| Name | Image | Tradition | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oboe D'amore |  | Germany | The oboe d'amore (oboe of love in Italian), less commonly oboe d'amour, is a woodwind instrument. It is a member of the double reed family, very similar to the oboe. Slightly larger than the oboe, it has a less assertive and more tranquil and serene tone, and is considered the mezzo-soprano or alto of the oboe family. It is a transposing instrument, sounding a minor third lower than it is notated, i.e. in A. The bell is pear-shaped and the instrument uses a bocal, similar to the larger English Horn, whose bocal is larger. The oboe d'amore was invented in the 18th century and was first used by Christoph Graupner in Wie wunderbar ist Gottes Güt. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote many pieces - a concerto, many of his cantatas, and the "In Spiritum Sanctum" movement of his Mass in B minor - for the instrument. |
| Ocarina |  | China | The ocarina is an ancient flute-like wind instrument.While several variations exist, an ocarina is typified by an oval-shaped enclosed space with four to twelve finger holes and a mouth tube projecting out from the body. It is often ceramic, but many other materials, such as plastic, wood, glass, clay, and metal, may also be used. The ocarina is a very old family of instruments, believed to date back some 12,000 years. Ocarina-type instruments have been of particular importance in Chinese and Mesoamerican cultures. |
| Okaryna |  | Ukraine | The okaryna (also known as zozulka or ocarina) (literally a small cuckoo bird ) is in widespread use in the Carpathian Mountain area of Ukraine especially among the Hutsuls. It is a vessel flute in the shape of an egg with seven to ten finger-holes. This Ukrainian ocarina belongs to the group of whistle instruments and in fact is a sophisticated svystun. Usually they are made of clay. |
| Oporo |  | Kenya | The oporo, a kudu horn, is a musical instrument made from the horn of the kudu antelope. The oporo will be blown during the wedding and funeral ceremonies by the Kenyan people. It is usually played together with the traditional musical instrument called nyatiti to amplify the mood and heighten the tempo of the music. The horn is also used for communication. |
| Paixiao |  | China | The paixiao (Chinese: 排簫; also pái xiāo, pai-hsiao) is an ancient Chinese wind instrument, a form of pan pipes. It is no longer used, having died out in ancient times, although in the 20th century it was reconstructed. |
| Palendag |  | Philippines | The palendag (also called pulalu, palandag, pulala or lumundeg) is a Philippine bamboo flute, the largest one used by the Maguindanaon (a province of the Philippines.) A lip-valley flute, it is considered the hardest of the three bamboo flutes (the others being the tumpong and the suling) to use because of the way one must shape one's lips against its end to make a sound. The construction of the mouthpiece is such that the lower end is cut diagonally to accommodate the lower lip and the second diagonal cut is made for the blowing edge. Among the Bukidnon, a similar instrument with the same construction except that it is three-fourths the length of the palendag, is called the hulakteb. For the Maguindanaon, the palendag was used for intimate gatherings for families in the evening. |
| Pan Flute |  | Europe | The pan flute (also known as panpipes) is an ancient musical instrument based on the principle of the stopped pipe, consisting usually of ten or more pipes of gradually increasing length (and, at times, girth). The pan flute has long been popular as a folk instrument, and is considered the ancestor of both the pipe organ and the harmonica. The pan flute is named for its association with the rustic Greek god Pan. The pipes of the pan flute are typically made from bamboo or giant reed (Spanish cane); other materials used include wood, plastic, and metal. In the traditional South American style, pipes are fine-tuned to correct pitch by placing small pebbles or dry corn kernels into the bottom of the pipes. Contemporary makers of curved Romanian-style panpipes use wax (commonly beeswax) to tune new instruments. Special tools are used to place or remove the wax. Corks and rubber stoppers are also used, and are easier to quickly tune pipes. |
| Pepa |  | India | The pepa is a flute-like musical instrument that is used in traditional music in Assam, India. It is usually with a very short stem made from small diameter bamboo/cane/reed with the end away from the mouth capped with the horn of a buffalo. Bihu denotes a set of three different largely secular festivals of Assam. The pepa is played during the festivals. It is an integral part of the culture of Assam. |
| Pibgorn |  | Wales | The pibgorn (Welsh literally "pipe horn") is a reed instrument from Wales. It has a single reed like that found in the drones of traditional Scottish Bagpipes, and generally six finger holes and a thumbhole giving a diatonic compass of an octave. The body of the instrument is made of wood, usually a hardwood in modern examples though historical instruments often had bodies of Elder or bone. At the mouthpiece end is a reedcap made of horn that protects the reed from contact with the players mouth. At the bell end is a distinctively carved horn bell which serves to amplify the sound. As part of a general revival in interest in Welsh folk music that has also seen the recreation of the Crwth, Welsh pipes and an increase in the popularity of the Welsh Triple Harp, musicians and instrument makers have attempted to revive the tradition of Pibgorn playing. |
