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GUSLA, or GUSLI

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 733 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GUSLA, or GUSLI , an See also:ancient stringed See also:instrument still in use among the See also:Slavonic races. The See also:modern Servian gusla is a See also:kind of tanbur (see See also:PANDURA), consisting of a See also:round, See also:concave See also:body covered with a See also:parchment soundboard; there is but one See also:horse-See also:hair See also:string, and the peg for tuning it is inserted in See also:oriental See also:fashion in the back of the See also:head. The gusla is played with a See also:primitive See also:bow called goudalo. The gouslars or See also:blind bards of See also:Servia and Croatia use it to accompany their chants. C. G. Anton' mentions an instrument of that name in the shape of a See also:half-See also:moon strung with eighteen strings in use among the See also:Tatars. Prosper Merimee2 has taken the gusla as the See also:title for a See also:book of Servian poems, which are supposed to have been collected by him among the peasants, but which are thought to have been inspired by the Viaggio in Dalmazia of Albarto Fortis. Among the Russians, the gush is an instrument of a different type, a kind of See also:psaltery having five or more strings stretched across a See also:flat, shallow See also:sound-See also:chest in the shape of a wing. In the gush the strings, of graduated length, are attached to little nails or pins at one end, and at the other they are See also:wound over a See also:rod having See also:screw attachments for increasing and slackening the tension. There is no See also:bridge to determine the vibrating length of the strings. The body of the instrument is shaped roughly like the tail of the See also:grand piano, following the See also:line of the strings; the longest being at the See also:left of the instrument.

See also:

Matthew See also:Guthrie gives an See also:illustration of the gusli.3 (K.

End of Article: GUSLA, or GUSLI

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