A lamellophone (also lamellaphone or linguaphone) is a member of the family of
musical instruments that makes its sound by a thin vibrating plate called a lamella or tongue, which is fixed at one end and has the other end free. When the musician depresses the free end of a plate with a finger or fingernail, and then allows the finger to slip off, the released plate vibrates. An instrument may have a single tongue (such as a
Jew's harp) or a series of multiple tongues (such as a
mbira thumb piano).
Linguaphone comes from the Latin root ''lingua'' meaning "tongue", (i.e., a long thin plate that is fixed only at one end). lamellophone comes from the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
word ' for "small metal plate", and the
Greek word ''phonē'' for "sound, voice".
The lamellophones constitute category 12 in the
Hornbostel–Sachs
Hornbostel–Sachs or Sachs–Hornbostel is a system of musical instrument classification devised by Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs, and first published in the in 1914. An English translation was published in the '' Galpin Society ...
system for classifying musical instruments, plucked
idiophone
An idiophone is any musical instrument that creates sound primarily by the vibration of the instrument itself, without the use of air flow (as with aerophones), strings ( chordophones), membranes ( membranophones) or electricity ( electroph ...
s. There are two main categories of plucked idiophones, those that are in the form of a frame (121) and those that are in the form of a comb (122).
According to
Sachs,
African lamellophones
A large number of lamellophones originate in
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
, where they are known under different names including ''
mbira'', ''sanza'', ''
kisanji'', ''
likembe'', ''
kalimba'', and ''
kongoma''. They play a role in southeast
African Music. They were reported as early as the 16th century, but there is no doubt they have a much longer history. The Caribbean
marímbula is also of this family. The marímbula can be seen as a bass variant of the mbira and is sometimes used in
hip hop music.
In most cases the tongues are divided in two playing halves with the lowest notes in the centre; from there to the left and to the right each tongue is tuned higher than the previous one. The tongues may also be arranged in a linear arrangement in the manner of a
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
. Tongues may be made small enough to play with individual fingers, hence the colloquial name "thumb piano". (Although some instruments, like the ''Mbira'', have an additional rows of tongues, in which case not just the thumbs are used for plucking.)
Some conjecture that African lamellophones were derived from
xylophone
The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in ...
s and
marimba
The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...
s. However, similar instruments have been found elsewhere; for example, the
indigenous people
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
s of
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part ...
play wooden and metallic lamellophones with a single tongue.
Lamellophones may be made with or without
resonators. There are also
electric lamellophones with an additional
pickup.
Electric lamellophones
Electric lamellophones have been electrified with an
electro-magnetic pickup (like on electric guitars) or contact
piezo pickup
A pickup is a transducer that captures or senses mechanical vibrations produced by musical instruments, particularly stringed instruments such as the electric guitar, and converts these to an electrical signal that is amplified using an instru ...
.
Piezo pickup lamellophones
There is a distinct difference between the piezo and the electro-magnetic pickup. Most electric lamellophones feature piezo pickups. The piezo sound contains more treble and has more problems with
feedback when amplified (
distorted) heavily.
Lucinda Ellison Lucinda may refer to:
* Lucinda (given name), people with the given name ''Lucinda''
* Lucinda, Queensland, a town in Australia
* ''Lucinda (steam yacht)
The ''Lucinda'' was a Queensland Government owned, 301-ton paddle steamer built by William ...
produces a wide range of her Embiras, which are solid body electric
mbiras with piezo pickups — a design first conceived in 1981 and finalised in 1996.
David Bellinger has been making ekalimbas -
kalimbas with piezo pickups - for 20 years.
The
Array Mbira is a lamellophone with an alternate tine configuration. It is electrified by the addition of a 2-channel stereo piezo cable pickup system. A special solid-body Array mbira exists.
