Molo Musical Instrument
Object Details
- Medium
- wood, hide, sinew, leather strings
- Dimensions
- 26 × 4 5/16 × 4 11/16 in. (66 × 10.9 × 11.9 cm)
- Caption
- The Molo is a three-stringed lute (a lute is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body). The Molo is made of a wooden resonator and a wooden neck from which the strings are attached. The resonator is hollowed out from a solid piece of wood. There is a skin soundboard bound to the back of the resonator with leather thongs. The three strings are attached to the wooden neck of the instrument and are made of plaited fiber.
- Dr. Lorenzo Dow Turner, a linguist, collected this object from the Hausa people of Nigeria during a research trip to West Africa in 1951. Dr. Turner was interested in the tonalities of music and language and how they carry meaning within communities and cultures.
- Accession Number
- 2003.0032.0361
- Type
- string instrument
- See more items in
- Anacostia Community Museum Collection
- Data Source
- Anacostia Community Museum
- Restrictions & Rights
- CC0
- Record ID
- acm_2003.0032.0361
