| Name | Image | Tradition | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fairground Organ |  | United States | A fairground organ is a pipe organ designed for use in a commercial public fairground setting to provide loud music to accompany fairground rides and attractions. Unlike organs designed for indoor use they are designed to produce a large volume of sound to be heard over and above the noise of crowds of people and fairground machinery. Organs were designed to mimic the musical capabilities of a typical human band. For this reason they are known as band organs in the US. Consequently the pipes and percussion and their divisions were chose specifically to fulfil this concept. |
| Fangxiang |  | China | The fangxiang (also fang xiang, fang hsiang; 方响 or 方響 in Chinese) is an ancient Chinese metallophone. The instrument consists of 16 tuned rectangular iron slabs laid in a frame in two rows. The slabs are struck with a hammer and played melodically. Each of the slabs is of the same length and width but they are of graduated thickness, with the thinner slabs producing lower tones and the thicker slabs producing higher tones. In ancient times, the fangxiang was a popular instrument in Chinese court music. It was introduced to Korea, where it is called banghyang (hangul: 방향; hanja: 方響) and is still used in the court music of Korea. The image shows a display in a museum of China. Two pieces of slabs were missing from the display. |
| Fiddle |  | Sweden | The term fiddle refers to a violin when used in folk music. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music. Fiddle playing, or fiddling, is a style of music. In construction, fiddles and violins are exactly the same. To a greater extent than classical violin playing, fiddle playing is characterized by a huge variety of ethnic or folk music traditions, each of which has its own distinctive sound. The photo shows "Hins-Anders" painted by Anders Zorn, 1904. |
| Fife |  | United States | A fife is a small, high-pitched, transverse flute that is similar to the piccolo, but louder and shriller due to its narrower bore. The fife is a simple instrument usually consisting of a tube with 6 finger holes, and diatonically tuned. Some have 10 or 11 holes for added chromatics. The fife was one of the most important musical instruments in America's Colonial period, even more widespread than the violin or piano. The fife can still be heard in some Appalachian folk music, playing lively dance tunes. |
| Fish Drum |  | China | A fish-drum (traditional Chinese: 魚鼓) or pao pei is a traditional Chinese instrument. It is composed of a long cylinder, often of bamboo, over one end of which is stretched a piece of prepared fish skin or snakeskin. Two items that resemble projecting golf clubs are the ends of long slips of bamboo used as castanets. The image shows a woodcut of Elder Zhang Guo, who lived during the Tang Dynasty , carrying a fish-drum. |
| Flabiol |  | Spain | The flabiol, (also known as flaviol, flubiol or fabirol), a woodwind instrument which also is normally played one-handed with a drum. It is one of the 12 instruments of cobla (a traditional music ensemble of Catalonia.) The Flabiol is played with one hand. It measures about 20 - 25 centimeters in length and has five or six holes on its front face and three underneath. The flabiol plays some bars of a high-pitched theme. The flabiol is usually accompanied by a small drum called a tambori that is held on the left elbow and struck with the right hand. |
| Flageolet |  | France | A flageolet is a woodwind musical instrument and a member of the fipple flute family. The first flageolets were made in the 16th Century and the instrument continued to be made until the 20th Century when it was succeeded by the tin whistle. Flageolets have varied greatly during the last 400 years. The first flageolets were called "French flageolets", and have four tone-holes on the front and two on the back. This instrument was played by Frédéric Chalon and Samuel Pepys, and Henry Purcell and George Frideric Handel both wrote pieces for it. |
| Flamenco Guitar |  | Spain | A flamenco guitar is a Spanish guitar built for the purpose of playing Flamenco music. The traditional flamenco guitar is made of Spanish cypress and spruce, and is lighter in weight and a bit smaller than a classical guitar, to give the sound a "brighter" and percussive quality. The flamenco guitar, in contrast to the classical, is also equipped with a tap plate, called a golpeador. |
| Flexatone |  | United States | The flexatone is a modern percussion instrument (an indirectly struck idiophone) consisting of a small flexible metal sheet suspended in a wire frame ending in a handle. A wooden knob mounted on a strip of spring steel lies on each side of the metal sheet. The player holds the flexatone in one hand with the palm around the wire frame and the thumb on the free end of the spring steel. The player then shakes the instrument with a trembling movement which causes the beaters to strike the sides of the metal sheet. While shaking the handle, the musician makes a high or low-pitched sound due to the curve given to the blade by the pressure from his thumb. A vibrato is thus produced. |
| Floyarka |  | Ukraine | The floyarka is a type of sopilka, a traditional Ukrainian flute. It is characterized as an open-ended notched flute. The floyarka is a larger version of the frilka. The floyarka is a pipe of approximately a 30 cm in length, (approximately 10 cm longer than the frilka). Traditionally, a floyarka had six holes, although now ten holes are also common. One end is sharpened and the breath is broken against one of the sides of the tube at the playing end. The mouthpiece is sharpened into a cone-like edge and the instrument produces a sound similar to that of the flute. The floyarka is often called a frilka or sometimes zubivka in central Ukraine. |
| Flugelhorn |  | Germany | The flugelhorn (also spelled fluegelhorn or flügelhorn) is a brass instrument resembling a trumpet but with a wider, conical bore. The original German spelling, Flügelhorn, translates into English as wing horn. Purportedly the instrument was used on the battlefield to summon the flanks, or wings, of an army. |
| Flute |  | Europe | The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge, instead of using a reed. The flute appeared in different forms and locations around the world. It has been dated to prehistoric times (30,000 to 37,000 years ago). The image shows an Etruscan flute player from Tarquinia, Italy. |
| Flutina |  | United States | The flutina is an early precursor to the diatonic button accordion, having one or two rows of treble buttons, which are configured to have the tonic of the scale, on the "draw" of the bellows. There is usually no bass keyboard: the left hand operates an air valve (silent except for the rush of air). A rocker switch, called a "bascule d'harmonie" is in the front of the keyboard. Many of these "Flutina" (see image) accordions were imported into the United States and were common photographers' studio props. |
| Fortepiano |  | Italy | Fortepiano designates the early version of the piano, from its invention by the Italian instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori around 1700 up to the early 19th century. Fortepianos have leather-covered hammers and thin, harpsichord-like strings. The tone of the fortepiano is softer and has less sustain than the modern piano. Fortepianos also tend to have quite different tone quality in their different registers. The image shows a fortepiano by Paul McNulty after Walter & Sohn, ca. 1805. |
| Frula |  | Croatia | A frula is the Croatian and Serbian name for a musical instrument which resembles a small recorder or flute. It is an end-blown aerophone. Similar instruments are played throughout Eastern Europe and the Balkans. It is typically made of wood and has six holes. The frula is a traditional instrument of shepherds, who would play while tending their flocks. |
| Fujara |  | Slovakia | The fujara is a large folk shepherd's fipple flute of unique design, originating from Slovakia. It is typically 150-170 cm long, tuned in G (A and F are also available). It has three tone holes located on the lower part of the main body. Traditionally, the fujara was played for recreation, usually by shepherds. Today, though, the fujara has moved from the fields to the stage at folklore festivals in Východná and Detva, both in Slovakia. Also, the instrument has left Slovakia and is played all over the world, especially Western Europe and North America. |
| Furro |  | Venezuela | The furro is a a friction drum from Venezuela. It is a percussion instrument consisting of a single membrane stretched over a sound box, whose sound is produced by the player causing the membrane to vibrate by friction. It is used in zulian traditional music such as parranda and gaita. |
Prev Top Next |
