Classification of Musical Instruments

1
Classification of Musical Instruments

• Why is it important?
• Because it gives unique information on musical
  and cultural practices..
• They are tangible. Collected for centuries
  before sound recordings.
• A self-contained area within Ethnomusicology
  separate from playing of instruments

2
Why is it so important?

• Classifications serve the purpose of enabling
  members of a culture to recognise fundamental
  musical, social, and other relations between the
  instruments and to formulate new myths or
  theories.
• Gender often plays a big role and instrument
  classification give all sorts of insights into
  musical traditions.

3
Early Systems

• Ancient Chinese based on material gourd,
  skin, bamboo, wood, stone, metal, clay, silk.
• Pre-1880s European back to the Greeks and
  separation into wind and string. Then added
  percussion with Virdung 1511, Agricola 1523,
  Praetorius 1619, Mersenne 1630.

4
1880s and the Brussels Conservatiore

• Victor Charles Mahillon advocated a system based
  on materials made to sound in the first instance.
  Chordophones, Membraphones, Aerophones,
  Autophones (latter changed to Idiophones).
• Ideas taken up and developed by Sachs and Von
  Hornborstal.

5
Hornborstal Sachs System

• Mahaillons ideas added to the Dewey decimal
  system used by libraries.
• Each of the 4 (now 5 with electrophones) major
  areas have sub areas based on the way they are
  made to sound . E.g. Aerophones divide into 6
  major categories Single Reed, Double Reed, Edge
  (whistle), Free Reed, Free Aerophones, Blow Hole
  Strings divide into Zithers, Lutes, Lyres, Harps.
  
• The Dewey system allows new categories to be
  made. 1 idiophones, 11 struck idiophones,
  111 struck idiophones hit directly. A piano is
  314.122-6-8

6
Problems with H/S

• Observant imposed not culture emergent.
• Not logical lots of instruments fall into
  several major categories, ignored acoustical
  properties.
• Ignores the folk view

7
Proposed Systems since 1914

• Shaeffner 1932 system was based on medium gas,
  solids (tensil, non-tensil, flexible) Galpins
  system, Hoods based on Labannotation.
• Ethno-theories aurally transmitted, natural and
  indigenous.
• Systems based on taxonomies and paradigms that
  are logical and symmetrical and which are
  specific to a culture

8
Ethno Theories indigenous taxonomies

• Downward/upward
• Based on numbers of levels/steps
• Symmetry
• Paradigms/mandola chinese, indian, javanese
• E.g. the Areare culture of Pacific based on
  solo/ensemble capacity to play a melody
  (equihephatonic, seconds or thirds degree of
  magic blown or beaten, all expressed in bamboo
  morphology can be put together in a tree
  diagram or imperfect paradigm.