Me standing by a native dance outfit
One of many stringed instruments of beauty and precision design.
The Musical Instrument Museam is a work in progress, much of the America section is yet to be finished, and they have signs appealing for instruments from various countries.
What they do have is amazing, and more questions than answers about the relation of music to culture. So many of the oriental and eastern countries have music that is downright unpleasant to my ears, and even some European traditions are so different from our western music that it jars you.
No matter how sophisticated the instrument, there are still only a few catagories designed by God for vibration and percussion. You have wind, you have plucking, and you have hitting something that resonates. These sounds and the instruments that produce them are all in ancient literature and all over the Bible, drums, cymbals, harps, lutes.
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