| Name | Image | Description | Video |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alboka |  | The alboka is a double hornpipe or clarinet native to the Basque Country. It’s built out of cane, wood or animal horn. One end contains a mouthpiece made of horn with a holder for the two reeds. The other end is made of a larger horn, which acts as a resonator. | |
| Bandurria |  | The bandurria is a plectrum plucked chordophone from Spain, similar to the cittern and the mandolin, primarily used in Spanish folk music. The original bandurrias of the Medieval period had three strings. During the Renaissance they gained a fourth string. During the Baroque period the bandurria had 10 strings (5 pairs). The modern bandurria has 12 strings with a short wide neck and 14 metal frets. | |
| Bombo |  | A bombo is a kind of bass drum used in traditional music in Spain, Portugal and South America. | |
| Castanet |  | Castanets are percussion instrument (idiophone), much used in Moorish, Ottoman, Ancient Roman, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American music. The instrument consists of a pair of concave shells joined on one edge by string. These are held in the hand and used to produce clicks for rhythmic accents or a ripping or rattling sound consisting of a rapid series of clicks. They are traditionally made of hardwood, although fibreglass is becoming increasingly popular. Spanish castanets are called Castañuelas. Portuguese castanets.are called Castanholas. | |
| Catalan Shawm |  | A catalan shawm is one of two varieties of shawm (an oboe-like woodwind instrument) used in Catalonia in northern Spain. The types of shawm commonly used in Catalonia are the tible (Catalan for "treble") and the tenora (Catalan for "tenor"). The tenora is pitched about a fifth lower than the tible. These shawms are usually used with other instruments to accompany the traditional Catalan circle dance, the Sardana. The image shows a Sardana band palying catalan shawms. | |
| Cavaquinho |  | The cavaquinho is a small string instrument of the European guitar family with four wire or gut strings. It is also called machimbo, machim, machete (in the Portuguese Atlantic islands and Brazil), manchete or marchete, braguinha or braguinho. It is frequently and fondly called cavaco in Brazil. | |
| Classical Guitar |  | 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. | |
| Dulzaina |  | The dulzaina is a Spanish double reed instrument in the oboe family. It has a conical shape and is the equivalent of the Breton bombarde. Many varieties of the dulzaina exist in Spain. In the Land of Valencia it's known as a dolçaina or xeremia and is accompanied by a drum called the tabalet. The Catalan variety of the dulzaina is called a dolçaina or gralla, and the Basque variety is called a Bolin-Gozo. | |
| Flabiol |  | 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. | |
| Flamenco Guitar |  | 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. | |
| Galician Gaita |  | The (Galician) gaita or gaita de fole is a traditional bagpipe used in Galicia (Spain), and Portugal. The Galician gaita has a conical chanter and a bass drone (ronco) with a second octave. It may have one or two additional drones playing the tonic and dominant notes. Three keys are traditional: D, C, and Bb. Galician pipe bands playing these instruments have become popular in recent years. | |
| Guitarro |  | The Guitarro is a small, five-stringed guitar from Aragon, an autonomous community in the centre of north-eastern Spain. It is slightly larger than the requinto or cavaquinho. The instrument is also found in other regions of Spain, such as Andalusia, La Mancha, and Murcia. | |
| Organistrum |  | The organistrum is an early form of hurdy gurdy that originated in northern Spain as an instrument used for singing instruction in monastic settings. Generally considered the ancestor of all subsequent hurdy gurdies, the organistrum differs substantially from later instruments in that it was played by two individuals: one turned the crank while the other pulled the keys upward to change the pitch of the melody strings. The image shows a replica of an Organistrum. It is one of the various historical musical instruments stored in the basement of the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. | |
| Piccolo Clarinet |  | The piccolo clarinets are members of the clarinet family, smaller and higher pitched than the more familiar high soprano clarinets in E♭ and D. None is common, but the most often used piccolo clarinet is the A♭ clarinet, sounding nearly an octave higher than the B♭ clarinet. Clarinets pitched in A-flat appeared frequently in European wind bands, particularly in Spain and Italy, at least through the middle of the 20th century, and are called for in the stage-band parts for several operas by Verdi. The image shows an A♭ (left), an E♭, and a B♭ (right) clarinets. | |
| Pitu |  | The pitu is one of the traditional musical instruments in Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria. It is a kind of conical-bored shawm with seven holes in the front and one in the back, which is played in a similar manner to the bagpipe chanter. While it was traditionally made in E-flat, the instrument has been revitalized by Antón Corral, who makes them in D. A transverse flute with six holes is called a requinta; it is similar to the fife. It is usually in G, or sometimes a high C. | |
