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.[4]
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.[5]
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.
References
- ↑ Review of Musikkens Tjenere - Instrument - Forsker - Musiker by Mette Müller and Lisbet Torp. The Galpin Society Journal({Template:Date).
- ↑ Study Guide for Quad City Arts' Visiting Artists Series. Quad City Arts(October 2001). Retrieved December 23, 2007.
- ↑ About the Japanese Koto. KotoWorld. Retrieved December 23, 2007.
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedsteelpan - ↑ Classification of Musical Instruments: Translated from the original German by Anthony Baines and Klaus P. Wachsmann. Galpin Society Journal({Template:Date).
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.
- African American: African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia : A Study of Folk Traditions{{#if:Conway|, Conway}. University of Tennessee Press(1995). ISBN 0-87049-893-2
- African American: America's Instrument: The Banjo in the Nineteenth Century{{#if:Gura|, Gura}. University of North Carolina Press(1999). ISBN 0-8078-2484-4
- African American: That Half-Barbaric Twang: The Banjo in American Popular Culture{{#if:Linn|, Linn}. University of Illinois Press(1994). ISBN 0-252-06433-X
- Argentina: Technology of the Argentina Guitar{{#if:Muñoz|, Muñoz}(1952)
- Argentina: The Bandonion: A Tango History, A Memoir of Arturo Penón (Petite histoire du bandonéon et du tango){{#if:Penón|, Penón}. Nightwood Editions(1988). ISBN 0-88971-111-9
- Argentina: The Rioplatense Guitar{{#if:Pinnell|, Pinnell}. Bold Strummer(1993). ISBN 0-933224-42-7
- Arab: Hal Leonard Oud Method{{#if:Bilezikjian|, Bilezikjian}. Hal Leonard Corporation(2006). ISBN 0-634-07786-4
- Armenia: The Duduk and National Identity in Armenia{{#if:Nercessian|, Nercessian}. Scarecrow Press(2001). ISBN 0-8108-4075-8
- Australia: Didgeridoo: Ritual Origins and Playing Techniques{{#if:Schellberg|, Schellberg}. Binkey Kok(1994). ISBN 90-74597-13-0
- Australia: The Australian Didjeridu: A Late Musical Intrusion. World Archaeology({Template:Year).
- Baganda (Uganda): Endongo: The Role and Significance of the Baganda Bowl Lyre of Uganda{{#if:Makubuya|, Makubuya}. University of California(1995)
- Bavaria: Alpenfolklorismus, Volksmusik, Bayern-Pop{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Wälischmiller'sche Buchdruckerei(1986)
- Brazil: Guitar Cultures{{#if:Crowdy|, Crowdy}. Berg(2001). ISBN 1-85973-429-4
- Brazil: A Comprehensive Guide to Brazilian Pandeiro{{#if:Gregory|, Gregory}. Booksurge(2007). ISBN 978-1-4196-7284-2
- China: The Lute: Gao Ming's Pipa Ji (Pi pa ji){{#if:Gao|, Gao}. Columbia University Press(1980). ISBN 0-231-04760-6
- China: The Way of the Pipa: Structure and Imagery in Chinese Lute Music{{#if:Myers|, Myers}. Kent State University Press(1992). ISBN 0-87338-455-5
- Finland: The Kantele Traditions of Finland{{#if:Rahkonen|, Rahkonen}. Indiana University(1989)
- Ancient Greece: The Greek Aulos{{#if:Schlesinger|, Schlesinger}. Bouma's Boekhuis(1970). ISBN 90-6088-027-7
- Guatemala: El renacimiento de la danza guatemalteca y el origen de la marimba{{#if:Armas Lara|, Armas Lara}. Ministerio de Educación Pública(1964)
- Guatemala: The Marimbas of Guatemala{{#if:Chenoweth|, Chenoweth}. University of Kentucky Press(1964)
- Guatemala: Maya Achi Marimba Music in Guatemala{{#if:Pellicer|, Pellicer}. Temple University Press(2005). ISBN 1-59213-292-8
- Hawaii: The Ukulele: A Visual History{{#if:Beloff|, Beloff}. Miller Freeman Books(1997). ISBN 0-87930-454-5
- India: Veena Tradition in Indian Music{{#if:Annapoorna|, Annapoorna}. Kanishka(1996). ISBN 81-7391-140-1
- Ireland: The Irish and Highland Harps{{#if:Armstrong|, Armstrong}. Praeger Publishers(1970). ISBN 0-7165-0073-6
