aerophone

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aerophone. Term for mus. instrs. which produce their sound by using air as principal vibrating factor. These instrs. are subdivided according to whether air is unconfined by the instr. (bullroarer, motor horn, etc.) or enclosed within a tube (wind instrs. proper). One of 4 classifications of instr. devised by C. Sachs and E. M. von Hornbostel and pubd. in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1914. Other categories are chordophones, idiophones, and membranophones, with electrophones recently added.