devil’s fiddle

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: 1960s
Village / Town: Kartuzy
Region: Pomerania (Cassubia)
Country: Poland
Owner: The State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw
Inventory number: PME 50879
Description: a metal sheet cubical resonance body is attached to a violin in the shape of an eight cut out from a plank; both the body and the violin are secured to a bar; there are also buzzers and two strings made from a thick wire; a wooden corrugated rod works as a bow to strike the strings and body of the instrument
Decoration: the instrument is painted in colorful motives, mostly geometrical, embellished with ribbons and topped with a cardboard mask reminiscent of a human head shape in a hat
Measurements: height 1640 mm, resonance body 200 x 130 x 100 mm
Materials: wood, metal, cardboard, cloth
Sound compass, tuning: unspecified
Performance practice: a musical tool used to make the so-called musical racket; nowadays used as percussion instrument in folk bands in Kaszuby (Cassubia) and is a symbol of the region’s musical identity
Catalog card by: Teresa Lewińska / Zbigniew J. Przerembski


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