Clasical Instrument Music

There are numerous possible ways to classify the nearly 50,000 musical instruments which have thus far been scientifically described. Over the course of time, many different ways have been used. The ancient Chinese employed a system whereby they were classified by the materials out of which they were made. The Indians developed a classification scheme based on the acoustic properties of the devices.

The first European system, that of Jean de Muris, dates to the early 14th century and, in additon to describing several instruments, divided the instruments into three groups, to wit: stringed instruments;wind instruments; and percussion instruments
A similar classification was followed by Virdung in 1511 who also included woodcut illustrations of instruments of his time.

In 1619, Michael Praetorius published a 3 vilume work on music theory (Syntagma Musicum), the second volume of which was devoted to organology
The beginnings of modern systematic study of musical instruments, including their classification, can be dated to the mid 19th century, with the publication, in 1863, of Traite general d'instrumentation by Francois Auguste Gevaert. In this work, Gevaert put forth four main categories of instruments: stringed instruments, wind instruments, instruments employing a stretched membrane, and autophonic instruments. These main categories were then divided into sub-categories. For example, wind instruments were sub-divided, inter alia, into bowed, plucked, or percussion strings (piano). Wind instruments could be finger hole, reed, or mouthpiece types.

Between 1880 and 1922, Victor-Charles Mahillon published a catalogue, in 5 volumes totally nearly 2300 pages, of the nearly 3300 instruments in the collection of the Belgian royal conservatory. He classified the instruments in this collection according to the acoustic properties of the instruments (somewhat like the ancient Indian system), using four major categories - chordophones, aerophones, membranophones, and autophones - which were then further sub-divided into smaller categories