Tanbur
 Man playing a tanbur-family instrument | |
| String instrument | |
|---|---|
| Classification | Plucked string instrument; fretted lute |
| Related instruments | |
The term Tanbur (
tambur) is applied to a variety of distinct and related long-necked lutes used in art and folk traditions. Similar or identical instruments are also known by other terms." These instruments are used in the traditional music of Iran, India, Kurdistan, Armenia, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan (especially Avar community), Pakistan, Turkey, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.[2][3][4]
Origins
Tanburs have been present in
BC.[1]
Three figurines have been found in Susa that belong to 1500 BC, and in hands of one of them is a tanbur-like instrument.[5] Also an image on the rocks near Mosul that belong to about 1000 B shows tanbur players.[5]
Playing the tanbur was common at least by the late
Sassanid period,[6] and the word 'tanbur' is found in middle Persian and Parthian language texts, for instance in Drakht-i Asurig, Bundahishn, Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan, and Khosrow and Ridag.[note 1][5]
In the tenth century AD
Persia, a Baghdad tunbūr, distributed south and west of Baghdad, and a Khorasan tunbūr.[1][5] This distinction may be the source of modern differentiation between Arabic instruments, derived from the Baghdad tunbūr, and those found in northern Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sindh and Turkey, from the Khorasan tunbūr.[1]
The Persian name spread widely, eventually taking in Long-necked string instruments used in
Al-Hirah to the Arabian Peninsula and in the early Islam period went to the European countries. Tanbur was called 'tunbur' or 'tunbureh/tunbura' in Al-Hirah, and in Greek it was named tambouras, then went to Albania as tampura, in Russia it was named domra, in Siberia and Mongolia as dombra, and in Byzantine Empire was named pandura/bandura. It travelled through Byzantine Empire to other European countries and was called pandura, mandura, bandura, etc.[5]
Later the Iranian (Kurdish) tanbur became associated with the music of the
Types
Kurdish Tanbur
Nowadays Kermanshahan tanbur (or Kurdish tanbur or tembûr or tanboor or tanbour) is played all over Iran, and that is what is called just "tanbur" in Iran nowadays.
The tanbur is currently the musical instrument used in Ahl-e Haqq (Yarsani) rituals, and practitioners venerate tembûrs as sacred objects.[7]There is also a Taleshi tanbur in small region Talesh in the north of Iran, and Tanburak (Tanburg) in Balochistan in the southeast of Iran.[9] But Kermanshahan tanbur is the main and the most famous tanbur in Iran.[5][10]
The Kurdish tanbur has a narrow pear-shaped body that normally is made with 7 to 10 glued together separate ribs. Its soundboard is usually made of
Kurdish Sufi music of Western Iran.[2]
It measures 80 cm in height and 16 cm in breadth.[8] The resonator is pear-shaped and made of either a single piece or multiple carvels of mulberry wood.[8] The neck is made of walnut and has fourteen frets, arranged in a semi-tempered chromatic scale.[8] It has two steel strings tuned in fifth, fourth, or second intervals.[7][8] The higher string may be double-coursed.[7][8]
Central Asia
- The mulberry) wood, and the neck is separate, and the neck usually has some decoration. It has three courses (either single or double) of metal strings. The Afghan tanbur is played in the same style as the normal tanbur and sitar, with a wire finger plectrum. The music can be accompanying singing and dancing, or (more rarely) playing classical ghazals.[3] The Afghan tanbur has sympathetic strings.[11]
- The Tajik/Uzbek tanbur has four metal strings that run over a small loose bridge to a bit of wood at the edge of the body. It is always played with a wire plectrum on the index-finger. Its body is carved from a hollowed out piece of mulberry wood, and the front is made from mulberry. Its neck is often decorated with inlay bone or white plastic.[3] It can also be played with a bow.[12]
- The Sinkiang. Its neck is very long (almost 5 feet long) and has five friction pegs. It has five metal strings that are in fact three courses, both first (fingered) and third are double.[3]
Turkish tambur
- The Turkish tambur has a very long thin neck and its body is made of about 20 to 25 thin wooden ribs in a very round shape. It has six (three pairs of) metal strings.[2]
- The yaylı tambur is also played in Turkey.[2] Derived from the older plucked tambur, it has a long, fretted neck and a round metal or wooden soundbox which is often covered on the front with a skin or acrylic head similar to that of a banjo.
Other plucked string instruments
Tanpura (left) used as a drone to accompany a sarod
recital
- Kazakhstan's National instrument the dombra (or dombyra or dombira or dombora) looks quite similar to the dutar although it is made of staves, and it has a flat peghead instead of a neck extension.[3]
- The are derived of similar Turkic origins.
- The dambura is mainly played in the North of Afghanistan. It has two slightly different kinds: the Turkestani dambura and the Badachstan dambura.
