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One-string fiddle<\/p>\n
A circus runaway \u2013 the mysterious case of the one-string fiddle<\/strong><\/p>\n When I first unwrapped this instrument from storage, I was confronted with an enigma. What was this instrument? It seemed to be a chimaera of the string instrument world, borrowing elements from lots of different instruments to make one very unusual fiddle. The top half is shaped like a violin, with a wide, rounded lower half which more closely resembles a 19th<\/sup>-century guitar. The soundholes are in a shape commonly seen on the viola d\u2019amore \u2013 a member of the viol family popular in the 17th<\/sup> and 18th<\/sup> centuries. The very long neck and single string presented even more of a mystery. Single-string bowed instruments are rare worldwide, and even more so in the Western classical tradition to which the violin and viol family belong. However, string instruments have been the subject of experimentation for centuries, and the form of even the violin continues to evolve. Could this be an example of experimental innovation? Little information was collected about this instrument when it entered the museum\u2019s collection in 1982. Luckily, the National Music Museum in South Dakota holds a perfect match within their collection. Documentation from the NMM revealed this to be a \u2018violon du cirque\u2019 \u2013 a circus violin \u2013 made in France c. 1900. This explains the motivation behind the maker\u2019s experimental design \u2013 creating an instrument with a high novelty, entertainment and humour factor. The details of the circus routines in which this highly unusual fiddle might have played a part can only be imagined!<\/p>\n Looks can be deceiving<\/strong><\/p>\n Z<\/em>\u0142\u00f3bcoki<\/em><\/p>\n Baton-shaped kit<\/em><\/p>\n At first glance, this narrow-bodied instrument resembles a kit \u2013 a miniature fiddle popular as a portable instrument for private dancing tutors during the 17th<\/span><\/sup><\/span> and 18<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> centuries. Kits come in two basic categories \u2013 those shaped like miniature violins and those with long narrow bodies described as \u2018baton-shaped\u2019 by some authors and \u2018gondola-shaped\u2019 by others. However, this example is too large to be a kit, and doesn\u2019t quite conform to the usual shape of the baton-style version. In fact, this is a z\u0142\u00f3bcoki, and has a completely different cultural context to the kit. While you would find a kit at home in the refined drawing rooms of London polite society in the 18<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> century, the z\u0142\u00f3bcoki is the folk fiddle of the G\u00f3rale people of the Tatra Mountains in Poland. The z\u0142\u00f3bcoki was traditionally played at celebrations, weddings and marches, alongside a drum or basy (a Polish bass fiddle broadly comparable to the cello), and sometimes local bagpipes. This example demonstrates that within the twisting family tree of musical instruments, two instruments with very similar forms may have very different cultural contexts. However, the baton-shaped kit is thought to have evolved as a modification of the older rebec, a bowed instrument played widely in Europe during the Medieval and Renaissance eras. It is possible that future research may reveal that both the z\u0142\u00f3bcoki and the kit have their origins in the rebec \u2013 however without further data we can only speculate.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n An imposter amongst the fiddles \u2013 identifying a Tibetan lute<\/strong><\/p>\n Sgra-snyan<\/em><\/p>\n To tell the global story of music, musical instrument museums often collect examples from around the world. This means that organologists sometimes need to identify instruments from cultures other than their own, which can be confusing work. This striking red string instrument is carved from a single piece of wood, with a round resonator covered in hide which amplifies the sound of the strings. It was previously identified in museum records from the 1990s as a pi-wang<\/em>, a type of bowed string instrument from Tibet. However, after a little research it became clear that this instrument did not have the cylindrical sound box of a pi-wang<\/em>, and also had more than the standard two strings. Utilising the power of the internet, which makes finding reference images a breeze, I determined that it was definitely the wrong shape to be a pi-wang<\/em>. After some further reading, another possible candidate emerged \u2013 the Himalayan plucked<\/em> instrument called sgra-snyan<\/em> (the name means \u2018pleasant sound\u2019). Traditionally, one of the roles of the sgra-snyan<\/em> was to accompany nang-ma<\/em> songs, associated with the music of the Dalai Lama\u2019s court in the Tibetan city of Lhasa. Today, ensembles featuring the sgra-snyan <\/em>along with the pi-wang<\/em> and traditional flutes are played by the Tibetan community in exile in Bhutan and India, where the nang-ma<\/em> repertory has been revived. Having revealed its true identity, this particular instrument can no longer be considered a fiddle. However, this example goes to show how the abundance of reference images and information on the internet has changed the task of musical instrument research between the 1990s and today. Understanding a museum collection is an ongoing process \u2013 there is always more to learn!<\/p>\n The varieties of fiddle held in the collection at St Cecilia\u2019s Hall are far too numerous to research in a four-week internship, or cover in a single blog post. To explore more of the fascinating world of fiddles, visit the Laigh Hall or the Wolfson Gallery at the newly redeveloped museum.<\/p>\n Olivia Thorne<\/p>\n Further Reading<\/strong><\/p>\n Cooley, T 1997, Ethnography, Tourism and Music-culture in the Tatra Mountains: Negotiated Representations of Polish Gorale Ethnicity<\/em>, Doctoral Thesis submitted to Brown University, Rhode Island, accessed via ProQuest.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/universitycollectionsvolunteers\/files\/2017\/07\/Olivia-Blog-2-170717.jpg\")
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