Dwarf Fortress

Dwarf Fortress

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Music and Musical Instruments
By Cragspyder
I found this part of the game a bit frustrating to figure out, so this is a short guide to help you figure out what your musical instruments are in your fortress and how to construct them.

June 8th, 2025 update: I learned how to make Dwarfs play stationary instruments in Taverns. See Product Testing, Part 2.
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Introduction: The Dwarf Fortress Wiki
I find Dwarf Fortress impossible to play without keeping the Dwarf Fortress Wiki open at all times:

https://dwarffortresswiki.org/

It is very helpful when finding out the basic mechanics of certain gameplay concepts, or simply if you aren't sure what a particular word or skill does, or means.

When viewing the Dwarf Fortress Wiki, keep in mind:
  • All of the hotkeys listed in articles will be for the non-Steam version of the game, and so you probably shouldn't try to follow the exact hotkeys an article will sometimes lay out.
  • Anything under the heading "D for DWARF" is a meme and can be ignored if you're just trying to figure out how things work.
  • It isn't a great resource if something in your game isn't working as you (or the article you're reading) would expect.
Musical Instrument Basics
The link to the Dwarf Fortress Wiki article on Musical Instruments is:

https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Instrument

if you would prefer to simply read that. I will try not to repeat the article but I do have some helpful tips to add that will assist you in sorting out your musical instrument situation in your own game.

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Here are some quick things to know about musical instruments in Dwarf Fortress.

Your Musical Instruments Are Procedurally Generated
You will not find the ability to make a guitar, or piano, or even a drum, in Dwarf Fortress. During the world generation step, each CIVILIZATION (Dwarf, Human, Elf, and probably Goblin and Kobold as well) will likely have its own musical instruments, with procedurally generated names, such as a "Lilum" or an "Usur".

Unfortunately, even Legends Viewer does not currently track information on musical instruments. However, you can find it out during Fortress mode with a little effort. Please see "What Instruments Do I Have?" later in the guide.

Instruments Can Take Multiple Components To Build, Or Not
The construction and materials required for each of your musical instruments is also procedurally generated.

As per the Dwarf Fortress Wiki, there are four generic types of Instruments: Keyboards, Stringed, Wind and Percussion, and they might be handheld or stationary (ie. built like a furniture piece).

Musical instruments can require many different pieces (all procedurally chosen), and they can also be so simple that they require only one piece.

Each component can be made out of a particular type of material. Some materials are restricted (for example, the "Strings" component of a Stringed Instrument can only ever be Silk, Plant Thread, or Metal), but if you are unlucky, all your instruments might be difficult or complicated to make. Luckily, as far as I can see, no instrument requires a specific subtype of component (for example, a stone component will require any stone, not granite only, or bauxite only, etc).

Instruments Are A Luxury Item
Musical Instruments are not required for your Fortress to work. Dwarfs use them to play in Temples and Taverns in order to make themselves happy, but they do not require them to either Worship or Socialize. In fact, they can even play music requiring instruments without actually using the instruments, as they will just 'Simulate' the instrument they need with their voice.

You can also trade instruments to the caravans if you like. I suppose they might be required under some noble mandates, but that's it.
What Instruments Do I Have?
In order to find out what most of the musical instruments are for your Civilization during Fortress mode, you can make a Craftdwarf's Workshop. Any instrument with multiple components will be assembled here.



Select your Workshop and go to Make Instrument <opens menu>.



As you can see, I have 12 Musical Instruments listed here, from an "Azmol" to a "Vathez". Most of these cannot be built currently in my fortress, but I am lucky enough to have a single piece (wooden) instrument called a "Gemur". Perhaps you will be so lucky in your own game.

Single piece instruments are also the reason why the Craftdwarf's Workshop isn't comprehensive about which instruments are available. The single piece instrument might not be made of a material that the Craftdwarf's Workshop can process.

Another way to check to see what instruments your civilization has access to is to look at the list of musical instruments when the Outpost Liason comes to visit. This list will even show all the one-piece instruments available to you (though it will show nothing about the ingredients required to make it).

In any event, I recommend you write down the names of any assembled instruments here, in order to do the next step, or even better, make a spreadsheet!

