Gusle

The Gusle is a member of the lutes (Hornbostel–Sachs 321.321-71). Listen to 1 recording and learn how it makes its sound.

Listen to the Gusle

Gusle0001

1:51CC BY-SA 3.0Wikimedia Commons

1:51

Tip: press play to see the sound's live frequency spectrum in blue over the waveform.

How the Gusle makes its sound

In the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which classifies instruments by how they produce sound, the Gusle belongs to the lutes: strings run parallel to a soundboard and along a neck – the family of the guitar, violin, sitar and oud.

More broadly it is one of the chordophones (string instruments), where sound comes from vibrating strings, amplified by a resonating body.

Its timbre – the colour that lets you tell it apart from other instruments playing the same note – comes from the mix of overtones its body and resonator emphasise.

From Wikipedia

The gusle (Serbian Cyrillic: гусле) or lahuta (Albanian: lahutë; related to English lute) is a bowed single-stringed musical instrument (and musical style) traditionally used in the Dinarides region of Southeastern Europe (in the Balkans). The instrument is always accompanied by singing; musical folklore, specifically epic poetry. The gusle player (Serbian Cyrillic: гуслар, romanized: guslar; Albanian: lahutar) holds the instrument vertically between the knees, with the left hand fingers on the string. The string is never pressed to the neck, giving a harmonic and unique sound.

On November 29, 2018, the Serbian Gusle was inscribed as a part of Serbia's intangible cultural heritage on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.