Nail violin

The nail violin is a musical instrument which was invented by German violinist Johann Wilde in 1740. The instrument consists of a semicircular wooden soundboard, approximately 1.5 feet (46 cm) by 1 foot (30 cm) in size, with iron or brass nails of different lengths arranged to produce a chromatic scale when bowed.

Wilde was inspired to create the instrument when he accidentally drew his bow across a metal peg, which produced a musical sound. The instrument consists of a semicircular wooden soundboard, approximately 1.5 feet (46 cm) by 1 foot (30 cm) in size, with iron or brass nails of different lengths arranged to produce a chromatic scale when bowed. The bow used was fitted with coarse black horsehair, which produced sound by friction. An improved instrument, now in the collection of the Hochschule in Berlin, has two half-moon sound-chests of different sizes, one on the top of the other, forming terraces. In the rounded wall of the upper sound-chest are two rows of iron staples, the upper giving the diatonic scale, and the lower the intermediate chromatic semitones. The instrument has a sweet bell-like tone but limited technical possibilities.

History records the name of a single virtuoso on this instrument; he was a Bohemian musician called Senal, who travelled all over Germany with his instrument about 1780–1790. Senal had modified the instrument by adding sympathetic strings, and dubbed this enhanced version the "violino harmonico".

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