Varies, see Tuning
117-496: Mbira ( / ə m ˈ b ɪər ə / əm- BEER -ə ) are a family of musical instruments , traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe . They consist of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal tines , played by holding the instrument in the hands and plucking the tines with the thumbs (at minimum), the right forefinger (most mbira), and sometimes the left forefinger . Musicologists classify it as
234-492: A bone flute to signal the start of a hunt does so without thought of the modern notion of "making music". 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 as shells and plant parts. 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. One plays
351-402: A horn 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 and technologies. The exact date and specific origin of the first device considered a musical instrument, is widely disputed. The oldest object identified by scholars as
468-479: A lamellaphone , part of the plucked idiophone family of musical instruments. In Eastern and Southern Africa, there are many kinds of mbira, often accompanied by the hosho , a percussion instrument. It is often an important instrument played at religious ceremonies, weddings, and other social gatherings. The "Art of crafting and playing Mbira/Sansi, the finger-plucking traditional musical instrument in Malawi and Zimbabwe"
585-695: A mbira thumb piano). Linguaphone comes from the Latin root lingua meaning "tongue", (i.e., a long thin plate that is fixed only at one end). lamellophone comes from the Latin word lamella for "small metal plate", and the Greek word φωνή phonē for "sound, voice". The lamellophones constitute category 12 in the Hornbostel–Sachs system for classifying musical instruments, plucked idiophones . There are two main categories of plucked idiophones, those that are in
702-481: A whole-tone scale . 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. 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. Archaeologists in
819-423: A better historical picture. Until the 19th century AD, European-written music histories began with mythological accounts mingled with scripture 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" ( Genesis 4:21) Pan , inventor of the pan pipes , and Mercury , who is said to have made a dried tortoise shell into
936-451: A challenge. Despite even the efforts of two organized international summits attended by noted composers like Hector Berlioz , no standard could be agreed upon. The evolution of traditional musical instruments slowed beginning in the 20th century. Instruments such as the violin, flute, french horn, and harp are largely the same as those manufactured throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Gradual iterations do emerge; for example,
1053-447: A different interval of the same seven-note scale, where it is possible to play all instruments in a single performance. The seven tunings that Garikayi uses are: Bangidza, Nyabango, Nhemamusasa, Chakwi, Taireva, Mahororo, and Mavembe (all of which are also names of traditional songs save for Mavembe and Nyabango). The closest to what is commonly named "Nyamaropa" is his "Nhemamusasa" tuning. Common names for tunings are: In Shona music ,
1170-435: A drastic increase in the number and variety of musical instruments. 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. In her book A Survey of Musical Instruments , American musicologist Sibyl Marcuse proposes that
1287-813: A fiddle would; both were prominent folk instruments in the Middle Ages. Southern Europeans played short and long lutes whose pegs extended to the sides, unlike the rear-facing pegs of Central and Northern European instruments. Idiophones such as bells and clappers served various practical purposes, such as warning of the approach of a leper . The ninth century revealed the first bagpipes , which spread throughout Europe and had many uses from folk instruments to military instruments. The construction of pneumatic organs evolved in Europe starting in fifth-century Spain , spreading to England in about 700. The resulting instruments varied in size and use from portable organs worn around
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#17328691674291404-540: A great relief of Amenhotep III , 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. The people of Mesopotamia preferred stringed instruments , as evidenced by their proliferation in Mesopotamian figurines, plaques, and seals. Innumerable varieties of harps are depicted, as well as lyres and lutes,
1521-426: A hardwood soundboard ( gwariva ) in three different registers—two on the left, one on the right. While playing, the little finger of the right hand is placed through a hole in the bottom right corner of the soundboard, with the little finger entering from the front of sound board, and the ring finger and middle finger reaching around the back to stabilise the instrument. This leaves the thumb and index finger of
1638-732: 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. Under their new cultural influences,
1755-460: A melody. 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. An instrument that can be attested to the Iron Age Celts
