Curated category
Orchestral instruments
- MandolinIn 1787, Luigi Bassi played the role of Don Giovanni in Mozart's opera, serenading a woman with a mandolin. This scene cemented the instrument's image as an…
- TrumpetBronze and silver trumpets emerged from the grave of Tutankhamun in Egypt, dating back to 1326, 1336 BC. These artifacts represent some of the earliest known…
- BassoonMusic historians generally consider the dulcian to be the forerunner of the modern bassoon. This hairpin-shaped instrument with a long, folded bore and a…
- TromboneThe word trombone derives from the Italian tromba, meaning trumpet, combined with the suffix -one, which indicates largeness.
- OboeCenturies before the Spanish and Portuguese conquests in the New World, an early version of the chirimía arrived in Europe from the Middle East due to…
- GuitarA 3,300-year-old stone carving depicts a Hittite bard playing a stringed instrument. This image stands as the oldest known iconographic representation of a…
- HarpsichordThe harpsichord emerged in the late 14th century as a small instrument with a high pitch. Early makers crafted lightweight cases with thin walls and used…
- LuteA cylinder seal from Uruk, dated to about 3100 BC and now held in the British Museum, depicts a woman playing what scholars identify as an early lute.
- FortepianoIn 1700, the Medici family inventory listed a new instrument called a gravicembalo col piano e forte. Bartolomeo Cristofori had built this device in Florence…