The ''bağlama'' or ''saz'' is a family of plucked string instruments, long-necked lutes used in Ottoman classical music, Turkish folk music, Turkish

Arabesque music Arabesque ( tr, Arabesk) is a style of music created in Turkey. The genre was particularly popular in Turkey from the 1960s through the 2000s. Its aesthetics have evolved over the decades. Its melodies are influenced by espesically Arab Music, ...

, Azerbaijani music,

Kurdish music Kurdish music refers to music performed in the Kurdish languages and Zaza-Gorani languages. The earliest study of Kurdish music was initiated by the renowned Armenian priest and composer Komitas in 1903, when he published his work ''" Chansons ...

Armenian music The music of Armenia ( hy, հայկական երաժշտություն ''haykakan yerazhshtut’yun'') has its origins in the Armenian highlands, dating back to the 3rd millennium BCE, and is a long-standing musical tradition that encompass ...

and in parts of

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

and the Balkan countries. ''Bağlama'' ( tr, bağlama) is Turkish from ''bağlamak'', "to tie". It is . ''Saz'' ( fa, ساز) means "to make; to compose" in Persian. It is . According to ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and t ...

'', "the terms 'bağlama' and 'saz' are used somewhat interchangeably in Turkey." Like the Western

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...

and the Middle-Eastern oud, it has a deep round back, but a much longer neck. It can be played with a

plectrum A plectrum is a small flat tool used for plucking or strumming of a stringed instrument. For hand-held instruments such as guitars and mandolins, the plectrum is often called a pick and is held as a separate tool in the player's hand. In har ...

or with a fingerpicking style known as ''şelpe''. In the music of Greece the name '' baglamas'' ( el, μπαγλαμάς) is given to a treble bouzouki, a related instrument. The Turkish settlement of Anatolia from the late eleventh century onward saw the introduction of a two-string Turkmen dutar, which was played in some areas of

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

until recent times.

Turkish bağlama

The most commonly used string folk instrument in

, the bağlama has seven strings divided into courses of two, two and three. It can be tuned in various ways and takes different names according to region and size: Bağlama, Divan Sazı, Bozuk, Çöğür, Kopuz Irızva, Cura, Tambura, etc. The cura is the smallest member of the bağlama family: larger than the cura is the tambura, tuned an octave lower. The Divan sazı, the largest instrument in the family, is tuned one octave lower still. A bağlama has three main parts, the bowl (called ''tekne''), made from mulberry wood or juniper, beech, spruce or walnut, the spruce sound board (''göğüs'') and a

neck The neck is the part of the body on many vertebrates that connects the head with the torso. The neck supports the weight of the head and protects the nerves that carry sensory and motor information from the brain down to the rest of the body. In ...

of beech or juniper (''sap''). The tuning pegs are known as ''burgu'' (literally

screw A screw and a bolt (see '' Differentiation between bolt and screw'' below) are similar types of fastener typically made of metal and characterized by a helical ridge, called a ''male thread'' (external thread). Screws and bolts are used to ...

). Frets are tied to the ''sap'' with fishing line, which allows them to be adjusted. The bağlama is usually played with a ''mızrap'' or ''tezene'' (similar to a guitar pick) made from cherrywood bark or plastic. In some regions, it is played with the fingers in a style known as ''Şelpe'' or ''Şerpe''. There are also electric bağlamas, which can be connected to an amplifier. These can have either single or double pickups.

Azerbaijani saz

The

Azerbaijani Azerbaijani may refer to: * Something of, or related to Azerbaijan * Azerbaijanis * Azerbaijani language See also * Azerbaijan (disambiguation) * Azeri (disambiguation) * Azerbaijani cuisine * Culture of Azerbaijan The culture of Azerbaijan ...

saz was mainly used by Ashiqs. The art of Azerbaijani Ashiqs combines poetry, storytelling, dance and vocal and instrumental music into a traditional performance art. This art is one of the symbols of Azerbaijani culture and considered an emblem of national identity and the guardian of

Azerbaijani language Azerbaijani () or Azeri (), also referred to as Azeri Turkic or Azeri Turkish, is a Turkic language from the Oghuz sub-branch spoken primarily by the Azerbaijani people, who live mainly in the Republic of Azerbaijan where the North Azerbai ...

