Amateur Bard
Kytte (2020 Magic Fluke Cricket)
In the fall of 2019, I decided to join either a new LARP game or a historical reenactment group, something where I could wear costumes and socialize. As I was working on a generic musician/music teacher/bard character who I could slot into a variety of settings, I also started looking for an instrument because I was uninterested in wagging my cash-poor-sentiment-rich violin around with me. Ideally, I wanted something related to the violin where my previous training would be transferable to some degree, something that didn't look like a modern 21st century violin, maybe even something a bit sturdier that could handle bit of travel and weather.
I stumbled across the Cricket while looking at the pochette branch of the violin family. Pochettes, or dance master's violins, were an abbreviated, stripped-back version of the violin that began life with street performers and rose to peak at the glittering courts of the 18th century. Dance was an essential component of social and court life, and travelling dance masters were in demand. Dance masters preferred the pocket-sized pochette to carting around a full-sized violin in an 18th century violin cases, which were not terribly portable. Pochettes do not have the same sound or volume as a full-sized violin, but they worked well enough for playing a simple melodies during dance lessons. Many antique pochettes were scaled down such that they were held against the arm or chest while playing and had a higher pitched voice. The Cricket is full scale, which means I didn't have to spring for custom sized strings, a definite plus.