Musical Instruments Timeline

Time

Date

Instrument

Notes about Instrument

12:00AM

2800BC

Lyre

Stringed instrument; has two arms that jut out on one side of the instrument's body and at their tips support a yoke or crossbar to which gut strings are attached. Box lyres with asymmetrical arms were known in ancient Sumeria by 2800BC. This instruments popularity peeked around 300 BC

8:30.01AM

900BC

Flute

One of the first woodwind instruments; the transverse flute, the typical flute of Western music, was known in China by about 900BC

11:45.01PM

300BC

Organ

Keyboard instrument in which compressed air vibrates within tuned pipes to produce sound; the earliest organ, the hydraulis, was developed by the Greek inventor Ctesibius and it flourished in 3rd century BC

4:37.01PM

400AD

Drums

Percussion instrument; extremely popular in afro-cuban, European, and far eastern, and native American cultures; the membrane is made from skins of animals and the body is made from a hollowed out tree trunk.

7:52.01PM

1300AD

Harpsichord

Stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are plucked to produce sound; used from the 16th to the early 19th century, when it was superseded by the piano.

8:40.01PM

1400AD

Trombone

Brass wind instrument with a cylindrical bore, a cup-shaped mouthpiece, and a slide mechanism. It originated about 1400 as an improvement to the trumpet and was built in various sizes, the most common being alto, tenor, and bass.

9:28.01AM

1500AD

Lute

Has a flat fir belly, or soundboard, and a deep, extremely lightweight (great for traveling), pear-shaped body made by bending narrow strips of wood (ribs) and gluing them side by side. Tied onto the neck and fingerboard are seven to ten frets. Six pairs ("double courses") of strings run from tuning pegs

9:35.01AM

1520AD

Violin

The violin emerged in Italy in the early 1500s and seems to have evolved from two medieval bowed instruments—the fiddle, also called viele or fiedel, and the rebec. The most popular instrument during the Baroque Period (1600-1750)

10:57.01AM

1709AD

Piano

Stringed keyboard musical instrument, derived from the harpsichord and the clavichord. It was built by Bartolomeo Cristofori, a harpsichord maker of Florence, Italy, who is generally credited with inventing the piano. 2 of the pianos that Cristofori built are still exist. instruments.

11:39.01PM

1840AD

Saxophone

Brass instrument; ) family of reed-sounded wind musical instruments. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument-maker Adolphe Sax about 1840. The saxophone combines in its construction the single reed and mouthpiece of the clarinet, a metal body, and a widened version of the conical bore of the oboe.