North Ossetia. The Galiat waterfall and Xhisyn fændir
Published:
Took place on: 2024-09-18
The last pair of words in the title is a Latin transliteration from Ossetian (normally Cyrillic) of their musical instrument Хъисын фæндыр [kh'i-syn 'fæn-dyr].
It's an ancient Ossetian three-stringed violin, which is played, just like an ordinary violin, with a bow. Its peak in popularity was in XIX century among the Ossetians bards, aka akyns, but now it's unknown whether we there is two or single digit number of fandir players in the world.
You can listen to how it sounds here.
The art-object lacks a bow, but it was intentional to point out -- almost no one now plays the instrument
1The art-object lacks a bow, but it was intentional to point out -- almost no one now plays the instrument
This art-object is placed at the entrance to the Galiat waterfall. It is cascade, and it is problematic to get up since there are wet stones on the path.
