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.[1]
In the system, bar zithers are made up of musical bows and stick zithers.[1] Musical bows have flexible ends, stick zithers are rigid or have only one flexed end.[1] 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.
A stick-zither has a stick in place of a resonating body and always needs an additional resonator, generally a gourd, sometimes the mouth of the player.
Instruments may be monochords (single stringed) or polychord (multiple stinged).[1] They may also be idiochords (string made from the bar or stick) or heterchords (string made of separate substance from the bar or stick.[1]
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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.[1]
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Flanders, 16th century. European heterochord musical bow, using a bladder for a resonator. Bladder fiddle.
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Mozambique, 21st century. Man playing a heterochord musical bow, using his mouth for a resonator.
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Burundi. Umuduri musical bow.
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India, 19th century. Heterochord stick zither called a Tingadee, using gourds for resonators.
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Borobudur, 9th century C.E. Stone relief showing girls playing stick zither and lute.
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Belgium, 19th century. Heterochord stick zither using a bladder for a resonator.
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Belgian Congo 20th century. Stick zither, gourd resonator, heterochord.
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Africa. Mvet, a stick zither from Africa. Hornbostel-Sachs didn't consider a mulitiple-string bar zither (or poly-heterochord bar zither).
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Lake Arereco in Chihuahua, Mexico, 21st century. Stick zither called a "chapareque", Native American instrument. Heterochord bar zither, using mouth for resonator.
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Vietnam. Goong stick zither
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Rudra vina has frets.
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Indian Vichitra veena has no frets.
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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.
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India, 1807. Pinak, a bowed. stick zither.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g von Hornbostel, Erich M.; Sachs, Curt (March 1961). "Classification of Musical Instruments: Translated from the Original German by Anthony Baines and Klaus P. Wachsmann". The Galpin Society Journal. 14: 20–21.
- ^ Sachs, Curt (1940). The History of Musical Instruments, p.463. W. W. Nortan & Company, Inc. ISBN 0-393-02068-1
- ^ Sachs, Kurt (1940). The History of Musical Instruments. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 4631.
in the Malay Archipelago, Madagascar and Zanzibar, the round stick is replaced by a short lath which the player holds on edge (lath-zither).