Sitar

{{article:6621}}{{article:6661}}   Necked bowl lute (321.321 .-6). From ancient times, it is found with different names and shapes in India. According to tradition, during the Mogol reign, the poet and singer Amir Khusru (1254-1324) inverted the string order, placing the highest one on the left of the player and introduced the movable frets to ease the use of different raga (s). He also gave its final name to this kind of lute (Persian se = three and tar = string).… 

Resonator Guitar

{{article:6620}}{{article:6660}}   Necked box lute (321.322-5-6). This kind of steel-string guitar was created by the Dopyera (or Dopera) brothers. Its distinctive feature is a metallic resonator, single or complex, with an internal tone chamber, placed inside the instrument body. Although the aim was to amplify the sound, a significant change in the timbre was also achieved. The idea was based on the design of certain banjos which had similar resonators at the back of their soundboxes. The Dopyera’s first design,… 

Fonógrafo

{{article:6619}}{{article:6659}}   Among the various experiments carried out in the 19th. c. to record sound vibrations, the creation of the phonoautographe by Eduard León Scott was considered one of the most important. This machine, which was a direct precursor of the phonograph, was invented in 1857. it consisted of a stylus attached to a membrane which transmitted the sounds received by a conical metal horn and registered them in a paper covered with lampblack placed on a revolving cylinder. In… 

Berimbau

{{article:6618}}{{article:6658}}   Musical bow with resonator-vessel rattle (311.121.222-4 + 112.13). It is of African origin and its morphological and technical characteristics of performance resemble those of the Bantus musical bows from Angola. Since the early 19th c , well informed and illustrated specialized writers have made known that this instrument was introduced and spread out in Brazil, especially by black slaves. The berimbau consists of a rustic wooden stick with a wire string fastened at each end. The resonator is… 

Ko Ling

{{article:6617}}{{article:6657}} Set of end-blown flutes without duct (421.112.1). Sonorous instrument made of fifteen cylindrical cane pipes, each one of a different lenght and diameter, inserted into a gourd, all covered with black lacquer. The pipes are closed at their upper end by a kind of cap with a sharp edge. In the gourd’s bottom, a thin bone plate with a hole serves to attach it to the central feathers of a dove’s tail. During the dove’s flight the air strikes… 

Dung-Chen(s)

{{article:6616}}{{article:6656}} End-blown natural trumpets (423.121.12). Both trumpets are made of a conical tube of red copper divided into three sections which assemble like a telescope. Such sections are concealed by wide silver rings, material also used in the mouthpiece, the leadpipe and the bell. The surface is entirely covered by abstract reliefs with phytozoomorphic motifs. Dung chen (s) are always played by two lamaist monks during different kinds of ceremonies and processions. Owing to its extreme length (it can reach… 

Vaso Silbador

{{article:6615}}{{article:6655}} Globular flute with internal duct (421.221.41). This is the name given to the American archeological ceramic vessels which have one or two whistles and are constituted by one or several chambers. These chambers may be connected among them or not and they very frequently have a vegetal, animal or human shape. The whistles seem quite small in relation to the total size of the instrument. Their location is variable; they are found in isolation or communicated with the rest… 

Sanshin

{{article:6614}}{{article:6654}}   Spike box lute (321.312-5-6). It derives from the Chinese sanxian, introduced ca. 1390 in the Okinawa archipelago, centre of the ancient Ryukyu kingdom. As its predecessor, it has a long narrow fretless handle which is followed by a spike that crosses the rectangular soundbox. This has a back and soundboard made of a snake skin — usually a python — that covers the wooden ribs. The number of simple courses (Japanese san = three, shin = string) gives… 

Kultrún

{{article:6613}}{{article:6653}} kettle drum — vessel rattle (211.11-91 + 112.13). Traditionally, its body consists of a wooden piece carved in the shape of a hemispherical platter. Occasionally, it may be replaced by a gourd or a metallic bowl. In its interior, glass beads, pebbles and other small objects (feathers, medicinal herbs, silver coins, etc.) are placed. These objects, which are enclosed in groups of four or its multiples, have a symbolic value. The leather skin that covers the bowl has a… 

Cascabeles Bosquimanos

{{article:6612}}{{article:6652}}     Shaking vessel rattles (112.13). Instrument used by the Bushmen made up of two strings formed by forty five or fifty vessels. Such receptacles are cocoons of the mophani cacoons butterflies which have been scraped with grass in order to remove the hair containing urticant substances. These cocoons are opened and, once the larvae have been taken out, they are filled with pieces of ostrich eggs and buried in wet sand so as to stick them together again.…