Greek musical instruments were grouped under the general term of "all developments from the original construction of a tortoise shell with two branching horns, having also a cross piece to which the stringser from an original three to ten or even more in the later period, like the
Byzantine era". Greek musical instruments can be classified into the following categories:
Ancient
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Aulos
An ''aulos'' ( grc, αὐλός, plural , ''auloi'') or ''tibia'' (Latin) was an ancient Greek wind instrument, depicted often in art and also attested by archaeology.
Though ''aulos'' is often translated as "flute" or " double flute", it was ...
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Barbiton
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Chelys
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Cithara
The kithara (or Latinized cithara) ( el, κιθάρα, translit=kithāra, lat, cithara) was an ancient Greek musical instrument in the yoke lutes family. In modern Greek the word ''kithara'' has come to mean "guitar", a word which etymolo ...
(or Kithara)
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Crotalum
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Epigonion
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Harp
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Kanonaki
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Lyre
The lyre () is a stringed musical instrument that is classified by Hornbostel–Sachs as a member of the lute-family of instruments. In organology, a lyre is considered a yoke lute, since it is a lute in which the strings are attached to a ...
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Pan flute
A pan flute (also known as panpipes or syrinx) is a musical instrument based on the principle of the closed tube, consisting of multiple pipes of gradually increasing length (and occasionally girth). Multiple varieties of pan flutes have been ...
(Syrinx)
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Pandura
The pandura ( grc, πανδοῦρα, ''pandoura'') or pandore, an ancient string instrument, belonged in the broad class of the lute and guitar instruments. Akkadians played similar instruments from the 3rd millennium BC. Ancient Greek artwork ...
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Phorminx
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Rhoptron
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Sambuca
Sambuca () is an Italian anise-flavoured, usually colourless, liqueur. Its most common variety is often referred to as ''white sambuca'' to differentiate it from other varieties that are deep blue (''black sambuca'') or bright red (''red samb ...
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Salpinx
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Sistrum
A sistrum (plural: sistra or Latin sistra; from the Greek ''seistron'' of the same meaning; literally "that which is being shaken", from ''seiein'', "to shake") is a musical instrument of the percussion family, chiefly associated with ancient ...
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Psaltery
A psaltery ( el, ψαλτήρι) (or sawtry, an archaic form) is a fretboard-less box zither (a simple chordophone) and is considered the archetype of the zither and dulcimer; the harp, virginal, harpsichord and clavichord were also inspired by ...
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Tambourine
The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called " zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, thou ...
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Trigonon
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Water organ
The water organ or hydraulic organ ( el, ὕδραυλις) (early types are sometimes called hydraulos, hydraulus or hydraula) is a type of pipe organ blown by air, where the power source pushing the air is derived by water from a natural source ...
(Hydraulis)
File:Mildenhall treasure great dish british museum, detail-- dancer with cymbals.jpg, Roman art, 4th century A.D. Dancer with cymbals.
File:Mildenhall treasure great dish british museum, detail-- satyr with pan pipes.jpg, Mildenhall treasure, great dish, British Museum, detail-- satyr with pan pipes
File:Mildenhall treasure, great dish, British Museum, detail-- aulos and tambourine.jpg, Mildenhall treasure, great dish, British Museum, detail-- aulos and tambourine
File:Mildenhall treasure, great dish, British Museum, frame drum.jpg, Mildenhall treasure, great dish, British Museum, frame drum
Medieval and modern
String instruments
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.
Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the st ...
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Byzantine lyra
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Bouzouki
The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...
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Cretan lyra
)
* Lira da braccio
* Rabāb (Arabic الرباب)
* Lijerica
* Violin
, musicians =
* Andreas Rodinos
* Alekos Karavitis
* Antonis Papadakis (Kareklas)
* Kostas Mountakis
* Nikos Xilouris
* Psarantonis
* Ross Daly
* Yiorgos ...
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Calabrian lira
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Guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...
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Kanonaki
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Mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
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Mandola
The mandola (US and Canada) or tenor mandola (Ireland and UK) is a fretted, stringed musical instrument. It is to the mandolin what the viola is to the violin: the four double courses of strings tuned in fifths to the same pitches as the viola ...
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Oudola
The Oudola is a stringed musical instrument. It is said to have been custom-built for Agapios Tomboulis, according to
his own specifications. He combined the words oud and mandola, and named it oudola.
See also
* Bouzouki
* Pandura
* Tambouras
...
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Oud
, image=File:oud2.jpg
, image_capt=Syrian oud made by Abdo Nahat in 1921
, background=
, classification=
*String instruments
* Necked bowl lutes
, hornbostel_sachs=321.321-6
, hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum
...
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Psaltery
A psaltery ( el, ψαλτήρι) (or sawtry, an archaic form) is a fretboard-less box zither (a simple chordophone) and is considered the archetype of the zither and dulcimer; the harp, virginal, harpsichord and clavichord were also inspired by ...