How Do I Make An Assembled Instrument?
Assembled instruments can require a variety of components, some of which require specialized workshops.

This is the full list of all workshops that a component (or single piece instrument) might be made in:
  • Carpenter's Workshop;
  • Glass Furnace;
  • Kiln;
  • Leather Works;
  • Stoneworker's Workshop;
  • Metalsmith's Forge
In addition, certain materials required may need further specialized workshops (such as the Farmer's Workshop and Weaver, used to make Plant Thread or Silk) which will then be fashioned into the component at the Craftdwarf's Workshop.

The full list of materials that may or may not be used for components is:
  • Silk Thread
  • Plant Thread
  • Leather
  • Wood
  • Bone
  • Ceramic
  • Metal
  • Glass
  • Stone
  • Shell
Certain components are only possibly made of certain materials; Strings can only be Silk, Plant Thread or Metal, for example, but as it is impossible to tell what your components might be ahead of time, you may want to be prepared for any options.

But How Do I Find Out What To Make?
As far as I can see, the easiest way to find all the components is to use Work Orders. Firstly, you need to appoint a dwarf to be your Manager, if you haven't already, via the Nobles and Administrators screen.



Once you have a Manager, go to the new Work Orders page and Make a New Work Order.



Once you're in the Work Orders Screen, type in the name of the instrument you want to try to make. I have typed in "Berim" here as an example:



As you can see, a "Berim" appears to have four parts: Pipes, Console, Keyboard and Pump. It is also a Keyboard instrument (although it does have Pipes as well; perhaps it is a Pipe Organ). The type of instrument is really only for flavour anyways; there is currently no way to tell what exactly the instrument will be (in Fortress Mode) until you build it.

Now to find out what type of materials you need, you must add Work Orders for each instrument part, one at a time. Unfortunately, you need to go type in the instrument name each time. We won't be filling the Work Orders anyways, so don't worry about losing any valuable material.

Here is my Work Orders screen afterwards:



Finally, you click on the magnifying glass for each part, which is "Set Material". This will give you the list of all available materials for this component.

For example, the list for the "Berim Pipes" looks like this:



Whereas the list for the "Berim Console" looks like this:



So the "Berim Pipes" are made from Metal, and the "Berim Console" is made from Bone. It turned out the other two components were made of Wood.

An interesting note is that I didn't even need to look at the "Berim Pipes" materials list. A keen-eyed player will see that it says "Forge Berim Pipes", which always denotes a Metal component. As far as I can see, this is the only material with a different keyword.

Unfortunately, you have to do this process for every component of every instrument in your civilization.

I strongly recommend you note the components and materials in a spreadsheet, so you never have to do it again for this particular civilization.

Also, don't forget to cancel your Work Orders afterwards!

Finally, if you don't have a magnifying glass for a particular part, skip ahead to the next section for an explanation.

End Results
I made a spreadsheet for all the instruments in the original list I showed you, so you can see what it might look like.



As it turns out, I have 5 Stringed, 2 Keyboards, 4 Winds and 1 Percussion instrument in my civilization. If you'd like to tell ahead of time, the Dwarf Fortress Wiki article on Instruments has some tables that can let you know, based on the names of certain components, what the instrument will be.

For the record, my one 'simple' instrument, the "Gemur", is a Wind Instrument, but I only know that because I made a few. As far as I can see, there was no way to tell ahead of time.

Why Are Some Components Unknown In This Spreadsheet?
Here is an example of the "Rigoth" Work Order list, which is one of my unknown options.



As you can see, the "Rigoth Strings" are made out of Metal, thanks to the Forge keyword, and it turns out the "Rigoth Frame" is made of Bone, but the "Rigoth Body" does not have a materials list at all.

This is because Glass and Ceramic object do not currently have the ability to choose from material lists (even though they do have different materials, the option is not yet enabled in the game). Therefore, the magnifying glass is missing from the Work Orders screen, but, due to this meta-knowledge, the "Rigoth Body", and all other items of this type, must be made of either Glass or Ceramic.

Checking the Glassworks and Kiln, I was able to determine that the "Rigoth Body" was made of Glass, as were two other components, whereas two further components were made of Ceramic.



