Bar Zither

Bar zither is class of musical instruments (subset of zither) within the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system for a type of simple chordophone (stringed instrument), in which the body of the instrument is shaped like a bar.

In the system, bar zithers are made up of musical bows and stick zithers. Musical bows have flexible ends, stick zithers are rigid or have only one flexed end. Bar zithers, whether musical bow or stick zithers, often have some form of resonator. Examples of resonators include the player's mouth, an attached gourd or an inflated balloon or bladder.

According to Sachs,Sachs, Curt (1940). ''The History of Musical Instruments'', p.463. W. W. Nortan & Company, Inc.

Instruments may be monochords (single stringed) or polychord (multiple stinged). They may also be idiochords (string made from the bar or stick) or heterchords (string made of separate substance from the bar or stick.

File:Richard Nunns 22.jpg, 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.
File:La Bass de la Flanders.jpg, Flanders, 16th century. European heterochord musical bow, using a bladder for a resonator. Bladder fiddle.
File:Mozambique 4.jpg, Mozambique, 21st century. Man playing a heterochord musical bow, using his mouth for a resonator.
File:Ao som do birimbau^ - É capoeira - panoramio.jpg, Brazil. Berimbau musical bow with gourd resonator. Tapped with stick to play. String also vibrates caxixi wrattle.
File:Instrument musical traditionnel Burundais.jpg, Burundi. Umuduri musical bow.
File:A 19th century strolling singer musician playing Tingadee instrument, Madras.jpg, India, 19th century. Heterochord stick zither called a Tingadee, using gourds for resonators.
File:Yoeun Mek tries kse diev 2001.jpg, Cambodia, 21st century. Yoeun Mek plays a Kse diev heterochord stick zither, which uses a gourd for a resonator.
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Reliëf op de Borobudur TMnr 10015651.jpg, Borobudur, 9th century C.E. Stone relief showing girls playing stick zither and lute.
File:Bumbass or bladder fiddle.jpg, Belgium, 19th century. Heterochord stick zither using a bladder for a resonator.
File:Kora boy gambia apr2006.jpg, Banjul, Gambia. Heterochord stick zither using a tin can for a resonator. Called a cora.
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Staafciter van kokosnoot en bamboe met één snaar TMnr 1320-6.jpg, Indonesia, 20th century. Heterchord stick zither, using a gourd resonator. Example of a vertical board being use instead of a bar, called a lath-zither. Still considered bar zither.
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Stokciter TMnr 5633-119.jpg, Belgian Congo 20th century. Stick zither, gourd resonator, heterochord.
File:Mvet (MDMB 679).jpg, Africa. Mvet, a stick zither from Africa. Hornbostel-Sachs didn't consider a mulitiple-string bar zither (or poly-heterochord bar zither).
File:Señor tarahumara.jpg, Lake Arereco in Chihuahua, Mexico, 21st century. Stick zither called a "chapareque", Native American instrument. Heterochord bar zither, using mouth for resonator.
File:Goong zither, Xodang - Vietnam Museum of Ethnology - Hanoi, Vietnam - DSC03262.JPG, Vietnam. Goong stick zither
File:Playing Zeze, a Musical Instrument.jpg, Tanzania. Zeze, a bowed stick zither played here by Gogo musicians
File:One type of Veena, cithare sur tube "Bin" at Musée de la musique, Philharmonie de Paris.jpg, Rudra vina has frets.
File:Pandit Gopal Krishan.png, Indian Vichitra veena has no frets.
File:Saraswati with an alapini vina, from a larger image God Vishnu with Goddesses Lakshmi and Sarasvati.jpg, 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.
File:Pinak, Illustration by François Balthazar Solvyns, from The Costume of Indostan page 341-42.gif, India, 1807. Pinak, a bowed. stick zither.
File:Villu patt.JPG, India. An Onavillu or Villu percussion bow

See also

*List of chordophones by Hornbostel–Sachs number

References

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Musical instruments
Chordophones
Zithers