List of Portuguese traditional instruments
Encyclopedia
This is a list of Portuguese traditional instruments.
Membranophone
String instrument
Aerophone
MembranophoneMembranophoneA membranophone is any musical instrument which produces sound primarily by way of a vibrating stretched membrane. It is one of the four main divisions of instruments in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification....
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- Bombo: Bombos are large bass drums that are played in a vertical fashion. They can be up to eighty cm in diameter. Usually the musician hits only one side of the skins, producing a deep and low sound.
- AdufeAdufeThe adufe is a traditional square tambourine of Moorish origin, which is used in Portugal.-History:A Portuguese percussion instrument, it was traditionally used in the Beira and Trás-os-Montes regions. It was also used in many other regions across the Iberian Peninsula, and similar instruments are...
: The adufe is a square double skinned frame drumFrame drumA frame drum is a drum that has a drumhead width greater than its depth. Usually the single drumhead is made of rawhide or man-made materials. Shells are traditionally constructed of bent wood scarf jointed together; plywood and man-made materials are also used. Some frame drums have mechanical...
. The skins are sewn together, often with seedSeedA seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
s between them. It is held with the thumbs of both hands and the pointer of the right hand, leaving the other fingers free to hit the instrument. This instrument was introduced in PortugalPortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
when MoorsMoorsThe description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...
invaded the Iberian PeninsulaIberian PeninsulaThe Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
(see Al-AndalusAl-AndalusAl-Andalus was the Arabic name given to a nation and territorial region also commonly referred to as Moorish Iberia. The name describes parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492, although the territorial boundaries...
).
- Sarronca: The sarronca is a friction membranophone composed of a stretched skin over a jug that will serve as a resonance box. Sound is emitted when a stick or a reed is rubbed against the skin.
String instrumentString instrumentA string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
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- Portuguese guitarPortuguese guitarThe Portuguese guitar or Portuguese guitarra is a plucked string instrument with twelve steel strings, strung in six courses comprising two strings each. It is one of the few musical instruments to use Preston tuners. It is most notably associated with fado.-History:The origin of the Portuguese...
: The Portuguese guitar is a 12 string instrument originating in the Middle AgesMiddle AgesThe Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, based on the citternCitternThe cittern or cither is a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is descended from the Medieval Citole, or Cytole. It looks much like the modern-day flat-back mandolin and the modern Irish bouzouki and cittern...
and the OudOudThe oud is a pear-shaped stringed instrument commonly used in North African and Middle Eastern music. The modern oud and the European lute both descend from a common ancestor via diverging paths...
, the Arabic luteLuteLute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
.
- Braguesa: The Viola Braguesa is an instrument resembling the guitar strung with five steel strings. It is played using all five strings at the same time.
- Viola de ArameViola De ArameThe Viola De Arame is a stringed musical instrument from the Portuguese island of Madeira. It has 9 strings in 5 courses. The strings are made of steel.-Tuning:It is tuned G3 G2, D3 D2, G3 G3, B3, D3 D3. ...
: Very similar to the Braguesa, it has a sound hole in the shape of two hearts. This kind of guitar is common on MadeiraMadeiraMadeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
and AzoresAzoresThe Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
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- Viola ToeiraViola ToeiraThe Viola Toeira is a stringed musical instrument from Portugal. It has 12 strings in 5 courses. The strings are made of steel. It is tuned A3 A3 A2, D3 D3 D2, G3 G2, B3 B3, E3 E3....
: Almost extinct. Its sound hole has a horizontal oval shape and it has 12 strings organized in five orders. See also viola caipiraViola (Brazil)The viola caipira is a ten-string, five-course guitar. Unlike most steel-string guitars, its strings are plucked with the fingers of the right hand similarly to the technique used for classical and flamenco guitars, rather than by the use of a plectrum.It is a folk instrument commonly found in...
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- CavaquinhoCavaquinhoThe cavaquinho is a small string instrument of the European guitar family with four wire or gut strings. It is also called machimbo, machim, machete , manchete or marchete, braguinha or braguinho, or cavaco.The most common tuning is D-G-B-D ; other tunings include D-A-B-E...
: The cavaquinho is a small string instrument of the European guitar family with four wires or gut strings. The Hawaiian IslandsHawaiian IslandsThe Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
have an instrument similar to the cavaquinho called the ukuleleUkuleleThe ukulele, ; from ; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings....
, which is thought to be a development of the cavaquinho, brought to the island by Portuguese immigrants. The Hawaiian ukulele has four strings and a similar shape to the cavaquinho, which was introduced into Hawaii by Augusto Dias, Manuel Nunes, and João Fernandes in 1879.
- Braguinha: The braguinha is a kind of cavaquinho that is usually found in MadeiraMadeiraMadeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
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AerophoneAerophoneAn aerophone is any musical instrument which produces sound primarily by causing a body of air to vibrate, without the use of strings or membranes, and without the vibration of the instrument itself adding considerably to the sound...
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- Gaita de FolesGalician gaitaThe gaita or gaita de foles is a traditional bagpipe of Galicia, Asturias and northern Portugal.The name gaita is used in Galician and Spanishlanguages as a generic term for "bagpipe"...
(bagpipe): Wind instrument consisting of two or more single- or double-reed pipes, the reeds being vibrated by wind fed by arm pressure on a skin or cloth bag. The pipes are held in wooden sockets tied into the bag, which is inflated either by the mouth or by bellows strapped to the body. Melodies are played on the finger holes of the melody pipe, or chanter, while the remaining pipes, or drones, sound single notes. The early bag was an animal bladder or a nearly whole sheepskin or goatskin. Bagpipes have been documented on the Iberian peninsula as early as the 13th Century, appearing in the illuminations of the Cantigas de Santa MariaCantigas de Santa MariaThe Cantigas de Santa Maria are 420 poems with musical notation, written in Galician-Portuguese during the reign of Alfonso X El Sabio and often attributed to him....
. Bagpipes have always been folk instruments, but after the 15th century some were used for court music, and others have survived as military instruments.
- Palheta: The Palheta is a double reedDouble reedA double reed is a type of reed used to produce sound in various wind instruments. The term double reed comes from the fact that there are two pieces of cane vibrating against each other. A single reed consists of one piece of cane which vibrates against a mouthpiece made of metal, hardened...
woodwind instrument similar to the oboeOboeThe oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
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- Concertina: Concertina is the name by which the diatonic button accordionDiatonic button accordionA diatonic button accordion or melodeon is a type of button accordion where the melody-side keyboard is limited to the notes of diatonic scales in a small number of keys...
is known in Portugal. It consists of a body in two parts, each generally rectangular in shape, separated by a bellows. On each part of the body is a keyboard containing buttons, levers or piano-style keys. When pressed, the buttons travel in a direction perpendicular to the motion of the bellows (towards the performer). Most, but not all modern accordions also have buttons capable of producing entire chords.