{ "summary": { "title": "necked fiddle" }, "identifier": [ { "accession_number": "HC.1999.1625", "type": "accession number", "value": "HC.1999.1625", "primary": true } ], "note": [ { "type": "catalogue note", "value": "Bought MEM from E. Street Market in 1978 for the Education Centre." } ], "loan": { "value": "N" }, "subject": [ { "summary": { "title": "Music" }, "@admin": { "uid": "hmc-subject-46", "id": "subject-46", "uuid": "8e751554-9990-3f09-a696-01b6fc7ff25f" }, "@entity": "reference" } ], "description": [ { "type": "catalogue description", "value": "Stringed instrument and bow. Neck of fiddle is carved into the shape of a horses head.", "primary": true }, { "type": "description", "value": "Stringed instrument and bow. Bought MEM from E. Street Market in 1978 for the Education Centre.\n{PLACE: Former Yugoslavia, including Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia also Albania}" }, { "type": "manufacture basic (online)", "value": "Gusles can be made by the player or by a professional instrument maker.\n\nThis gusle was bought in a London market by an Education Officer of the Horniman Museum in the 1970s.\n\nThe gusle's soundbox is made of a hollowed out piece of maple wood. It has a wooden neck with a beautifully carved animal head, usually a deer or a horse. The back of the sound box is also carved with traditional patterns. The top of the soundbox is covered with stretched goat skin." }, { "type": "manufacture more (online)", "value": "The melody string is supported by a 'bridge'. This bridge lets the vibrations of the melody string go onto the stretched skin and then the sound vibrations go into the hollow body or 'sound box' of the instrument. This sound box lets the vibrations 'resonate'. They are amplified and made louder, and this, together with the skin, gives the gusle its special quality of sound." }, { "historical": true, "type": "use", "value": "The gusle is held almost upright and resting on the thigh (not under the chin as a violin). The string is played by rubbing a bowstring across it." }, { "historical": true, "type": "use", "value": "The gusle is played rather like an upright violin. It is played to accompany songs that tell of the history of the people.\n\nThe player sits with the gusle resting on a thigh. The neck is held in one hand and the other hand holds the bow. Unlike a violin, it has no fingerboard, so the string is stopped by sideways pressure from the player's fingers. This changes the length of the string that is vibrating. Pressing lower down the string gives a higher note. The bow is held with the palm of the hand facing upwards. The horsehair of the bow is 'rosined' and this means that it has a waxy substance made of dried pine tree resin (sap) rubbed on the string. This makes the string sticky and gives the bowstring more friction to vibrate the melody string. (This technique is the same as used by a violin player.) The peg at the top of the instrument is used to tighten or loosen the string, getting it in tune before playing. \n\nThe gusle is mostly used to accompany the player's song and the tune is kept quite simple because it is the song which is more important. The player sings 'epic ballads'. These songs are very long and tell stories about the history of the people." }, { "historical": true, "type": "use", "value": "Many epic ballads are about events, like battles and wars that happened hundreds of years ago. The words to these long songs are not written down, they are memorised by the singer who can change the parts of the story and the words as he wishes. This is called 'oral' tradition: events and customs are not written down in books, they are memorised. The gusle player was, therefore, a very important member of a community because he held all their history in his memory.\n\nThe player usually wears traditional clothes including knee length black riding boots and he usually has a huge moustache!\n\nIn years gone by, an audience would gather to hear these epic songs from the gusle player and the singer, and many of the audience would at times be crying because the songs were so emotional. One Serbian writer once wrote of how important the gusle and the songs were to his people, \"In a house where the gusle is not heard, both the house and the people there are dead!