1872-466: A mixture of timbres, a development needed for the complexity of music of the time. Trumpets evolved into their modern form to improve portability, and players used mutes to properly blend into chamber music . Beginning in the seventeenth century, composers began writing works to a higher emotional degree. They felt that polyphony better suited the emotional style they were aiming for and began writing musical parts for instruments that would complement
1989-632: A musical instrument by interacting with it in some way — for example, by plucking the strings on a string instrument , striking the surface of a drum , or blowing into an animal horn. Researchers have discovered archaeological evidence of musical instruments in many parts of the world. One disputed artifact (the Divje Babe flute ) has been dated to 67,000 years old, but consensus solidifies around artifacts dated back to around 37,000 years old and later. Artifacts made from durable materials, or constructed using durable methods, have been found to survive. As such,
2106-690: A musical instrument, is a simple flute , dated back 50,000–60,000 years. Many scholars date early flutes to about 40,000 years ago. Many historians believe that determining the specific date of musical instrument invention is impossible, as the majority of early musical instruments were constructed of animal skins, bone, wood, and other non-durable, bio-degradable materials. Additionally, some have proposed that lithophones , or stones used to make musical sounds—like those found at Sankarjang in India—are examples of prehistoric musical instruments. Musical instruments developed independently in many populated regions of
2223-505: A rich complex of overtones that varies from one instrument to another depending on its maker's intentions and accidents of fabrication, such that some instruments simply sound better when some notes of a familiar tuning are pushed. With the increased popularity of the mbira dzavadzimu in North America, Europe, and Japan in recent decades, Zimbabwean mbira makers have tended to tune their instruments more uniformly for export, but much variation
2340-403: A role in southeast African Music . They were reported as early as the 16th century, but there is no doubt they have a much longer history. The Caribbean marímbula is also of this family. The marímbula can be seen as a bass variant of the mbira and is sometimes used in hip hop music . In most cases the tongues are divided in two playing halves with the lowest notes in the centre; from there to
2457-619: A similar tradition and Yuri Landman has made 12-TET bass kalimbas and metal tongue drums . Schaeffner's musical instrument classification scheme has a post-prominent place for the linguaphones (lamellophones) at the second highest level of classification. In 1932, Andre Schaeffner developed a new classification scheme that was "exhaustive, potentially covering all real and conceivable instruments" [Kartomi, p. 176]. Schaeffner's system has only two top-level categories denoted by Roman numerals (Schaeffner, A.: Origine des instruments de musique , pp. 371–377.): The lamellae vibrate within
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#17328691674292574-608: A unique system of classifying their musical instruments according to their material makeup. In Vietnam, an archaeological discovery of a 2,000-year old stringed instrument gives important insights on early chordophones in Southeast Asia. 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,
2691-666: 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. 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
2808-427: Is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds . In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who plays a musical instrument is known as an instrumentalist . The history of musical instruments dates to the beginnings of human culture. Early musical instruments may have been used for rituals, such as
2925-430: Is a lamellophone with an alternate tine configuration. It is electrified by the addition of a 2-channel stereo piezo cable pickup system. A special solid-body Array mbira exists. Ernst Zacharias created a series of electric lamellophones created in the 1960s for Hohner . These instruments were based on the reeds made by Hohner (already employed in accordions, concertinas, melodicas and harmonicas). These instruments were
3042-434: Is a member of the family of musical instruments that makes its sound by a thin vibrating plate called a lamella or tongue, which is fixed at one end and has the other end free. When the musician depresses the free end of a plate with a finger or fingernail, and then allows the finger to slip off, the released plate vibrates. An instrument may have a single tongue (such as a Jew's harp ) or a series of multiple tongues (such as
3159-476: Is a popular tuning, sold by multiple manufacturers. Other alternative tunings move the kalimba to non-modal scales (such as Middle-Eastern scales). Each note of the kalimba can be tuned independently (unlike a guitar), so any scale, western or non-western, is possible, and traditional African scales are still accessible to this modern African instrument. Composer Georg Hajdu has tuned the Hugh Tracey alto kalimba to
