When it’s Unusual Instruments Day on the calendar, we feel obliged to share some interesting facts with you.

Do you know that…

…the digital resources of the Polish Music Library contain an extensive series of illustrations of instruments?

Instruments

Wind, string, percussion, keyboard. Signalling and pastoral. There are many more categories, but among the traditional and most well-known instruments, you will also find unusual specimens from different corners of the world.

Today, we would like to draw your attention to several interesting instruments – some more typical, such as the giraffe clavichord or the double piano, and some truly surprising, such as the Kashubian hair burczybas or the bladder fiddle.

→ Bladder fiddle ←

Diôbelsczé skrzëpce [bladder fiddle, also known as devil’s fiddle] is a folk musical instrument found mainly in Kashubia, and in a simplified version also in Kurpie. Although at first glance they resemble a classic violin, they differ in their construction and principle of operation. The sound box is replaced by a box filled with rattles that make sounds when the instrument is shaken or struck. The head of the violin is usually stylised as a characteristic devil’s head wearing a hat. What can be said about its sound qualities? Well, it certainly makes noise, because that is its purpose :]

These are just a few examples suitable for today. Let’s remember that what is unusual in one culture may turn out to be a classic in another. So, we encourage you to search the PBM Pictures by yourself and choose your favourite instrument of the day.