| Name | Image | Tradition | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chonguri |  | Georgia | Chonguri is a four-string unfretted lute from Western Georgia. It is played by plucking and strumming. Three of the strings are fingered, while the fourth is a drone string. It is used almost exclusively for the accompaniment of singing. Another traditional Georgian string instrument is called panduri. Chonguri is longer than panduri and it does not have frets. The image shows a chonguri and a panduri unusually united into one instrument. The longer neck one is the chonguri. |
| Chord Organ |  | United States | A chord organ is a free-reed musical instrument, similar to a small reed organ, in which sound is produced by the flow of air, usually driven by an electric motor, over plastic or metal reeds. Much like the accordion, the chord organ has both a keyboard and a set of chord buttons, enabling the musician to play a melody or lead with one hand and accompanying chords with the other. Chord organs have seen a recent revival amongst minimalist and ambient musicians. The image shows a Magnus 890 electric chord organ. |
| Cigar Box Guitar |  | United States | The cigar box guitar is a primitive chordophone whose resonator is a discarded cigar box. Because the instrument is homemade, there is no standard for dimensions, string types or construction techniques. Many early cigar box guitars consisted only of one or two strings that were attached to the ends of a broomstick that was inserted into the cigar box. The earliest proof of a cigar box instrument found so far is an etching of two Civil War Soldiers at a campsite with one playing a cigar box fiddle. |
| Cimbalom |  | Hungary | The cimbalom (most common spelling), cymbalom, cymbalum, ţambal, tsymbaly, tsimbl, santouri, or santur is a type of hammered dulcimer found mainly in Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Greece, Poland and Iran. The small cimbalom usually is carried by the musician, using a strap around the player's neck and leaning one edge of the instrument against the player's waist. The cimbalom is played by striking two beaters against the strings. In Hungary, the larger, concert cimbalom, comparable in pitch range (and weight) to a small piano, was first developed by József Schunda in the 1870s. It stands on four legs, has forty-eight strings which are stretched over a large sounding board and sounded with small beaters. |
| Cimbasso |  | Italy | The Cimbasso is a brass instrument in the trombone family, with a sound ranging from warm and mellow to bright and menacing. It has three to five piston or rotary valves, a highly cylindrical bore, and is usually pitched in F or Bb. It is in the same range as a tuba or a contrabass trombone. |
| Cimpoi |  | Romania | Cimpoi, the Romanian bagpipe, has a single drone and straight bore chanter and is less strident than its Balkan relatives. The number of finger holes varies from five to eight and there are two types of cimpoi with a double chanter. The bag is often covered with embroidered cloth. The bagpipe can be found in most of Romania apart from the central, northern and eastern parts of Transylvania. |
| Citole |  | Europe | Citole, also spelled Sytole, Cytiole, Gytolle, etc. (probably a French diminutive form of cithara, and not from Latin cista, a box), an archaic musical instrument of which the exact form is uncertain. It is generally shown as a four-string instrument, with a body generally referred to as "holly-leaf" shaped. There is a surviving instrument from around 1300 from Warwick Castle which is now in the British Museum, albeit at some point in antiquity converted into a violin with tall bridge, 'f'-holes and angled fingerboard - thus the instrument's top (see image) is not representative of its original appearance. |
| Cittern |  | Europe | The cittern is a fretted instrument similar to a mandolin. It is a stringed instrument of the lute family dating from the Renaissance. With its flat back, it is much simpler and cheaper to construct than the lute. In its simplest form it has four courses of 2 or 3 strings each. It is played by plucking the strings with the fingers or with a plectrum. |
| Clapper |  | United States | A clapper is a basic form of percussion instrument. It consists of two long solid pieces that are clapped together producing sound. The plastic thundersticks (see image) that have recently come to be popular at sporting events can be considered a form of inflated plastic clapper. |
