Rabel (instrument)
{{short description|Spanish bowed stringed instrument}}
{{Infobox Instrument
|name= Rabel
|names=
|image=Galician rabel.jpg
|image_capt=Galician Rabel
|background=string
|classification=String instrument
|hornbostel_sachs=
|hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone
|developed=
|range=
|articles=
}}
The rabel (or arrabel,{{cite book|author1=Robert Williams Dale|author2=James Guinness Rogers|title=The Congregationalist|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s25JAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA219|access-date=15 June 2013|year=1874|publisher=Hodder and Stoughton.|pages=219–}} robel, rovel{{cite book|author1=Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments|author2=Frederick Stearns|author3=Albert Augustus Stanley|title=Catalogue of the Stearns collection of musical instruments|url=https://archive.org/details/cataloguestearn00stangoog|access-date=15 June 2013|year=1921|publisher=The University of Michigan|pages=[https://archive.org/details/cataloguestearn00stangoog/page/n232 196]–}}) is a bowed stringed instrument from Spain, a rustic folk-fiddle descended from the medieval rebec,{{citation needed|date=June 2013}} with both perhaps descended from the Arab rabab.{{cite book|author=Luisa Lacál|author-link=Luisa Lacal de Bracho|title=Diccionario de la música, téchico, histórico, bio-bibliográfico|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AQAQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA428|access-date=15 June 2013|year=1899|publisher=S.F. de Sales|pages=428–}} The instrument generally has two or three strings of gut or steel, or sometimes twisted horse-hair.{{cite book|author1=Tess Knighton|author2=David Fallows|title=Companion to Medieval and Renaissance Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_UmMn1EgB7IC&pg=PA216|access-date=15 June 2013|year=1992|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-21081-3|pages=216–}}{{cite book|author1=Bruno Nettl|author2=Terry Ellis Miller|author3=Sean Williams|title=The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: Southeast Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xb2ibVAXO9sC&pg=PA991|access-date=15 June 2013|year=1998|publisher=Garland Publishing|isbn=978-0-8240-6040-4|pages=991–}} The instrument is first mentioned in the 12th century,{{citation needed|date=June 2013}} and it is still used in parts of Latin America, as well as the Spanish provinces of Cantabria and Asturias.
The rebel is often associates with secular instrumental music, and the most common rabel used in the Middles ages was the soprano.{{Cite web|url=https://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/instrument/rebec|title=Rebec {{!}} Musica Antiqua|website=www.music.iastate.edu|access-date=2020-04-26}}