Other Classifications
Sometimes instruments are classified according to the materials from which they are made. For example, percussion instruments made from metal are sometimes called metallophones, while those made of stone are called lithophones. Similarly, wind instruments made from metal are often categorized as brass instruments. This idea is not limited to western practice: the ancient Chinese categorized instruments into eight categories of materials (silk, bamboo, wood, gourd, earth, stone, metal, and skin).
Sometimes instruments are classed according to the method of their construction rather than their materials. For example Lamellaphones are instruments that produced sound by the plucking of their "lamellae" or tongues—strips of metal, wood, or bamboo fixed to a sound-board or resonator. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification of musical instruments, lamellophones are considered plucked idiophones, a category that includes various forms of jaw harp and the European mechanical music box, as well as the huge variety of African and Afro-Latin thumb pianos such as the mbira and marimbula.
Sometimes instruments are categorized according to a common use, such as signal instruments, a category which may include instruments in very different Hornbostel-Sachs categories such as trumpets, drums, and gongs. "According to social function" may be in this category or a separate one, but an example based on this criterion is Bonanni (e.g., festive, military, and religious)(Kartomi, 1990). He also classified them according to geography and whether they were past or present.
Benjamin de la Borde (1780) classified them according to ethnicity, his categories being black, Abyssinian, Chinese, Arabic, Turkisk, and Greek (Kartomi, 1990).
Instruments can also be classified according to the ensemble in which they play, or the role they play in the ensemble. For example, the horn section in popular music typically includes both brass instruments and woodwind instruments. The symphony orchestra typically has the strings in the front, the woodwinds in the middle, and the basses, woodwinds, and percussion in the back.
Major classifications done for the Indonesian ensemble, the gamelan, have been done by Jaap Kunst (1949), Martopangrawit, Poerbapangrawit, and Sumarsam ( all in 1984) (Kartomi, 1990). Kunst's taxonomy has 5 categories: nuclear theme (cantus firmus in Latin and balungan ("skeletal ramework") in Indonesian); colotomic ( a word invented by Kunst)(interpunctuating), the gongs; countermelodic; paraphrasing (panerusan), subdivided as close to the nuclear theme and ornamental filling; agogic (tempo-regulating), drums.
Martopangrawit has 2 categories, irama (the rhythm instruments) and lagu (the melodic instruments), the former corresponds to Kunst's classes 2 and 5, and the latter to Kunst's 1, 3, and 4.
Poerbapangrawit, similar to Kunst's, derives 6 categories: balungan, the saron, demung, and slenthem; rerenggan (ornamental), the gendèr, gambang, and bonang); wiletan (variable formulaic melodic), rebab and male chorus (gerong); singgetan (interpunctuating); kembang (floral), flute and female voice; jejeging wirama (tempo regulating), drums.
Samusam's scheme comprises:
an inner melodic group (lagu)(with a wide range), divided as elaborating (rebab, gerong, gendèr (a metallophone), gambang (a xylophone), pesindhen (female voice), celempung (plucked strings), suling (flute)); mediating ( between the 1st and 3rd subdivisions (bonang (gong-chimes), saron panerus(a loud metallophone); and abstracting (balungan, "melodic abstraction")( with a 1-octave range), loud and soft metallophones (saron barung, demung, and slenthem);
an outer circle, the structural group (gongs), which underlines the structure of the work;
and occupying the space outside the outer circle, the kendang, a tempo-regulating group (drums).
The gamelan is also divided into front, middle, and back, much like the symphony orchestra.
In West Africa, tribes such as the Dan, Gio, Kpelle, Hausa, Akan, and Dogon, use a uniquely human-centered system. It derives from 4 myth-based parameters: the musical instrument's nonhuman owner (spirit, mask, sorcerer, or animal), the mode of transmission to the human realm (by gift, exchange, contract, or removal), the making of the instrument by a human (according to instructions from a nonhuman, for instance), and the 1st human owner. Most instruments are said to have a nonhuman origin, but some are believed invented by humans, e.g., the xylophone and the lamellophone. (Kartomi, 1990).