| Piccolo |  | Switzerland | The piccolo is a small flute. Like the flute, the piccolo is normally pitched in the key of C, one octave above the concert flute (making it, effectively, a sopranino flute). Because the piccolo's sound is in a very high register, it has a potential to be strident or shrill. Thus, it is often used only as an ornamental, "flavor" or "garnish" instrument, or not at all. Nonetheless, there have been many concertos and solo pieces written for the piccolo, written by notable composers such as Persichetti, Vivaldi, and Todd Goodman. Historically the piccolo had no keys, but does today, and should not be confused with the fife, or classical piccolo, which has a smaller bore and is therefore more strident. The piccolo is used in conjunction with marching drums in traditional formations at the Carnival of Basel, Switzerland. |
| Piccolo Clarinet |  | Europe | 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. |
| Piccolo Oboe |  | France | The piccolo oboe is the smallest and highest pitched member of the oboe family. Pitched in E-flat or F above the regular oboe (which is a C instrument), the piccolo oboe is a sopranino version of the oboe, comparable to the E-flat clarinet. The instrument has found the most use in chamber music and avant-garde circles, where it is valued for its unusual tone colour. Perhaps the best-known pieces requiring piccolo oboe are Solo and Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra No. 2, both by Bruno Maderna. |
| Piffero |  | Italy | The piffero or piffaro is a double reed musical instrument with a conical bore, of the oboe family. It is used to play music in the tradition of the quattro province, an area of mountains and valleys in the north-west Italian Apennines. The reed used by the piffero is inserted in a conical brass tube, which is itself inserted in a pirouette. This peculiarity, which is shared with oriental and ancient oboes, is unique in Italy. The piffero has eight tone holes, one of which, on the back of the instrument, is usually covered by the left hand thumb, and ends with a bell, where a cock tail feather (used to clean the reed) typically rests during execution. |
| Piri |  | Korea | The piri is a Korean double reed instrument, used in both the folk and classical (court) music of Korea. It is made of bamboo. Its large reed and cylindrical bore gives it a sound mellower than that of many other types of oboe. There are four types of piri: Hyang piri, Se piri, Dang piri and Dae piri The piri's equivalent in China is the guan (also known as bili), and its counterpart in Japan is the hichiriki. |
| Pitu |  | Spain | 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. |
| Pivtoradentsivka |  | Ukraine | Pivtoradentsivka (Ukrainian: Півтораденцівка) The Pivtoradetsivka is translated as one and a half dentsivkas. It consists of two dentsivkas joined together into one instrument. Only one of the pipes has fingerholes. The other acts as a drone. The drone pipe in a pivtoradentsivka is usually shorter than the playing pipe. The instrument has the same fingering as the standard dentsivka. |
| Pungi |  | India | A pungi or been is the musical instrument played by the snake charmers. It consists of two bamboo tubes with length of one to two feet each. One tube is for the melody and the other is for the drone. The tubes are attached to a dried hollow gourd or coconut which has two reeds in it. |
| Quena |  | Andes | The quena (Quechua: qina, or "kena" in English) is the traditional flute of the Andes. Usually made of bamboo, it has 6 finger holes and one thumb hole and is open on both ends. To produce sound, the player closes the top end of the pipe with the flesh between his chin and lower lip, and blows a stream of air downward, along the axis of the pipe, over an elliptical notch cut into the end. The quenacho (also "kenacho" in English) is a larger, lower-toned version of the quena and made the same way. It is in the key of D, a fifth lower than the quena. |
| Rag-dung |  | Tibet | The rag-dung is a long (12-20 feet) copper trumpet used in Tibetan Buddhist ceremonies. It is the most widely used instrument in Tibetan Buddhist culture. It is often played in pairs or multiples, and the sound is compared to the singing of elephants. |
| Rauschpfeife |  | Europe | The rauschpfeife is a musical instrument of the woodwind family, originally popular in Europe in the mid-16th Century. In common with the crumhorn and cornamuse, it is a wooden double-reed instrument with the reed enclosed in a windcap. The player blows into a slot in the top of the windcap to produce the sound. Rauschpfeifes differ from crumhorns mainly in the shape of the body, which, like the shawm, is conical. This design has the consequence that the instrument is exceedingly loud, which made it an appropriate tool for striking fear in the enemy during battle. |
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