\"." }, { "attribution": { "attributor": "Patel, India" }, "type": "description", "value": "Stringed instrument and bow. Bought MEM from E. Street Market in 1978 for the Education Centre." }, { "attribution": { "attributor": "Patel, India" }, "type": "description", "value": "Stringed instrument and bow." }, { "attribution": { "attributor": "Patel, India" }, "type": "description", "value": "Stringed instrument and bow. Neck of fiddle is carved into the shape of a horses head." }, { "type": "use", "value": "The gusle is held almost upright and resting on the thigh (not under the chin as a violin). The string is played by rubbing a bowstring across it.\nThe gusle is played rather like an upright violin. It is played to accompany songs that tell of the history of the people.\nThe player sits with the gusle resting on a thigh. The neck is held in one hand and the other hand holds the bow. Unlike a violin it has no fingerboard, so the string is stopped by sideways pressure from the player\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fingers. This changes the length of the string that is vibrating. Pressing lower down the string gives a higher note. The bow is held with the palm of the hand facing upwards. The horsehair of the bow is \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcrosined\u00e2\u20ac\u2122; this means it has a waxy substance made of dried pine tree resin (sap) rubbed on the string. This makes the string sticky and gives the bowstring more friction to vibrate the melody string. (This technique is the same as used by a violin player.) The peg at the top of the instrument is used to tighten or loosen the string, getting it in tune before playing. \nThe gusle is mostly used to accompany the player\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s song and the tune is kept quite simple because it is the song which is more important. The player sings \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcepic ballads\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. These songs are very long and tell stories about the history of the people.\nMany epic ballads are about events, like battles and wars that happened hundreds of years ago. The words to these long songs are not written own, they are memorised by the singer who can change the parts of the story and the words as he wishes. This is called \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcoral\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 tradition; events and customs are not written down in books, they are memorised. The gusle player was therefore a very important member of a community because he held all their history in his memory.\n\nThe player usually wears traditional clothes including knee length black riding boots and he usually has a huge moustache!\nIn years gone by an audience would gather to hear these epic songs from the gusle player and the singer and many of the audience would at times be crying because the songs were so emotional.\nOne Serbian writer once wrote of how important the gusle and the songs were to his people, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In a house where the gusle is not heard, both the house and the people there are dead!\u00e2\u20ac\ufffd." } ], "language": [ "eng" ], "collection": "Musical Instruments", "title": [ { "type": "catalogue title", "value": "gusle, chordophone", "primary": true }, { "type": "classified as" }, { "type": "more (online)", "value": "Gusle (pronounced 'gus-li') is a Slav (former Yugoslavia) word that means stringed instrument. In 1914 E. M. von Hornbostel and C. Sachs developed a way of grouping musical instruments together to make them easier to study. This system of classification had four main groups; idiophones, membranophones, chordophones, and aerophones. This fiddle belongs to the chordophones group of instruments where the sound is produced from vibrating strings." }, { "type": "display title", "value": "gusle, chordophone" } ], "type": { "sub_type": [ "general" ], "scope": "TOP", "base": "object" }, "arrangement": { "other_finding_aids": "HMG - Forest Hill; Horniman Museum; Hands on Base; Display; Case 5; Shelf b" }, "multimedia": [ { "processed": { "preview": { "resizable": true, "format": "jpeg", "modified": 1222691532000, "location": "160\/402\/preview_WI_HC_1999_1625.jpg", "type": "image", "measurements": { "filesize": { "units": "bytes", "value": 1099 }, "dimensions": [ { "units": "pixels", "dimension": "height", "value": 76 }, { "units": "pixels", "dimension": "width", "value": 76 } ] } }, "feature": { "resizable": true, "format": "jpeg", "modified": 