An orally-transmitted Javanese taxonomy has 8 groupings (Kartomi, 1990):
ricikan dijagur ("instruments beaten with a padded hammer," e.g., suspended gongs); ricikan dithuthuk ("instruments knocked with a hard or semihard hammer," e.g., saron (similar to the glockenspiel) and gong-chimes); ricikan dikebuk ("hand-beaten instruments", e.g., kendhang (drum); ricikan dipethik ("plucked instruments"); ricikan disendal ("pulled instruments," e.g., trump harp with string mechanism); ricikan dikosok ("bowed instruments"); ricikan disebul ("blown instruments"); ricikan dikocok ("shaken instruments").
A Javanese classification transmitted in literary form is as follows (Kartomi, 1990):
ricikan prunggu/wesi ("instruements made of bronze or iron"); ricikan kulit ("leather instruments", drums); ricikan kayu ("wooden instruments"); ricikan kawat/tali ("string instruments"); ricikan bambu pring ("bamboo instruments", e.g., flutes).
This is much like the pa yin. It is suspected of being old but its age is unknown.
Minangkabau musicians (of West Sumatra) use the following taxonomy for bunyi-bunyian ("objects that sound"): dipukua ("beaten"), dipupuik ("blown), dipatiek ("plucked"), ditariek ("pulled"), digesek ("bowed"), dipusiang ("swung"). The last one is for the bull-roarer. They also distinguish instruments on the basis of origin because of sociohistorical contacts, and recognize 3 categories: Mindangkabau (Minangkabau asli), Arabic (asal Arab), and Western (asal Barat), each of these divided up according to the 5 categories. Classifying musical instruments on the basis sociohistorical factors as well as mode of sound production is common in Indonesia. (Kartomi, 1990).
The Batak of North Sumatra recognize the following classes: beaten (alat pukul or alat palu), blown (alat tiup), bowed (alat gesek), and plucked (alat petik) instruments, but their primary classification is of ensembles (Kartomi, 1990).
In 1960, German musicologist Kurt Reinhard presented a stylistic taxonomy, as opposed to a morphological one, with 2 divisions determined by either single or multiple voiced playing (Kartomi, 1990). Each of these 2 divisions was subdivided according to pitch changeability (not changeable, freely changeable, and changeable by fixed intervals), and also by tonal continuity (discontinuous (as the marimba and drums) and continuous(the friction instruments (including bowed) and the winds), making 12 categories. He also proposed classification according to whether or not they had dynamic tonal variability, a characteristic that separates whole eras (e.g., the baroque from the classical) as in the transition from the terraced dynamics of the harpsichord to the crescendo of the piano, grading by degree of absolute loudness, timbral spectra, tunability, and degree of resonance.
Al-Farabi, Arab scholar of the 10th century, also distinguished tonal duration. In 1 of his 4 schemes, in his 2-volume Kitab al-musiki al-kabir (Big Music Book, or Big Book of Music) he identified 5 classes, in order of ranking, as follows: the human voice, the bowed strings (the rebab) and winds, plucked strings, percussion, and dance, the 1st 3 pointed out as having continuous tone.
Ibn Sina, Persian scholar of the 11th century, presented a scheme in his Kitab al-najat (Book of the delivery), making the same distinction, having 2 classes. In his Kitab al-shifa (Book of soul healing), he proposed another taxonomy, this one having 5 classes: fretted instruments, unfretted (open) stringed, lyres and harps, bowed stringed, wind (reeds and some other woodwinds, such as the flute and bagpipe), other wind instrumets such as the organ, and the stick-struck santur (a board zither). The distinction between fretted and open was in classic Arab fashion.
Read more about this topic: Musical Instrument Classification