String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner.
Hornbostel–Sachs or Sachs–Hornbostel is a system of musical instrument classification devised by Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs, and first published in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie in 1914. An English translation was published in the Galpin Society Journal in 1961. It is the most widely used system for classifying musical instruments by ethnomusicologists and organologists. The system was updated in 2011 as part of the work of the Musical Instrument Museums Online (MIMO) Project.
The musical bow is a simple string instrument used by a number of South African peoples, which is also found in the Americas via slave trade. It consists of a flexible, usually wooden, stick 1.5 to 10 feet long, and strung end to end with a taut cord, usually metal. It can be played with the hands or a wooden stick or branch. It is uncertain if the musical bow developed from the hunting bow, though the San or Bushmen people of the Kalahari Desert do convert their hunting bows to musical use.
The Rudra veena —also called Bīn in North India—is a large plucked string instrument used in Hindustani Music, especially dhrupad. It is one of the major types of veena played in Indian classical music, notable for its deep bass resonance.
Plucked string instruments are a subcategory of string instruments that are played by plucking the strings. Plucking is a way of pulling and releasing the string in such a way as to give it an impulse that causes the string to vibrate. Plucking can be done with either a finger or a plectrum.
The bladder fiddle was a folk instrument used throughout Europe and in the Americas. The instrument was originally a simple large stringed fiddle made with a long stick, one or more thick gut strings, and a pig's-bladder resonator. It was bowed with either a notched stick or a horsehair bow.
The veena, also spelled vina, comprises various chordophone instruments from the Indian subcontinent. Ancient musical instruments evolved into many variations, such as lutes, zithers and arched harps. The many regional designs have different names such as the Rudra veena, the Saraswati veena, the Vichitra veena and others.
The tube zither is a stringed musical instrument in which a tube functions both as an instrument's neck and its soundbox. As the neck, it holds strings taut and allows them to vibrate. As a soundbox, it modifies the sound and transfers it to the open air. The instruments are among the oldest of chordophones, being "a very early stage" in the development of chordophones, and predate some of the oldest chordophones, such as the Chinese Se, zithers built on a tube split in half. Most tube zithers are made of bamboo, played today in Madagascar, India, Southeast Asia and Taiwan. Tube zithers made from other materials have been found in Europe and the United States, made from materials such as cornstalks and cactus.
The pināka vīnā was an Indian musical instrument, a musical bow that was itself played with a bow. It has also been transliterated pinaki vina and pinak.
The kinnari vina is a historical veena, a tube zither with gourds attached to act as resonators and frets. It was played in India into the late 19th century and was documented by two European artists. The instrument dates back into medieval times and possibly as far back as 500 C.E. It is closely related to the Alapini Vina and Eka-tantri Vina, the instruments having coexisted in medieval times.
The eka-tantrī vīṇā was a medieval tube-zither veena in India, with a single string and one or more gourd resonators. The instrument became prominent in Indian music in about the 10th century C.E. as instruments of court music. Alongside the alapini vina and kinnari vina it replaced the harp-style veenas and lute-style veenas in sculpture. It was possibly a forerunner of the rudra vina. It shares its name with the modern single-string drone lute, the ektara.
The ālāpiṇī vīṇā was a medieval stick-zither veena in India, with a single string and a gourd resonator. Later forms added more strings. The instruments became prominent in Indian music after 500 C.E. as instruments of court music. Alongside the eka-tantri vina and kinnari vina it replaced the harp-style veenas and lute-style veenas. The instruments were used in Southeast Asia, both mainland and island nations, and were recorded in sculpture and relief sculpture.
Frame zither is a class of musical instrument within the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system for a type of simple chordophone, in which the body of the instrument is made from a frame.
Man playing a heterochord musical bow, using his mouth for a resonator. Heterochords have strings made of a different material than the rigid part of the bow. [1]
Flanders, 16th century. European heterochord musical bow, using a bladder for a resonator. Bladder fiddle.
Mozambique, 21st century. Man playing a heterochord musical bow, using his mouth for a resonator.
Burundi. Umuduri musical bow.
India, 19th century. Heterochord stick zither called a Tingadee, using gourds for resonators.
Borobudur, 9th century C.E. Stone relief showing girls playing stick zither and lute.
Belgium, 19th century. Heterochord stick zither using a bladder for a resonator.
Belgian Congo 20th century. Stick zither, gourd resonator, heterochord.
Africa. Mvet, a stick zither from Africa. Hornbostel-Sachs didn't consider a mulitiple-string bar zither (or poly-heterochord bar zither).
Lake Arereco in Chihuahua, Mexico, 21st century. Stick zither called a "chapareque", Native American instrument. Heterochord bar zither, using mouth for resonator.
Vietnam. Goong stick zither
Rudra vina has frets.
Indian Vichitra veena has no frets.
Bangladesh, 10th - 12th century C.E. Saraswati with an ālāpiṇī vīṇā. This was a one-string tube zither or stick zither form of the veena, possibly related to the modern rudra veena.
India, 1807. Pinak, a bowed. stick zither.
