Stringed instruments, or chordophones, are those in which sound is generated from a vibrating string held in tension. They form the backbone of almost every substantial musical culture, probably because of the ease with which they can be tuned, their clarity of pitch and their great adaptability. There are three types of stringed instrument, defined by the method of sound production: bowed, plucked and struck. Strings Gut strings have been used for ...
The banjo is a plucked stringed instrument with a circular body and fretted neck. Its roots lie in the French and British colonies of Africa, where instruments made from a hollowed-out gourd covered with animal skin, bamboo neck and catgut strings were popular. Particularly associated with celebrations and dancing, these instruments went by various names including banza and banjer. Similar instruments also existed in South Africa which were possibly adaptations of ...
Nordic bowed lyres, known in Finland as jouhikko, in Estonia hiiu-kannel and Sweden as stråkharpa, comprise a more or less rectangular soundbox, across which run three or sometimes four horsehair strings. These pass from a tailpiece across a bridge resting on the soundboard to tuning pegs on a flat extension of the body. This extended section has an aperture that allows access from behind for the player’s left hand to one, ...
The history of musical instruments has always been very closely linked to the history of music itself. New musical styles often come about because new instruments become available, or improvements to existing ones are made. Improvements to the design of the piano in the 1770s, for instance, led to its adoption by composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–91), who quickly developed a new, individual style of keyboard writing. On the ...
During the 1830s, Mexican cattle-herders introduced the guitar to Hawaiians, who quickly incorporated it into their own music-making, typically tuning all the strings to the notes of a major triad. Joseph Kekuku is credited with developing a technique of using a comb to slide up and down the neck to create glissandi. Clearly this was difficult to achieve holding the guitar in a conventional manner, so instead it was laid ...
Fiddles, generically, are bowed lutes. The term ‘fiddle’ denotes a stringed instrument with a neck, bearing strings that are sounded by the use of friction rather than plucking or striking. Playing the Fiddle In almost all fiddles the world over, friction is provided by a bow strung with rosined horsehair. The hair is tensioned by the springiness of the bow, or held in tension by the fingers of the player, or by ...
The guitar is a plucked stringed instrument played resting on the lap. Although it has a long history – thought by many to reach as far back as the ancient Greek lyre known as the kithara – it is best-known today in the design of the Spanish guitar-maker Antonio de Torres Jurado (1817–92). The modern or classical guitar developed from the short-necked lutes that appeared in central Asia during the ...
The harp is clearly recognizable from its triangular shape, consisting of the resonator and neck. The strings in all harps run perpendicular to the resonator. In many cases a supporting arm, known as a forepillar, runs from the end of the neck to the resonator to help sustain the strings’ tension. Early Harps Although the earliest known use of the term ‘harp’ was in AD 600 by the Bishop of Poitiers, Venantius ...
Sweden’s nyckelharpa, now experiencing a boom in skilled players and makers, is known to have existed in the fourteenth century. Its soundbox is a slightly waisted boat-shape, the prow extending to a short, thick neck, covered by a mechanism containing one or more rows of gravity-returned sliding wooden bars, pressed with the fingers of the left hand while the right hand wields a short bow. Each bar bears one or more ...
The word ‘lute’ is the collective term for a category of instruments defined as ‘any chordophone having a neck that serves as string bearer, with the plane of the strings running parallel to that of the soundboard’. In other words, the lute is a soundbox with a neck sticking out. The strings of some are plucked, some are bowed. The Western Lute The lute family consists of a large group of stringed ...
The lyre has a distinguished history. It was the instrument used by the Greeks to accompany plays and recitations. Greek mythology tells us that the lyre was created by Hermes, the son of Zeus, from a tortoise shell. Singing to the accompaniment of the lyre was thought to promote a sense of justice. Construction The lyre is formed of a soundbox, to which are attached two arms that run parallel to ...
The mandolin is a small, teardrop shaped, plucked stringed instrument. Its most famous form is the Neopolitan mandolin, beloved of all romantics for its use on Venetian gondolas. It is descended from the lute and, since its rejuvenation in the nineteenth century, has remained a popular and versatile instrument. Mandola The mandolin developed from the Italian mandola. The mandola and its French equivalent, the mandore (not to be confused with the mandora: ...
Acoustic Guitar Throughout its history, the guitar has – perhaps more than any other instrument – managed to bridge the gap between the often disconnected worlds of classical, folk and popular music. Its roots go back to Babylonian times; by the 1500s it was prevalent in Spain, and is still sometimes called the Spanish guitar. Medieval versions – like the lute – sometimes sported rounded backs and paired strings: the 12-string guitar ...
The ukulele is a fretted stringed instrument that looks like a four-stringed guitar. It is most commonly associated with Hawaii, where its name translates as ‘leaping flea’, but there are no other string instruments native to Hawaii and the ukulele in fact has its roots in Portugal. Origins of the Ukulele Three Portuguese instrument makers arrived in Hawaii in 1879, bringing with them native instruments including the cavaquinho, on which the ukulele ...
One of the most popular instruments in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the viol, or viola da gamba, developed alongside the violin family. It has been central to the development of western art music. It is thought that the viol developed from the vihuela, a Spanish guitar-like instrument. At some point a bow was used with the vihuela instead of it being plucked. This necessitated turning the instrument around so ...
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