3276-565: Is also not 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. Beyond 1400, one can follow the overall development of musical instruments over time. 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
3393-635: 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. 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
3510-417: Is based on cross-rhythm . An example from the kutsinhira part of the traditional mbira dzavadzimu piece "Nhema Musasa" is given by David Peñalosa, who observes that the left hand plays the ostinato "bass line," while the right hand plays the upper melody. The composite melody is an embellishment of the 3:2 cross-rhythm (also known as a hemiola ). It is common on African mbira and other lamellophones to have
3627-435: Is misleading to arrange the development of musical instruments by workmanship, since cultures advance at different rates and have access to different raw materials. For example, 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" . Ordering instruments by geography
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3744-401: 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. German musicologist Curt Sachs , one of the most prominent musicologists and musical ethnologists in modern times, argues that it
3861-426: Is similar in construction to the mbira dzavadzimu, but has no hole in the soundboard. Key pitch radiates out from the center, rather than from left to right. Zimbabwe's Dumisani Maraire originated mbira nyunga nyunga number notation. The upper row keys (from left) are keys 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14 while the bottom row keys are notated as 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15. Maraire brought awareness of this instrument to
3978-465: Is still found among mbira in their homeland. Tunings vary from family to family referring to relative interval relationships and not to absolute pitches. The most common tuning played throughout Zimbabwe and among non-Zimbabwean mbira players worldwide is Nyamaropa, similar to the western Mixolydian mode . Names may also vary between different families; Garikayi Tirikoti has developed a "mbira orchestra" that has seven different tunings, each starting on
4095-424: Is the carnyx , which is dated to c. 300 BC. The end of the bell, which was crafted from bronze, was into the shape of a screaming animal head which was held high above their heads. When blown into, the carnyx would emit a deep, harsh sound; the head also had a tongue which clicked when vibrated. It is believed the intention of the instrument was to use it on the battleground to intimidate their opponents. During
4212-475: Is used to make musical 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. Primitive instruments were probably designed to emulate natural sounds , and their purpose was ritual rather than entertainment. The concept of melody and the artistic pursuit of musical composition were probably unknown to early players of musical instruments. A person sounding
4329-447: Is very significant in Shona religion and culture , considered a sacred instrument by the Shona people. It is usually played to facilitate communication with ancestral spirits, bringing the spirit of the dead back on its homestead. Within the Shona tradition, the mbira may be played with paired performers in which the kushaura , the caller, leads the performed piece as the kutsinhira ,
4446-547: The Alboka (from Arab, al-buq or "horn") nowadays only alive in Basque Country . It must be played using the technique of the circular breathing. Southeast Asian musical innovations include those during a period of Indian influence that ended around 920 AD. Balinese and Javanese music made use of xylophones and metallophones , bronze versions of the former. The most prominent and important musical instrument of Southeast Asia
4563-572: The Bible and the Talmud . The Hebrew texts mention two prominent instruments associated with Jubal : the ugab (pipes) and kinnor (lyre). Other instruments of the period included the tof ( frame drum ), pa'amon (small bells or jingles), shofar , and the trumpet-like hasosra . The introduction of a monarchy in Israel during the 11th century BC produced the first professional musicians and with them
4680-570: 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. 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. Humans eventually developed the concept of using musical instruments to produce melody , which
4797-524: The Han dynasty . 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
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4914-487: The Jiahu site of central Henan province of China have found flutes made of bones that date back 7,000 to 9,000 years, representing some of the "earliest complete, playable, tightly-dated, multinote musical instruments" ever found. 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
5031-895: The Pianet (plucked by a foam pad), the Cembalet (plucked by a rubber pad) and the Guitaret (plucked by fingers). The idea of a struck reed tongue had been pioneered by the Alexandre brothers in their "Orgues expressifs" ( harmoniums ) in the 19th century, where they were called percussion stops. The Space Harp , or Frankiphone (designed, built and played by Phil Cohran ), is a famous instance of an electric lamellophone. A range of other mbiras and kalimbas have been created by contemporary instrument makers. The African band Konono No.1 uses custom-built electric kalimbas with electro-magnetic pickups. Neptune 's Jason Sanford makes electric thumb pianos from scrap in
