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: 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


<< Back