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An 18th-century Bohemian nail violin
Word of the week: Invented in 1740 by German violinist Johann Wilde, this strangely beautiful sounding idiophone instrument consists of a semicircular wooden soundboard with vertical iron or brass nails that are then bowed to create a chromatic or diatonic scale
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The five-string quinton has a tuning of C-G-D-A-E.
Word of the week: Better known as a place or male name, this is also a five-string hybrid of violin and treble viol, popular in mid 18th-century France, used as the fifth voice (quinta vox) in ensembles, and created as a rival to the Italian violin with a greater range
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The ryuteki - dragon flute
Word of the week: Literally meaning ‘dragon flute’, the ryūteki (龍笛) is pure and beautiful sounding traditional Japanese bamboo flute (or ‘fue’) designed to evoke the mythical creature, used in Shinto classical music gagaku, associated with Japan's imperial court
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Varieties of bamboo and other sheng
Word of the week: A traditional Chinese instrument, representing natural harmony and life from the ground (made originally from bamboo), dating back at least 3,000 years, it could be described as a complex form of mouth organ played by breathing in and out, with a free reed, finger holes, mouthpiece and vertical pipes
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Necking it: the baroque theorbo, known to some as the giraffe of the lute world
Word of the week: Designed to emanate the music of the spheres, for opera, and also allow improvisation, this Baroque-era member of the lute family has has a hugely extended neck, second pegbox, large volume with ornate sound holes, and wide range with harmonic options
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The viola d’amore
Word of the week: It’s a particularly ornate member of the baroque-period viol family, distinguished by six or seven strings with matching sympathetic vibrating lower strings and an intricately carved head often featuring Cupid blindfolded to represent the travails of love
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Ethereal and otherworldly: the waterphone
Word of the week: Resonant, expressive, and eerily strange, this inharmonic idiophone instrument invented by Richard Waters in 1967 consists of a stainless steel resonator bowl or pan with a cylindrical neck and bronze rods, played by hand, with soft mallets or a bow
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Typical wooden zurna
Word of the week: You will know it as soon as heard. With it distinctively high, reedy, resonant and evocative sound, this short folk, conical-shaped oboe of Arab origins can be heard from Turkey across south-east Europe and parts of Asia made of wood with a double reed
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Vintage damascene violin with interwoven silver and gold
Word of the Week: Craft, art, flower, a city and people, it’s a word used in different parts of speech, meanings and associations, it has a certain musical beauty to its sound but is surprisingly rare in song lyrics
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What old meanings are we cranking out this week?
Word of the Week: They’re going fast! This archaic adjective in use from the mid-17th to mid-19th century describes something in great demand and ready for a quick sale, from the Middle and Old English lieftell, meaning agreeable and countable
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The Ariston Organette
Word of the Week: It’s a mechanical, hand-operated organ instrument first manufactured in the late 1870s playing music from perforated paper, cardboard, or metal disks on wooden rolls or “cobs” that clunkily and rather beautifully captures another era
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The phorminx (centre) alongside the harp and lyre.
Word of the week: Taking us back to some of the earliest ever music, in ancient Greek φόρμιγξ, the phorminx, a developed form of lyre, is one of the oldest instruments and the a forerunner to the kithara
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From The Quincunx, the 1989 novel by Charles Palliser
Word of the week: This ancient symbolic word is not really one to sing, but points down many cultural roads through history, as well as unearthing a variety of lesser known music
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Beethoven by Joseph Karl Stieler, 1820
Word of the week: What comes around … this week's rather shapely word circles culture in many directions – from medieval French poetry to a 17th-century musical form all the way to modern slang on sport stars to derogatory cars
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Come on feel the Illinois. The university once had its own sarrusophone section
Word of the week: A veritable behemoth of the woodwind family that stretches somewhere between bassoon and saxophone, this wonderful instrument makes a powerful sound dates back to mid-19th century France
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How do you recreate this on a record?
Word of the week: An evocative term suitable for hearing the effects of changeable weather, this is a lesser known word for a musical instrument used to recreate the sound of thunder. But how? And who uses it?
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Adam Ant stands and delivers what could be described as a vectarious number
Word of the week: It is neither triumphant nor relating to mathematical space, but while sounding thoroughly splendid, it's an obscure 17th-century adjective meaning belonging to or associated with a wagon or carriage
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Sicilian versions
Word of the week: Also known as zuffalo, chiufolo, ciufolo, picco pipe, and as an instrument to teach birds because of its comparable sound, this Italian fipple flute is one of the shortest of that family and has origins in the 14th century
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Almost murklins time …
Word of the week: Not to be confused with the pubic wig worn by prostitutes of old and other diseased ridden individuals (the merkin), this rare adjective from the 16th and 17th century simply means ‘in the dark’, an umbrella term to accompany activity
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A sweeping visual statement about this week’s word …
Word of the week: Some kind of norse telescope? An instrument to detect scandal? Neither. This week's archaic word originated in 1802 with an invention to automate chimney sweeping and to put dusty child labourers out of danger
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