5148-615: The Royal Cemetery in the Sumerian city of Ur . These instruments, one of the first ensembles of instruments yet discovered, include nine lyres (the Lyres of Ur ), two harps , a silver double flute , a sistrum and cymbals . A set of reed-sounded silver pipes discovered in Ur was the likely predecessor of modern bagpipes . The cylindrical pipes feature three side holes that allowed players to produce
5265-514: The Zambezi River valley around 1,300 years ago. Metal-tined instruments traveled all across the continent, becoming popular among the Shona of Zimbabwe (from which the word mbira comes) and other indigenous groups in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The mbira was differentiated in its physical form and social uses as it spread. Kalimba-like instruments came to exist from the northern reaches of North Africa to
5382-480: The ground harp , ground zither , musical bow , and jaw harp . Recent research into usage wear and acoustics of stone artefacts has revealed a possible new class of prehistoric musical instrument, known as lithophones . 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
5499-402: The indigenous peoples of Siberia play wooden and metallic lamellophones with a single tongue. Lamellophones may be made with or without resonators . There are also electric lamellophones with an additional pickup . Electric lamellophones have been electrified with an electro-magnetic pickup (like on electric guitars) or contact piezo pickup . There is a distinct difference between
5616-416: The overtones of a plucked lamella are inharmonic , giving the mbira a characteristic sound. The inharmonic overtones are strongest in the attack and die out rather quickly, leaving an almost pure tone. When a tine is plucked, the adjacent tines also create secondary vibrations that increase the harmonic complexity of an individual note. Mbira music, like much of the sub-Saharan African music traditions
5733-545: The post-classical era . Musical instruments such as zithers appeared in Chinese writings around 12th century BC and earlier. 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
5850-441: The theremin . 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, material composition, size, role, 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 . A musical instrument
5967-468: The urghun ( organ ), shilyani (probably a type of harp or lyre ), salandj (probably a bagpipe ) and the lyra . The Byzantine lyra, a bowed string instrument, is an ancestor of most European bowed instruments, including the violin . The monochord served as a precise measure of the notes of a musical scale, allowing more accurate musical arrangements. Mechanical hurdy-gurdies allowed single musicians to play more complicated arrangements than
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#17328691674296084-553: The "New Violin Family" began in 1964 to provide differently sized violins to expand the range of available sounds. The slowdown in development was a practical response to the concurrent slowdown in orchestra and venue size. Despite this trend in traditional instruments, the development of new musical instruments exploded in the twentieth century, and the variety of instruments developed overshadows any prior period. Lamellophones A lamellophone (also lamellaphone or linguaphone )
6201-619: 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 . Xylophones originated in the mainland and archipelago of Southeast Asia , eventually spreading to Africa, the Americas, and Europe. 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
6318-659: The American Pacific Northwest ; Ephat Mujuru , who was one of the pioneer teachers of mbira dzavadzimu in the United States ; and the writings and recordings of Zimbabwean musicians made by Paul Berliner . Joseph H. Howard and Babatunde Olatunji have both suggested that mbira (and other metal lamellaphones) are thoroughly African, being found only in areas populated by Africans or their descendants. Similar instruments were reported to be used in Okpuje, Nsukka area of
6435-587: The Maraire number notation has remained the internationally accepted system (Chirimumimba, 2007). Dutch composer Maarten Regtien (1963) uses a Mbira Nyunga Nyunga in the electronic composition Daddy Mbira - Mbira Penguin Talks (2014), creating soundscapes and using western composition techniques like the canon, impossible to play on a mbira. Njari mbira has 30 to 32 keys and was also originated from Zimbabwe particularly Masvingo and Makonde. The nhare has 23 to 24 keys and
6552-557: The Middles Ages came from Asia. The lyre is the only musical instrument that may have been invented in Europe until this period. 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. Various harps served Central and Northern Europe as far north as Ireland, where