I also discovered a thirteenth instrument, called a "Ret", which was a simple instrument made exclusively from Metal, and so was only visible from the Metalworks.

Please see the final section of the guide 'Product Testing', if you are interested in some of the possibilities of instrument procedural generation.
What Do I Do With Instruments?
Currently, Musical Instruments can be assigned to two locations: Temples and Taverns. These are both Meeting Places, so you first zone an area as a Meeting Place, then designate it as an Inn/Tavern or as a Temple.

Although Taverns can be zoned from Meeting Places, it might be better to declare a communal Dining Room as a Tavern instead as it seems that encouraging your Dwarves to eat there can encourage them to spend time there as well.


Taverns
So far, Tavern zones are the only zone in which I have actually been able to observe Dwarves playing music with instruments. Dwarves may also read poetry to one another in Taverns, tell stories, or even dance. Dancing seems to require music being played of the correct musical form; each dance form has a particular musical form associated with it.

Once you have designated a Tavern, you need to place a Chest/Coffer in which to store the Instruments in question, assuming they are handheld-sized instruments. You can change how many instruments are assigned to each chest by using the Zone Details Options. Please note that placing the chest seems to be a requirement for your Dwarves to properly treat the zone as a Tavern, even if you have noting to place inside yet.

Remember to turn the Tavern to Citizens Only mode if you don't want to deal with a deluge of visitors from outside your fort.

Temples
As of yet, I have not been able to have Dwarves play music in a Temple zone. However, as Temple zones are important on their own for fulfilling needs, it is worth making them anyways.

You should make sure you pick a relevant Deity or Pantheon for your Dwarves, which can be a chore on its own to figure out. Dwarves who worship Gods from from your current Civilization will be satisfied with a Temple to 'no specific Deity', but if you want to satisfy worshippers of non-standard Deities, you will have build a dedicated Temple.

You may still want to look up which Deities are actually from your Civilization and try to assign Temples accordingly. The Designate Temple menu will tell you all Deities that have current worshippers in your fortress, however, it will not identify the source Civilization in that menu.

To do this, go queue up a statue, and then click the magnifying glass. With Statues (and also figurines and engravings) you can manually decide what the statue will be of. You can then look through the list of 'Historical Figures' for the names of Deities, which will show you which civilization they originate from.

Once you have designated a Temple, you should place a Chest/Coffer in the zone, potentially so that your Dwarves treat the zone correctly. Make sure to turn all your Temples to Citizens Only mode, unless you want visitors from offsite.
Instruments in Locations
You can assign a certain number of handheld instruments to the chest in each Tavern or Temple. You can change how many instruments are assigned to each chest by using the Zone Details Options.



As a note, it is somewhat annoying to get a particular handheld instrument to a particular location, as your dwarfs like to seize whatever they feel like in order to fulfill 'Desired Instrument' jobs for Taverns and Temples. I recommend the following if you want to get particular instruments to particular places:
  • Set all Tavern and Temple 'Desired Instruments' to 0 when you create them, to avoid having to go back and turn them all down to 0 again.
  • Forbid all handheld instruments except the type in question you'd like to provide.
For furniture-sized instruments, you simply need to place the instrument somewhere in the zone as you would any other piece of furniture. However, both Taverns and Temples seem to require a large 'empty' space for a Dance Floor, which cannot contain any furniture. It is unknown how large each Dance Floor must be to be beneficial or to trigger Dances. I have had Dancing occur in both 8 x 3 and 7 x 7 dance floors. In any event, try to have a large, uninterrupted empty area in each of these zones. Putting the stationary instruments against the wall seems to work fine.
Music and Performers
Dwarves do not seem to need to be assigned as Performers in order to perform music or dance. The main requirement seems to be a natural inclination to play music or dance, and enough free time for the Dwarf to do so. Like any job, skill is not a factor as to whether or not a Dwarf will perform music, only (presumably) the quality of the music itself.

As mentioned earlier, Dwarves don't seem to even need the correct instruments available in order to play a particular musical form, or perform a Dance. They will 'Simulate' the required instruments with their voice instead. Any effects of actually using functional Instruments in the song or dance, on Dwarf mood, need fulfillment or otherwise, is not known, though one assumes the effects would be positive.



