Lithuanian folk instruments

Other Lithuanian folk instruments

Some Lithuanian sound tools sit outside neat instrument families, but they show how music, work, children, ritual, and everyday materials met in folk culture.

Sound tools outside neat families

Some instruments sit between toys, work tools, ritual sound, and music. This section keeps those border cases visible instead of forcing them into a single modern category.

Other instrument guides

Read about unusual sound tools, self-sounding instruments, and folk objects used musically.

A Lithuanian barškutis made from wood and seeds as a self-sounding rhythmic instrument
Other instrumentsBarškutis

Barškutis is a Lithuanian shaken idiophone and toy: a rattle made from a bladder, clay, wickerwork, or a wooden ball with pebbles, whose sound comes from objects rattling inside or outside it.

A metal dambrelis on linen as a Lithuanian folk idiophone
Other instrumentsDambrelis

Dambrelis is a small plucked idiophone: a metal, more rarely wooden, frame with a tongue vibrated by a finger, while the mouth cavity shapes the sound; it has long been known in Lithuania.

Džingulis made from a three-branched wooden twig as a Lithuanian wedding inviter's instrument
Other instrumentsDžingulis

Džingulis is a Lithuanian shaken idiophone: a decorated branched staff used by the wedding inviter in Užnemunė and Lithuania Minor, with magical power attributed to its rattling.

A wooden kleketas as a Lithuanian signal idiophone
Other instrumentsKleketas

Kleketas is a Lithuanian shaken idiophone: a board with a handle and wooden beaters, used as a clacking signal and rhythm instrument by herdsmen, night watchmen, hunting beaters, and church rituals.

Rinkinė with metal rings as a Lithuanian self-sounding rhythmic instrument
Other instrumentsRinkinė

Rinkinė is a Lithuanian herding signal tool and shaken idiophone: a forked or cross-shaped staff strung with stove rings, used by shepherds to discipline cattle and by masked performers for rhythm.

Wooden skrabalai as Lithuanian self-sounding folk instruments
Other instrumentsSkrabalai

Skrabalai are Lithuanian shaken idiophones: wooden or metal boxes with clappers, once hung on livestock necks and later adapted for rhythm and even xylophone-like orchestral playing.

Hanging wooden tabalai by a village homestead as a Lithuanian signal instrument
Other instrumentsTabalai

Tabalai are Lithuanian struck idiophones: horizontally hung maple or ash boards whose beating announced death, called people to work, communal labor, or prayers.

A wooden terkšlė as a Lithuanian rattling signal instrument
Other instrumentsTerkšlė

Terkšlė is a Lithuanian scraped idiophone: a frame with a toothed cylinder and slapping slats, used as a signal instrument for calendar festivals, church rites, herding, and hunting.