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The ģīga or divstīdzis is a two-stringed
Folklora.lv
The ģīga or divstīdzis is a two-stringed bowed
Bowed string instruments are a subcategory of string instruments that are played by a bow rubbing the strings. The bow rubbing the string causes vibration which the instrument emits as sound.
Despite the numerous specialist studies devoted to t ...
zither
Zithers (; , from the Greek word ''cithara'') are a class of stringed instruments. Historically, the name has been applied to any instrument of the psaltery family, or to an instrument consisting of many strings stretched across a thin, flat ...
found in Latvia
Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
.
The instrument is descended from the psalmodicon
The psalmodicon (psalmodikon or salmodikon) is a stringed musical instrument; the most common variants have a single string. It was developed in Scandinavia for simplifying music in churches and schools, and as an alternative to the fiddle for ...
( lv, vienstīdzis or ''manihorka''), a bowed monochord
A monochord, also known as sonometer (see below), is an ancient musical and scientific laboratory instrument, involving one (mono-) string (chord). The term ''monochord'' is sometimes used as the class-name for any musical stringed instrument hav ...
developed in Sweden in 1829 for liturgical singing. From there it filtered down to the Latvian peasantry who sometimes added a second string for harmony.Folklora.lv
See also
*Giga
Giga ( or ) is a unit prefix in the metric system denoting a factor of a short-scale billion or long-scale milliard (109 or ). It has the symbol G.
''Giga'' is derived from the Greek word (''gígas''), meaning "giant". The ''Oxford English Di ...
, a type of bowed lyre
*Fiðla
The ''Icelandic fiddle'' (Icelandic: fiðla �fɪðla is a traditional Icelandic instrument that can be described as a box with two brass strings which is played with a bow. The strings stretch across one end of the box to the other where they ...
, a bowed zither native to Iceland
Sources
Folklora.lv
References
Latvian musical instruments Bowed box zithers {{zither-instrument-stub