Keep in mind that visitors that join your fortress from different civilizations might be Performers, but even so, they may not know any Musical Composition that use instruments from your Civilization, and I don't think there is a way to make instruments from different civilizations, only purchase them from the appropriate caravan.

Please see the sections on Music and Musical Knowledge, below, for more information.

Profit
Apparently musical instruments have very high base value ratings, so with a good crafter, you can sell them for quite a bit of money. Make sure to look at the tables on the Dwarf Fortress wiki to see what part of the instrument counts for quality purposes, as only the 'main' parts add value to the item.
Music and Musical Knowledge, Part 1
Each Dwarf has a list of their Knowledge, available via the last subtab of the 'Skills' section of their character card, although some Dwarves may know very little. Knowledge regarding the Arts, including Music, is subdivided into two categories:
Art Forms
Any Art Forms a Dwarf knows are named and denoted in cyan. These can include Musical Forms, Poetic Forms and Dance Forms. These 'forms' are essentially a style of art (like 'sonnet', or 'punk rock') and seem to be created at worldgen.



These Art forms are procedurally generated and not all of the flavour text (found by clicking the magnifying glass) has in-game meaning. However, the types and number of instruments used in Musical Forms can be found in this screen.



If you are interested in trying to get Dwarves to actually play music or Dance, this is where you can find what you need. Dance forms always appear to be associated with a particular Musical form, which makes sense.

Currently, I am unsure if Dwarves can invent new types of music, poetry or dance at all, let alone in fortress mode.
Compositions
Any 'actual' songs (musical compositions), poems or dances are also listed and denoted in yellow. These are associated with a particular Art form of the correct type and can be written by entities in the world.



In fact, I encountered several Dwarves that immigrated to my sites that had written their own musical compositions (offsite, in worldgen). I have yet to see a Dwarf write a new composition of any type while in fortress mode.



Some musical forms will not have compositions. This appears to be on purpose, as looking at the flavour text for these types of music will usually reveal that it is an improvisational style.



However, sometimes particular Dwarves will know a Musical Form, but not know any Compositions. of that form, even if it is a Musical Form that 'requires' a composition. This may be a bug.

Unfortunately, my testing has revealed that the Art Compositions that a Dwarf knows may not be relevant at all, or bugged. Please see the further sections below for more information.

Example 1

As part of making this guide, I built all the instruments listed in the above sections and, through some trial and error, I was able to see a citizen actually use one.



Urdim here was the first dwarf I saw playing an actual instrument. He was initially simply 'Simulating' a Lilum, so I built him one and put it in the Tavern and shortly thereafter he used it on his own. He was not assigned as a Performer.

Checking this dwarf's knowledge section revealed that he did know a musical form that used the Lilum:



However, he didn't know an actual song in particular.



However, as noted above, The Azure Drum-Flutes says that it is an improvisational style.

Music and Musical Knowledge, Part 2
Example 2
Recently, I was able to see two Dwarfs perform a two-part musical form using a voice and a stationary instrument.

As I was building the instruments of a new save (including four single piece instruments), by sheer chance, I caught one of my Dwarfs (the expedition leader, in fact) performing the task 'Simulate Boket', in my tavern. There was also another Dwarf doing the 'Chant' action, and as it turned out, they were doing a two-part musical form that they both knew.

In this world, a 'Boket' is a single piece Percussion instrument made of metal, but notably, it was a huge stationary instrument, so placed like a piece of furniture:


I mean, it seems like they are just hitting a literal 'bucket' of iron for music, which is hilarious completely by accident.


When I placed the Boket in the tavern, the Dwarfs immediately stopped their singing, but this might have been because I placed the Boket in the center of the 'empty space' in my tavern, which immediately changed the size of the 'dance floor' area, shown in the Tavern view as a X by Y sized area.

I replaced and expanded the tavern area and instead, placed the Boket on the edge of the tavern so as not to inhibit the 'dance floor' area. Shortly thereafter, I had some success:


As you can see, the Dwarf in question stands directly on top of the instrument to play it (which makes sense). The other Dwarf was also doing the chanting for the second part of the song again.


