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n.d. [man]

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Man in light-coloured trousers and jacket, black shoes and headgear sits on a chair and holds 2 trumpet-like instruments to his neck. The instruments shown in the photo are a Nyastaranga (Bengali). The instrument is very difficult to handle and therefore rather rare. Externally, it has the form of a pair of short brass trumpets in a conical, gradually widening shape with bells and mouthpieces. The mouthpiece conceals the tough protective skin with which certain spiders surround their eggs. If the tubes are placed to the right and left of the larynx at certain points on the neck when singing, the vibrations of the larynx are transmitted to the spider webs, which in turn transmit them to the air columns enclosed in the trumpets. The result is an intense oboe-like colouring of the singing voice. It is not actually a musical instrument, as no independent sounds are produced, only the colouring of other sounds (Sachs 1923: 81f.)

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Data Provider
Ethnologisches Museum Show original at data provider

Cataloguing data

Object type
Photography
Dimensions
Height: 13,8 cm
Width: 9,8 cm
Height: 41,8 cm
Width: 32,5 cm
Material/Technique
Cardboard box
Current location
Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Provenance and sources

  • Production
    where
    India
    West Bengal
    Calcutta (Kolkata)
  • Assignment to a curated holding:
    South and Southeast Asia

Information about the record

Legal status metadata
CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED
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