The Bullroarer Atlas

MUS2026-200 - museum specimen

Amaseno (FR), Lazio

Italy - Lazio - Monti Lepini - Europe - Mediterranean

Play / practical

The Suffolk woozer: a palm-sized blade sawn into deep teeth along both edges.
Representative — not this record’s object. · The Suffolk woozer: a palm-sized blade sawn into deep teeth along both edges Image source

moscono

moscono (cf. Italian moscone, 'big fly / bluebottle') — named for the buzz.

In the Monti Lepini country of southern Lazio the whirled rombo lived on into living memory in two shapes. At Sezze a simple slotted board called the moscone — the 'big fly', after its buzz — spun straight from the player's hand at Carnival. At Amaseno, Martino Realacci carved this fuller rig: blade, cord, and a rod handle gripped while the blade circles overhead. When surveyors catalogued the region's folk instruments in 1995, the pair filled a blank in the known Italian range of the instrument.

Object
Carved wooden blade with bevelled edges, pierced for a cord that is fixed to a rod handle; made by Martino Realacci before 1987. EtnoMuseo Monti Lepini, Roccagorga; ICCD 1200652143.
Function
Play: gripped by the rod handle and whirled overhead on its cord. Recorded in the 1995 folk-instrument survey of the Monti Lepini; neighboring Sezze used the simpler hand-held moscone at Carnival.
Map confidence
high - Amaseno village center (the card's luogo di rilevamento); the museum sits at Roccagorga and is not the plotted point.
Source location
ICCD 1200652143

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