Unlike the first time I saw music played, this music was not an 'improvisational' style, so both Dwarfs knew both a musical form (in this case, called The Sweet Skirts, and a musical composition based on this form (called The Undignified Critters).



The Sweet Skirts is also noted in the flavour text as being 'for entertainment', which I initially believed might identify music played in Tavern zones, however, this turned out to not be true.
Music and Musical Knowledge, Part 3
In my most recent fortress, I was lucky enough to witness this situation below:



The top five dwarves are all simulating instruments together, while the bottom one is dancing to the music and the far righthand one is listening to it. This has taught me a lot about what music Dwarves will play and what is possible in worldgen.



This appears to be the musical form that is being played. it has the following information of interest:
  • It is 'a form of music used during marches and military engagements'. So, this means that not only songs used 'for entertainment' are restricted to being playing in tavern zones.
  • It is played using one to five golud and a vashzud. So, no vocal part, and this is the first musical form I have seen used a multiple of the same instrument, as well as having a variable component. There are currently 4 out of a possible 5 goluds being simulated here.
  • it is a composed form of music.
Finally, the dance form the solo dwarf at the bottom is using appears to be this one:



Notably it is a solo performance dance, which explains why only one dwarf is dancing. It is also a choreographed dance, which means it has compositions similar to musical compositions. This dwarf also did know a choreographed dance of this type:



While this is an extremely cool random event to happen, and which I did not assist the Dwarves with in any way other than making a tavern, it seems to reveal some unfortunate truths about bugs in the music system, or perhaps features yet to be fully added to the game. As we all know, Dwarf Fortress is a work in progress and probably always will be. See below.

Some Bugs in the System
While I was documenting the above, I noticed that the musical accompaniment for the choreographed dance in question is called the Ponderous Trough and Stars, which is not the name of any musical form this Dwarf knows, and also not the one being played currently.

However, the Dance Form The Laconic Flower says that it can be accompanied with any composition of the Pregnant Wisp. If so, which one is being played now?

This lead me to investigate the Knowledge lists of each involved Dwarf, and I found the following:
  • Even though the Pregnant Wisps (clearly the musical form being played here, due to the instruments being simulated) is a composed form of music, and as such should require a particular musical composition to be played, none of the Dwarves participating know a composition in that form.



  • likewise, the Dance Form the Laconic Flower is choreographed, and so even though the dancing Dwarf in question knows a piece of choreography for the Laconic Flower, it requires a musical form that is not being played here.
I considered if it was possible that the Dwarves were simply 'jamming out' to the musical forms and dance forms in question, choosing to 'improv' because they did not all share the same knowledge. However, this led to another discovery...

Two of the Dwarves simulating instruments did not even know the correct musical form at all!


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Finally, I considered if the Dwarves in question were somehow inclined to music and decided to participate anyways, even though they had no idea what they were doing.


Yes!


No...

In the end:
  • Three of the Dwarves playing music knew the musical form the Pregnant Wisp, but none knew any compositions of that form;
  • Two of the Dwarves playing music knew the dance form the Laconic Flower, one of which knew a composition of that form, The Sands Laugh, but as mentioned, this composition does not involve The Pregnant Wisps as accompaniment.
  • The dancing Dwarf knew both The Pregnant Wisp and The Laconic Flower, but no compositions for the Pregnant Wisp and the incorrect choreography The Sands Laugh for dancing.
  • Two of the Dwarves knew neither the correct musical form nor the correct dance form.

Needless to say, the entire thing has me very confused. What personality or knowledge flags triggers a Dwarf to play music or dance? Apparently, a Dwarf can participate in a song even though he does not even know the correct form of music, let alone the correct composition. In fact, one of the Dwarves above does not know any music at all!

In any event, it seems necessary to conclude for now that Dwarves do not even play particular compositions of music, as there is no Dwarf participating currently that fills all that criteria. In fact, somehow Dwarves without knowledge of any musical forms at all can end up playing a song.

It's possible that the 'Dancer' Dwarf initiated the Dance event (as he is the only one who knows both the Dance Form and the Musical Form), and the other Dwarves were somehow drafted into participating despite not filling the right criteria, but I can't be sure.

