page_title: Musical instrument
section_title: Twentieth century to present
hierarchical_section_title: Musical instrument / History / Modern / Twentieth century to present
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Sintetizzatore Moog Modular 55
context_page_description: A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates to the beginnings of human culture. Early musical instruments may have been used for ritual, such as a horn to signal success on the hunt, or a drum in a religious ceremony. Cultures eventually developed composition and performance of melodies for entertainment. Musical instruments evolved in step with changing applications and technologies.
  The date and origin of the first device considered a musical instrument is disputed. The oldest object that some scholars refer to as a musical instrument, a simple flute, dates back as far as 67,000 years. Some consensus dates early flutes to about 37,000 years ago. However, most historians believe that determining a specific time of musical instrument invention is impossible, as many early musical instruments were made from animal skins, bone, wood and other non-durable materials.
  Musical instruments developed independently in many populated regions of the world.
context_section_description: The evolution of traditional musical instruments slowed beginning in the 20th century. Instruments such as the violin, flute, french horn, and harp are largely the same as those manufactured throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Gradual iterations do emerge; for example, the "New Violin Family" began in 1964 to provide differently sized violins to expand the range of available sounds. The slowdown in development was practical response to the concurrent slowdown in orchestra and venue size. Despite this trend in traditional instruments, the development of new musical instruments exploded in the twentieth century, and the variety of instruments developed overshadows any prior period.
  The proliferation of electricity in the 20th century lead to the creation of an entirely new category of musical instruments: electronic instruments, or electrophones. The vast majority of electrophones produced in the first half of the 20th century were what Sachs called "electromechanical instruments"; they have mechanical parts that produce sound vibrations, and these vibrations are picked up and amplified by electrical components. Examples of electromechanical instruments include Hammond organs and electric guitars. Sachs also defined a subcategory of "radioelectric instruments" such as the theremin, which produces music through the player's hand movements around two antennas.
  The latter half of the 20th century saw the evolution of synthesizers, which produce sound using analog or digital circuits and microchips. In the late 1960s, Bob Moog and other inventors developed the first commercial synthesizers, such as the Moog synthesizer. Whereas once they had filled rooms, synthesizers now can be embedded in any electronic device, and are ubiquitous in modern music. Samplers, introduced around 1980, allow users to sample and reuse existing sounds, and were important to the development of hip hop. 1982 saw the introduction of MIDI, a standardized means of synchronizing electronic instruments that remains an industry standard. The modern proliferation of computers and microchips has created an industry of electronic musical instruments.
caption: A 1975 Moog Modular 55 synthesizer
exif: {}