Musicological Classification Of Ethnic Musical Instruments And Related Issues

In1952, China’s first musical instruments museum in modern time--China Research Institute of musical instruments exhibition room was founded, showing that China’s national music has opened a new chapter on Organology. Since then, under the combined efforts of government, professional music scholars and the vast majority of music culture lovers, music museums and musical instruments museums have been established and flourished in China. At present, comprehensive or special type museums which face to the general public, or are used for professional research have been gradually established, and meanwhile a few ethnic minority musical instruments museums have also been founded in our country.The first step for the display of musical Instruments in the museum is that we must confront how they are systematically classified. As an institution holding both the academic research function and the social music education function, the classification of musical instruments on display in the museum is different from the classification in musical theory. The musical instruments classification in the museum should be logical and normative. Flexibility and feasibility in practical operation should be taken into account, and attention should be paid to the visitors’ feedback and recognition to the exhibition.In this paper, the author by analyzing the establishment history of musical instruments museums in China, the museums types and the concept of musical instruments classification, combined with the investigation data on several representative instruments museums in our country, reveals the classification status of musical instruments on display and also the display forms and characteristics in these museums. Revolves around the classified display of musical instruments and related issues arising in practice, the author also expressed some superficial views.