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Politiki lyra (Constantinople lyra)
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Santouri
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Laouto (big and small)
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Lavta
The lavta is a plucked string music instrument from Istanbul.
Description
The Lavta has a small body made of many ribs made using carvel bending technique. Its appearance is somewhat like a small (Turkish) oud - the strings are made from gut ...
(Politiko laouto)
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One stringed lyra (rare)
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Macedonian lyra
The Macedonian lyra (Greek: Μακεδονική λύρα) is a Greek pear-shaped, three-stringed bowed musical instrument, used mainly in the Greek folk music of the Greek region of Macedonia, and especially in the region of Drama, usually acc ...
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Pontian lyra
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Violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
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Baglamas
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Tzouras
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Tambouras
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Thaboura
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Karantouzeni
The karantouzeni ( el, καραντουζένι) is a stringed instrument of the lute family resembling the tambouras, although larger and possessing four strings. It is used in the rebetiko genre, a synthesis of the disparate remnants of urban Byz ...
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Bağlama
The ''bağlama'' or ''saz'' is a family of plucked string instruments, long-necked lutes used in Ottoman classical music, Turkish folk music, Turkish Arabesque music, Azerbaijani music, Kurdish music, Armenian music and in parts of Syria, ...
Aerophones
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 (which are respectively chordophones and membranophones), and without the vibration of the instr ...
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Askomandoura
Askomandoura ( el, ασκομαντούρα) is a type of bagpipe played as a traditional instrument on the Greek island of Crete, similar to the '' tsampouna''.
Its use in Crete is attested in illustrations from the mid-15th Century.Ioannis Ts ...
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Aulos
An ''aulos'' ( grc, αὐλός, plural , ''auloi'') or ''tibia'' (Latin) was an ancient Greek wind instrument, depicted often in art and also attested by archaeology.
Though ''aulos'' is often translated as "flute" or " double flute", it was ...
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Floghera
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Gaida
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Karamuza
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Klarino
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Lalitsa
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Mantura
The mantura or mandoura ( el, μαντούρα, ), is a Greek wind musical instrument of Cretan origin. It has 4 to 6 holes for the fingers and produces sound with the help of the tongue. Mantura is very widespread in Crete and the Greek islands.
...
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Souravli (Thiamboli)
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Tsampouna
The tsampouna (or tsambouna; el, τσαμπούνα) is a Greek musical instrument and part of the bagpipe family. It is a double-chantered bagpipe, with no drone, and is inflated by blowing by mouth into a goatskin bag. The instrument is widespr ...
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Zurna
The zurna ( Armenian: զուռնա zuṙna; Old Armenian: սուռնայ suṙnay; Albanian: surle/surla; Persian: karna/Kornay/surnay; Macedonian: зурла/сурла zurla/surla; Bulgarian: ''зурна/зурла''; Serbian: зурла/z ...
Percussion instruments
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. Exc ...
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Cochilia
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Crotala
In classical antiquity, a crotalum ( κρόταλον ''krotalon'') was a kind of clapper or castanet used in religious dances by groups in ancient Greece and elsewhere, including the Korybantes.
The term has been erroneously supposed by som ...
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Daouli
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Koudounia
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Toubeleki
The toubeleki ( el, τουμπελέκι and τουμπερλέκι and ντουμπελέκι), is a kind of a Greek traditional drum musical instrument. It is usually made from metal, open at its downside and covered with a skin stretched over i ...
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Trigono
Trígono ( el, Τρίγωνο, , meaning "triangle") is a former municipality in the Evros regional unit, East Macedonia and Thrace, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it is part of the municipality Orestiada, of which it is a munici ...
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Tympano
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Zilia
Zilia is a commune in the Haute-Corse department of France on the island of Corsica.
Geography
The municipality is part of the canton of Calvi. Its area is which includes of woods. The village itself is situated at an altitude of at the foot ...
See also
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Music of Greece
The music of Greece is as diverse and celebrated as its history. Greek music separates into two parts: Greek traditional music and Byzantine music. These compositions have existed for millennia: they originated in the Byzantine period and Gree ...
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Greek dances
Greek dance (''choros'') is a very old tradition, being referred to by authors such as Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch and Lucian. There are different styles and interpretations from all of the islands and surrounding mainland areas. Each region forme ...
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Greek folk music
Greek traditional music (Greek: παραδοσιακή μουσική, "traditional music"; also δημοτικά τραγούδια, "folk songs") includes a variety of Greek styles played by ethnic Greeks in Greece, Cyprus, Australia, the U ...
External links
Tα μουσικά όργανα των αρχαίων Eλλήνων/ancient Greek instruments
Greek culture
{{Greece-stub