Tromba marina: Czech Republic musical instrument

A tromba marina which is also known as marine trumpet is a triangular bowed string musical instrument that is used in the medieval and renaissance Europe that was highly well-known in the 15^th century in England and survives into the 18^th century. The musical instrument is made up of a body, a neck that is in the shape of a truncated cone that is resting on a triangular base. The instrument is a often 4 to 7 feet’s long and it is a monochord. The tromba marina is played without stopping the string, but performing natural harmonics by slightly touching the string of the instrument with the thumb at nodal points. The name of the instrument comes from the sound that is similar to that of the trumpet because of the unusual construction of the bridge and the similitude of the contours to the marine speaking-trumpet of the middle ages.

The body of the musical instrument is widely either of three sides of wood that are joined in a lengthened triangle shape having the peg box at the top; or a body of three to six ribs, a frontal soundboard of the instrument and differentiable neck of the instrument. In many cases, the beneath end of the instrument is open, some historical version of the instrument has sound holes. The single string, widely the D string of a cello, most usually is tuned to C three octaves below middle C. it fixes at the soundboard and moves over one foot of the bridge, thereby leaving the foot of the instrument to vibrate easily and freely on a plate of ivory or glass set into the soundboard of the instrument, producing a brassy buzz. From the irregular shape, the bridge of the instrument was also referred to as the shoe as it is thick and high at one side of the instrument on which rested the string and low and narrow at the other that was left lose so that it vibrated against the belly of the instrument with every movement of the bow. A string that is called ‘guidon’ is tied against the playing string of the instrument below the bridge and runs up to the peg box where it is packaged around a peg. The guidon corrects the balance of the bridge by pulling the playing string.

In the days of Micheal Praetorious, the length of the tromba marina was 7’3’’ and there are three sides at the base that is measured 7’’, tapering to the neck. First, there was only one string on the musical instrument, which is generally a D cello string. The heavy bow that is analogous to that of the cello is used between the highest position of the left hand at the nodal point and the nut of the head.

When the trumpet was used extensively in churches found in Germany, nuns usually replaced the tromba marina due to the women were not permitted to play trumpets. The musical instrument was discarded in the first half of the 18^th century and was only to be seen being used by the street musicians.