A lamellophone is any of a family of musical instrument

Musical instrument

A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...

s. The name comes from the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 word "lamella" for "plate" and the Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 root "phonos" for "sound". The name derives from the way the sound

Sound

Sound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.-Propagation of...

 is produced: the instrument has a series of thin plates, or "tongues", each of which is fixed at one end and has the other end free. When the musician depresses the free end of a plate with a finger or fingernail, and then allows the finger to slip off, the released plate vibrates. A tongue may be plucked either from above or below.

Hornbostel-Sachs classification doubtful

In the original Hornbostel-Sachs

Hornbostel-Sachs

Hornbostel–Sachs is a system of musical instrument classification devised by Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs, and first published in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie in 1914. An English translation was published in the Galpin Society Journal in 1961...

 classification of musical instruments, lamellophones are classified as a category of plucked idiophones

Plucked idiophones

Plucked idiophones is one of the categories of musical instruments found in the Hornbostel-Sachs system of musical instrument classification that is usually referred to as . These idiophones are equipped with one or more tongues or lammelae that produce sound by being plucked by the performer...

. While this is appropriate for the various forms of jaw harp and the European mechanical music box, it has been argued that the African thumb piano

Thumb piano

The thumb piano is an African musical instrument, a type of plucked idiophone common throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.-Description:Each note of a kalimba, mbira, etc. is a separate idiophone, and in orchestral terms, the instrument as a whole belongs in the bar percussion family...

s (mbira

Mbira

In African music, the mbira is a musical instrument that consists of a wooden board to which staggered metal keys have been attached. It is often fitted into a resonator...

s) are not idiophones but constitute a class of their own. The reason for this is that their tongues can be shifted and the instruments can be tuned that way. So the pitch of a tongue does not depend on its intrinsic length but on the adjustable length of the free end.

African lamellophones

A large number of lamellophones originate in Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, where they are known under different names including mbira

Mbira

In African music, the mbira is a musical instrument that consists of a wooden board to which staggered metal keys have been attached. It is often fitted into a resonator...

, sanza

Sanza

Sanza is a town and comune in the province of Salerno in the Campania region of southern Italy.-History:It is a small town placed on a hill surrounded by lots of mountains....

, kisanji

Kisanji

Kisanji is the name given to the lamellaphone of the Ngala in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is also known as sanza and is played by holding the instrument in both hands and plucking the keys with the thumbs. The pitch of each metal key is determined by the width of the key...

, likembe, kalimba, and kongoma. They play an important role in southeast African Music. They were reported as early as the 16th century, but there is no doubt they have a much longer history. The Caribbean marímbula

Marímbula

A marímbula is a folk musical instrument of the Caribbean Islands . The marímbula is usually classified as part of the lamellophone family of musical instruments. With its roots in African instruments, marimbula originated in the province of Oriente, Cuba in the 19th century...

 is also of this family. The marímbula can be seen as a bass variant of the mbira and is sometimes used in hiphop music.

The tongues may be arranged in the manner of a piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 and may be made small enough to play with individual fingers, hence the colloquial name "thumb piano." (Although some instruments, like the Mbira, have an additional rows of tongues, in which case not just the thumbs are used for plucking.)

Some conjecture that African lamellophones were derived from xylophone

Xylophone

The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets...

s and marimba

Marimba

The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys ...

s. However, similar instruments have been found elsewhere; for example, the indigenous peoples of Siberia

Siberia

Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

 play wooden and metallic lamellophones with a single tongue.

Lamellophones may be made with or without resonator

Resonator

A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior, that is, it naturally oscillates at some frequencies, called its resonant frequencies, with greater amplitude than at others. The oscillations in a resonator can be either electromagnetic or mechanical...

s. There are also electric lamellophones with an additional pickup

Pickup (music technology)

A pickup device is a transducer that captures mechanical vibrations, usually from suitably equipped stringed instruments such as the electric guitar, electric bass guitar, Chapman Stick, or electric violin, and converts them to an electrical signal that is amplified, recorded, or broadcast.-...

.

Schaeffner's classification

Schaeffner's musical instrument classification scheme has a post-prominent place for the linguaphones (lamellophones) at the second highest level of classification.

In 1932, Andre Schaeffner developed a new classification scheme that was
"exhaustive, potentially covering all real and conceivable instruments"
[Kartomi, p.176].
Schaeffner's system has only
two top-level categories denoted by Roman numerals (Schaeffner, A.: Origine des instruments de musique, pp. 371-377.):

• I: instruments that make sound from vibrating solids;
  • IA Solids not susceptibles of tension (equivalent to a big part of Hornbostel & Sachs idiophone
    Idiophone
    An idiophone is any musical instrument which creates sound primarily by way of the instrument's vibrating, without the use of strings or membranes. It is the first of the four main divisions in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification...
    
    s);
  • IB Flexible solids (equivalent to mainly linguaphones);
  • IC Tensionable solids (equivalent to both membranophone
    Membranophone
    A membranophone is any musical instrument which produces sound primarily by way of a vibrating stretched membrane. It is one of the four main divisions of instruments in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification....
    
    s and chordophone
    Chordophone
    A chordophone is any musical instrument that makes sound by way of a vibrating string or strings stretched between two points. It is one of the four main divisions of instruments in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification....
    
    s);
• II: instruments that make sound from vibrating air (aerophones
  Aerophone
  An aerophone is any musical instrument which produces sound primarily by causing a body of air to vibrate, without the use of strings or membranes, and without the vibration of the instrument itself adding considerably to the sound...
  
