Membranophone

Last updated April 15, 2024

A membranophone is any musical instrument which produces sound primarily by way of a vibrating stretched membrane. It is one of the four main divisions of instruments in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification.

Hornbostel-Sachs

The Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification divides membranophones in a numeric taxonomy based on how the sound is produced:

21: by hitting the drumskin with a hand or object (most common form, including the timpani and snare drum)
22: by pulling a knotted string attached to the drumskin (common in Indian drums, and can be considered an example of a chordophone as well)
23: by rubbing the drumskin with a hand or object (common in Irish traditional music, an example is the bodhran)
24: by modifying sounds through a vibrating membrane (unusual form, including the kazoo) ^[2]

Length and breadth

Membranophones can also be divided into small divisions based on length and breadth of sound production:^[3]

Mirlitons, as the kazoo in the picture, are a special class of membranophone, and is the only class that does not consist of true drums Kazoo.jpg — Mirlitons, as the kazoo in the picture, are a special class of membranophone, and is the only class that does not consist of true drums

Tubular drums include a wide range of drum shapes all conforming to a "tube" shape, or generally, having a depth greater than the radius of the membrane. The Hornbostel-Sachs Classification defines 8 subcategories of tubular drums: Cylindrical, Barrel-Shaped, Double-Conical, Hourglass-Shaped, Conical, Goblet-Shaped, Cylindro-Conical, and Vase-Shaped drums.^[4]
Mirlitons, Kazoos and Swazzles vibrate in sympathy with sounds travelling across a membrane. These are the only membranophones that are not truly drums.

SIL International maintains a classification system based largely on shape:^[5]

Cylindrical drums are straight-sided, and generally two-headed. A buzzing, percussive string is sometimes used. Examples include the bass drum and the Iranian dohol.
Conical drums are sloped on the sides, and are usually one-headed. Examples include the Indian tabla and the Venezuelan chimbangueles.

Barrel drums are normally one-headed, and may be open at the bottom. They bulge in the middle. Examples include the Dhak from eastern parts of India, bendre, made by the Mossi of Burkina Faso out of a large calabash, and the trong chau of Vietnam.
Hourglass drums (or waisted drums) are hourglass-shaped and generally two-headed. The drumheads are laced onto the body, and the laces may be squeezed during performance to alter the drum's pitch. Examples include folk drums in India (like the damaru ) and much of Africa, as well as some talking drums.
Goblet drums (or chalice drums) are one-headed and goblet shaped, and are usually open at the bottom. Examples include the Egyptian darbuka, West-African djembe , and the Arab darabukka.
Footed drums are single-headed and are held above the ground by feet. The space between the drum and the ground provides extra resonance. Examples include a range of East African and Polynesian drums.
Long drums are a diverse category, characterized by extreme length. Examples include the single-headed hollow tree trunk drums of Africa and the ornately carved and dyed gufalo of the Nuna in Burkina Faso.
Kettle drums (or pot drums or vessel drums) are frequently played in pairs, and have a vessel or pot body, are one-headed and usually tuned to a specific note. Examples include the timpani and the Indian tabla.
Frame drums are composed of one or more membranes stretched across a frame. Examples include the tambourine and bodhran.
Friction drums produce sound through friction, such as by rubbing a hand or object against the drumskin. Examples include the Brazilian cuica and the Spanish zambomba.
Mirlitons, Kazoos and Swazzles produce sound by blowing air across a membrane.

Traditional classifications

The traditional classification of Indian instruments include two categories of percussion.^[6]

Ghan: Percussion without membranes, such as chimes, bells and gongs
Avanaddh: Percussion with membranes, such as drums with skin heads

Other categories

The predrum category consists of simple drum-like percussion instruments. These include the ground drum, which, in its most common §—Form, consists of an animal skin stretched over a hole in the ground, and the pot drum, made from a simple pot.^[7]

Water drums are also sometimes treated as a distinct category of membranophone. Common in Native American music and the music of Africa, water drums are characterized by a unique sound caused by filling the drum with some amount of water.^[8]

The talking drum is an important category of West African membranophone, characterized by the use of varying tones to "talk". Talking drums are used to communicate across distances.^[9]

Military drums or war drums are drums in various forms that have been used in the military.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Percussion instrument</span> Type of musical instrument that produces a sound by being hit

A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Excluding zoomusicological instruments and the human voice, the percussion family is believed to include the oldest musical instruments. In spite of being a very common term to designate instruments, and to relate them to their players, the percussionists, percussion is not a systematic classificatory category of instruments, as described by the scientific field of organology. It is shown below that percussion instruments may belong to the organological classes of idiophone, membranophone, aerophone and chordophone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Musical instrument classification</span> Grouping musical instruments

In organology, the study of musical instruments, many methods of classifying instruments exist. Most methods are specific to a particular cultural group and were developed to serve that culture's musical needs. Culture-based classification methods sometimes break down when applied outside that culture. For example, a classification based on instrument use may fail when applied to another culture that uses the same instrument differently.