Passing on Musical Knowledge
Considering the fact that it is possible Dwarves do not currently consider which musical composition they are playing at all, I wonder if this section might be a moot point. However, I think I have identified a way in which art form knowledge can pass from one Dwarf to another:

by the power of Friendship (and perhaps break time).



This is Sibrek Finbasements. She is a year one immigrant to the fortress and was participating
in the large scale song and dance event above.

When I looked through her knowledge, she had several unusual musical forms known and was also an Expert Musician (level 8).



In the flavour text, many of those types of music are from an elf Civilization known as the Rumoured Canyon. When I looked Sibrek up in the Legends Viewer (now compatible with Dwarf Fortress on Steam), she had once apprenticed to an elf musician during worldgen before immigrating to my fortress.



In fact, she had written several compositions of elf music herself (during worldgen).

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This is Dodok Cloisteradmired. He is one of my original seven Dwarves and also was playing music at the same time.



For some reason, he also knows the Velvet of Incense which is an elf musical form, as well as It Must Have Been Chances, which as discussed is not only elf music but authored by Sibrek herself. How could he possibly know this unless it was passed from Sibrek to him in some way?

Another of my original seven Dwarves, Muthkat Boltsdabble, also knew this particular musical form and composition, but none of the other Dwarves in the fortress did.

This led me to two possibilities:

Friendship



Somehow, Sibrek had become friends with Dodok since she arrived. This fortress is only in Early Spring 101, so they must be very compatible to become friends so fast.

Additionally, Dodok is kindred spirits with Muthkat, because all of your starting seven Dwarves start as close friends or better.

So, it's possible that Dwarves that are mutual friends or better can talk to each other and pass on knowledge of art forms.

Break Time

Sibrek, Dodok and Muthkat are all assigned as Farmers/Cooks, so they do the same jobs at the same time, and are therefore off duty at the same time. They are also marked to specialize, meaning they do not do anything else, including hauling.


So, its possible that Dwarves that spend leisure time together will pass on art knowledge.

Finally, it could be that it requires both criteria (friendliness between Dwarves, and time off at the same time) in order to facilitate this knowledge transfer.

As mentioned above, having knowledge of compositions or even art forms passed from Dwarf to Dwarf may not matter at all, considering that Dwarves seem to be able to participate in art form activities without any knowledge at all. But it is still interesting to see.
Further Testing Required
As of yet, I have not been able to:
  • Get a Dwarf to play a particular musical composition (or identify if this is happening);
  • Get a Dwarf to play or simulate a song in a Temple (even with assigned Performers).
  • Write a book about musical knowledge or pass knowledge via apprenticeship

Further information as I find it (if ever.)
Product Testing, Part 1
Here is the finished products from my first game:



Here is an 'Azmol', a furniture-sized String instrument, not unlike a concert harp. As you can see, the specific ingredients do show up in the description along with their qualities. The 'Azmol' was one of only two instruments where I ordered an ingredient (the silk thread) off of the dwarven caravan. Just make sure you order 'silk thread' and not 'silk cloth', or be prepared to wait another year to fix your mistake.



Here is a 'Berim', a furniture-sized Keyboard instrument. In the description you will also see if the instrument is 'handheld' or furniture-sized, which will be described as 'huge stationary' or similar. Four hundred and two pipes on this Pipe Organ, plus it uses water somehow? Weird.



Here is an 'Edtul', another stationary Stringed instrument, notable only due to the porcelain used. Furniture-sized instruments are placed from the normal Furniture menu just like any other furniture.



Here is a 'Gemur', the simple wooden Wind instrument I discussed earlier in the guide. It looks to be some sort of duct flute (or as many people know them, a Recorder) and probably sounds just as annoying.



Here is a 'Gotom', a somewhat dull Percussion instrument, but notable in this list because it is the first "assembled" instrument that is hand-held, even though it only had two parts. It is also the only percussion instrument this civilization has!



Here is a 'Lilum', a handheld Wind instrument that uses glass in its construction. I believe your dwarfs will always use green glass for instruments in the current version. The 'Lilum' is notable because I actually got to see a Dwarf use one, as per the previous section.



