The bladder fiddle was a

folk instrument A folk instrument is a musical instrument that developed among common people and usually does not have a known inventor. It can be made from wood, metal or other material. Such an instrument is played in performances of folk music. Overview The ...

used throughout Europe and in the Americas. The instrument was originally a simple large stringed fiddle (a

musical bow The musical bow (bowstring or string bow, a subset of bar zithers) is a simple string instrument used by a number of South African peoples, which is also found in the Americas via slave trade. It consists of a flexible, usually wooden, stick 1 ...

) 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. Changes in the instrument have produced two distinct variations. Besides the bowed instrument which has been preserved in the 21st century in Lithuania (and possibly Estonia and Flanders), a percussion instrument is used widely internationally, including Europe, North America and Australia.

Evolution from fiddle to drum set

The instrument was originally a fiddle. It used a flexible stick, a

, as the instrument's body and neck. The resonator, at first an inflated animal bladder, was held between the stick and the bowstring. Versions in Poland, Lithuania and the Netherlands had as many as three strings, but pictures of the Flanders fiddle and the ''Nocturnal Serenade'' by Jan Steen show monochords (single-stringed instruments). In this configuration, the fiddle is played by drawing the bow over the string or strings; pressing down on the string changes the note. Having multiple strings allows a fiddler to accompany other instruments with simple patterns using one, two or three notes from open strings. Some variants of the instrument show a flexible stick, making the bowed-instrument a musical bow. Others, such as the Estonian and Lithuanian instruments, have rigid sticks, making the instrument a bar or stick zither. The instrument changed in some places. While the pig-bladder instrument can still be found in Lithuania today, in Holland the pig's bladder had been replaced by 1675 by a drum-like circle, wedged between the stick and a single gutstring, which resonated when the string was bowed. That version, the bumbass, was illustrated in the painting ''Nocturnal Serendade'', by Dutch painter Jan Steen. Immigrants to the United States brought the bumbass with them. In America, it used by the Pennsylvania Dutch culture of eastern Pennsylvania, United States, and still exists today, as the boomba, a percussion instrument. It may also be seen in Texas, at events celebrating local German heritage (such as the Tomball German Heritage Festival). On percussion instruments, the drum has been turned sideways on the instrument and the string runs across it like the sound-table on a spike lute. The string has been dropped in some cases, the bow stick becoming a drumstick and the instrument now a percussion instrument, called a boomba, stamp fiddle, stumpf fiddle, or pogo cello. Also called Devil's stick, Devil's violin, boom bass, hum strum, teufel stick or stomp stick. In the percussion instrument, the string may still have limited use as a chordophone, if it has been set up with a tuning peg to tighten the string; if used in this manner, the instrument is bowed with a notched stick, producing rough sounds. In some modern instruments, the string has been replaced by a long spring, solely a percussion instrument, and in other instruments the string has been dropped altogether. The Polish (Devil's fiddle) often has no string, but includes the memory of the instrument's past, by placing a violin-shaped piece of wood on the instrument. This percussion version of the instrument is international, being used in Denmark (called the ''Rumsterstang'' or the ''krigsdjaevel'', ) and Germany as well as the United States. ''Boomba'' is highly likely to have come from German ''Bumbaß'' ronounced "BOOM-bahss" ''bum'' possibly coming from an older form of ''brummen'' ("to hum") and ''baß'' ("bass", as in music). During World War I, German soldiers made Stumpf fiddles or ''Teufelsgeiges'' (), replacing the pig's bladder with a tin can for the resonator, and bowing with a notched stick. Other bowed instruments were created using a wooden box for the resonator. Today, there are two types of the instrument, bowed and percussion. The Stumpf fiddle became a percussion instrument, beaten with a stick and stamped on the ground to shake attached wrattles, bells and cymbals. The instrument may have a string, or not. It is also called Devil's stick, pogo cello, boom-ba, boom bass, hum strum, devil's violin, teufel stick.

Other names

It is known under different names; in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

it was called the bumbass, Teufelsgeige (devil's fiddle) or Bettelgeige (beggar's fiddle).> In Germany sometimes a bell or cymbal was added to the top for decoration or additional sound. In Austria it was called the saubass, in Spanish the rabel. In

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

it is the ''basse de Flandre'' (Flanders fiddle), and in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

a drone, "drone and string" or bladder fiddle. In England it was used by traveling musicians. In Venezuela, the bladder fiddle is known as "marimba, tarimba, guarumba, guasdua, and carangano". The name in Latvian is pūšļa vijole. In Lithuania, the instrument is the Pūslinė. In Poland there is a variant that started as a costume accessory and has become a devil's violin, called the .

