Developed in cooperation with the University of Michigan School of Information and University of Michigan School of Music, this project is an initiative of CHICO, the Cultural Heritage Initiative for Community Outreach project at SI.
The project director is C. Olivia Frost, Associate Dean and Professor at the School of Information. Our goal is to provide freely accessible multicultural material to educators, students and web browsers, with an emphasis on Grades 6 and up.
Contributing this past year to the Instrument Encyclopedia are School of Information colleagues Daniel Chudnov (content structure, database), Patricia Dragon (alumni; content and editing); Drin Gyuk (world map, content design); Mark Handel (content structure, database prototypes, programming); Sun Woo Kahng (Theremin materials, content structure); Nancy Vlahakis (database prototypes); Deborah Westmoreland (Real Audio materials, photos, visual digitization, content design and structure); Christopher Zegers (Real Audio files, visual digitization, content design and structure). Coordinating the final product are M. Sam Cronk, Project Manager (School of Music, content development, editing, structure, visual digitization, video production, database) and Vlad Wielbut (School of Information; database creation, editing, management, programming design, content structure and design). Our thanks also to Emeritus Director Dr. William P. Malm.
Copyright for all content is held by CHICO, School of Information, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. No materials can be reproduced in part or in whole without express written permission. Some graphical elements copyright of R. Bingham and E. Barnes.
To show how instruments from a wide variety of different cultures, performance contexts and structural materials relate to one another, we're using a modified version of the Sachs_Hornbostel classification scheme for the Instruments Encyclopedia. We've had lively discussions about this hierarchical structure which was developed by ethnomusicologists in the early 20th century. It is an excellent way to organize large groups of instruments, although it presents information very much from a Euroamerican perspective.
Essentially, there are several basic family groups -
What do you think? The way we organize instruments or any creative form of expression obviously engage cultural norms and values for information management. Would you emphasize the sound quality of an instrument, its rarity or economic value, its history (who owned it, who played it), its symbolic or iconic meaning, or the materials it is made from? Choices like these determine and reflect the way we perceive our world.