Gusle
date: label: Date made
content: 19th century
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: <p>This gusle was made by an unknown maker in Montenegro, Yugoslavia, probably 19th century. It has a table of hide stretched over the “spoon” body and fastened with 28 hardwood pins, body, neck and head carved of a single piece of beechwood, one beechwood tuning peg. The instrument is not varnished.</p>
label: Description (Brief)
content: <p>A gusle is a fiddle fashioned from one piece of wood forming a spoon-shaped body with an elongated narrow neck terminating in a carving of a symbolic figure or animal. It is usually made of maple with a stretched skin forming the table. It is typically a single-string instrument, but occasionally a gusle may be made with two strings.</p>
label: Description (Brief)
content: <p>The gusle is commonly used to accompany inspirational ballads. Essentially a poetic storyteller of events, each performer ornaments the music and stylizes the narration of the basic story, often recounting battles or deeds of war heroes. Before each performance the player positions the bridge on the animal hide table diagonally to the string and tunes the instrument to his own voice . The geometric pattern cut into the neck and the pyramid-shaped finial of the carved figure on this instrument are features common to gusles of the mountainous Sandzak region of Montenegro, the southwestern republic of the former Yugoslavia.</p>
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Serbia and Montenegro
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Musical Instruments
label: See more items in
content: Music & Musical Instruments
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of John A. Kasson
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MI.094663
label: catalog number
content: 094663
label: accession number
content: 22687
objectType: label: Object Name
content: gusle
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: hardwood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: beech (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: animal skin (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: gusle: 32 1/4 in x 8 15/16 in x 6 1/8 in; 81.915 cm x 22.70125 cm x 15.5575 cm
label: Measurements
content: bridge: 1/2 in x 2 5/8 in x 1 3/8 in; 1.27 cm x 6.6675 cm x 3.4925 cm