Here is a 'Ret', a simple metal Wind Instrument. As you read above, I didn't originally know about the Ret because it was produced in one piece from a Metalcrafter's Workshop. I found out about its existence from the Outpost Liason.



Here is the 'Rigoth' mentioned in previous sections, which turned out to be a furniture-sized Stringed instrument. Sadly, even though many Dwarfs knew a Musical Composition involving the Rigoth, I did not see it played during my most recent fortress. I had tried to place it in a Temple, as opposed to a Tavern, so that could have been the issue, or it might be because it is furniture-sized, but further testing is needed.
Product Testing, Part 2


Here is a 'Rith', notably the only handheld Stringed Instrument. All of the Keyboard instruments were Furniture and all of the Wind instruments were Handheld, but I am sure Worldgen allows for many possibilities. I will let you know when I look at some of the other instruments from another Dwarf civilization.



Here is a 'Rozsed', the second of only two Keyboard instruments (also furniture-sized as per above), but uses leather for a bellows instead of "water pressure", like the Berim did.



Here is a 'Salul', a handheld Wind Instrument. Many of my Dwarfs also knew Salul music, but unfortunately it was not played (while I was observing, anyways).



Here is an 'Usur', another Handheld Wind Instrument, but notable because it seems to have used different procedural generation. The simple Wind Instruments (Gemur and Ret) were very similar to each other, as were the two constructed Wind Instruments (Lilum and Salul), but the Usur appears to be some sort of bagpipe instead, and in fact used two different leather components. It also had four components, with only the two furniture-sized Keyboard instruments also using four components.



Finally, here is a 'Valthez', another furniture sized Stringed instrument, which this civilization apparently favors greatly (there were four furniture-sized Stringed instruments in total). This one, unlike the others, rests flat, like a harpsichord. It was also the other instrument where I purchased a material (again, the silk thread used for the strings).
Conclusion
I hope this guide helped you in some small way. Please feel free to comment with advice or your own instrument information.

Version 1.0: Released guide.
Version 1.1: Some small updates and notes.
Version 1.2: Updated with descriptions of all the example instruments and some testing.
Version 1.3: Updated with some new information regarding stationary instruments.
16 Comments
thanks for your guide!:celeste_bird:
HueSatLight 14 Dec, 2024 @ 9:39am 
More ways to learn your civ's instruments:
In Legend mode, export as xml, then open up in a text editer that can handle a huge file (eg: notepad++ [notepad-plus-plus.org]). Search "devotional" or "entertainment", note your civ's musical styles and their instruments. I don't know about "military" and "events" styles. If an instrument isn't in a style, it's probably only good for trading or raising room value (stationary instruments only).

Before embark, there's some of your civ's instruments and instrument parts (tools).

Group's symbol (embark) or engraving/statue/figurine, New Image -> Object. List includes all the instruments and parts, and what they're made of (unless description is too long). Doesn't tell you which civ though.
telemikus 4 Apr, 2023 @ 12:04pm 
Nice one!
Xcorps 19 Jan, 2023 @ 3:13pm 
Masterwork.
OpticBoom 11 Jan, 2023 @ 2:05am 
WOW, nicely done! I hope some clever Dorf mods this crap into human instruments... I'd rather all instruments were electric guitars from different manufacturers.
Cragspyder  [author] 10 Jan, 2023 @ 3:47pm 
@tadeos and OdessaSwift: Thank you for your kind words! I just recently added example instruments and some information about how to get your dwarfs to actually play them if you are interested.
tadeos_trollhammer 10 Jan, 2023 @ 9:23am 
Great guide, thank you!
OdessaSwift 10 Jan, 2023 @ 8:05am 
Nice work! I found this helpful. Thanks for putting it together!
Col. W. T. Philmore 9 Jan, 2023 @ 1:22am 
Meh. I just order all of em from the caravan
cat 8 Jan, 2023 @ 9:38am 
Way too convoluted. Simply open the work order screen, click the add button, search for "make" and look for 2-word entries. It will list all instruments with 1 ingredient - those used by temples, taverns etc. No spreadsheets required, it's painfully straightforward.