14 Musical Instruments Nearly Lost to Time
The history of music stretches back thousands of years, with countless ways people have created organized sound. Popular instruments like pianos and guitars have stood the test of time, yet many fascinating instruments have slipped into obscurity, known only to dedicated historians and enthusiasts.
As musical trends evolve, certain innovations get left behind despite their unique contributions. Here is a list of 14 musical instruments that almost disappeared from our cultural memory, each carrying its own remarkable story.
Glass Armonica
Benjamin Franklin created this ethereal instrument in 1761 after hearing the musical tones produced by wine glasses. It’s built from nested glass bowls mounted on a rotating spindle, played by touching the wet rims with fingers.
Mozart and Beethoven both wrote music for it! The instrument’s popularity took a nosedive in the 19th century thanks to bizarre rumors that its sounds drove listeners mad – an unfortunate fate for such a beautiful creation.
Hurdy-Gurdy
This medieval contraption works like a mechanical violin with sound coming from a hand-cranked wheel rubbing against strings. It produces a distinctive drone – somewhat like bagpipes – while melody notes happen when keyboard-like buttons press tangents against the strings.
Once wildly popular for both royal courts and peasant dances throughout Europe, the hurdy-gurdy nearly vanished by the early 1900s before folk music revivals sparked renewed interest in its unique sound.
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Hydraulophone
Water and music don’t typically mix, still this unusual instrument produces sounds through finger interaction with water jets. Players block various streams flowing from apertures – diverting water through internal mechanisms that create distinctive tones.
Developed in the 1980s by Steve Mann, hydraulophones remain extremely rare today, appearing mainly in specialized music facilities or as interactive water features that combine art with playful education.
Ondes Martenot
Maurice Martenot invented this early electronic marvel in 1928 – an instrument producing otherworldly, wavering sounds controlled by wearing a metal ring on the player’s finger. Musicians move this ring along a wire to change pitch, with a keyboard providing additional sound control.
You’ve likely heard its eerie voice in movie soundtracks without realizing it! Only about 20 original instruments remain functional today, kept alive by a handful of devoted performers who’ve mastered its unique techniques.
Viola Organista
Leonardo da Vinci designed this remarkable hybrid in the late 15th century – combining elements of the viola and harpsichord in one instrument. Unlike a standard harpsichord, where strings get plucked, this creation presses strings against rotating wheels covered in rosin.
Da Vinci never actually built one – leaving just detailed drawings until 2013 when Polish craftsman Sławomir Zubrzycki finally constructed a working model based on the Renaissance genius’s plans.
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Octobass
Standing over 11 feet tall, this monstrous string instrument requires special levers and pedals just to play it properly. French instrument maker Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume developed it around 1850 to produce extraordinarily deep bass notes that rumble below the conventional double bass range.
Museums house only three original octobasses worldwide. Occasionally orchestras use modern replicas for specific performances needing those uniquely profound low tones that you don’t just hear – you feel them in your bones.
Nyckelharpa
Dating back to the 1300s, this traditional Swedish instrument looks like someone merged a violin with a hurdy-gurdy. Players bow the strings while pressing wooden keys that act as tangents to change notes.
By the 1960s, the nyckelharpa nearly vanished – with just a dozen elderly players remaining in a small Swedish region. Thanks to a passionate revival movement, several thousand musicians worldwide now keep its distinctive droning sound alive through traditional and contemporary music.
Theremin
The theremin stands unique as one of the few instruments played without physical contact. Musicians control it by moving their hands near two metal antennas – one for pitch, another for volume.
Russian physicist Leon Theremin invented it in 1920, and after brief initial popularity, it faded from view until science fiction films and bands like Led Zeppelin rediscovered its spooky, wavering tones. Despite its eerie reputation, theremin virtuosos can coax surprisingly beautiful melodies from thin air.
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Serpent
This bizarre snake-shaped wind instrument served as the bass voice in military bands and church music for centuries. Crafted from wood covered in leather with a brass-like mouthpiece, it’s notoriously difficult to play well because of its unwieldy shape and challenging intonation.
Modern brass instruments pushed the serpent aside by the mid-19th century. Today, a devoted group of musicians keeps this ancient bass voice alive, despite the considerable skills required to tame its snake-like temperament.
Cristal Baschet
French brothers Bernard and François Baschet created this striking instrument in 1952. It uses metal rods vibrated by moistened fingers, with large metal cones and fiberglass pieces amplifying the sound. The resulting tone sits somewhere between a glass harmonica and pipe organ – utterly distinctive in the musical world.
About 20 original instruments exist, mostly in France. A small community of musicians preserves the special techniques needed for playing this crystalline oddity that looks as unusual as it sounds.
Arpeggione
This six-stringed curiosity enjoyed incredibly brief popularity during the 1820s before vanishing almost completely from musical life. Played with a bow yet fretted like a guitar, the arpeggione would be entirely forgotten if not for Franz Schubert’s beautiful Sonata in A minor.
Most musicians now perform this piece on cello or viola. A few specialists have reconstructed arpeggiones to play Schubert’s composition as originally intended, giving rare glimpses into this short-lived instrument’s unique voice.
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Wheelharp
Imagine a circular piano where pressing keys activates small wheels that bow strings like violins. Jon Jones and Mitchell Manger invented this innovative instrument in 2012, drawing inspiration from medieval hurdy-gurdies while dramatically expanding the concept.
The wheelharp allows musicians to play multiple bowed strings at once, creating rich orchestral textures from a single instrument. Despite its incredible sound and clever design, only a handful exist worldwide, making it among the rarest contemporary acoustic instruments.
Lautenwerck
Johann Sebastian Bach owned several of these fascinating keyboard instruments that combine harpsichord mechanics with lute-like tones. Instead of metal strings, the lautenwerck uses softer gut or nylon strings plucked by a keyboard mechanism, producing a gentle, warm sound unlike standard harpsichords.
The instrument disappeared so thoroughly after Bach’s era that modern craftspeople had to reconstruct them using only written descriptions and historical images as guides. Today, early music specialists treasure the few dozen examples built by dedicated instrument makers.
Pyrophone
Known alternatively as the “fire organ,” this extraordinary instrument creates sound using controlled flames inside glass tubes. Physicist Georges Frédéric Eugène Kastner invented it in the 1870s. The pyrophone generates tones when flames cause air in its tubes to vibrate at specific frequencies.
Original versions used hydrogen gas for fuel, making them both hauntingly beautiful and somewhat hazardous to operate. After Kastner’s death, the pyrophone nearly vanished completely. However, a few contemporary instrument builders have constructed small-scale replicas, preserving this fiery musical curiosity for modern audiences.
Echoes Across Time
These endangered instruments represent more than musical footnotes—they showcase human ingenuity and our endless quest for new sounds. Each carries distinct cultural fingerprints of its era, offering insights into how our ancestors experienced music.
Contemporary musicians and instrument builders continue preserving these musical rarities, sometimes incorporating their unique voices into modern compositions. While digital technology now lets us simulate virtually any sound imaginable, there’s something irreplaceable about the physical presence and authentic voice of these rare instruments. They remind us that sometimes the most powerful musical experiences come from the most unexpected sources—waiting to be rediscovered by new generations of listeners.
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