  ).

List of lamellophones

• Array mbira
  Array mbira
  The Array mbira is a hand-crafted modern musical instrument with a unique harp or bell-like sound. It is made in the United States by its inventor Bill Wesley and manufactured by Wesley with Patrick Hadley in San Diego, California, United States. It is a radical redesign of the African mbira and is...
  
  
• Agidigbo
  Agidigbo
  The agidigbo is a large traditional plucked lamellophone used by the Yoruba people of Nigeria. Its appearance is piano-like; a rope is worn round the neck of the player who then supports or braces the instrument, whose body is a rectangular wooden box, by his chest or thoracic region...
  
  
• Comb
  Comb
  A comb is a toothed device used in hair care for straightening and cleaning hair or other fibres. Combs are among the oldest tools found by archaeologists...
  
  
• Space Harp
  Space Harp
  The Space Harp, also known as a Frankiphone, is an electrified lamellophone invented by Phil Cohran as part of a musicological experiment exploring his African roots. He named it after his mother, Frankie...
  
  
• Electric thumb piano
  Space Harp
  The Space Harp, also known as a Frankiphone, is an electrified lamellophone invented by Phil Cohran as part of a musicological experiment exploring his African roots. He named it after his mother, Frankie...
  
  
• Jaw harp
• Dan moi
• Kalimba
• Kisanji
  Kisanji
  Kisanji is the name given to the lamellaphone of the Ngala in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is also known as sanza and is played by holding the instrument in both hands and plucking the keys with the thumbs. The pitch of each metal key is determined by the width of the key...
  
  
• Kouxian
  Kouxian
  Kouxian is the Chinese generic term for the jaw harp, and as such is used to refer to all such instruments originating in China...
  
  
• Likembe
• Marímbula
  Marímbula
  A marímbula is a folk musical instrument of the Caribbean Islands . The marímbula is usually classified as part of the lamellophone family of musical instruments. With its roots in African instruments, marimbula originated in the province of Oriente, Cuba in the 19th century...
  
  
• Mbira
  Mbira
  In African music, the mbira is a musical instrument that consists of a wooden board to which staggered metal keys have been attached. It is often fitted into a resonator...
  
  
• Morsing
  Morsing
  A morsing is a wind percussion instrument, mainly used in the Carnatic music of South India and Sindh . It can be categorized under lamellophones, which is in the category of plucked idiophones...
  
  
• Mechanical music box
• Sanza
  Mbira
  In African music, the mbira is a musical instrument that consists of a wooden board to which staggered metal keys have been attached. It is often fitted into a resonator...
  
  
• Frankophone
  Space Harp
  The Space Harp, also known as a Frankiphone, is an electrified lamellophone invented by Phil Cohran as part of a musicological experiment exploring his African roots. He named it after his mother, Frankie...
  
  
• Teponaztli
  Teponaztli
  A teponaztli is a type of slit drum used in central Mexico by the Aztecs and related cultures.-Structure:Teponaztli are made of hollow hardwood logs, often fire-hardened. Like most slit drums, teponaztli have three slits on their topside, cut into the shape of an "H". The resultant tongues are then...
  
  
• Thumb piano
  Thumb piano
  The thumb piano is an African musical instrument, a type of plucked idiophone common throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.-Description:Each note of a kalimba, mbira, etc. is a separate idiophone, and in orchestral terms, the instrument as a whole belongs in the bar percussion family...
  
  
• Tom (instrument)
  Tom (instrument)
  The tom is a plucked lamellophone used in the traditional music of the Nuer and Anuak ethnic groups of western Ethiopia.The instrument was also used in some pieces performed by Orchestra Ethiopia in the 1960s....
  
  
• Sansa
• Ikembe
  Ikembe
  Ikembe, Chisanji, Kisanji and Eleke all refer to a type of lamellaphone common amongst the Bahutu of Rwanda, Burundi and the Congo.In Swahili the word imba means song. Kuimba means to sing, as in the phrase . Mama means mother...
  
  
• Malimbe
  Malimbe
  The malimbe is a type of xylophone from the Congo which is described as having both male and female counterparts; the former has 15 wooden bars, the latter has nine. "Malimbe" also refers to a lamellaphone or mbira type instrument amongst the Nyamwezi of Tanzania.See Mbira and...
  
  
• Eleke
• Kisanji
  Kisanji
  Kisanji is the name given to the lamellaphone of the Ngala in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is also known as sanza and is played by holding the instrument in both hands and plucking the keys with the thumbs. The pitch of each metal key is determined by the width of the key...
  
  
• Oopoochawa
  Oopoochawa
  Oopoochawa or Opochawa, also known as quisanche is a type of mbira or lamellaphone from South America.-References:...
  
  
• Kaffir piano
• Kasayi
• Lukembe
• Tongue drum
• Kalimbe
• Chisanza
• Marímbula
  Marímbula
  A marímbula is a folk musical instrument of the Caribbean Islands . The marímbula is usually classified as part of the lamellophone family of musical instruments. With its roots in African instruments, marimbula originated in the province of Oriente, Cuba in the 19th century...
  
  - Caribbean thumb piano

External links

• Lamellophone players list from N. Scott Robinson site