Membranophones are presented in this hall, including: rubbed instruments from Kashubia and Chełmno Land: burczybas, and struck instruments: drum as a ritual and historical instrument, as well as single- and two-membrane drums still used in folk bands all over Poland.
Then there is a rich collection of squeezeboxes — instruments from the group of wind idiophones with metal pass-through reeds as their sound source. Further on, the exhibition includes string chordophones: violins, mazanki, złóbcoki and basy, made by Polish folk artists based on the forms of professionally-made instrument, as well as simple “primitive” examples of instruments for children.
The exhibition also presents struck chordophones: Kashubian and Kurpian devil’s violins (diabelskie skrzypce), as well as the Rzeszów and Vilnius cimbalom, which are common in the south and north-east of Poland.
The next position is devoted to “reconstructed” instruments, which were built by professional luthiers as copies of the original preserved complete instruments, such as: the oktawka, originating from archaeological excavations: 16th century Płock fiddle, 10th/11th century Opole gusle and the 13th century Gdańsk gusle, or instruments reconstructed on the basis of references in available literature from the end of 19th century. — an example is a suka built according to an 1895 drawing by Wojciech Gerson and an 1888 drawing by Tadeusz Dowgird.
The exhibition also features rubbed chordophones — here the function of a bow is performed by a wheel, set in motion with a crank, and the notes are selected on strings by means of keys, to which the so-called tangents are attached. An example of such instruments is the hurdy-gurdy.
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