6669-518: The United States when he came to the University of Washington as a visiting artist from 1968 to 1972. Recently a Midlands State University ( Gweru , Zimbabwe) lecturer in the department of music and musicology has suggested a letter notation; the upper keys as (from first left upper key) E, D, C, F, C, D, and E and the lower or bottom keys as (from the first lower key) A, G, F, A, F, C, D, and E. But
6786-624: 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. 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
6903-505: 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. Different regions, countries, and even instrument manufacturers preferred different standards, making orchestral collaboration
7020-482: The chromatic steps of the Bohlen–Pierce scale in a piece called Just Her – Jester – Gesture . The Bohlen–Pierce scale subdivides the just twelfth into 13 steps. Instruments related to or inspired by the mbira include: Despite its Botswanan setting, the 1980 movie The Gods Must Be Crazy features a character playing the mbira. In the 2010 video game Donkey Kong Country Returns , one of main antagonists of
7137-560: The cultural contacts seem to have dissipated; the lyre, a prominent ceremonial instrument in Sumer, did not appear in Egypt for another 800 years. 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. Little history is available in the period between 2700 BC and 1500 BC, as Egypt (and indeed, Babylon) entered
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#17328691674297254-496: The evolving class system. Popular instruments, simple and playable by anyone, evolved differently from professional instruments whose development focused on effectiveness and skill. 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
7371-484: The first bowed zithers appeared in China in the 9th or 10th century, influenced by Mongolian culture. India experienced similar development to China in the post-classical era; 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
7488-464: 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 term "musical instrument" is subjective and hard to define. Among the first devices external to the human body that are considered instruments are rattles , stampers, and various drums . These instruments evolved due to
7605-454: The first such book was Sebastian Virdung 's 1511 treatise Musica getuscht und ausgezogen ('Music Germanized and Abstracted'). 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 ('Mirror of Organ Makers and Organ Players')
7722-526: The following year, a treatise on organ building and organ playing. 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. In
7839-457: The forerunner of modern stringed instruments such as the violin . 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. However, by 2700 BC
7956-483: The form of a frame (121) and those that are in the form of a comb (122). According to Sachs , The most usual [of plucked idiophones] is a flexible lamella or tongue attached to a frame, plucked by a finger and resonated by a small box. A large number of lamellophones originate in Africa , where they are known under different names including mbira , kisanji , likembe , kalimba , kongoma , and sanza . They play
8073-412: The game is named Krazy Kalimba. Being a member of the musical instrument-themed Tiki Tak Tribe, his design features a "crown" evoking the keys of a kalimba, and he plays kalimba music as part of his hypnotic chant used to make various animals do his bidding. On May 21, 2020, as part of Zimbabwe Culture Week, Google honoured the mbira with a doodle which included a button allowing users to hear and play
8190-402: The gods. 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. Romans played reed instruments named tibia , featuring side-holes that could be opened or closed, allowing for greater flexibility in playing modes. Other instruments in common use in
8307-480: The harp eventually became a national symbol. Lyres propagated through the same areas, as far east as Estonia . European music between 800 and 1100 became more sophisticated, more frequently requiring instruments capable of polyphony . The 9th-century Persian geographer Ibn Khordadbeh mentioned in his lexicographical discussion of music instruments that, in the Byzantine Empire , typical instruments included
8424-630: The human motor impulse to add sound to emotional movements such as dancing. Eventually, some cultures assigned ritual functions to their musical instruments, using them for hunting and various ceremonies. 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 resemblance to modern instruments. Among early cultures for whom drums developed ritual, even sacred importance are
8541-600: The instrument virtually. The doodle also featured the animated story of a young girl who learns to play the mbira, later inspiring a new generation of mbira players after becoming an established artiste herself as an adult. Archived Link - Mbira.co.zw , "A community of mbira players, researchers, makers & lovers, for the enhancement of the Mbira, music & fashion. Mbira Transfiguration & Permanence", based in Harare , Zimbabwe Musical instrument A musical instrument
