This is a list of instruments by Hornbostel–Sachs number, covering those instruments that are classified under 321.33 under that system. These instruments are also known as semi-spike lutes, tanged lutes and internal spike lutes. These instruments are made of a resonator and string bearer that are physically united, with strings in parallel to the sound table and a handle which is also the string bearer and which passes through the resonator but does not pierce its tail end.[1] [2]
Tanged lutes are common in East Africa, as are a closely related class of instrument called spike lutes. These are instruments in which the handle does extends all the way through the resonator. A hereditary class of West African musicians, griots, play tanged lutes, and no other form of stringed instrument; non-griot performers in West Africa play a mixture of both spike lutes and tanged lutes. The term griot lute thus typically refers to these tanged lutes of East Africa.[3]
The resonator of East African lutes may be made of wood, metal (such as a discarded can) or a half-calabash gourd. Griot lutes are exclusively wood, while non-griot lutes occur in all three categories. Typically, calabash lutes have no more than two strings, while the wooden instruments generally have more.[3]
Griot lutes tend to be wooden troughs, either boat- (naviform) or figure-8-shaped. Lutes used by griots have a V- or fan-shaped bridge, a feature unique to East African lutes, while non-griot lutes use cylindrical bridges; a few use two-footed bridges in the shape of an upside-down "u", while the Hausa wase places the bridge under the head, creating a ridged lump upon which the strings rest.[4] Non-griot lutes are not restricted by heredity, and are used for many social purposes, most commonly hunting.[3] It likely that one or more of these instruments is the ancestor of the African American banjo.[4] [5]
These instruments may be classified with a suffix, based on how the strings are caused to vibrate.