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.

An aerophone is a musical instrument that produces sound primarily by causing a body of air to vibrate, without the use of strings or membranes, and without the vibration of the instrument itself adding considerably to the sound.

An idiophone is any musical instrument that creates sound primarily by the vibration of the instrument itself, without the use of air flow, strings (chordophones), membranes (membranophones) or electricity (electrophones). It is the first of the four main divisions in the original Hornbostel–Sach system of musical instrument classification. The early classification of Victor-Charles Mahillon called this group of instruments autophones. The most common are struck idiophones, or concussion idiophones, which are made to vibrate by being struck, either directly with a stick or hand or indirectly, with scraping or shaking motions. Various types of bells fall into both categories. A common plucked idiophone is the Jew's harp.

The eunuch flute, onion flute, or mirliton is a membranophone used during the 16th and 17th centuries. It produces music akin to a comb and paper, and is still manufactured as a toy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Damaru</span> Indian two-headed drum

A damaru is a small two-headed drum, used in Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism. In Hinduism, the damaru is known as the instrument of the deity Shiva, associated with Tantric traditions. It is said to be created by Shiva to produce spiritual sounds by which the whole universe has been created and regulated. In Tibetan Buddhism, the damaru is used as an instrument in meditation practices.

A family of musical instruments is a grouping of several different but related sizes or types of instruments. Some schemes of musical instrument classification, such as the Hornbostel-Sachs system, are based on a hierarchy of instrument families and families of families.

Directly struck membranophones is one of the sub-categories of musical instruments found in the Hornbostel-Sachs system of musical instrument classification. The type of membranophones or drums found in this group are those instruments that produce sound when struck directly by the performer. The membrane of these drums is hit with a stick, the hand, or something else. Drums that produce sound by means of plucking an attached string or by means of friction are grouped in a different category.

A musical instrument 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 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.

There are several overlapping schemes for the classification of percussion instruments.

The conservation and restoration of musical instruments is performed by conservator-restorers who are professionals, properly trained to preserve or protect historical and current musical instruments from past or future damage or deterioration. Because musical instruments can be made entirely of, or simply contain, a wide variety of materials such as plastics, woods, metals, silks, and skin, to name a few, a conservator should be well-trained in how to properly examine the many types of construction materials used in order to provide the highest level or preventive and restorative conservation.

References

↑ Sachs, Curt (1940). The History of Musical Instruments, p.459. W. W. Nortan & Company, Inc. ISBN 0-393-02068-1
↑ "Glossary#Membranophone". Essentials of Music. Archived from the original on January 19, 2007. Retrieved January 22, 2007.
↑ Catherine Schmidt-Jones. "Classifying Musical Instruments: Membranophones". Connexions. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved January 22, 2007.
↑ "Revision of the Hornbostel-Sachs Classification of Musical Instruments by the MIMO Consortium" (PDF). July 8, 2011. pp. 8–10.
↑ "534m Membranophones". SIL. Archived from the original on July 10, 2006. Retrieved January 4, 2007.
↑ David Courtney (2006). "Indian Musical Instruments". Chandra and David's Indian Musical Instruments. Retrieved February 4, 2007.
↑ Virginia Tech Department of Music. "Modern Instruments and their Families: Symphonic Classifications in Western Music". Music Dictionary. Retrieved January 22, 2007.
↑ Claire King. "Tuning the Water Drum". From Cradleboard to Motherboard. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved January 22, 2007.
↑ "Drum Telegraphy". TIME. 21 September 1942. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 7 November 2006.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Sachs, Curt (1940). The History of Musical Instruments, p.459. W. W. Nortan & Company, Inc. ISBN 0-393-02068-1

[2] "Glossary#Membranophone". Essentials of Music. Archived from the original on January 19, 2007. Retrieved January 22, 2007.

[3] Catherine Schmidt-Jones. "Classifying Musical Instruments: Membranophones". Connexions. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved January 22, 2007.

[4] "Revision of the Hornbostel-Sachs Classification of Musical Instruments by the MIMO Consortium" (PDF). July 8, 2011. pp. 8–10.

[SIL-5] "534m Membranophones". SIL. Archived from the original on July 10, 2006. Retrieved January 4, 2007.

[6] David Courtney (2006). "Indian Musical Instruments". Chandra and David's Indian Musical Instruments. Retrieved February 4, 2007.

[7] Virginia Tech Department of Music. "Modern Instruments and their Families: Symphonic Classifications in Western Music". Music Dictionary. Retrieved January 22, 2007.

[8] Claire King. "Tuning the Water Drum". From Cradleboard to Motherboard. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved January 22, 2007.

[9] "Drum Telegraphy". TIME. 21 September 1942. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 7 November 2006.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

Authority control databases
National	Germany
Other	MusicBrainz instrument