organology
Sign in to saveOrganology (; ) is the science of musical instruments and their classifications. It embraces study of instruments' history, instruments used in different cultures, technical aspects of how instruments produce sound, and musical instrument classification. There is a degree of overlap between organology, ethnomusicology (being subsets of musicology) and the branch of the science of acoustics devoted to musical instruments.
~10 min read
Encyclopedic overview
9 sectionsContents
- History
- Outside perspectives on the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system
- Alternative perspectives on the classification of musical instruments
- Connections to ethnomusicology
- Prominent organologists
- Ethno-organologists
- See also
- References
- External links
Organology (; ) is the science of musical instruments and their classifications. It embraces study of instruments' history, instruments used in different cultures, technical aspects of how instruments produce sound, and musical instrument classification. There is a degree of overlap between organology, ethnomusicology (being subsets of musicology) and the branch of the science of acoustics devoted to musical instruments.
==History== A number of ancient cultures left documents detailing the musical instruments used and their role in society; these documents sometimes included a classification system. The first major documents on the subjects from the west, however, date from the 16th century, with works such as Sebastian Virdung's (1511), and Martin Agricola's (1529).
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “organology” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.