Electro-magnetic lamellophones
Ernst Zacharias created a series of electric lamellophones created in the 1960s for
Hohner. These instruments were based on the reeds made by Hohner (already employed in accordions, concertinas, melodicas and harmonicas). These instruments were the
Pianet (plucked by a foam pad), the
Cembalet
The Cembalet is a type of electro-mechanical piano built by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany from the late-1950s to the late 1960s. The designer of the Cembalet was Ernst Zacharias
Ernst Zacharias (21 June 1924 – 6 July 2020 ...
(plucked by a rubber pad) and the
Guitaret
The Guitaret is an electric lamellophone made by Hohner and invented by Ernst Zacharias, in 1963. Zacharias also invented similar instruments like the Pianet, Cembalet and the Clavinet.
The instrument itself was not popular, and was dropped from ...
(plucked by fingers). The idea of a struck reed tongue had been pioneered by the Alexandre brothers in their "Orgues expressifs" (
harmoniums) in the 19th century, where they were called percussion stops.
The
Space Harp, or Frankiphone (designed, built and played by
Phil Cohran), is a famous instance of an electric lamellophone.
A range of other mbiras and
kalimbas have been created by contemporary instrument makers. The African band
Konono No.1 uses custom-built electric kalimbas with electro-magnetic pickups.
Neptune's Jason Sanford makes electric thumb pianos from scrap in a similar tradition and
Yuri Landman has made
12-TET
Twelve-tone equal temperament (12-TET) is the musical system that divides the octave into 12 parts, all of which are equally tempered (equally spaced) on a logarithmic scale, with a ratio equal to the 12th root of 2 ( ≈ 1.05946). That resulti ...
bass kalimbas and metal
tongue drum
A slit drum or slit gong is a hollow percussion instrument. In spite of the name, it is not a true drum but an idiophone, usually carved or constructed from bamboo or wood into a box with one or more slits in the top. Most slit drums have one slit ...
s.
Schaeffner's classification
Schaeffner's musical instrument classification scheme has a post-prominent place for the linguaphones (lamellophones) at the second highest level of classification.
In 1932, Andre Schaeffner developed a new classification scheme that was "exhaustive, potentially covering all real and conceivable instruments"
artomi, p. 176
Schaeffner's system has only two top-level categories denoted by Roman numerals (Schaeffner, A.: ''Origine des instruments de musique'', pp. 371–377.):
*I: instruments that make sound from vibrating solids;
**IA Solids not susceptibles of tension (equivalent to a big part of Hornbostel & Sachs
idiophone
An idiophone is any musical instrument that creates sound primarily by the vibration of the instrument itself, without the use of air flow (as with aerophones), strings ( chordophones), membranes ( membranophones) or electricity ( electroph ...
s);
**IB Flexible solids (equivalent to mainly linguaphones);
**IC Tensionable solids (equivalent to both
membranophones and
chordophone
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner.
Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the s ...
s);
*II: instruments that make sound from vibrating air (
aerophones).
List of lamellophones
In the form of a frame (121)
The lamellae vibrate within a frame or hoop
121.1 Clack idiophones or Cricri - The lamella is carved in the surface of a fruit shell, which serves as resonator. Also known as galip nut snapper.
[Fischer, Hans (1983/1986). ''Sound-producing Instruments in Oceania'', p.52. Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies. ASIN: B0010S35VW.]
121.2 Guimbardes and jaw harps - The lamella is mounted in a rod- or plaque-shaped frame and depends on the player's mouth cavity for resonance.
:121.21 Idioglot guimbardes - The lamella is of one substance with the frame of the instrument.
:*
Đàn môi
Derived from the mouth harp of the Hmong people, Đàn môi (: ''Đàn môi'', "lip lute") is the Vietnamese name of a traditional musical instrument widely used in minority ethnic groups in Vietnam (including the Jrai " Rang Leh"Đào, Huy Q ...
:121.22 Heteroglot guimbardes - The lamella is attached to the frame.
::121.221 Individual heteroglot guimbardes.