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...

and

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

. Characterized by the accompaniment of the kopuz, a stringed musical instrument, the classical repertoire of Azerbaijani Ashiqs includes 200 songs, 150 literary-musical compositions known as dastans, nearly 2,000 poems and numerous stories. Since 2009 the art of Azerbaijani Ashiqs has been inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The kopuz and the bağlama

The bağlama is a synthesis of historical musical instruments in Central Asia and pre-Turkish

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

. It is partly descended from the Turkic komuz. The ''kopuz'', or ''komuz'', differs from the bağlama in that it has a leather-covered body and two or three strings made of sheep gut, wolf gut, or horsehair. It is played with the fingers rather than a plectrum and has a fingerboard without frets. ''Bağlama'' literally translates as "something that is tied up", probably a reference to the tied-on frets of the instrument. The word bağlama is first used in 18th-century texts. The French traveler Jean Benjamin de Laborde, who visited

during that century, recorded that "the bağlama or tambura is in form exactly like the cogur, but smaller." The Çoğur/Çöğur was in many ways a transitional Instrument between old Komuz and new Bağlama style and has a body shape similar to the Instrument called panduri in Georgia. According to the historian Hammer, metal strings were first used on a type of komuz with a long fingerboard known as the ''kolca kopuz'' in 15th-century Anatolia. This was the first step in the emergence of the çöğür (cogur), a transitional instrument between the komuz and the bağlama. According to 17th-century writer Evliya Çelebi, the cogur was first made in the city of Kütahya in western Turkey. To take the strain of the metal strings the leather body was replaced with wood, the fingerboard was lengthened and frets were introduced. Instead of five hair strings there were now twelve metal strings arranged in four groups of three. Today, the cogur is smaller than a medium-size bağlama.

Bağlama (Saz) family

Bağlama tunings

There are three string groups, or

course Course may refer to: Directions or navigation * Course (navigation), the path of travel * Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...

s, on the bağlama, with strings double or tripled. These string groups can be tuned in a variety of ways, known as ''düzen'' (literally, "order"). For the ''bağlama düzeni'', the most common tuning, the courses are tuned from top downward, A-G-D. Some other ''düzen''s are ''Kara Düzen'' (C-G-D), ''Misket Düzeni'' (A-D-F#), ''Müstezat'' (A-D-F), ''Abdal Düzeni'', and ''Rast Düzeni''. * Bağlama düzeni (La, Sol, Re) (A, G, D) * Bozuk düzen, kara düzen (Sol, Re, La) (G, D, A) * Misket düzeni (Fa#, Re, La) (F#, D, A) * Fa müstezat düzeni (Fa, Re, La) (F, D, A) * Abdal düzeni (La, La, Sol) (A, A, G) * Zurna düzeni (Re, Re, La) (D, D, A) * Do müstezat düzeni (Sol, Do, La) (G, C, A) * Aşık düzeni (La (bottom string set), Re (middle string set), Mi (Top string set) (A, D, E)

Bağlama scale

The musical scale of the bağlama differs from that of many western instruments – such as the guitar – in that it features ratios that are close to

quarter tone A quarter tone is a pitch halfway between the usual notes of a chromatic scale or an interval about half as wide (aurally, or logarithmically) as a semitone, which itself is half a whole tone. Quarter tones divide the octave by 50 cents each ...

s. The traditional ratios for bağlama frets are listed by Yalçın Tura: *Fret 1: 18/17 *Fret 2: 12/11 *Fret 3: 9/8 *Fret 4: 81/68 *Fret 5: 27/22 *Fret 6: 81/64 *Fret 7: 4/3 *Fret 8: 24/17 *Fret 9: 16/11 *Fret 10: 3/2 *Fret 11: 27/17 *Fret 12: 18/11 *Fret 13: 27/16 *Fret 14: 16/9 *Fret 15: 32/17 *Fret 16: 64/33 *Fret 17: 2/1 However, as confirmed by Okan Öztürk, instrument makers now often set frets on the bağlama with the aid of fret calculators and tuners based on the 24-tone equal temperament.

