Instruments of the world (just a few)

Ritual Music of Tibet

This ritual music was performed by the monks of the Drepung-Loseling Monastery. There are three parts: Nyen-sen (Invoking the Spirit of Goodness), Kha-dro Ten-zhug (The Longevity Dance of the Space Beings), and Deng-kar Dor-je (Offering of the White Diamond Throne). The Drepung Monastery was established near Lhasa, Tibet in 1416. At one time it was the home of more than 10,000 monks. The Drepung Monastery was also important historically because it was the place of training for the Dalai Lamas. At the time of the Chinese invastion of Tibet in 1959, the population of the monastery was about 8,000. Of these, some 7,500 were either killed or sent to concentration camps. Only about 500 were able to escape to India. Of the eight lamas heard on this recording, three were of that group. The recording opens with the traditional 12-foot long horns (dung-chen) which are common to Tibetan ritual music. Also heard are cymbals, bells, and other trumpets. 

The Musical Arc (Mouth Bow, Musical bow)

The mouth bow has been in most frequently used is in parts of Africa (especially central and south Africa) and in the Appalachian region of the United States.

Here is a terrific page courtesy if the musician Samm Bennett showing a range of shapes, sizes and playing styles.

Sacred Flutes of New Guinea

From the National Music Museum: Pair of bamboo flutes (mambu), Palembei Village, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea, late 19th century. Transverse flutes constructed from bamboo with carved wooden stoppers in the form of rhino-bird heads. Wrapped with rattan above the embouchure hole and at the bottom. Players place their index fingers on the sides of their mouths, partially cover the large embouchure hole, and overblow to create multiple pitches. These sacred flutes originate among the Iatmul people and represent the male and female voices of their crocodile ancestors. Played in pairs during male initiation ceremonies, when boys undergo a rite of passage in which their skin is cut in order to produce scars resembling crocodile skin. 

Symbolically, the pairing of the mambu flutes represents the duality of thought prevalent in many New Guinea cultures, while the male/female distinction reflects the distinct gender roles observed in many of these societies. Musically, the use of paired flutes of different lengths (with fundamentals about a major second apart) allows two players to produce a broader range of pitches than can be played on only one instrument. hese flutes were originally played by men from the Palembei Village along the Middle Sepik (now the East Sepik Province). When they left to work on a plantation in a village on the Gazelle Peninsula of New Britain, the men took the flutes with them to play for ceremonial dances.

 

Bullroarer

 The bullroarer,[1] rhombus, or turndun, is an ancient ritual musical instrument and a device historically used for communicating over great distances. It dates to the Paleolithic period, being found in Ukraine dating from 18,000 BC. Anthropologist Michael Boyd, a bullroarer expert, documents a number found in Europe, Asia, the Indian sub-continent, Africa, the Americas, and Australia.[2]

In ancient Greece it was a sacred instrument used in the Dionysian Mysteries and is still used in rituals worldwide.[3]
Along with the didgeridoo, it was a prominent musical technology among the Australian Aborigines, used in ceremonies across the continent.
– Wikipedia

 

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