1222691532000, "location": "160\/402\/feature_WI_HC_1999_1625.jpg", "type": "image", "measurements": { "filesize": { "units": "bytes", "value": 8209 }, "dimensions": [ { "units": "pixels", "dimension": "height", "value": 373 }, { "units": "pixels", "dimension": "width", "value": 373 } ] } }, "large": { "resizable": true, "format": "jpeg", "modified": 1222691532000, "location": "160\/402\/large_WI_HC_1999_1625.jpg", "type": "image", "measurements": { "filesize": { "units": "bytes", "value": 23060 }, "dimensions": [ { "units": "pixels", "dimension": "height", "value": 750 }, { "units": "pixels", "dimension": "width", "value": 750 } ] } }, "mid": { "resizable": true, "format": "jpeg", "modified": 1222691532000, "location": "160\/402\/mid_WI_HC_1999_1625.jpg", "type": "image", "measurements": { "filesize": { "units": "bytes", "value": 1675 }, "dimensions": [ { "units": "pixels", "dimension": "height", "value": 115 }, { "units": "pixels", "dimension": "width", "value": 115 } ] } }, "body": { "resizable": true, "format": "jpeg", "modified": 1222691532000, "location": "160\/402\/body_WI_HC_1999_1625.jpg", "type": "image", "measurements": { "filesize": { "units": "bytes", "value": 1604 }, "dimensions": [ { "units": "pixels", "dimension": "height", "value": 110 }, { "units": "pixels", "dimension": "width", "value": 110 } ] } } }, "@link": { "role": [ { "value": "image of object" } ], "attribution": { "type": "image (online)" } }, "@admin": { "uid": "hmc-media-160402", "id": "media-160402", "uuid": "01458881-cb38-3573-87de-16488660824f" }, "legal": { "rights": [ { "holder": "Horniman Museum and Gardens", "type": "copyright" } ] }, "type": "image", "@entity": "reference" } ], "@admin": { "processed": 1744308108314, "sequence": 7598914, "uid": "hmc-object-10232", "added": 1664628794932, "stream": "collections-online", "id": "object-10232", "source": "hmc", "uuid": "4b487fb5-0086-3a73-af39-0240b307b17c" }, "material": [ { "type": "catalogue materials", "value": "wood, skin, horse hair", "primary": true } ], "culture": [ { "@link": { "source": "catalogue" }, "name": [ { "type": "catalogue culture", "value": "Slavic and Albanian" } ], "@entity": "literal" }, { "value": "Slavs and Albanians" }, { "value": "Slavic and Albanian" }, { "value": "Slavic and Albanians" }, { "value": "Slavic, Albanian" } ], "legal": { "status": "handling collection" }, "name": [ { "type": "catalogue name", "value": "necked fiddle", "primary": true }, { "type": "object name" }, { "type": "object name (AAT)" }, { "type": "object name (AAT)", "value": "necked fiddle" }, { "type": "object name", "value": "guigle and bow" } ], "options": { "option7": "Musical Instruments", "option5": "Musical instruments: string", "use": "The gusle is played held upright and resting on the thigh with the bowstring rubbed across the main string. The string would be treated with rosin, a waxy substance made from dried pine tree resin, which makes the string sticky and creates more friction to help the bowstring vibrate the melody string. The peg at the top is used to tighten or loosen the string to change the tuning. It is played to accompany songs that tell the history of people, including epics of battles.", "flag4": "N", "option6": "http:\/\/www.njegos.org\/heritage\/gusle.htm; \nhttp:\/\/www.timsheppard.co.uk\/story\/dir\/traditions\/instruments.html; \nhttp:\/\/www.peterepstein.com\/pages\/321_instruments_balkans.html", "flag3": "N", "system_count": "2", "flag2": "N", "flag1": "N", "option1": "The gusle is a kind of 'fiddle'. When a violin is used for playing traditional or folk music, it is called a fiddle and you can see the similarities between these two instruments. Other stringed instruments around the world also have the top of the soundbox covered in stretched skin, for example, a drum. Many are found in Africa and India. Maybe you could hunt for them in the Museum's Music Gallery. \nCan you think of a plucked string instrument from America with a body like a drum?...the banjo!\nWe mentioned that the songs of the gusle player are not written down as they are in his memory. \nDo you know of any songs or rhymes from your own 'oral tradition'? Think about the songs and rhymes that you learned in the playground!", "option2": "Gusles can be made by the player or by a professional instrument maker.\nThis gusle was bought in a London market by an Education Officer of the Horniman Museum in the 1970s.