Lithuanian folk instruments

Lithuanian string instruments

String instruments connect home music, village ensembles, kankles symbolism, and later concert traditions in Lithuania.

String instruments and home music

Lithuanian string instruments connect kankles symbolism, family music making, village ensembles, and later concert practice. The pages keep older use and modern revival separate.

String-instrument guides

Read about kankles, fiddle, bass strings, dulcimer traditions, and related Lithuanian chordophones.

Basetlė as the bass string instrument of a Lithuanian folk band

String instrumentsBasetlė

Basetlė is the bass bowed instrument of Lithuanian village bands: a double-bass or cello type with 2-4 strings, known in Lithuania, especially Žemaitija, from the eighteenth century.

Cimbolai with small hammers as a Lithuanian folk struck string instrument

String instrumentsCimbolai

Cimbolai are a Lithuanian struck string instrument: a trapezoid resonator with 12-33 metal strings struck with small hammers, especially associated with Dzūkija, eastern Lithuania, and older village bands.

Dzindzinis with one string and a bow as a Lithuanian bowed monochord

String instrumentsDzindzinis

Dzindzinis is a Lithuanian bowed monochord: a wooden board about 100 cm long with a single lengthwise string, used by young people in the first half of the twentieth century for dance and song melodies.

Traditional Lithuanian kanklės on linen as a folk string instrument

String instrumentsKanklės

Kanklės are the most important Lithuanian plucked string instrument: a chordophone of the Baltic psaltery family, linked with sutartinės, home music-making, relics of the cult of the dead, and the later development of concert kanklės.

Pūslinė with a wooden stick and inflated bladder as a Lithuanian folk bass instrument

String instrumentsPūslinė

Pūslinė is a simple Lithuanian folk bass string instrument made from a wooden stick, an inflated dried pig bladder, and 1-3 strings, providing a low accompanying role in a village band.

A Lithuanian village-band fiddle with bow on a wooden bench

String instrumentsSmuikas

In Lithuanian ethnic music, smuikas became one of the main melody-leading village-band instruments. Known in folk speech as griežynė, it spread across Lithuania and developed a local playing manner.