- Turkestani dambura is fretless, and has two gut or nylon strings fixed to T-shaped flat pegs, and run over a small wooden bridge to a pin at the end of the body.[3]
- The Badachstan dambura is similar to the Turkestani dambura, but it is a bit smaller, and the neck and body are carved from one single piece of (usually mulberry) wood.[3]
- The Punjabi tanburag is a long-neck lute with a big bowl, and has three metal strings, called tanburag [tanboorag] or dhambura, but also called damburo, or kamach(i).[3]
- The Indian Tanpura (tanpura, tamboura or taanpura or tanipurani) is found in different forms and in many places even as electronic tanpura.
- The Shirvan tanbur has a pear-shaped form and belongs to the same family of instruments as the saz. The total length of the tanbur is 940 mm. The length of the body is 385 mm, the width is 200 mm and the height is 135 mm. The length of the neck is 340 mm, and the length of the head is 120 mm. The Shirvan tanbur ranges from the "do" of the first octave to the "mi" of the second octave.
- The Pamiri tanbur is considered to be a more solemn instrument. Its tone is deeper and its tuning more complex than that of the rubab. The tanbur is 80–85 cm in length, and is carved from the trunk of a mulberry or apricot tree. Its sounding board is made of goat or sheep skin. Its unfretted fingerboard has a hollow to create a more powerful voice, and its top is shaped like a half moon. It has seven nylon strings and an eight-string, which duplicates the highest note.[13]
- Similar instruments include the sazand the Persian tanbur.
Furthermore, the fretted Tanbur influenced the design of many instruments other than those above, notably:
- The baglama (saz) is found in the Caucasus, Iran, Turkey, northern Syria, western Iraq, and Southeast Europe.[1] In Turkey, the terms bağlama and saz both refer to a long-necked lute used in folk music.[1] Closely related are the Greek bouzouki and the buzuq, an instrument found in urban areas such as Baghdad, Damascus, and Beirut.[1]
- The
- In the Balkans, the Tambura is a stringed instrument that is played as a folk instrument in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia, and Serbia (especially Vojvodina). It has doubled steel strings and is played with a plectrum, in the same manner as a mandolin.
- Also in the modes.
Other instruments
The name also came to apply to several other instruments of different classes including:
- Drums such as the tabor and tambourine.[14]
- The Fann At-Tanbura in the Persian Gulf Arab states.
See also
Notes
- translatedas: Tanbūr, Tambur, Tembur, Tanbuur, Tampur, Tempur, Tanbura, Tampolles, Tanpura, Tanpenes, Tembûr, Tambura, Tamboura, Tanboor, Tanbour, Turunbo, Tænbur, Tenbur, Tənbur, Tänbur, Tanbo'er, etc.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Scheherezade Qassim Hassan; Morris, R. Conway; Baily, John; During, Jean (2001). "Tanbūr". In Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John (eds.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. xxv (2nd ed.). London: Macmillan. pp. 61–62.
- ^ a b c d "ATLAS of Plucked Instruments – Middle East". ATLAS of Plucked Instruments. Archived from the original on January 16, 2013. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "ATLAS of Plucked Instruments – Central Asia". ATLAS of Plucked Instruments. Archived from the original on May 21, 2011. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
- ISBN 9780199743391.
- ^ a b c d e f g "تنبور (یا تمبور/ طنبور)". Encyclopaedia Islamica. Archived from the original on June 23, 2013. Retrieved March 3, 2013.
- ISBN 0-8453-4884-1
- ^ a b c d Shiloah, Amnon (2001). "Kurdish music". In Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John (eds.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. xiv (2nd ed.). London: Macmillan. p. 40.
- ^ a b c d e f Scheherezade Qassim Hassan; Morris, R. Conway; Baily, John; During, Jean (2001). "Tanbur". In Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John (eds.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. xxv (2nd ed.). London: Macmillan. pp. 61–62.
- ^ "Grup Müştak Hıdırellez 2016" (PDF). alevibektasikulturenstitusu.de. Alevitisch-Bektaschitisches Kulturinstitut E. V. 8 May 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 October 2016. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
In the Northern parts of Iran, Northwest of Gilan province, a version of Tanbour called Taleshi Tanbour is played in Taleshi people Rituals.
- ISBN 9646409458.
- ^ "Instruments, Tanbur". akdn.org. Aga Khan Development Network. Archived from the original on 13 October 2016. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
- ^ Cerys Matthews, BBC Radio 6, 22 June 2018
- ^ "Main Page". Archived from the original on 2010-07-06. Retrieved 2010-06-06.
- ^ Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary 1977, "Tambourine".
- ^ a b c Poché, Christian (2001). "Tanbūra". In Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John (eds.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. xxv (2nd ed.). London: Macmillan. pp. 62–63.
External links
- Atlas of Plucked Instruments: Central Asia
- Analysis and Physical Modeling of Tanbur from the Helsinki University of Technology (Turkish Tambur)
- The Sounds of Music in Ancient Israel
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