Gusli
Krylovidnye gusli
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| Classification | |
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| Hornbostel–Sachs classification | 315.2 |
| Playing range | |
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varies Russin traditional tuning: E3 A3 H3 C4 D4 E4 F4 G4 A4 |
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| Related instruments | |
varies
Gusli (Russian: гу́сли; IPA: [ˈɡuslʲɪ]) is the oldest Russian multi-string plucked instrument. Its exact history is unknown. It may have derived from a Byzantine form of the Greek kythare, which in turn derived from the ancient lyre. It has its relatives throughout the world: kantele in Finland, kannel in Estonia, kanklės, or kokle in Lithuania and Latvia. Furthermore, the kanun has been found in Arabic countries, and the autoharp, in the United States. It is also related to such ancient instruments as Chinese gu zheng, which has a thousand-year history, and its Japanese relative koto.
In the times of Kievan Rus', the term Gusli is thought to simply refer to any generic stringed instrument. The root of the term comes from the word to make sound in the wind. The term was eventually associated with the trapezoidal Gusli-psaltyry (which may have originated in Byzantium).
The Gusli is one of the oldest musical instruments that have played an important role in the Russian music culture. The Greek historians Theophylact Simocatta and Theophan were the first to mention the gusli. During the war at the end of the 6th century, the Greeks took Slavonic prisoners and found a musical instrument named the Gusli. This corresponds to what the Arabic authors Al-Masudi and Ibn-Dasta mentioned in the 10th century.
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