devil’s fiddle

photo: Waldemar Kielichowski © Institute of Music and Dance, Warsaw


Tadeusz Makowski, devil's fiddle; rec. Jacek Jackowski, Ciechanowiec 2013; ISPAN
Local name: skrzypce diable, ciorcie, diôbli bas, brumbas
Classification: 3 Chordophones / 32 Composite chordophones / 32-21-4 Composite chordophones sounded by scraping and beating the string
Maker: Mielewczyk Augustyn
Date: 1969
Village / Town: Kartuzy
Region: Pomerania (Cassubia)
Country: Poland
Owner: Museum of Folk Musical Instruments in Szydłowiec
Inventory number: MS/S/29
Description: a violin contour in the shape of an eight cut out of a plank with a tin cube filled with some rattling material attached to it fixed to a wooden rod, with two wire strings supported by a bridge; two cymbals and buzzers crown the rod; the strings and the body are struck with a wooden corrugated club
Decoration: the instrument is painted in colorful motives, mostly geometrical, embellished with ribbons, topped with a cardboard mask reminiscent of a human head shape, with hair, mustache, beard from fur, and a conical cap; club-bow ending in a zoomorphic element (reminiscent of a herring’s head)
Measurements: height 1706 mm, club 500 mm
Materials: wood, metal, cardboard, fabric
Performance practice: a musical tool used to make the so-called ritual uproar; nowadays used as a percussion instrument in folk bands in Kaszuby, and a symbol of the region’s musical identity
Catalog card by: Maria Żurowska / Zbigniew J. Przerembski


devil's fiddle; Grzegorz Elak (b. 1964, Czersk); rec. Kielce 1977; Sources of Polish Folk Music



devil's fiddle; Tadeusz Makowski (b. 1950); rec. Jacek Jackowski, Ciechanowiec 2005, 2012; ISPAN


Zbyszek, a polka; The Band of the Folk Ensemble Kaszuby from Kartuzy: Władysław Bemowski (b. 1905), violin, Stanisław Fryczkowski (b. 1929), violin, Bogdan Schmidt (b. 1953), violin, Aleksander Tomaczkowski (b. 1908), clarinet, Zbigniew Bajer (b. 1943), accordion, Zenon Pyszka (ur. 1956), devil's fiddle, Franciszek Kwidzyński (b. 1936), vocal, burczybas, Henryk Kreft (b. 1949), burczybas; rec. Kazimierz 1971; Sources of Polish Folk Music


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