Annex: Classification of musical instruments

Throughout history, various systems have been used to classify musical instruments. The most widely used system divides the instruments into string instruments, wind instruments and percussion instruments. However, they were devised after the classifications.

Classification systems

The oldest musical instrument scheme was created in China and dates from the 4th century BC. C. Said scheme groups the instruments according to how they are built. An example of this classification system is instruments made of wood and those made of earth, which are in the same group.

Some time later, an anonymous treaty called Chou-Li (Chou Program) was created, this approximately in the 2nd century BC. C.. In said treaty the following order was given to the classification of the instruments: metal, stone, clay, leather, silk, wood, gourd and bamboo. In the same way, Tso Chiu-Ming, presented the same order in the IV century BC. C.

Much later, during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), Prince Chu Tsai Yu recognized three groups: instruments that use muscular force or are used for musical accompaniment, those that are blown, and those that are rhythmic. The scheme created by Chu Tsai Yu was probably the first of an academic type. The above schematics are just traditional, folklore taxonomies.

Chordophones, aerophones, idiophones, membranophones and electrophones

The system that classifies instruments as wind, string, and percussion, used in the XXI century in the West, dates from ancient Greece. Later, this classification was expanded by Martin Agricola, who distinguished plucked string instruments, such as the guitar, from bowed string instruments, such as the violin. Today, academic music does not always maintain that division (although plucked instruments are distinguished from bowed strings in sheet music), but there is a distinction between wind instruments with one reed (woodwinds) and wind instruments in general, where the air is set in motion directly over the lips (Wind Instrument).

This classical classification is applied in the context of the symphony orchestra, both in terms of orchestration and musical analysis, as well as conducting. The mutual assignment between both classifications is as follows:

• The string instruments are all cordophones.
• Wind instruments are all aerophones.
• Percussion instruments are distributed among the membranophone and idiophone groups.
• The keyboard instruments can be laces, aerophones, idiosphones or electrophones.
• The only electrophone admitted as part of the symphonic orchestra are the Ondas Martenot.

In the same context, the usual subdivision of wind instruments is established between the following groups: that of Wooden Instruments, which regardless of the material they are made of includes bevel aerophones (flutes), reed aerophones simple (clarinets), double reed (oboes) and free reed (accordion), and the group of Brass Instruments, which includes mouthpiece aerophones.

Outside the context of the symphony orchestra we can see that formal music studies (eg in conservatories) include instruments outside the orchestra such as the guitar (a chordophone) or the saxophone (a single reed aerophone).

However, there are problems with this system. It has sometimes been seen that non-Western instruments do not adequately fit such a classification. For example, an ancient instrument named serpentine should be classified as a wind instrument, since it is an instrument that is started by the lips and produces its sound by passing air through a column. There are also problems with the classification of certain keyboard instruments. For example, the piano has strings that are struck by hammers. This mechanism creates confusion as to whether it should be classified as a string instrument or as a percussion instrument. For this reason, keyboard instruments are often considered to be in a category of their own. By looking at the categories of this instrument classification system, a classification based mainly on the technique required to play an instrument is obtained.

Mahillon and Hornbostel-Sachs systems

An ancient system of Indian origin, dating to at least the first century BC, divides instruments into four main classification groups: instruments where sound is produced by vibration of strings, where sound is produced by sound by the vibration of air columns, percussion instruments made of wood or metal, and percussion instruments with skin heads, or membranes. Later, Victor-Charles Mahillon adopted a system very similar to this. He was the curator of the collection of musical instruments at the Brussels Conservatory, and by 1888 he cataloged the collection divided into four groups of instruments: strings, winds, percussion, and other types of percussion instruments. It was thanks to the system created by Mahillon that Erich von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs published an extensive program of new classifications in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie (Journal of Social Anthropology), this in the year 1914. This last system is used today. The system is commonly known as the Hornbostel-Sachs (or Sachs Hornbostel system).

The original Sachs-Hornbostel instrument classification system is divided into four main groups, which are given by the vibrating element that produces the sound:

• Aerophones, such as tube organ or oboe. The vibrant element is an air column.
• Cordophones, such as piano or cello. Its sound occurs through the pulsation of one or more strings.
• Idiophones, like the xylophone. The instrument vibrates in its entirety.
• Membranophones, such as battery or kazoo. The vibrant element is a tense membrane (also called patch) made of synthetic skin or skin.

Later, Curt Sachs added a fifth category, electrophones, such as the Theremin, which produce sound by electronic means. Within each category there are many subgroups. The system has been criticized and revised in recent years, but is still widely used by ethnomusicologists and organologists.

THE PAPUO

String and percussion instruments are more similar to each other than to any other instrument. In fact, the existence of the piano calls into question the limit between the strings and the percussion. In both string and percussion instruments, sound is produced by matter in a solid state (strings, membranes), while wind instruments produce sound by matter in a gaseous state (air).

In 1932, Andre Schaeffner developed a new classification system that was "exhaustive, encompassing all actual and potentially conceivable instruments".

• See Article in English

By range of instruments

Western instruments are usually also classified by their musical range compared to other instruments in the same family. These terms are named after the voice classifications:

• Soprano instruments: flute, clarinet, sweet flute, violin, trumpet, oboe, soprano saxophone.
• High instruments: high flute, viola, tube, high saxophone.
• Tenor instruments: English corn, trombone, saxophone.
• Baritone instruments: cello, low clarinet, fagot, baritone saxophone.
• Low instruments: bass, tuba, counter bass saxophone.

Some instruments fall into more than one category. For example, the cello can be considered tenor or bass, depending on how its music fits into the ensemble. In the same way, the trombone can be alto, tenor or bass and the French horn can be bass, baritone, tenor or alto depending on the range in which it is played.

Many instruments indicate their area of distribution with part of their name. Some examples of this are the alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, baritone euphonium, alto flute, flute, bass, among others. Adjectives describe instruments above the soprano register or below the lowest register, for example: sopranino saxophone, contrabass clarinet.

These terms are relative when used in the name of an instrument, which describes the range of the instrument in comparison to other instruments in its family, and not in comparison to the range of the human voice or instruments in other families. For example, the range of a bass flute is C₃ to F♯₆, while a bass clarinet plays about an octave lower.

Other classifications

Instruments are sometimes classified according to the materials they are made of. For example, percussion instruments made of metal are also called metallophones. In the same way, stone instruments are called lithophones. Another example is wind instruments made of brass, which are called brass instruments.

On the other hand, instruments can also be classified according to the method of their construction rather than their materials. For example, lamellophones are instruments that produce sound by "plucking" of his "lamellae" or reed-shaped strips of metal, wood, bamboo or attaching to a sound board or resonator.

Under the Hornbostel-Sachs classification of musical instruments, lamellophones are considered to be pulsed idiophones, a category that includes various forms of jawed harp and European mechanical music boxes, as well as a wide variety of African thumb pianos and Afro-Latinos, like the mbira and the marimbula. These instruments are indigenous to the African continent. They are characterized by their unique sound quality, produced by the pulsation of their "laminas", tongues or metal strips, fixed to one edge on a resonance box made of wood. Commonly called: Mbira, Mbila, Kalimba, Karimba, Agidigbo, Sansa, Zanza, Kankowele, Likembe, and many other names based on their cultural affiliation, these instruments are a unique contribution to the world of music.