Tromba marina

August 4, 2006 11:24 AM

The tromba marina, also known as the marine trumpet or nun’s fiddle, is an obsolete, 4-7 foot tall, single-stringed instrument in the viol family. Played with a bow, the tromba marina sounds strangely trumpet-like (for mp3's, scroll down to the bottom of the first link), hence the name . Buy one here or make your own. You can also see one up-close in the Musical Instrument Gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but they don’t bother putting an image on their webpage, and the gallery’s carpet smells intensely of mildew.
posted by unknowncommand (5 comments total)

a/k/a "a long instrument with which nuns amused each other" :-;
posted by KRS at 11:50 AM on August 4, 2006

How can you tell when an instrument has become obsolete?
posted by Squid Voltaire at 11:50 AM on August 4, 2006

If it's in the Musical Instrument Gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it's obsolete.
posted by StickyCarpet at 12:30 PM on August 4, 2006

For that size and hassle, get a string bass and get some REAL work.
posted by sourwookie at 12:54 PM on August 4, 2006

So cool! Thanks for posting this.
posted by frecklefaerie at 3:52 PM on August 4, 2006