- Hornbostel-Sachs
- 321.312
- Family
- Strings
- Origin
- American Southwest
- Materials
- agave stalksinewwood
About
The Apache fiddle (also called the Apache violin) is a unique bowed chordophone found among the Western Apache and related Athabascan-speaking peoples of the American Southwest. It is made from a single hollowed-out stalk of the century plant (agave), with one or two strings of sinew or plant fibre stretched over the body. The bow is a curved stick with sinew strands. Its tone is delicate and nasal, quite unlike European fiddles. The Apache fiddle is one of very few bowed instruments indigenous to the Americas — most bowed instruments elsewhere arrived with European contact. It is used for personal entertainment, courtship, and social occasions rather than ceremony.