World's oldest musical instrument.

[a_gherkin]

i saw this article http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=529&ncid=529&e=11&u=/ap/20040130/ap_en_ot/people_kremer
and was amazed that a violin could be so old. i have heard they can be much older!!! i play guitar myself and i would just fid it interesting to know what the oldest known musical instruments are.

Cheers
Gherk

[Squink]

1730? that’s barely enough time for the laquer to dry. Here are some old instruments:

The 9,000-year-old flutes are made from hollowed bird bones, and have between 5 and 8 holes. Remarkably, one of the flutes is still playable.

It may be one of the oldest musical instruments ever played, although scientists do know of a 45,000-year-old, so-called Neanderthal flute made of a hollow bear bone that was dug up in Slovenia in 1995.

[Thylacinewas_taken]

OOH! I know this one!

The oldest instrument is the voice. After that came percussion instruments.

(I got to learn this stuff on a tour with grade 3’s for a CD ROM I’m making!)

[GorillaMan]

A few instrument facts…

The oldest surviving violins date from the mid-1500s, including some made by Amati, one of the great makers along with Stradivari and Guaneri (the latter involved in the article in the OP.)

The oldest surviving (functioning) organ is in Sion cathedral, in Switzerland. It dates from 1390.

Three Cristofori pianos, all from the 1720s, survive - in New York, Leipzig and Rome.

So yeah, Kremer’s fiddle is a spring chicken in comparison

[a_gherkin]

hehe. thanks for the reply guys. im used to a 1957 les paul guitar being considered old so the idea of a 500 year old violin is rather perculiar to me!!
thanks again