::*
Jew's harp
::*
Morsing
The morsing (also mukharshanku, mourching, morching or morchang; Sanskrit: दंत वाद्यन्तरात्मसत्रस्य, Telugu: మోర్సింగ్, Kannada: ಮೋರ್ಸಿಂಗ್, Rajasthani: मोर� ...
::121.222 Sets of heteroglot guimbardes.
::*
Kouxian
File:Bass Dan Moi.jpg, (121.21) Đàn môi
Derived from the mouth harp of the Hmong people, Đàn môi (: ''Đàn môi'', "lip lute") is the Vietnamese name of a traditional musical instrument widely used in minority ethnic groups in Vietnam (including the Jrai " Rang Leh"Đào, Huy Q ...
,Vietnam. Instrument carved from a single piece of bamboo.
file:Murchunga.jpg, (121.221) Murchunga, Nepal
File:5 Leaf Kouxian.jpg, (121.222) A Kouxian, played by plucking the ends in front of the oral cavity. The lamellae resonate to produce sound.
In the form of a comb (122)
The lamellae are tied to a board or cut out from a board like the teeth of a comb.
122.1 With laced on lamellae.
*
Array mbira
*
Agidigbo
The ''agidigbo'' or ‘’’molo’’’ is a large traditional plucked lamellophone thumb piano used by the Yoruba people of Nigeria to play apala music.
It is a box, big enough to sit on the musician’s lap, with 4 to 5 strips of metal set ...
(Nigeria)
[
* Eleke]
* Ikembe
*Insimbi[
* Kalimba
* Kasayi][
* Kisanji][
* Likembe
*Lukembe (Congo and ]Tanganyika
Tanganyika may refer to:
Places
* Tanganyika Territory (1916–1961), a former British territory which preceded the sovereign state
* Tanganyika (1961–1964), a sovereign state, comprising the mainland part of present-day Tanzania
* Tanzania Main ...
)[
*Maduimba][
* Malimbe
* Marímbula - Caribbean thumb piano
* Mbira][
**Chisanza mbira ( Elisabethville)][
**Kalimba mbira (Southern Rhodesia)][
**Njara mbira (Southern Rhodesia)][
**Shona mbira (Southern Rhodesia)][
*Oopoochawa][
*]Prempensua thumb , Prempensua and guitar playing at a wedding feast in Ghana.
The ''prempensua'' is a large lamellophone used in the music of Ghana, similar to the ''marímbula'' or rumba box. The word ''prempensua'' is in the Akan language, although similar ...
(Ghana)
* Thumb piano
* Tom (Ethiopia)
* Sanza/Sansa (Equatorial Africa and West Africa)[
* Space Harp
* Whale Drum
* Zimbabwean Marimba
122.11 Without resonator.
122.12 With resonator.
122.2 With cut-out lamellae
*]Comb
A comb is a tool consisting of a shaft that holds a row of teeth for pulling through the hair to clean, untangle, or style it. Combs have been used since prehistoric times, having been discovered in very refined forms from settlements dating ba ...
* Mechanical music box
* Slit drum
* Steel tongue drum
*Teponaztli
A teponaztli is a type of slit drum used in central Mexico by the Aztecs and related cultures.
Structure
Teponaztli are made of hollow hardwood logs, often fire-hardened. Like most slit drums, teponaztlis have two slits on their topside, cut ...
See also
*Music of Africa
Given the vastness of the African continent, its music is diverse, with regions and nations having many distinct musical traditions. African music includes the genres amapiano, Jùjú, Fuji, Afrobeat, Highlife, Makossa, Kizomba, and othe ...
* Gravikord
References
* Gerhard Kubik: "Lamellophone", in: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (ed. Stanley Sadie). Macmillan Publishers, London, 1981
;Specific
External links
Lamellophone players list
from N. Scott Robinson site
* an
"Idiophone", ''OnMusic Dictionary''
(accessed 24 May 2020).
*
{{Authority control
*
African musical instruments
Lists of percussion instruments
Lists of musical instruments by Hornbostel–Sachs number
de:Lamellophon