- Ireland: The Story of the Irish Harp: Its History and Influence{{#if:Clark|, Clark}. North Creek Press(2003). ISBN 0-9724202-0-7
- Ireland: The Irish Harp{{#if:Rimmer|, Rimmer}. Mercier Press for the Cultural Relations Committee(1969). ISBN 0-85342-151-X
- Japan: The Kumiuta and Danmono Traditions of Japanese Koto Music{{#if:Adriaansz|, Adriaansz}. University of California(1973). ISBN 0-520-01785-4
- Japan: The Koto: A Traditional Instrument in Contemporary Japan{{#if:Johnson|, Johnson}. Hotei(2004). ISBN 90-74822-63-0
- Japan: Yakumogoto no shirabe: Shinwa to sono kokoro (八雲琴の調べ : 神話とその心 / 窪田英樹){{#if:Kubota|, Kubota}. Tōhō Shuppan(1986). ISBN 4-88591-144-3
- Japan: Tegotomono: Music for the Japanese Koto{{#if:Wade|, Wade}. Greenwood Press(1976). ISBN 0-8371-8908-X
- Latvia: Template:Cite thesis
- Lithuania: Template:Cite thesis
- Mexico: The Wood That Sings: The Marimba in Chiapas, Mexico{{#if:Kaptain|, Kaptain}. HoneyRock(1992). ISBN 0-9634060-0-0
- Mexico: Template:Cite thesis
- Mongolia: Horse-Head Fiddle and the Cosmopolitan Reimagination of Mongolia{{#if:Marsh|, Marsh}. Routledge(2004). ISBN 0-203-00551-1
- Mongolia: Strings That Conquered the World: Morin Khuur, the Mongolian Horse-head Fiddle{{#if:Santaro|, Santaro}. Admon(2005). ISBN 99929-0-376-7
- Norway: Comparison of Melodic Variants in the Hardingfele Repertoire of Norway{{#if:Een|, Een}. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign(1977)
- Norway: Fiddling for Norway: Revival and Identity{{#if:Goertzen|, Goertzen}. University of Chicago Press(1997). ISBN 0-226-30049-8
- Norway: Aural Thinking in Norway: Performance and Communication With the Hardingfele{{#if:Hopkins|, Hopkins}. Human Sciences Press(1986). ISBN 0-89885-253-6
- Portugal: The Portuguese Guitar{{#if:Cabral|, Cabral}(1999)
- Sardinia: The Launeddas: A Sardinian Folk-music Instrument{{#if:Bentzon|, Bentzon}. Akademisk forlag(1969)
- Scotland: The Highland Bagpipe and Its Music{{#if:Cannon|, Cannon}. John Donald(2002). ISBN 0-85976-549-0
- Scotland: The Highland Pipe and Scottish Society, 1750-1950: Transmission, Change and the Concept of Tradition{{#if:Donaldson|, Donaldson}. Tuckwell Press(2000). ISBN 1-86232-075-6
- Scotland: Piobaireachd and Its Interpretation: Classical Music of the Highland Bagpipe{{#if:MacNeill|, MacNeill}. Donald(1987). ISBN 0-85976-176-2
- Scotland: The Highland Bagpipe: Its History, Literature, and Music{{#if:Manson|, Manson}. A. Gardner(1901). ISBN 0-7158-1213-0
- Spain: Spanish Guitar Music: Guitar Solo{{#if:Schirmer|, Schirmer}. Hal Leonard(1986). ISBN 0-7935-3583-2
- Spain: The Symphony Spanish Guitar Book{{#if:Gupta|, Gupta}. Gyan Sagar Publication(2001). ISBN 81-7685-015-2
- Sweden: Nyckelharpan: studier i ett folkligt musikinstrument{{#if:Ling|, Ling}. Prisma(1979)
- Switzerland: Das Alphorn : vom Lock- zum Rockinstrument{{#if:Bachmann-Geiser|, Bachmann-Geiser}. P. Haupt(1999). ISBN 3-258-05640-4
- Trinidad and Tobago: Stories in Steel: The True Account of the Invention of the Steelpan{{#if:Adams|, Adams}. Jhullian Graphics(2005). ISBN 976-8194-50-2
- Trinidad and Tobago: The Steelpan Handbook{{#if:Hayward|, Hayward}. Piper Publications(1993)
- Wales: The Bowed-Harp: A Study in the History of Early Musical Instruments{{#if:Andersson|, Andersson}. AMS Press(1973). ISBN 0-404-56503-4
- Wales: The Story of the Harp in Wales{{#if:Ellis|, Ellis}. University of Wales(1991). ISBN 0-7083-1104-0
- Zimbabwe: The Soul of Mbira: Music and Traditions of the Shona People of Zimbabwe{{#if:Berliner|, Berliner}. University of California Press(1981). ISBN 0-226-04379-7
- Zimbabwe: Chipendani und Mbira: Musikinstrumente, nicht-begriffliche Mathematik und die Evolution der harmonischen Progressionen in der Musik der Shona in Zimbabwe{{#if:Brenner|, Brenner}. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht(1997). ISBN 3-525-82372-X