Sunday, July 11, 2010

Morlachen Monochord



This lovely hybrid-looking instrument popped up today on BibliOdyssey. Notice that it is played with a very short bow, has one string (and one tuning peg), a bridge, and f holes. It is probably part of the Gusle family, though I haven't been able to find a picture of a long-necked Gusle with f holes. It seems that the Morlachen people were Slavic-speaking people who lived around Croatia. According to this article only 22 people who filled out the Croatian census in 1991 considered themselves to be Morlachs.

Perhaps the musician in the picture might have sounded something like this.

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