The Bullroarer Atlas

EXH2026-010 - museum specimen

Piedmontese folk (rombo)

Italy - Piedmont (Riva presso Chieri; Cambiano) - Europe - Mediterranean

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A rectangular wooden rombo with rounded, bevelled edges and a cord wound around a notched handle end — Eugenio Reolon's Piedmontese instrument...
A rectangular wooden rombo with rounded, bevelled edges and a cord wound around a notched handle end — Eugenio Reolon's Piedmontese instrument documented here, held at the Museo del Paesaggio Sonoro. Civico Museo del Paesaggio Sonoro, Riva presso Chieri (0216SM, maker Eugenio Reolon), via MIMO Image source

rombo Italian

Italian for bullroarer; also a humming or roaring sound.

Etymology. Italian organological term continuing the Romance/classical `rombo/rhombos` line for a whirled noisemaker. (medium confidence)

Two bullroarers in the Civico Museo del Paesaggio Sonoro at Riva presso Chieri, near Turin, carry the names of the men who made them. One, by Eugenio Reolon of Riva presso Chieri, is a thin rectangular board with rounded corners and bevelled sides, a nail driven into an end-tang, and a finely twisted cord nearly two metres long wound around the wood. The other, by Salvatore Pellegrino of Cambiano, is cut in the shape of a fish, and instead of a cord it is rigged with a chain of small stainless-steel balls linked by pins and finished with a length of nylon thread. Both belong to the Piedmontese sound-landscape collection assembled over decades by Domenico Torta, and the museum records describe how they are built but not what they were used for.

Rombo costituito da una sottile tavola di legno a forma di pesce.

Bullroarer made of a thin wooden board in the shape of a fish.

Civico Museo del Paesaggio Sonoro, Riva presso Chieri, inv. 0217SM
Object
Thin rectangular wooden board, rounded corners, bevelled sides, end-tang with nail to which a finely twisted thin cord is tied (inv. 0216SM, maker Eugenio Reolon, Riva presso Chieri); second fish-shaped example inv. 0217SM (Salvatore Pellegrino, Cambiano).
Function
Folk noisemaker of the Piedmontese sound-landscape tradition; museum-documented; specific traditional uses not stated in the records.
Map confidence
low_medium - Riva presso Chieri (stated comune of maker/museum)
Source location
inv. 0216SM + 0217SM

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