Description
Musical Saw for Hire
This is a strip of spring steel with a handle at one end that is attached to a wooden base for stability. Rarely used today, this instrument was once popular. The musical saw is played with a bass bow and the percussionist is required to hold the handle at the end of the spring steel in one hand whilst bowing the steel with the other. The effect (ideally) is to produce a resonant singing tone with a pleasant vibrato using glissando's to get from one note to the other. However, great skill is required to achieve this. Most players fail and end up with an assortment of wrong notes and "squarks and squeaks".
Translation
Italian - musicale ha visto
French - musical a vu
German - musikalischetav
Spanish - scie musicala
