devil’s fiddle

Local name: diabelskie skrzypce (devil’s fiddle)
Classification: 3 Chordophones / 32 Composite chordophones / 32-21-4 Composite chordophones sounded by scraping and beating the string
Maker: Unknown
Date: 1900-1974
Village / Town: Kielce
Region: Lesser Poland (Świętokrzyskie)
Country: Poland
Owner: Museum of Folk Musical Instruments in Szydłowiec
Inventory number: MS/S/206
Description: a wooden box with a heart-shaped opening is attached to a wooden slightly arched stick, topped with a head; one wire string is supported by a triangular bridge (with the top cut); the string and the body are struck by a wooden club with a small head; in such instruments (appearing mostly in the Kurpie region) it is possibile to change the string’s tension by turning the knob where the upper end of the string is fixed
Measurements: height 706 mm, resonance body 158 x 105 x 58 mm, club 231 mm
Materials: wood, metal
Sound compass, tuning: undetermined
Performance practice: a music tool used to make the so-called ritual noise; nowadays used as a percussion instrument in some regions
Catalog card by: MLIM / Zbigniew J. Przerembski


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