8658-434: The kalimba. The practicality of this note arrangement, with notes going up the scale in a right-left-right-left progression, is that modal 1-3-5 or 1-3-5-7 chords are made by playing adjacent tines. If chords are played in the lower octave, the same notes will appear on the opposite side of the kalimba in the upper octave, which makes it very easy to simultaneously play a melody in the upper octave and an accompanying harmony in
8775-574: 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. The polyphonic style dominated popular music, and the instrument makers responded accordingly. 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;
8892-443: The latter of which has been excavated and preserved by archaeologists. The Zhou dynasty saw percussion instruments such as clappers , troughs, wooden fish , and yǔ (wooden tiger). Wind instruments such as flute, pan-pipes , pitch-pipes , and mouth organs also appeared in this time period. The xiao (an end-blown flute ) and various other instruments that spread through many cultures, came into use in China during and after
9009-617: The left and to the right each tongue is tuned higher than the previous one. The tongues may also be arranged in a linear arrangement in the manner of a piano . Tongues may be made small enough to play with individual fingers, hence the colloquial name "thumb piano". (Although some instruments, like the Mbira , have an additional rows of tongues, in which case not just the thumbs are used for plucking.) Some conjecture that African lamellophones were derived from xylophones and marimbas . However, similar instruments have been found elsewhere; for example,
9126-458: The left index finger. Bottle caps , shells , or other objects (" machachara ") are often affixed to the soundboard to create a buzzing sound when the instrument is played. In a traditional setting, this sound is considered extremely important, as it is believed to attract ancestral spirits . During a public performance, an mbira dzavadzimu is frequently placed in a deze ( calabash resonator) to amplify its sound. The mbira dza vadzimu
9243-428: The lower octave. So, the arrangement of notes on the Hugh Tracey kalimba (and on virtually any kalimba that copies the instrument) makes certain complex musical operations very simple. Alternative tunings are possible, as the tines of most kalimbas are easily pushed in and out to sharpen or flatten their pitch. Some alternative tunings simply change the key of the kalimba, without changing the note layout scheme. C major
9360-427: The lowest notes in the center and the upper notes on the left and the right, with the notes in the ascending scale alternating strictly right-left and going outwards towards the two sides. The diatonic western kalimba tuning which Tracey used was practical for a worldwide instrument—with hundreds of African kalimba tunings, the chosen Western standard would maximise the number of people who would immediately connect with
9477-497: The lowest notes in the centre with higher notes to the far left and the far right—this is an ergonomic nicety, in that the thumb can pivot such that all the tines are easy to reach. However, traditional African tunings use notes that do not lie on the grid of the Western tempered scale , and traditional mbira note layouts are often idiosyncratic, sometimes with adjacent tines making part of a scale, but then an odd note thrown in that defies
9594-563: The mbira dzavadzimu ( "voice of the ancestors" , or "mbira of the ancestral spirits ", national instrument of Zimbabwe) is a musical instrument that has been played by the Shona people of Zimbabwe for thousands of years. The mbira dzavadzimu is frequently played at religious ceremonies and social gatherings called mapira (sing. " bira "). The mbira dzavadzimu can be used to play over one hundred songs, such as Kariga mombe . A typical mbira dzavadzimu consists of between 22 and 28 keys constructed from hot- or cold- forged metal affixed to
9711-637: The mbira family of instruments. The kalimba is basically a westernised younger version of mbira. It was popularized in the 1960s and early 1970s largely due to the successes of such musicians as Maurice White of the band Earth, Wind and Fire and Thomas Mapfumo in the 1970s. These musicians included mbira on stage accompanying modern rock instruments such as electric guitar and bass, drum kit, and horns. Their arrangements included numerous songs directly drawn from traditional mbira repertoire. Other notable influencers bringing mbira music out of Africa are: Dumisani Maraire , who brought marimba and karimba music to
9828-402: The mid 1950s mbira instruments were the basis for the development of the kalimba , a westernised version designed and marketed by the ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey, leading to a great expansion of its distribution outside Africa. Lamellophones are instruments which have little tines, or "lamellae", which are played by plucking. Unlike stringed instruments or air-column instruments like flutes,
9945-483: The modern horn or, more colloquially, French horn, had emerged by 1725. 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. Organs underwent tonal changes in the Baroque period, as manufacturers such as Abraham Jordan of London made
10062-458: The most profound changes occurred during the Renaissance period. 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. In