Slavic instrument

The Slavic peoples have a musical bow (Słowiański łuk muzyczny in Polish) which is pictured as having three strings (trzy struny).

Gallery

Hornbostel-Sachs classification are first in captions, then place and date. File:La Bass de la Flanders.jpg, 311.121.221. Flanders, 1600s. La Bass de la Flanders, in which the pig's bladder is attached to a handheld instrument, a

. File:Bladder fiddle.jpg, Bladder fiddle with a deflated bladder. File:Jan Steen - Nocturnal Serenade - WGA21755.jpg, 311.121.221. Netherlands, c. 1675. Man in the foreground playing a "bumbass", from ''Nocturnal Serenade'', by Jan Steen. File:World War One Germans playing violin, accordion and Teufelsgeige or Devil's violin.jpg, 311.22. Germany, 1917. Teufelsgeige, bowed with notched stick but also had element of percussion, metal plates on top File:Bass made from a box, in boom-ba tradition.jpg, Bass made from a box, in bumbass tradition File:Bumbass, Metropolitan Museum of Art.jpg, 19th century boombass, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The bladder is shriveled up at the bottom. File:Singing Sam of Derbyshire, image by W. Williams, 1760.png, Singing Sam of Derbyshire, with his instrument, made from a "fully-inflated cow's bladder."

Modern bowed instrument

The original pig-bladder instrument is still played with a bow in Lithuania as a traditional folk instrument, called a Pūslinė. Estonia has one as well, called the põispill. The instrument has between 1-3 strings and can be tuned with tuning pegs.

Modern percussion instrument

The modern boomba focuses heavily on loud percussion, typically consisting of a variety of percussion instruments attached to a wooden pole.> The exact designs of a boomba vary, with much emphasis being put on the personalization of the boomba. Common features typically include a spring-loaded rubber base (much like a pogo stick), with percussion instruments such as bells and wood blocks attached. Boombas often also include a set of cymbals which crash as the boomba is bounced, and a tambourine which can be played with a drumstick or shaken as the boomba is played. The boomba is similar in nature to the "stumpf fiddle", though the stumpf fiddle generally lacks the loud crashing cymbal on top. It is this loud crash when bounced that makes the boomba distinct. An older, German variant of the stumpf fiddle and the boomba is the ''Teufelsgeige'' (), which is decorated with a Devil's head at the top of the pole. A modern percussion instrument in Friesland is called the . A similar percussion instrument in Slovakia is the . File:Bumbass advertisment, 1891.png, Advertisement in 1891 in Leipzig, Germany for a bumbass File:Bumbass advertisment, Harbach and Company, New York Clipper, 1894.png, Advertisement in 1894, New York, for bumbass. File:Pogo cello006.jpg, 311.22. Modern

pogo cello {{Use mdy dates, date=January 2020 The pogo cello is a percussion instrument in the idiophone family. This instrument can be heard in the skiffle bands of England, jug bands from the United States, as well as some blues, bluegrass, folk and roc ...

File:Zespół kaszubski „Kartuzy” z Kartuz na V Ogólnopolskim Festiwalu Folklorystycznym - Płock - 000214n.jpg, 311.22. Polish (Devil's Fiddle) File:Diabelskie skrzypce (Devil's Fiddle).jpg, 311.22. Polish percussion instrument called a (Devil's Fiddle) File:Akoestinies op klompen kuttepiel.JPG, 311.22. A Dutch and Frisian . No string but bumbass style tin-can.

References

*Anthony C. Baines. "Bumbass", '' Grove Music Online'', ed. L. Macy (accessed August 20, 2006)
grovemusic.com
(subscription access).

External links

Picture of Estonian Poispillids being played, from 1979Music video with two-string bladder fiddle from Eastern Europe, appears to uses inflated bladder or close-looking substitute.
{{Authority control Bass monochords American musical instruments Music of Pennsylvania German musical instruments French musical instruments English musical instruments Belgian musical instruments Estonian musical instruments Lithuanian musical instruments Polish musical instruments