A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Strohfiedel

by George Grove

STROHFIEDEL, i.e. Strawfiddle (Ital. Sticcato; Fr. Claquebois; Germ. also Holzharmonika), is described by Mendel in his Lexicon as a very ancient and widespread instrument, found principally among the Russians, Poles, and Tartars, consisting of a range of flat pieces of deal or ^[1]glass, of no settled number, tuned to the scale, arranged on belts of straw, and struck with two small hammers, after the manner of the common glass 'Harmonica' toy.

Its sound is sweet and bell-like, but weak; and many an English reader will share the surprise expressed by Mendelssohn à propos to Gusikow's performance upon it. 'With a few sticks, lying on straw and struck with other sticks, he does what is possible only on the most perfect instrument. How from such materials even the small tone produced—more like a Papageno-fife than anything else—can be obtained, is a mystery to me.' (Mendelssohn Family, 1836, Feb. 12.) Gusikow's Strohfiedel, however, seems to have been an improved kind. It was strong enough to bear the accompaniment of two violins and a cello. The Strohfiedel is introduced into the orchestra in Lumbye's 'Traumbildern.' [App. p.797 "Add that the instrument is more usually called by its other names, Xylophone or Gigelira. A fourth name for the instrument is Ligneum Psalterium."]

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1. Burney ('Present State,' ii. 71) found it at Dresden, and, under the name of Strofil, describes it as made with glass, and played on with sticks, 'like the sticcado.'