10179-400: 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. Various lutes, zithers, dulcimers , and harps spread as far as Madagascar to the south and modern-day Sulawesi to the east. Despite the influences of Greece and Rome, most musical instruments in Europe during
10296-516: The neck to large pipe organs. 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. Reed players of the Middle Ages were limited to oboes ; no evidence of clarinets exists during this period. Musical instrument development was dominated by the Occident from 1400 on, indeed,
10413-504: The nevel must be similar to vertical harp due to its relation to nabla , the Phoenician term for "harp". 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. Lyres were the principal instrument, as musicians used them to honor
10530-538: The oldest known musical instrument and the only Neanderthal musical instrument. Mammoth bone and swan bone flutes have been found dating back to 30,000 to 37,000 years old in the Swabian Alps of Germany. The flutes were made in the Upper Paleolithic age, and are more commonly accepted as being the oldest known musical instruments. Archaeological evidence of musical instruments was discovered in excavations at
10647-420: The pattern. Historically, mbira tunings have not mapped exactly onto Western scales; it is not unusual for a seven-note sequence on a mbira to be " stretched " over a greater range of frequencies than a Western octave and for the intervals between notes to be different from those in a Western scale. Tunings have often been idiosyncratic with variations over time and from one player to another. A mbira key produces
10764-533: The people of the New Kingdom began using oboes , trumpets, lyres , lutes , castanets , and cymbals . Unlike 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
10881-766: The period of time loosely referred to as the post-classical era and Europe in particular 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. Cymbals gained popularity, along with more advanced trumpets, clarinets, pianos, oboes, flutes, drums, and lutes. Some of
10998-489: The piezo and the electro-magnetic pickup. Most electric lamellophones feature piezo pickups. The piezo sound contains more treble and has more problems with feedback when amplified ( distorted ) heavily. Lucinda Ellison produces a wide range of her Embiras, which are solid body electric mbiras with piezo pickups — a design first conceived in 1981 and finalised in 1996. David Bellinger has been making ekalimbas - kalimbas with piezo pickups - for 20 years. The Array Mbira
11115-512: The present day, although "modern" Kalimbas now exist in Brazil. In Cuba African lamellophones along with the Cajón influenced the origins of the marimbula, whose history is poorly documented but is suspected to have originated in eastern Cuba. The Hugh Tracey kalimbas are tuned diatonically in the key of G. The arrangement of the notes on the Hugh Tracey kalimba borrows from the typical scheme with
11232-426: 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. Although Sumerian and Babylonian artists mainly depicted ceremonial instruments, historians have distinguished six idiophones used in early Mesopotamia: concussion clubs, clappers, sistra , bells, cymbals, and rattles. Sistra are depicted prominently in
11349-507: 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. 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
11466-557: The responder, "interlocks" a subsequent part. The ritual is known as the Bira. During these all-night ceremonies, people call upon the spirits to answer questions. The variations of notes in an Mbira piece aid the participants in going into trance, which in Shona culture aids the spirits in taking over the participant's body. Albert Chimedza , director of the Mbira Centre in Harare , has estimated that "there are at most ten thousand people in
11583-408: The right hand open to stroke the keys in the right register from above (thumb) and below (index finger). The fingers of the left hand stabilise the left side of the instrument, with most fingers reaching slightly behind the instrument. Both registers on the left side of the instrument are played with the left thumb. Some mbira possess an extra key in the upper left register which is hit from below by
11700-468: The rising popularity of the guitar. 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. In the mid-seventeenth century, what was known as a hunter's horn underwent a transformation into an "art instrument" consisting of a lengthened tube, a narrower bore, a wider bell, and a much wider range. The details of this transformation are unclear, but
11817-405: The scores. Trumpets traditionally had a "defective" range—they were incapable of producing certain notes with precision. 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. Accompanying
11934-399: The singing human voice. 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. Bowed instruments such as the violin , viola , baryton , and various lutes dominated popular music. Beginning in around 1750, however, the lute disappeared from musical compositions in favor of
12051-421: 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. It
