chordophone

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chordophone. Term for mus. instr. which produce sound by means of str. stretched from one point to another. Simple chordophones are various types of zither; composites are lutes, lyres, rebecs, violins, guitars, harps, etc. 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 membranophones, idiophones, and aerophones, with electrophones added later.