Traditional brass instruments of the world.

Abstract

The brass family of musical instruments are lip-reed aerophones. In the western musical tradition, they are usually made of brass or other metals; however, in non-western musical traditions they may be made of shell, wood, bone, bark, bamboo, animal horn, or metal. In spite of the material used for construction, all lip-reed aerophones are commonly referred to as brass instruments. This paper introduces various brass instruments used in traditional music around the world. These include the erke of Bolivia, the alphorn of Switzerland, the amankondere of Uganda, the shofar of Israel, the sringa of India, the dung-chen of Tibet, the nabal of Korea, the didjeridu of Australia, and the conch of Oceania. The paper includes the cultural setting and sound clips of the various instruments.