| Clarinet |  | Germany | The clarinet is a family of woodwind musical instruments. It has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed. It was developed from the chalumeau. Clarinet family: Piccolo clarinet - Very rare. Also known as octave clarinet or sopranino clarinet. Soprano clarinet - B♭ clarinet is the most common one. Basset clarinet - A soprano clarinet with a range extension to low C (written) Basset horn - Alto-to-tenor range instrument with (usually) a smaller bore than the alto clarinet, and a range extended to low (written) C Alto clarinet - About half an octave lower than the B♭clarinet Bass clarinet - An octave below the B♭ clarinet often with an extended low range Contra-alto clarinet - An octave below the alto clarinet Contrabass clarinet — An octave below the bass clarinet |
| Clarsach |  | Scotland | Clàrsach Scots Gaelic, Cláirseach Old Irish are the Gaelic words for 'a harp'. The word clarsach is used in Scottish English and the word cláirseach is used in Irish Language to refer to a variety of small Irish and Scottish harps. In the 1890s a similar new harp was also developed in Scotland for the cultural Gaelic revival. These new instruments were popular and formed the basis of the 20th century revival in Ireland, Scotland and across the world. In Scotland they are called clàrsach though in Ireland they are called Irish harp not cláirseach. Elsewhere they are called Celtic harp or folk harp or small harp or lever harp. The image shows the medieval 'Queen Mary harp' Clàrsach Màiri Banrighinn preserved in the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. |
| Clash Cymbals |  | Europe | Clash cymbals or hand cymbals are cymbals played in identical pairs by holding one cymbal in each hand and striking the two together. In musical scores, clash cymbals are normally indicated as cymbals, crash cymbals, or sometimes simply C.C. |
| Classical Guitar |  | Spain | A classical guitar, sometimes also called a Spanish guitar (referring to its origin, not repertoire), is a musical instrument from the family of musical instruments called chordophones. The classical guitar is characterized by nylon strings (the bass strings usually being of nylon wound with a thin metallic "thread") which are plucked by the guitarists fingers. The name classical guitar does not mean that only classical repertoire is performed on it (although classical music is a part of the instrument's core repertoire) - instead all kinds of music (classical, jazz, folk, etc.) can and are performed on it. |
| Claves |  | Cuba | Claves is a percussion instrument (idiophone), consisting of a pair of short (about 20-30 cm), thick dowels. Traditionally they were made of wood, but nowadays they are also made of fibreglass or plastics due to the longer durability of these materials. When struck they produce a bright clicking noise. Claves are sometimes hollow and carved in the middle to amplify the sound. |
| Clavichord |  | Europe | The clavichord is a European stringed keyboard instrument known from the late Medieval, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras. Historically, it was widely used as a practice instrument and as an aid to composition. The clavichord produces sound by striking brass or iron strings with small metal blades called tangents. Vibrations are transmitted through the bridge(s) to the soundboard. |
| Cobza |  | Romania | The cobza or cobsa is a type of four-course (triple-strung courses) folk lute found primarilly in Romania and Moldova . Some courses had 3 strings. The cobza was tuned in fifths similar to the mandolin. In Hungary the same instrument is known as the koboz. Both are now increasingly rare. The cobza is a short necked, unfretted lute very similar to the oud of Iraq and Syria. It consists of a half-pearshaped resonance box with a belly made of thin spruce and a short broad neck of strong wood, whose pegbox is bent back at an obtuse or right angle. The image shows a part of "The Last Judgment" painting painted on the exterior of the Church of St. George at Voronet Monastery, Romania. |
| Colombian Tiple |  | Colombia | The Colombian tiple is an instrument of the guitar family, similar in appearance although slightly smaller than an acoustic guitar. The tiple is associated mainly with the Andean region of Colombia, and is considered the national instrument. Tiple virtuoso David Pelham has this to say about the Colombian Tiple: "The tiple is a Colombian adaptation of the Renaissance Spanish vihuela brought to the New World in the 16th century by the Spanish conquistadors. At the end of the 19th century, it evolved to its present shape. Its twelve strings are arranged in four groups of three: the first group consists of three steel strings tuned to E, the second, third and fourth groups have a copper string in the middle of two steel strings. The central ones are tuned one octave lower than the surrounding strings of the group. This arrangement produces the set of harmonics that gives the instrument its unique voice." |
| Concertina |  | England | A concertina is a small free-reed accordion instrument from England, usually hexagonal in shape. It has a bellows and buttons typically on both ends of it. When pushed, the buttons travel in the same direction as the bellows, unlike accordion buttons which travel perpendicularly to it. Also, each button produces one note, while accordions typically can produce chords with a single button. |
