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Molo Musical Instrument

Anacostia Community Museum

Object Details

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.
Cite As
Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution
Accession Number
2003.0032.0361
Restrictions & Rights
CC0
Type
string instrument
Medium
wood, hide, sinew, leather strings
Dimensions
26 × 4 5/16 × 4 11/16 in. (66 × 10.9 × 11.9 cm)
See more items in
Anacostia Community Museum Collection
Anacostia Community Museum
Record ID
acm_2003.0032.0361
Metadata Usage (text)
CC0
GUID (Link to Original Record)
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dl847a2550c-4c7c-4006-a14c-9920fdc47767

Related Content

  • Musical Instruments

    Anacostia Community Museum
  • Origins of Stringed Instruments

    Smithsonian Music
This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Open Access page.
International media Interoperability Framework
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