Musical Otherwordly Beings: Cultural Transformations of Ritual Anti-Music and Anti-Instruments

Abstract

This article refers to the notions of otherworldly beings, both good and bad, playing on various musical instruments, which have been a significant part of European culture from the Middle Ages through to the present day. This phenomenon of a ritual uproar has been long documented in folk culture, mainly from the 19th century, performed on so-called anti-instruments and termed anti-music.

Nowadays in Kashubia, in the era of stage folklore, the old ritual anti-instruments, i.e. the devil’s violin and burczybas, have become percussion instruments in Kashubian folk bands. They play an additional, or perhaps a basic, function, as a sign of the regional identity of the Kashubians. The subject of music-making supernatural beings has also become fashionable in contemporary folk art in Poland. Music-making angels are often presented, but devils too, with various instruments, including folk ones. The disappearance of the traditional belief in the folk metaphysical vision of the world has made it possible to “equip” devils with those anti-instruments that had long been a human weapon against them. In folk art, images of this kind took on a grotesque character.