[ This article is extracted from a letter Jan sent me about this
 [ interesting book :
 [
 [    The Marvelous World of Music Machines
 [    Edited 1976 by Office du Livre, Freibourg
 [    (translation from "Musikautomaten und Mechanische
 [    Musicinstrumente" by James Underwood).

Robbie: The table of contents of this book might as well serve as a
good guide on indexing mechanical music instruments.  At least it
looks like it is following the common rules for classification of
musical instruments.

 [ Text from the book: ]

We know of over 40,000 musical instruments.  No wonder people have tried
to achieve some order amongst them.  At first this was done by putting
together similar instruments, thus creating groups.  In doing so the group
"wind instruments" not only enclosed the flute and the clarinet, but also
the trumpet, the horn and the oboe.  On the other hand there always have
been some classifications in which instruments were arranged under "snare
instruments", "percussion instruments", and so on.

So certain systematics always have been there, but the question of
classification of musical instruments came about only when the interest
in the science of music in Western-Europe rose above the level of that
needed for the normally-used orchestral instruments.  _Then_ the question
of classification of musical instruments turned out to be rather complex
-- so complex that only during the last 40 or 50 years, thanks to far
more complex systematics, a more-or-less clear order could be achieved.

Here are some important developments in the classification of musical
instruments.

Victor Mahillon, a Belgian, wrote a "Catalogue descriptif et analitique
du Musee du Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Bruxelles".  This was a
catalogue of the instruments of the museum of the royal school of music
at Brussels, the capital of Belgium.  (By the way, this still is one of
the most important European, or even world-wide, collections of musical
instruments).

Since he wrote this catalogue during the years 1880 and 1922 (2300 pages,
3300 instruments) he was using the scientific rules of those days, which
is also responsible for the fact that he used names which would be under-
stood by every scientist, regardless of his native tongue.  So, instead
of "wind instrument," Mahillon used the scientific words from the Greek
and Latin languages.  That's why a wind-instrument would be described as
an aerophone, a combination of the Greek words "phonos" = sounding,
and "aero" = wind, thus making: an instrument sounding by using wind.
The same goes for chordophone, where "choros" = string, and membrano-
phones for drums.  The autophones were a group where instruments like
bells, xylophones, and also music boxes were placed.

The Godfather of German music science, Curt Sachs, recognised the
importance of the work of Mahillon.  However, in his masterpiece, the
"Reallexicon der Musikinstrumente" (1913) he argued against the name
"autophone".  He wanted to change this name into "idiophone", thus
changing "auto" = by itself, into "idio" = "like; owner of a certain
property."  This change was widely accepted, and thus we still divide
musical instruments by their scientific names: aerophones (wind
instruments), idiophones (instruments that will sound by themself,
without extra technical help like tension or such), membranophones
(like drums) and chordophones (instruments with strings).

Another grand man was Backhaus, also a German.  He stated that, in fact,
the aerophones and the idiophones did belong to the same group.  This
was an interesting point of view.  However, it didn't cause a change in
the Mahillon scheme of classification.

Some other important scientists were Hans Heinz Draeger (1909) and
Andrea Schaeffner (1932).

Regards, Jan

 - - -
                Classification of Musical Instruments

IDIOPHONES

  Percussion idiophones
  Plucked idiophones
  Musical boxes with steel combs and cylinder or disc ("sur plateau")
  Devices, moving figures, and pictures with built-in musical movement:
    comb and cylinder or disc ("sur plateau").
  Cylinder musical boxes with steel combs and small additional
    percussion idiophones
  Disc musical boxes with steel combs and in some cases bells
  Wind idiophones
  Harmoniums, accordions, barrel-organs, and other free-reed instruments
  Free-reed barrel organs (musical boxes with steel combs and free reeds,
    etc.)

CHORDOPHONES

  Percussion chordophones
  The reproducing-piano
  Plucked cordophones
  String-and-percussion chordophones

AEROPHONES

  Organs and similar instruments
  Organs for manual and automatic play
  Organs for purely automatic play
  Organs with hand-crank drive
  Barrel-organs with moving figures
  Flute-clocks
  Moving figures with flute and/or reed pipes
  Instruments, devices, or figures with one or more pipes
    in which the speaking-length can be shortened by means of a
    plunger (swance whistle)

ORCHESTRIONS

  Orchestrions using mainly idiophones or chordophones
  Orchestrions using mainly aerophones

VARIOUS OTHER INSTRUMENTS AND DEVICES

  Special and composite instruments
  Playing-devices
  Punching-machines