| Name | Image | Tradition | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Haegum |  | Korea | The haegeum is a traditional Korean string instrument, resembling a fiddle. It has a rodlike body supporting two silk strings and is held vertically on the knee of the performer and played with a bow. The haegeum is related to similar Chinese instruments in the huqin family of instruments, such as the erhu. Of these, it is most closely related to the ancient xiqin, as well as the erxian used in nanguan and Cantonese music. |
| Hammered Dulcimer |  | United States | The hammered dulcimer (also known as the hammer dulcimer or four hammer dulcimer) is a stringed musical instrument with the strings stretched over a trapezoidal sounding board. The instrument is typically set at an angle on a stand in front of the musician, who holds a small mallet, called a hammer in each hand with which to strike the strings. The word dulcimer comes from the Latin dulcis or "sweet" and the Greek melos, meaning "song". The origin of the instrument is uncertain, but tradition holds that it was invented in Iran roughly 2000 years ago, where it is called a Santur. The image shows an reenactor playing a hammered dulcimer, New Salem, Illinois, 2006. |
| Hammond Organ |  | United States | The Hammond organ is an electric organ which was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company until the 1970s. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the pipe organ, it became the de facto standard for jazz, blues, and rock music (in the 1960s and 1970s) and gospel music. |
| Handbell |  | United States | A handbell is a bell designed to be rung by hand. To ring a handbell, a ringer grasps the bell by its slightly flexible handle - traditionally made of leather, but often now made of plastic - and moves the wrist to make the hinged clapper inside the bell strike. The bells used in American handbell choirs are almost always English handbells. "English handbells" is a reference to a specific type of handbells, not to the country of origin. The image shows members of Slater Elementary School’s girls bell group, 2004. |
| Hang |  | Switzerland | A hang (pronounced 'hung' or 'hong') is a melodious percussive musical instrument, similar to a steel drum. It uses many of the same physical principles to operate. However, since it is struck with the fingers, the sound is generally much softer than a steel drum, and can be played in many ways to produce a wide variety of sounds. The instrument is also frequently called a hang drum, because of the nature in which it is played, its relation to the steel drum, and its popularity with hand drummers. |
| Hardanger Fiddle |  | Norway | A Hardanger fiddle (or in Norwegian: hardingfele) is a traditional stringed instrument used originally to play the music of Norway. In modern designs, the instruments are very similar to the violin, though with eight or nine strings and thinner wood. Four of the strings are strung and played like a violin, while the rest, aptly named understrings or sympathetic strings, resonate under the influence of the other four, providing a pleasant haunting, echo-like sound. The Hardingfele is used for dancing, accompanied by rhythmic loud foot stomping. It was also traditional for the fiddler to lead the bridal procession to the church. |
| Harmonica |  | Germany | A harmonica is a free reed wind instrument. It has multiple, variably-tuned brass or bronze reeds which are secured at one end over an airway slot in which they can freely vibrate. The vibrating reeds repeatedly interrupt the airstream to produce sound. The harmonica has no keyboard. The harmonica has nicknames, especially in blues music, including: mouth organ and blues mouth organ. |
| Harmonium |  | India | A Harmonium is a small, portable, bellow-blown reed organ used in India, Pakistan and Western countries. Though derived from the designs developed in France, the harmonium was developed further in India in unique ways, such as the addition of drone stops and a scale changing mechanism. In Indian and Pakistani music, the player usually sits on the ground, with one hand fingering the keyboard and the other pumping bellows. |
| Harp |  | Egypt | The harp is a stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicular to the soundboard. All harps have a neck, resonator and strings. Some, known as frame harps, also have a forepillar; those lacking the forepillar are referred to as open harps. The oldest depictions of harps are from 4000 BCE in Egypt and 3000 BCE in Persia. The image shows a double-strung harp. It consists of two rows of diatonic strings one on either side of the neck. |
| Harp Guitar |  | Italy | The harp guitar is a stringed instrument with an incredibly rich history of well over two centuries. It is defined as "A guitar, in any of its accepted forms, with any number of additional unstopped strings that can accommodate individual plucking." Additionally, in reference to these instruments, the word "harp" is now a specific reference to the unstopped open strings, and is not specifically a reference to the tone, pitch range, volume, silhouette similarity, construction, floor-standing ability, nor any other alleged "harp-like" properties. To qualify in this category, an instrument must have at least one unfretted string lying off the main fretboard. Further, the unfretted strings can be, and typically are, played as an open string. |
| Harpsichord |  | Germany | A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when each key is depressed. The harpsichord was widely used in Baroque music. It became less popular following the invention of the piano, but is still used in contemporary music due to its distinctive sound. |
| Heckelphone |  | Germany | The heckelphone is a musical instrument invented by Wilhelm Heckel and his sons, introduced in 1904. It is a double reed instrument of the oboe family, but with a wider bore and hence a heavier and more penetrating tone. It is pitched an octave below the oboe and furnished with an additional semitone taking its range down to A. The heckelphone is approximately four feet in length, and is quite heavy. |
Prev Top Next |
