Gudok
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A gudok (also hudok; Russian and Ukrainian: гудок) is an ancient Eastern Slavic string musical instrument, which was played with a bow. A gudok usually had three strings, with two of them tuned in unison, and the third tuned a fifth higher. All three strings were in the same plane at the bridge, so that a bow could make them all sound simultaneously (unlike a violin, where only 2 strings can be played at once). Sometimes the gudok also had several sympathetic strings (up to eight) under the soundboard. These made the gudok's sound warm and rich. The nearest relative to the gudok is the Bulgarian gadulka.
The player held the gudok on his lap, like a cello or viola da gamba. It was also possible to play the gudok while standing and even while dancing, which made it popular among skomorokhs. Initially in the 12th century (and probably before), the gudok was played using harmonics only, without pressing strings onto the instrument's neck. Later in the 14th century some modifications of the gudok had a real neck for pressing strings. This modification was not very useful, however, since the shape of this instrument was rather specific. A real fingerboard was an obvious borrowing from the fiddle.
The gudok ceased to exist as a folk instrument for several centuries. Nobody except Russian folk bands played them. Moreover, all present instruments are replicas, based on several parts of gudoks found in the Novgorod excavations.
There have been several attempts to revive the gudok in music. Borodin's opera Prince Igor contains a "Gudok Player's Song", which is an artistic reconstruction of how the gudok may have sounded. In practice, the instrument is used with modern violins and violas.
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