Notable performers

Festival des Vieilles Charrues 2018 - Altin Gün - 011

* Pir Sultan Abdal *

Karacaoğlan Karacaoğlan was a 17th-century Anatolian Turkish folk poet and ashik. His exact dates of birth and death are unknown but it is widely accepted that he was born around 1606 and died around 1680. He lived around the city of Mut near Mersin. His ...

Dadaloğlu Dadaloğlu (Veli) (1785 ?–1868 ?) was a Turkish Ottoman (bard), a folk poet-singer, known as ''Ozan''. Background Two distinct literatures existed in the Ottoman Empire. Literature of the palace, so called divan literature used Ottoman Turkis ...

* Gevheri * Aşık Veysel (1894–1973) * Muharrem Ertaş (1913–1984) *

Neşet Ertaş Neşet Ertaş (1938 – 25 September 2012) was a Turkish folk music singer, lyricist, modern ashik and virtuoso of the traditional Turkish instrument the bağlama. His profession in Turkish is known as ''halk ozanı'', which literally mean ...

(1938–2012) *

Ali Ekber Çiçek Ali Ekber Çiçek (1935 – 26 April 2006) was a Turkish folk musician. Çiçek was born in 1935, in Erzincan, Turkey. His father died in the Erzincan Earthquake and thus Çiçek worked as a farmer at a young age. Financial problems limited hi ...

(1935–2006) *

Ruhi Su Mehmet Ruhi Su (1912 – 20 September 1985) was a Turkish opera singer, Turkish folk singer and saz virtuoso of probable Armenian

(1915-1982) * Hasret Gültekin (1971-1993) * Ahmet Kaya (1957-2000) *

Aşık Mahzuni Şerif Şerif Cırık, popularly known as Aşık Mahsuni Şerif, was a Turkish ashik, folk musician, composer, poet, and author.

(1940-2002) * Musa Eroğlu * Erdal Erzincan * Erdinç Ecevit Yıldız *

Orhan Gencebay Orhan Gencebay (born Orhan Kencebay, 4 August 1944) is a Turkish musician, bağlama virtuoso, composer, singer, arranger, music producer, music director, and actor. Gencebay was born in the coastal town of Samsun on 4 August 1944. He is of Crim ...

Güler Duman Güler Duman (born June 25, 1967) is a Turkish singer, songwriter, composer, TV host and music teacher. She concentrates on Turkish folk music. Early life Güler Duman was born in Istanbul on June 30, 1967. Originally, Erzurum was Aşkale. When ...

* Ahmet Koç * Erkan Oğur *

Arif Sağ Arif Sağ (born 1945) is a Turkish singer, bağlama virtuoso, and leading figure in modern Turkish folk music. A former academic, he was also a member of the Turkish parliament from 1987 to 1991. Early years Arif Sağ was born to a miller at Dall ...

* Muhlis Akarsu (1948-1993) *

Nesimi Çimen __NOTOC__ Nesimi Çimen (1931 – 2 July 1993) was a Turkish folk singer and poet. He was killed, along with 34 others, during the Sivas massacre in Sivas, Turkey when a group of Islamist rioters set fire to the hotel where the victims had g ...

(1931-1993) *

Cahit Berkay Cahit is a Turkish given name for males. It is the Turkish form of the Arabic word Jahid (Arabic: جاهِد ''jāhid''), which means "effort, strive" or " endeavour" and stems from the Arabic verb ''jahada'' (Arabic: َجَهَد) "to do effort ...

References

External links

Article about documentary featuring the saz: "From Berlin to Khorasan: seeking the roots of saz music"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baglama Azerbaijani musical instruments Turkish folk music instruments Necked bowl lutes Armenian musical instruments Bosnian musical instruments Macedonian musical instruments Turkmen musical instruments Turkish words and phrases Turkish inventions Kurdish musical instruments