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lyre

(Encyclopedia)lyre, generic term for stringed musical instruments having a sound box from which project curved arms joined by a crossbar. The strings are stretched between the crossbar and the sound box and are plu...

dulcimer

(Encyclopedia)dulcimer dŭlˈsĭmər [key], stringed musical instrument. It is a wooden box with strings stretched over it that are struck with small mallets. The number of strings may vary. The dulcimer is related...

zither

(Encyclopedia)zither zĭthˈər [key], stringed musical instrument, derived from the psaltery and the dulcimer. It has a flat sound box over which are stretched from 30 to 45 strings; these are plucked with the fin...

harp

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Harp harp, stringed musical instrument of ancient origin, the strings of which are plucked with the fingers. Harps were found in paintings from the 13th cent. b.c. at Thebes. In different form...

harpsichord

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Harpsichord harpsichord, stringed musical instrument played from a keyboard. Its strings, two or more to a note, are plucked by quills or jacks. The harpsichord originated in the 14th cent. an...

viol

(Encyclopedia)viol, family of bowed stringed instruments, the most important ensemble instruments from the 15th to the 17th cent. The viol's early history is indefinite, but it is recognizable in depictions from as...

musical instruments

(Encyclopedia)musical instruments are classified in various ways, but the system devised in 1914 by Kurt Sachs and E. M. von Hornbostel has been accorded recognition by both anthropologists and musicologists becaus...

Khan, Ali Akbar

(Encyclopedia)Khan, Ali Akbar älēˈ ăkˈbär khän [key], 1922–2009, Indian musician, b. Shivpur, East Bengal (now Bangladesh). A master of the sarod, a lutelike 25-stringed N Indian instrument, Khan was born ...

violin

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Violins and viols violin, family of stringed musical instruments having wooden bodies whose backs and fronts are slightly convex, the fronts pierced by two ƒ-shaped resonance holes. The instr...

Japanese music

(Encyclopedia)Japanese music, the highly eclectic musical culture of the Japanese islands. Over the years, Japan has borrowed musical instruments, scales, and styles from many neighboring areas. The indigenous musi...