the.com/gusli
Russia's harp that armed every wandering bard before guitars stole the spotlight.
means A traditional Russian plucked stringed instrument, related to the zither, with strings stretched over a flat soundboard and played across the lap.
from From the Old East Slavic gusli, built on a Slavic root tied to the buzzing or twanging of a string — a cousin of words for plucking and humming across the Slavic languages. The same family branches into the Baltic kanklės and Finnish kantele, hinting at an ancient shared instrument-name carried across the forests of northeastern Europe.
- age
- Played since at least the 11th century
- shape
- Wing, helmet, and table forms all exist
- folklore
- Hero Sadko charmed a sea tsar with it
- strings
- Ranges from five to dozens of strings
- revival
- Soviet conservatories rescued it from near extinction
novgorod gusli — 11-string russian folk instrument from medieval novgorod, still played in traditional ensembles
pskov gusli — 5-string variant from pskov region, russia, used in folk music since the 16th century