| Summary: | Any given classification of musical instruments reveals that the very process of classifying such items does not depend on a simple mental operation. Many examples, in many different cultures and in societies with as well as without writing, show how varying the basic, explicit or implicit, theoretical concepts are. Indeed, these basic concepts refer to matter out of which the instrument is made or to the vibration of this matter, to the musical form produced or to a symbolic meaning, to the musical function of instruments or to their social role, thereby leading to the design of systems which can, more often than not, turn out to be very complex. Since the end of the XIXth century, the european systems, which are among the more complex available, attempt to incorporate and build from scientific results which are in constant evolution, even though this scientific perspective has its own limitations.
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