Gusle

A Serbian Gusla.
String instrument
Classification	Bowed string instrument
Hornbostel–Sachs classification	321.321-71 (Bowl lyre sounded by a bow)
Developed	9th century AD
Related instruments
Byzantine lyra and its derivatives; Cretan lyra (Crete) Calabrian lira (Calabria) Gadulka (Bulgaria) Gudok (Russia) Lijerica (Croatia) Kamancheh (Persian) Kemenche (Turkey) Kobyz and Kyl kyyak (Kazakh and Kyrgyz) Other "fiddles"

The gusle (Albanian: lahuta, Croatian: gusle, Macedonian: гусла, Serbian: гусле, pronounced [ɡûsle]) is a primitive single-stringed musical instrument (and musical style) traditionally used in the Dinarides region of the Balkans^[1] (Southeastern Europe).

The instrument is always accompanied by singing; musical folklore, specifically epic poetry. The gusle player (guslar) holds the instrument vertically between his knees, with the left hand fingers on the strings. The strings are never pressed to the neck, giving a harmonic and unique sound.^[1]

Etymology[link]

The term gusle/gusli/husli/husla is common term to all Slavic languages and denotes a musical instrument with strings. The gusle should, however, not be confused with the Russian gusli, which is a psaltery-like instrument; nor with the Czech term for violin, housle.

Varieties[link]

The varieties of the guslar music are based on cultural basis;^[2] the content of each group is different, as different epic poems are used to accompany the instrument. Vocality provides the main difference to be found across every region concerning Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia, while Albanians also use the Albanian language. The instrument itself is identical, only the design of the neck and head changes; the Serbian gusle has Serbian motif etc.

The gusle consists of a wooden sound box, the maple being considered as the best material (therefore often the instrument is referred to as "gusle javorove" - maple gusle), covered with an animal skin and a neck with an intricately carved head. A bow is pulled over the string/s (made of horsetail), creating a dramatic and sharp sound, expressive and difficult to master. The string is made of thirty horsehairs. The most common and traditional version is single-stringed (in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Zagora in Croatia), while a much less version is the two-stringed (in Bosanska Krajina and in Lika in Croatia). They are held between the legs with the long neck supported on one thigh.

Albanian lahuta[link]

A Kosovo Albanian man playing the lahuta

The equivalent of the Slavic gusle is the lahuta, which is used by Gheg Albanians of northernmost Albania (Malesia^[3]) for the singing of epic songs. The word lahuta is derived from the word lute (see Greek: Laouto, Turkish: Lavta), although the latter describes another family of European stringed instruments.

It is played by a rapsodi. The Albanian songs are octosyllable, in relation to the Decasyllable Serbian, and a more primitive type of rhyming is regular.

The use of Lahuta has deteriorated, and is now only traditionally mastered in remote villages of the Malësi e Madhe District. The epic songs are mostly sung accompanied by the çifteli, which has replaced the use of the lahuta.^[4]

Croatian gusle[link]

A gusle instrument from Zagora

The Gusle has been used by the Croats in Herzegovina, the South Croatian hinterland, Lika, as well as in Bosnia and Western Bosnia as an accompaniment for epic poetry for hundreds of years. Often they were constructed by the singers and players themselves, shepherds or even by specialized Gusle builders from urban areas.

Most lyrics center around historical figures who played an important role in Croatian history (often folk heroes who died tragical deaths, such as hajduks) or significant historical events (mostly battles against invaders or occupying powers).

Perhaps the most famous Croatian guslar poets was Andrija Kačić Miošić, an 18th century monk who created and collected many gusle lyrics and songs throughout the regions, which are still sung today. Croatia's most famous contemporary guslar (gusla player) is Mile Krajina.

A "Guslar" playing to a group of people

The gusle however, is not a part of Croatian mainstream music and rarely receive airtime in the Croatian media. This might be due to the Croatian media producers' pejorative attitude towards Croatian folklore (especially those folkloristic elements who are native to the Dinaric part of Croatia) and their focus on westernized influences. The Gusle has managed to regain some media attention, since several pop musicians such as Marko Perković Thompson, Mate Bulić and Dario Plevnik have started to incorporate gusle playing into their music. Gusle recordings can be heard on a number of CD compilations published by Croatian ethnologists, which are in most cases distributed locally by the artists themselves.

Serbian gusle[link]

A Herzegovinian sings to the gusle (drawing from 1823). Herzegovinian epic poems were often sung to the accompaniment of this traditional bowed string instrument.

Filip Višnjić (1767-1834), a blind Serbian guslar

	Serbian Gusle The sound of the Serbian gusle
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The Serbian gusle (pluralia tantum) has one or two strings and is usually made of maple wood. A guslar is an individual capable of reproducing and composing poems about heroes and historical events to the accompaniment of this instrument, usually in the decasyllable meter. There are records of an instrument named gusle (гоусли) being played at the court of the 13th-century Serbian King Stefan Nemanjić, but it is not certain whether the term was used in its present-day meaning or it denoted some other kind of string instrument. Polish poets of the 17th century mentioned the gusle in their works. In a poem published in 1612, Kasper Miaskowski wrote that "the Serbian gusle and gaidas will overwhelm Shrove Tuesday" (Serbskie skrzypki i dudy ostatek zagluszą).^[5] In the idyll named Śpiewacy, published in 1663, Józef Bartłomiej Zimorowic used the phrase "to sing to the Serbian gusle" (przy Serbskich gęślach śpiewać).^[5][6] In some older Serbian books on literature it was stated that a Serbian guslar performed at the court of Władysław II Jagiełło in 1415, but this is not confirmed in Polish sources.^[5]

The gusle has played a significant role in the history of Serbian epic poetry because of its association with the centuries old patriotic oral legacy. Most of the epics are about the era of the Ottoman occupation and the struggle for the liberation from it. With the efforts of ethnographer Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, many of these epics have been collected and published in books in the first half of the 19th century.

References[link]

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (April 2009)

Bibliography[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gusle

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Gusla.

• Guslarskepesme.com The Biggest Online Repository of Gusle Song Texts

• (Croatian) Imota.net Joško Ćaleta: Gusle
• Peter Boro performing Croatian music on the gusle and misnice, 1939
• Croat etnographic museum
• Serbian Epic Poems: The battle of Kosovo, Preface by Charles Simic, Swallow Press/Ohio University Press, Athens 1987
• Heroic Ballads of Servia translated by George Rapall Noyes and Leonard Bacon, 1913
• Guslarsko drustvo Zica - Kraljevo
• The Montenegrin gusle player Petar Perunovic
• Poems of Saint Petar of Cetinje told by gusle player Rajo Vojinović
• Gusle player Petar Perunovic-Perun - Serbian epic "Rebellion against the Dahijas", Recorded by Marsh Laboratories, Chicago 1920s
• Njegos.com: The Gusle player