| Rebec |  | The rebec (or rebeck) is a bowed string musical instrument with a pear-shaped body. The number of strings on the rebec varies from one to five, although three is the most common number. The rebec dates back to the Middle Ages and was particularly popular in the 15th and 16th centuries. The instrument is European, but probably developed from the arabo-islamic instrument, the rebab. The image shows a rebec player in Cantabria, northern Spain. | |
| Spanish Laúd |  | The Spanish laúd is a plectrum plucked chordophone from Spain. It has a flat back and a pear shaped body. It consists of twelve metallic strings (six double), as the bandurria, but the neck is longer than a bandurria. Traditionally it forms part of serenaders or folk string musical groups, together with the guitar and the bandurria. Like the bandurria, it is tuned in fifths. | |
| Spanish Vihuela |  | The Spanish vihuela is a string instruments from 16th century Spain. The vihuela is considered by some to be the (more ancient) precursor to the modern classical guitar. In Italy and Portugal this same instrument was known as viola da mano. In its most developed form, the vihuela was a guitar-like instrument with six double-strings (paired courses) made of gut. Plucked vihuela, being essentially flat-backed lutes, evolved in the mid 1400s, in the Kingdom of Aragón (located in North-Eastern Iberia or Spain). In Spain and Italy (and other regional kingdoms under their influence) the vihuela was in common use in the late 15th and 16th centuries. | |
| Tambori |  | The tambori is a percussion instrument of about 10 centimetres diameter, a small shallow cylinder formed of metal or wood with a drumhead of skin. Its usual function is to accompany the playing of the flabiol in a cobla band, beating the rhythm of the sardana dance, which is the traditional dance of Catalonia, a region of North-East Spain. It is attached to the elbow of the left arm and struck with a drumstick called a broqueta held by the right hand, while the flabiol can be played with the left hand of the same player. The image shows a tambori (left) together with a flabiol. | |
| Tambourine |  | The tambourine or Marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all. The tambourine can be held in the hand or mounted on a stand, and can be played in numerous ways, from stroking or shaking the jingles to striking it sharply with hand or stick or using the tambourine to strike the leg or hip. Tambourines come in many different shapes with the most common being circular. It is found in many forms of music, classical music, Roma music, Persian music, gospel music, pop music and rock and roll. | |
| Timple |  | Migrating from North Africa in the 16th century to the Canary Islands and then on to Murcia, the Timple has become the traditional instrument of the Canaries. In the north Island of Tenerife many timples are played incorrectly, where by dropping the 5th string to allow for Ukulele tunning to be adopted. It is generally agreed that this method of playing the Timple is incorrect and that the timple ceases to be a Timple when only 4 strings are in use. Popular tunning is GCEAD. | |
| Trikitixa |  | Trikitixa or eskusoinu ("hand sound") is a two-row Basque diatonic button accordion with right-hand rows keyed a fifth apart and twelve unisonoric bass buttons. Trikitixa is reportedly known since the early XIXth century, when it was imported to the Basque Country from Italy through the port of Bilbao. Other sources suggest that this kind of diatonic accordion was brought in by Italian railway workers. Currently traditional style ensembles consist of a pair playing trikitixa, tambourine and voice. Players typically use a highly-ornamented and swift style, along with staccato triplets. | |
| Txalaparta |  | The txalaparta is a specialized Basque (an autonomous community in the Kingdom of Spain) music device of wood or stone, similar to Romanian toacă. It is classified as an idiophone (a percussion instrument.) In its traditional construction (known as the txalaparta zaharra), the txalaparta is made of a pair of long wooden boards held up horizontally on two ends and then beat vertically with special thick drum sticks held upright in the hands. On the two ends, between the long board and the supports, corn husks are placed for vibration. Music is made using the txalaparta by having one or more performers produce differing rhythms, playing with wood knots and spots of the boards for different tones. | |
| Txistu |  | Basque Country (an autonomous community in the Kingdom of Spain) is home to a lively style of folk music called trikitixa, based on a diatonic accordion and a tambourine. Another traditional Basque instrument used in the trikitixa is the txistu. The txistuis a kind of recorder that became a symbol for the Basque folk revival. The name may stem from the general Basque word ziztu (to whistle.) This three-holed recorder can be played with one hand, leaving the other one free to play a percussion instrument. | |
| Zambomba |  | Zambomba is a friction drum from Spain. 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. Zambomba can be made from a variety of materials and rubbed either with a rod or with rope. It is particularly associated with Christmas when it used to accompany the singing of carols. The Zambomba features in the 1895 painting titled “Monaguillo tocando la zambomba” by Ignacio Pinazo Camarlench, a Spanish painter. |
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