A ''birbynė'' is a

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

aerophone An aerophone is a musical instrument that produces sound primarily by causing a body of air to vibrate, without the use of strings or membranes (which are respectively chordophones and membranophones), and without the vibration of the instrume ...

that can be either single or double- reeded and may or may not have a

mouthpiece Mouthpiece may refer to: * The part of an object which comes near or in contact with one's mouth or nose during use ** Mouthpiece (smoking pipe) or cigarette holder ** Mouthpiece (telephone handset) ** Mouthpiece (woodwind), a component of a wood ...

. ''Birbynė'' can be made of a variety of materials: wood,

bark Bark may refer to: Common meanings * Bark (botany), an outer layer of a woody plant such as a tree or stick * Bark (sound), a vocalization of some animals (which is commonly the dog) Arts and entertainment * ''Bark'' (Jefferson Airplane album), ...

, horn, straw, goose feather, etc. The earliest and simplest examples were used by children as playtoys and by shepherds as a tool to control the herd. In the 19th century, influenced by classical instruments and especially the

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

, the ''birbynė'' evolved into a serious musical instrument used in ensembles. Modern ''birbynės'' are made of wood with bells of horn and usually have ten

tone hole A tone hole is an opening in the body of a wind instrument which, when alternately closed and opened, changes the pitch (music), pitch of the sound produced. Tone holes may serve specific purposes, such as a trill hole or register hole. A tone ...

s and an octave key to access the upper registers. They are divided by pitch range into three categories: soprano, tenor, and contrabass. The soprano birbynė is a non-transposing instrument with a range from A3 to G6 (almost three octaves). The tenor birbynė has a range of B2 to G5, and the contrabass instrument has a range of F1 to G3.

References

Reed aerophones Lithuanian musical instruments {{SingleReed-instrument-stub

See also

References