\nThe gusle\u2019s soundbox is made of a hollowed out piece of maple wood. It has a wooden neck with a beautifully carved animal head, usually a deer or horse. The back of the sound box is also carved with traditional patterns. The top of the soundbox is covered with stretched goat skin.The melody string is supported by a \u2018bridge\u2019. This bridge lets the vibrations of the melody string go onto the stretched skin and then the sound vibrations go into the hollow body or \u2018sound box\u2019 of the instrument.\nThis sound box lets the vibrations \u2018resonate\u2019; they are amplified and made louder, and this together with the skin gives the gusle its special quality of sound." }, "appraisal": [ { "source": "catalogue", "@entity": "lifecycle" } ], "term": [ { "summary": { "title": "shell" }, "@link": { "role": [ { "value": "classified as" } ] }, "@admin": { "uid": "hmc-term-1016308", "id": "term-1016308", "uuid": "d70dcb44-62ad-3e14-b299-ecce51efdadb" }, "@entity": "reference" } ], "category": [ { "type": "category1", "value": "Education Handling Collection: Musical Instruments" } ], "cumulation": { "date": [ { "source": "catalogue", "earliest": 1978, "value": "1978", "latest": 1978 }, { "role": [ { "value": "date collected" } ], "earliest": 1978, "value": "1978", "latest": 1978 } ] }, "facility": [ { "summary": { "title": "see part records" }, "@link": { "date": { "earliest": 2016, "value": "2016-01-05", "latest": 2016 }, "current": "Y", "last": { "level4": "individual locations on part records", "location": "Horniman Museum. Hands on Base", "level1": "Display", "level3": "Shelf g", "level2": "Case 20" }, "purpose": "annual audit", "location": "Admin", "level1": "TOP RECORD", "level2": "see part records" }, "@admin": { "uid": "hmc-facility-11508", "id": "facility-11508", "uuid": "a707117f-0def-34c9-9f44-a908ae8cb9a3" }, "@entity": "reference", "primary": true }, { "summary": { "title": "HMG - Forest Hill" }, "note": [ { "value": "Data imported from source database without location date." } ], "@link": { "date": { "earliest": 1, "value": "0001", "latest": 1 }, "current": "N", "role": [ { "value": "historical" } ], "location": "HMG - Forest Hill", "level1": "Horniman Museum", "level2": "2\/45" }, "@admin": { "uid": "hmc-facility-548", "id": "facility-548", "uuid": "3b8534e3-4d29-3619-bc5e-1216c54b42dc" }, "@entity": "reference" }, { "summary": { "title": "see part records" }, "@link": { "date": { "earliest": 2007, "value": "2007-07-31", "latest": 2007 }, "current": "N", "role": [ { "value": "historical" } ], "last": { "location": "Horniman Museum", "level1": "FH", "level2": "2\/45" }, "location": "TOP RECORD", "level1": "see part records" }, "@admin": { "uid": "hmc-facility-11508", "id": "facility-11508", "uuid": "a707117f-0def-34c9-9f44-a908ae8cb9a3" }, "@entity": "reference" }, { "summary": { "title": "Hands on Base" }, "@link": { "date": { "earliest": 2007, "value": "2007-12-10", "latest": 2007 }, "level4": "individual locations on part records", "current": "N", "role": [ { "value": "historical" } ], "last": { "location": "see part records", "level1": "TOP" }, "purpose": "Learning Portal", "location": "Horniman Museum. Hands on Base", "level1": "Display", "level3": "Shelf g", "level2": "Case 20" }, "@admin": { "uid": "hmc-facility-50", "id": "facility-50", "uuid": "0883a9b0-c9c4-3cde-b33d-c612b2dc8f70" }, "@entity": "reference" } ], "creation": { "place": [ { "summary": { "title": "Yugoslavia" }, "@admin": { "uid": "hmc-place-1533", "id": "place-1533", "uuid": "ae0de286-2f40-3a87-a4f3-949e5bd907a6" }, "historical": true, "@entity": "reference" }, { "summary": { "title": "Yugoslavia; Europe; Serbia; Bosnia and Hercegovina; Croatia" }, "@link": { "source": "catalogue" }, "name": [ { "value": "Yugoslavia; Europe; Serbia; Bosnia and Hercegovina; Croatia" } ], "@entity": "literal" }, { "summary": { "title": "Serbia" }, "@admin": { "uid": "hmc-place-705", "id": "place-705", "uuid": "6a713625-a9c6-3cdd-bcd9-5d4f050689c3" }, "historical": true, "@entity": "reference" }, { "summary": { "title": "Bosnia and Hercegovina" }, "@admin": { "uid": "hmc-place-402", "id": "place-402", "uuid": "488ef63d-bf2d-3462-935f-3c5a79989b38" }, "historical": true, "@entity": "reference" }, { "summary": { "title": "Croatia" }, "@admin": { "uid": "hmc-place-432", "id": "place-432", "uuid": "05cf0a68-2469-39c7-9ca6-5c060d88203f" }, "historical": true, "@entity": "reference" }, { "summary": { "title": "Europe" }, "@admin": { "uid": "hmc-place-96", "id": "place-96", "uuid": "09047dc7-c404-3310-bb05-fc999fb0d88e" }, "@entity": "reference" } ], "@entity": "lifecycle" } }