The following lists contain

musical instrument 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 pl ...

categorized Categorization is the ability and activity of recognizing shared features or similarities between the elements of the experience of the world (such as objects, events, or ideas), organizing and classifying experience by associating them to a ...

according to the Hornbostel–Sachs system by how they make sound.

Idiophones

# List of idiophones by Hornbostel–Sachs number

Membranophones

# List of membranophones by Hornbostel–Sachs number

Chordophones

# List of chordophones by Hornbostel–Sachs number

Aerophones

List of aerophones by Hornbostel–Sachs number The Hornbostel–Sachs system of musical instrument classification groups all instruments in which sound is produced through vibrating air. This can include a column of air being set in vibration (as in wind instruments) or an air-flow being inte ...

Electrophones

Electrophone An electronic musical instrument or electrophone is a musical instrument that produces sound using electronic circuitry. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical, electronic or digital audio signal that ultimately is plugged into a ...

s are instruments in which sound is generated by electrical means. While it is not officially in any published form of the Hornbostel–Sachs system, and hence, lacking proper numerical subdivisions, it is often considered a fifth main category. *

Croix Sonore The Croix Sonore is an early electronic musical instrument with continuous pitch, similar to the theremin. Like the theremin, the pitch of the tone is dependent on the nearness of the player's arm to an antenna; unlike the theremin, the antenna was ...

Denis d'or The Denis d’or (Golden Dionysus) was reportedly the first musical instrument in history that involved electricity. Background The Czech theologian Václav Prokop Diviš, who had his parish in the Moravian town Přímětice near Znojmo, was int ...

* Drum machine *

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

* Keyboard bass *

Kraakdoos A kraakdoos or cracklebox is a custom-made instrument, in the form of a noise-making electronic device. It is a small box with six metal contacts on top, which generate various unusual sounds and tones when pressed by the performer's fingers. The ...

(or Cracklebox) *

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...

* Ondes Martenot *

Synclavier The Synclavier is an early digital synthesizer, polyphonic digital sampling system, and music workstation manufactured by New England Digital Corporation of Norwich, Vermont. It was produced in various forms from the late 1970s into the early 1 ...

Synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

Tannerin The Electro-Theremin is an electronic musical instrument developed by trombonist Paul Tanner and amateur inventor Bob Whitsell in the late 1950s to produce a sound to mimic that of the theremin. The instrument features a tone and portamento sim ...

(a.k.a.

Electro-Theremin The Electro-Theremin is an electronic musical instrument developed by trombonist Paul Tanner and amateur inventor Bob Whitsell in the late 1950s to produce a sound to mimic that of the theremin. The instrument features a tone and portamento ...

) *

Telharmonium The Telharmonium (also known as the Dynamophone) was an early electrical organ, developed by Thaddeus Cahill c. 1896 and patented in 1897. , filed 1896-02-04. The electrical signal from the Telharmonium was transmitted over wires; it was hear ...

* Theremin

Instruments that do not fit into any of the above five categories

A number of instruments neither fit wholly into any one of the above 5 categories, nor can they be properly described as belonging to some combination of these categories. Within the Hornbostel Sachs system they therefore do not have a number (hence the label NaN = Not a Number).

Hydraulophones

The first three Hornbostel Sachs numbers describe instruments that make sound from matter in its solid state. The fourth HS number describes instruments that make sound from matter in its gaseous state (air). The fifth HS number describes instruments that make sound from electricity and/or electrical energy. Recently a number of instruments have been invented, designed, and made, that make sound from matter in its liquid state. This new class of instruments is called hydraulophones. Hydraulophones use an incompressible fluid, such as water, as the initial sound-producing medium, and they may also use the

hydraulic fluid A hydraulic fluid or hydraulic liquid is the medium by which power is transferred in hydraulic machinery. Common hydraulic fluids are based on mineral oil or water. Examples of equipment that might use hydraulic fluids are excavators and backhoe ...

as a user-interface.

Plasmaphones

Another category of instruments has recently been invented that use matter in higher energy states, such as plasma, to produce the initial sound. These instruments are called

plasmaphone 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 method ...

s. As flame is matter in a high energy state the class comprises the much older pyrophones.

Non-electrophonic quintephones

A number of computational musical instruments that are not electrophones have been invented, designed, built, and used in performances. These instruments are sound synthesizers that use mechanical, optical, or other forms of non-electric computation, sampling, processing, or the like. It has been proposed that music synthesizers that perform computation, and/or that work by recording and playback of sound samples, or the like, be referred to as quintephones. This class of instrument includes electrophones as a special case."Natural Interfaces for Musical Expression: Physiphones and a physics-based organology," Proceedings of the 2007 Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME07), Pages 118-123, June 6–10, New York, NY, USA.

References

External links

Classification of Musical Instruments: Translated from the Original German by Anthony Baines and Klaus P. Wachsmann Erich M. von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs. The Galpin Society Journal volume 14, March 1961 pages 3-25 Oddmusic
A website dedicated to unique, odd, ethnic, experimental and unusual musical instruments and resources. *From th
University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – Ethnomusicology Collection
A collection of photographs of over 250 musical instruments from around the world.
Idiophones

Membranophones

Chordophones

Aerophones
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