Apache fiddle
Bowed string instrument
title: "Apache fiddle" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["american-indian-musical-instruments", "bowed-string-instruments", "apache-culture", "continuous-pitch-instruments", "indigenous-american-fiddles"] description: "Bowed string instrument" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_fiddle" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Bowed string instrument ::
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Apachefiddler.jpg" caption="Chasi, a [[Warm Springs Apache]] musician playing the Apache fiddle, 1886, photo by A. Frank Randall[http://siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=all&source=!siarchives&uri=full=3100001!33821~!0#focus "Portrait of Chasi, Bonito's Son..."] ''National Anthropological Archives.'' (retrieved 11 June 2010)"]
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::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Apache_Fiddle.jpg" caption="Arizona Apache fiddle, from the Musical Instrument Museum - Phoenix, Arizona"] ::
The Apache fiddle (Apache: tsii' edo'a'tl, "wood that sings") is a bowed string instrument used by the indigenous Apache people of the southwestern United States. The instrument consists of a plant stalk, such as that of the agave or mescal plant. One or sometimes two strings, often made of horse hair, are secured at both ends of the stalk, a bridge and nut added, and the string is played with a bow resined with pine pitch. The string is touched with the fingers to change its note. The Smithsonian Institution holds an Apache fiddle collected in 1875. In 1989 Apache fiddle maker Chesley Goseyun Wilson of Tucson, Arizona won a National Heritage Award.
References
Sources
- Native American Stringed Musical Instruments by Daniel Brinton. in The American antiquarian and oriental journal By Stephen Denison Peet Jameson & Morse, 1897 v. 19, pg 20.
- The Apache Violin: Indigenous violin music in South and North America Jon Rose Web, 2005
References
- [http://siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=all&source=
!siarchives&uri=full=3100001!33821~!0#focus "Portrait of Chasi, Bonito's Son..."] ''National Anthropological Archives.'' (retrieved 11 June 2010) - (1995). "Experimental Musical Instruments". Experimental Musical Instruments.
- Jadrnak, Jackie. (1 August 2014). "Man wants to reintroduce the Apache fiddle, which has few makers remaining". Albuquerque Journal.
- American Indian art magazine Published by American Indian Art, Inc., 1980. Original from the University of Michigan. Digitized Dec 19, 2007. Page 28.
- link. (2008-10-05 , National Endowment for the Arts (USA))
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