Bladder fiddle
The bladder fiddle was a folk instrument used throughout Europe and in the Americas. The instrument was originally a simple large stringed fiddle (a musical bow) made with a long stick, one or more thick gut strings, and a pig's-bladder resonator. It was bowed with either a notched stick or a horsehair bow.
"King of the Bladder." A man stands on a box holding a two-string bladder-fiddle. The mid-1870s image, a caricature, shows a perception that something is wrong with the musician. | |
| String instrument | |
|---|---|
| Other names | drone, drone-and-string, boomba, bumbass, stamp fiddle, stumpf fiddle, pogo cello, Devil's stick, Devil's violin, boom bass, hum strum, teufel stick, stomp stick, Teufelsgeige (German, devil's fiddle), Bettelgeige (German, beggar's fiddle), saubass (Austrian-German), luk muzycyny (Polish), Diabelskie skrzypce (Polish, Devil's fiddle), rabel (Spanish), basse de Flandre (French, Flanders fiddle). |
| Classification | String, percussion |
| Hornbostel–Sachs classification | (MIMO puts all bumbasses together, whether percussion or fiddles. Hornbostel-Sachs doesn't consider number of strings. Drums and bladders not considered for resonators (only gourds).
Other options musical bows
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| Related instruments | |
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The folk instrument was historically played by "wandering musicians" and beggars up to the early 19th century. Although it may be used in serious folk music it has also been used for humor.
Changes in the instrument have produced two distinct modern variations. The traditional bowed instrument has been preserved into the 21st century in Lithuania as the pusline (and possibly Estonia and Flanders), producing sustained or rhythmic droning notes. The other variation, a percussion instrument, is used in folk music internationally, including Europe, North America and Australia, in which sound may imitate a drum roll and other percussive sounds.