Museum of Popular Music Instruments - Lassanis Mansion

The Museum of Popular Music Instruments (Greek: Μουσείο Ελληνικών Λαϊκών Μουσικών Οργάνων), is a museum and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology in the Lassanis Mansion, Plaka, Athens, Greece. It displays about 600 Greek musical instruments from the last 300 years and has as many more in store.

About half of the instruments forming the Anoyanakis Collection are on public display. They have been selected on the criterion not only of their aesthetic and decorative value but, in particular, of their ethnological and musicological interest. The remaining instruments are available for research and for travelling exhibitions to be held in schools etc and for occasional exhibitions of a special nature.

The permanent exhibition is spread over three floors and divided into four sections, corresponding to the groups of determined by the material that is made to vibrate in order to produce sound, namely:

Membranophones (ground floor): Toumbelekia (pottery drums), daoulia (drums), defia (tambourines)

Aerophones (ground floor): Flogeres - souravlia - mandoures (flutes), tsabounes, gaides (bagpipes), zournades (shawms),

Chordophones (first floor): Tambourades, laghouta (long-necked lutes), outia (short-necked lutes), quitars , mandolins, dulcimers etc.,

Idiophones: koudounia (bells), massies (tongs with cymbals), simandro (semanterion) etc.

Source: odysseus.culture.gr wikipedia.org