List of national instruments (music) explained

This list contains musical instruments of symbolic or cultural importance within a nation, state, ethnicity, tribe or other group of people.

In some cases, national instruments remain in wide use within the nation (such as the Puerto Rican cuatro), but in others, their importance is primarily symbolic (such as the Welsh triple harp). Danish ethnologist Lisbet Torp has concluded that some national instrument traditions, such as the Finnish kantele, are invented, pointing to the "influence of intellectuals and nationalists in the nationwide promotion of selected musical instruments as a vehicle for nationalistic ideas".[1] Governments do not generally officially recognize national instruments; some exceptions being the Paraguayan harp,[2] the Japanese koto[3] and the Trinidadian steelpan.

This list compiles instruments that have been alleged to be a national instrument by any of a variety of sources, and an instrument's presence on the list does not indicate that its status as a national instrument is indisputable, only that its status has been credibly argued. Each instrument on this list has a Hornbostel-Sachs number immediately below it. This number indicates the instrument's classification within the Hornbostel-Sachs system (H-S), which organizes instruments numerically based on the manner in which they produce sound.[4]

Images and recordings are supplied where available; note that there are often variations within a national musical tradition, and thus the images and recordings may not be accurate in depicting the entire spectrum of the given nation's music, and that some images and recordings may be taken from a region outside the core of the national instrument's home when such distinctions have little relevance to the information present in the image and recordings. A number of countries have more than one instrument listed, each having been described as a national instrument, not usually by the same source; neither the presence of multiple entries for one nation, nor for multiple nations for one instrument, on this list is reflective of active dispute in any instance. Alternative names and spellings are given. These mostly come from alternative spellings within English or alternative methods of transliterating from a foreign language to English, such as the Chinese yangqin, also transliterated yang ch'in and yang qin. Others reflect regions or subcultures within a given nation, such as the Australian didgeridoo which is or has been called didjeridu, yidaki, yiraki, magu, kanbi and ihambilbilg in various Australian Aboriginal languages. All non-English words are italicized.

NationInstrumentDescription
Recording		H-S numberImage

References

Remove Madal from Nepal. It is not a national instrument of Nepal.

Further reading

The following are specifically referenced above or are book-length or extended scholarly works documenting a specific national instrument, not including collections of songs.

Notes and References

  1. One of the most interesting articles is that by Lisbet Torp about invented traditions in creating a national instrument, such as the Highland bagpipe in Scotland, the kantele in Finland, the bouzouki in Greece etc. She takes the reader through a tour of Europe, in a journey through time and space, beginning in the British Isles at the end of the 18th century with the Irish harp and the Scottish highland bagpipe. She then points to the influence of intellectuals and nationalists in the nationwide promotion of selected musical instruments as a vehicle for nationalistic ideas. The conclusion is that Denmark never developed any national instrument, though, 'at the beginning of the 20th century, the prehistoric bronze lurs were treated as a national symbol.'. Review of Musikkens Tjenere - Instrument - Forsker - Musiker by Mette Müller and Lisbet Torp. Göran. Grahn. The Galpin Society Journal. 52. April 1999. 367–368. 842547. 10.2307/842547.
  2. Web site: Study Guide for Quad City Arts' Visiting Artists Series. https://web.archive.org/web/20180123072246/http://www.photohara.com/rodas.pdf. dead. 2018-01-23. December 23, 2007. October 2001. Quad City Arts.
  3. Web site: About the Japanese Koto. December 23, 2007. KotoWorld. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20071211010344/http://www.kotoworld.com/koto.html. December 11, 2007.
  4. Classification of Musical Instruments: Translated from the original German by Anthony Baines and Klaus P. Wachsmann. Erich M.. von Hornbostel. Curt Sachs . 10.2307/842168. Galpin Society Journal. 14. March 1961. 3–29. 842168. Galpin Society.

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