Musical Instruments: A Comprehensive Guide to Chordophones, Membranophones, Idiophones, Electrophones, and the Human Voice
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Musical Instruments: A Comprehensive Guide
Chordophones
Chordophones are instruments that produce sound by strings vibrating when plucked, picked, bowed, or struck.
Membranophones
Membranophones are instruments that are played by striking a membrane.
Idiophones
Idiophones are instruments that self-vibrate by being moved or struck in various ways.
Electrophones
Electrophones are instruments that produce sounds from electronic recreation and modification.
The Human Voice
The human voice is an aerophone. Although we have vocal cords, we need to exhale air for our voices to produce sound. We use our voices to express ourselves using words and music together.
Another way the human voice acts as a musical instrument is through the use of vocables, which are expressive sounds made by the human voice that are not associated with any known language.
The concept of vocables also originated in the music of Sub-Saharan Africa but is found in music throughout the world.
The Baka Pygmies
The Baka Pygmies are an autonomous, nomadic society living in the Central African forest regions of the Congo, Uganda, and Cameroon. Music is an important part of everyday Pygmy life.Singing, clapping, dancing, water drumming, and the playing of mostly small instruments is how the Pygmies make music.
The Baka Pygmies are recognized for their highly skilled polyphonic (more than one pitch at the same time) singing and creative use of vocables. Pygmy use of actual language in their music is typically been limited to singing a few simple phrases.
Molimo ceremony which honors the forest as mother and sustainer of life) 纪念森林是生命之母During the Molimo Ceremony, a small trumpet-like instrument is played to “wake up” the forest and the simple phrase“the forest is good”重复这句歌词is repeatedly sung in to their natural surroundings.Elima ceremony (acknowledging the time when a child reaches puberty成人礼).
The Mande People
The Mande一种语言are one of the most important ethnolinguistic groups in Sub-Saharan Africa. A number of Mande subgroups, including the Mandinka of Senegal, the Maninka of Guinea, and the Bambara of Mali, all claim a common descent from the Malian Empire
Griot vocal artists are highly skilled singers who also serve as the oral historians and informal educators of Mande society and are recognized by the special title of Jali.
三种重要的乐器