Some instruments fall into more than one category: for example, the cello may
be considered tenor, baritone or bass, depending on how its music fits into the
ensemble, and the trombone may be alto, tenor, baritone, or bass and the
French horn, bass, baritone, tenor, or alto, depending on the range it is played
in. Many instruments have their range as part of their name: soprano
saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone horn, alto flute , bass guitar , etc.
Additional adjectives describe instruments above the soprano range or below
the bass , for example: sopranino saxophone, contrabass clarinet . When used in
the name of an instrument, these terms are relative, describing the
instrument's range in comparison to other instruments of its family and not in
comparison to the human voice range or instruments of other families. For
example, a bass flute's range is from C 3 to F♯ 6, while a bass clarinet plays
about one octave lower.
Construction
The materials used in making musical instruments vary greatly by culture and
application. Many of the materials have special significance owing to their
source or rarity. Some cultures worked substances from the human body into
their instruments. In ancient Mexico, for example, the material drums were
made from might contain actual human body parts obtained from sacrificial
offerings. In New Guinea, drum makers would mix human blood into the
adhesive used to attach the membrane .[122] Mulberry trees are held in high
regard in China owing to their mythological significance—instrument makers
would hence use them to make zithers. The Yakuts believe that making drums
from trees struck by lightning gives them a special connection to nature. [123]
Musical instrument construction is a specialized trade that requires years of
training, practice, and sometimes an apprenticeship. Most makers of musical
instruments specialize in one genre of instruments; for example, a luthier
makes only stringed instruments. Some make only one type of instrument
such as a piano. Whatever the instrument constructed, the instrument maker
must consider materials, construction technique, and decoration, creating a
balanced instrument that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing. [124]
Some builders are focused on a more artistic approach and develop
experimental musical instruments , often meant for individual playing styles
developed by the builder himself.
User interfaces
Regardless of how the sound in an instrument is produced, many musical
instruments have a keyboard as the user-interface. Keyboard instruments are
any instruments that are played with a musical keyboard . Every key generates
one or more sounds; most keyboard instruments have extra means ( pedals for
a piano, stops for an organ) to manipulate these sounds. They may produce
sound by wind being fanned ( organ) or pumped ( accordion ), [125][126]
vibrating strings either hammered ( piano ) or plucked ( harpsichord ), [127][128]
by electronic means ( synthesizer ), [129] or in some other way. Sometimes,
instruments that do not usually have a keyboard, such as the glockenspiel , are
fitted with one.[130] Though they have no moving parts and are struck by
mallets held in the player's hands, they have the same physical arrangement
of keys and produce soundwaves in a similar manner.
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