| Conch |  | India | A Sankh shell (the shell of a Turbinella species in the gastropod family Turbinellidae) is often referred to in the West as a conch shell, or a chank shell. This is a major Hindu article of prayer. It is used as a trumpet. The god of Preservation, Vishnu, is said to hold a special conch, Panchajanya, that represents life, as it has come out of life-giving waters. In the story of Dhruva the divine conch plays a special part. The warriors of ancient India would blow conch shells to announce battle, such as is described in the beginning of the war of Kurukshetra, in the Mahabharata, the famous Hindu epic. The conch shell is a deep part of Hindu symbolic and religious tradition. |
| Conga Drums |  | Congo | The conga is a tall, narrow, single-headed Cuban drum of African origin, probably derived from the Congolese Makuta drums or Sikulu drums commonly played in Mbanza Ngungu, Congo. Most modern congas have a staved wooden or fiberglass shell, and a screw-tensioned drumhead. They are usually played in sets of two to four with the fingers and palms of the hand. Typical congas stand approximately 75 cm from the bottom of the shell to the head. |
| Continuum Fingerboard |  | United States | The Continuum is a music performance controller developed by Lippold Haken and sold by Haken Audio, located in Champaign, Illinois. Technically a MIDI controller, the Continuum features a touch-sensitive neoprene playing surface. Sensors under the playing surface respond to finger position and pressure in three dimensions and provide pitch resolution of one cent (one one-hundredth of a semitone) along the length of the scale (the X dimension), allowing essentially continuous pitch control for portamento effects and notes that aren't on the chromatic scale, apply vibratos or pitch bends to a note. The Continuum does not itself generate sounds. Rather, it must be connected to a sound-producing source that will receive MIDI input, such as a synthesizer module. |
| Contrabass Bugle |  | Canada | The contrabass bugle, usually shortened to contra, is the lowest-pitched instrument in the drum and bugle corps hornline. It is essentially the drum corps' counterpart to the marching band's sousaphone: the lowest-pitched member of the hornline, and a replacement for the concert tuba on the marching field. |
| Contrabass Clarinet |  | Germany | The contrabass clarinet is the largest member of the clarinet family that has ever been in regular production or significant use. Modern contrabass clarinets are pitched in B♭, sounding two octaves lower than the common B♭ soprano clarinet and one octave lower than the B♭ bass clarinet. Some contrabass clarinet models have a range extending down to low (written) E♭, while others can play down to low D or further to low C. The contrabass clarinet is also sometimes known by the name pedal clarinet, this term referring not to any aspect of the instrument's mechanism but to an analogy between its very low tones and the pedal tones of the trombone, or the pedal department of the organ. |
| Contrabass Oboe |  | France | The contrabass oboe is a double reed woodwind instrument in the key of C, sounding two octaves lower than the standard oboe. Current research, in particular that by hautboy specialist Bruce Haynes, suggests that such instruments may have been developed in France as part of an original attempt to maintain the complete family of double reed instruments when the oboe was created from the shawm. It never became a popular or widely employed instrument, and there remain few instances of it today. |
| Contrabass Saxophone |  | United States | The contrabass saxophone is one of the lowest-pitched members of the saxophone family. It is extremely large (twice the length of tubing of the baritone saxophone, with a bore twice as wide, standing 1.9 meters tall, or 6 feet four inches) and heavy (approximately 20 kilograms, or 45 pounds), and is pitched in the key of EE♭, one octave below the baritone. Approximately 25 examples of this instrument exist in the world today including recently made instruments and a handful of surviving examples from the saxophone craze of the 1920s by Evette-Schaeffer and Kohlert. The worldwide number of existing contrabass saxophones is currently growing by 4 or 5 instruments each year. |
| Contrabassoon |  | Germany | The contrabassoon, also contrafagotto or double bassoon, is a larger version of the bassoon sounding an octave lower. The instrument is twice as long as bassoon, curves around on itself several times, and, due to its weight and shape, is supported by an endpin rather than a seat strap. |
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