12168-692: 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 post-classical era. The emphasis on rhythm is an aspect native to Indian music. Historians divide the development of musical instruments in medieval India between pre-Islamic and Islamic periods due to the different influence each period provided. In pre-Islamic times, idiophones such as handbells , cymbals, and peculiar instruments resembling gongs came into wide use in Hindu music. The gong-like instrument
12285-554: The south eastern part of Nigeria in the early 1900s. Various kinds of plucked idiophones and lamellaphones have existed in Africa for thousands of years. The tines were originally made of bamboo but over the years metal keys have been developed. These types of instrument appear to have been invented twice in Africa: a wood or bamboo-tined instrument appeared on the west coast of Africa about 3,000 years ago, and metal-tined lamellophones appeared in
12402-469: The southern extent of the Kalahari Desert , and from the east coast to the west coast, though many or most groups of people in Africa did not possess mbiras. There were thousands of different tunings, different note layouts, and different instrument designs, but there is a hypothetical tuning and note layout of the original metal-tined instrument from 1,300 years ago, referred to as the 'kalimba core'. In
12519-465: The specimens found cannot be irrefutably placed as the earliest musical instruments. The Divje Babe Flute is a perforated bone discovered in 1995, in the northwest region of Slovenia by archaeologist Ivan Turk. Its origin is disputed, with many arguing that it is most likely the product of carnivores chewing the bone, but Turk and others argue that it is a Neanderthal -made flute. With its age estimated between 43,400 and 67,000 years old, it would be
12636-501: The stops more expressive and added devices such as expressive pedals. Sachs viewed this trend as a "degeneration" of the general organ sound. During the Classical and Romantic periods of music, lasting from roughly 1750 to 1900, many 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
12753-536: The world who play mbira." The nyunga nyunga which normally has 15 keys, originated from Manicaland where it traditionally played the entertainment role during social gatherings and commemorations. Jeke (Jack) Tapera introduced the mbira nyunga nyunga in the 1960s from Tete province of Mozambique to Kwanongoma College of African music (now United College of Music) in Bulawayo. Two keys were then added to make fifteen (Chirimumimba, 2007), in two rows. The mbira nyunga nyunga
12870-502: The world. However, contact among civilizations caused rapid spread and adaptation of most instruments in places far from their origin. By the post-classical era , instruments from Mesopotamia were in maritime Southeast Asia , and Europeans played instruments originating 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
12987-546: Was a bronze disk that was struck with a hammer instead of a mallet. Tubular drums, stick zithers ( veena ), short fiddles, double and triple flutes, coiled trumpets, and curved India horns emerged in this time period. Islamic influences brought new types of drum, perfectly circular or octagonal as opposed to the irregular pre-Islamic drums. Persian influence brought oboes and sitars , although Persian sitars had three strings and Indian version had from four to seven. The Islamic culture also introduced double- clarinet instruments as
13104-563: Was added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2020. A modern interpretation of the instrument, the kalimba , was commercially produced and exported by ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey in the late 1950s, popularising similar instruments outside of Africa. Tracey's design was modelled after the mbira nyunga nyunga and named ''Kalimba'' after an ancient predecessor of
13221-409: Was dominated by the Occident . During the Classical and Romantic periods of music, lasting from roughly 1750 to 1900, many new musical instruments were developed. While the evolution of traditional musical instruments slowed beginning in the 20th century, the proliferation of electricity led to the invention of new electric and electronic instruments, such as electric guitars , synthesizers , and
13338-455: 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. 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
13455-496: Was originated from Zimbabwe. In the Zimbabwean tradition, nhare was used for rituals of communicating with Musikavanhu or Nyadenga (God). Mbira matepe which has 26 keys originated from along the borders of Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The first documentation of Kalimbas in Brazil dates back to 1723 where they are referred to as marimbas (not to be confused with marimbas ). They seem to have faded into obscurity as they didn't make it to
13572-513: Was previously 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 them with gender;
13689-571: 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 . 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. Frame drums and cylindrical drums of various depths were immensely important in all genres of music. Conical oboes were involved in
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