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The płock, płocka or fidel płocka
Word of the week: Also called płock, płocka or fidel płocka, a box-shaped six-string traditional Polish folk violin, without fingerboard or tailpiece, played vertically resting on the knee, and pairs of strings doubling pitch to bring a rich, resonant sound
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Dance craze: depiction of the first quadrille in England at Almack’s in 1816
Word of the week: A sprightly, sociable18th- and 19th-century dance form that sprung from folk contredanses, it comprises four couples in rectangular formation and was all the range in polite society in the Victorian age in Europe and colonies, and is linked to American square dancing
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A variety of ronroco models
Word of the week: An Andean 10-string (5 doubles) form of mandolin, baritone or bass charango, this beautiful instrument was invented in the 1980s by Gonzalo Hermosa González, of the group Los Kjarkas from Cochabamba, Bolivia and has been used in many acclaimed film scores
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The sistrum is an international percussion instrument but its origins date back to Ancient Egypt and the goddess Hathor
Word of the week: A percussion instrument dating back to Ancient Egypt with different varieties, mostly of U-shaped brass or bronze frame, with crossbars and moving metal hoops that when shaken make a soft clank or loud jangling
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A terpidion’s interior workings with rolling cylinder and leather-covered hammers create sound via friction
Word of the week: The terpodion, also known as uranion, is an extremely rare 19th-century keyboard instrument that, when keys are pressed, creates sound via friction against a rotating coated wooden cylinder
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The ululation of the wolf …
Word of the week: The noun of the verb ululate, meaning to to deliver a high-pitched cry, or howl, very much like that of a wolf in the forest, though it can also be applied to the human voice
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Vicuñas on high slopes of Peruvian Andes
Word of the week: Also spelled vicuña (Lama vicugna) this, is one of the two species of wild South American camelids living in high alpine areas of the Andes, a relative of the llama and the wild ancestor of the alpaca
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The curlew emits a wheeple
Word of the week: A Scottish dialect term dating back to at least the 19th century, meaning to utter a shrill, prolonged whistle or cry, often used to describe the high-pitched call of the curlew or plover
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The xaque-xaque has many alternative names …
Word of the week: Sometimes also xique-xique, a wonderfully evocative, onomatopoeic term for any kind of Brazilian rattle instrument, but when used in English referring more specifically to the maracas rattle
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Yaravi is a Pervuvian and high Andean song tradition
Word of the week: A broad term for a traditional, slow love song from Peru and other Andean and south American regions, often nostalgic and melancholy, stretching back to Inca culture, and sometimes also honouring the dead
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Kassav’ in full swing in 2009, including founder member Jacob Desvarieux, left, who died in 2021
Word of the week: In need of some virtual sunshine? Zouk is a dance music movement hailing from the French Caribbean in the early 80s, spearheaded by the pioneering band Kassav’, their zouk béton of Martinique and Guadeloupe originally featuring percussive, fast tempo with loud horn section and later synth keyboards
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Angklung set
Word of the week: This evocative word describes a rattling but tuneful musical instrument of the Sudanese people of Indonesia, made of bamboo tubes in a wooden frame, tuned to octaves like handbells, and shaken by hand to create a repeating, trembling notes
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The Tuvan byzaanchy
Word of the week: A distinctive sounding four-stringed vertical spike fiddle used in the traditional music of Tuva, similar to the Chinese sihu, but with a wooden soundbox, sometimes cylindrical or cubical, often with a with a carved head
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A standard cümbüş is unfretted, but other versions include frets
Word of the week: A 20th-century hybrid of oud and banjo, this Turkish instrument, meaning fun or revelry, has a wooden bowl for resonance, giving it rounder, less tinny sound, comes in fretless and fretted forms, and was created by Zeynel Abidin Cümbüş, who unusually renamed himself after his instrument
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A dundun set of three drums from the Playing For Change Foundation
Word of the week: These evocative, onomatopoeic variants are generic names for a family of West African talking drums, particularly in the Yoruba culture of Nigeria, Guinea, talking drums that mimic human speech, rope-tuned and cylindrical with a rawhide skin at both ends, and played with a stick
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Esterilla translates as ‘mat’ in Spanish
Word of the week: Translated as mat or placemat from Spanish, this traditional percussion instrument hails from Colombia and dates back to the 1960s, and consists of long, narrow pieces of wood or bamboo woven together and played by either bending it or rubbing it against itself
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Fujara players of Slovakia
Word of the week: A traditional Slovakian shepherd’s flute of unusual length (160-200cm) with distinctive deep mumbling tones, emitted by its lower register and very high overtones, a beautiful, meditative, ghostly sound, emitting melancholic and rhapsodic music, varying in relations to the life and work of the shepherd
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Garrahands from garrahand.com
Word of the week: A modern instrument with a traditional sound, these handcrafted hand and stick percussion “gdrums” are made in Argentina using recycled materials, have a built-in microphone system which allows connection to amps and experimental effects pedals
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An eight-string huapanguera with three pairs of doubled up notes
Word of the week: This guitar variant eight-stringed instrument of the Huasteca region of Mexico offers a deeper sound than its more conventional acoustic cousin, often played within a conjunto huasteco ensemble, alongside a five-string jarana huasteca and violin
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The ikh khuur (centre)
Word of the week: This distinctive looking trapezoid-shaped sound box instrument is the two- or three-stringed Mongolian bowed double bass, complete with a ornately carved horse head neck, and related to the better known fiddle equivalent and Mongolia’s national instrument, the morin huur
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