Rebec

Rabab & Rebec: Skin-Covered Bowed String Instruments of the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance and their Non-European Relatives
Bern (Switzerland), 28–30 April 2023

Since 2019, the skin-covered bowed string instruments rabab and rebec have been a subject of investigation as part of a four-year interdisciplinary SNSF research project at the Hochschule der Künste Bern. The rabab and rebec both belonged among the most important bowed string instruments of the European Middle Ages and Renaissance, before the "new" viola da gamba and violin instruments took their place around 1500. In numerous non-European musical cultures, however, skin-covered string instruments are still played today. During the conference, we will present the theoretical and practical research results of our project and aim to contrast these with further research on the same and related topics from the fields of musicology, organology, ethnomusicology, performance practice, acoustics, art history, music iconography, archaeology and cultural transfer in order to discuss them together. Selected papers will subsequently be published in book form (open access).