How are musical instruments categorized according to the Sachs-Hornbostel System?
It Sachs-Hornbostel System (HS system) is a comprehensive global method to classify acoustic musical instruments. It was developed in 1914 by two European musicologists, despite their own fears that such a systematic system was almost impossible. Curt Sachs (1881-1959) was a German musicologist known for his extensive study and expertise on the history of musical instruments. Sachs worked with Erich Moritz von Hornbostel (1877-1935), an Austrian musicologist and expert in the history of non-European music. Their collaboration led to a conceptual framework based on how musical instruments produce sound: the location of the vibration created.
Sachs-Hornbostel System
Musical instruments can be classified by the Western orchestral system into copper, percussion, string and woodwind instruments; but the SH system also allows non-Western instruments to be classified. More than 100 years after its development, the HS system is still in use in most museums and major inventory projects. The limitations of the method were recognized by Sachs and Hornbostel. There are many instruments with multiple vibration sources at different times during a performance, making them difficult to classify. The HS system divides all musical instruments into five categories:
