The ''tambur'' (spelled in keeping with TDK conventions) is a fretted string instrument 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 in ...

and the former lands of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

. Like the ney, the armudi (lit. pear-shaped) kemençe and the kudüm, it constitutes one of the four instruments of the basic quartet of Turkish classical music. Of the two variants, one is played with a plectrum (''mızraplı tambur'') and the other with a bow ('' yaylı tambur''). The player is called a ''tamburî''.Tambur
Republic of Turkey - Ministry of Culture and Tourism

History and development

There are several hypotheses as to the origin of the instrument. One suggests that it descended from the kopuz, a string instrument still in use among the Turkic peoples of Central Asia and the Caspian region. The name itself derives from the '' tanbur'' (tunbur), which in turn might have descended from the Sumerian ''pantur''. The name (and its variants such as ''

tambouras The tambouras ( el, ταμπουράς ) is a Greek traditional string instrument of Byzantine origin. It has existed since at least the 10th century, when it was known in Assyria and Egypt. At that time, it might have between two and six strings ...

'', '' dombura'') also denotes a wide spectrum of pear-shaped string instruments in Persia and Central Asia yet these share only their names with the Ottoman court instrument and in fact are more akin to bağlamas or sazes. By the 15th century, the tambur had assumed the modern shape, being described by

Tinctoris Jehan le Taintenier or Jean Teinturier (Latinised as Johannes Tinctoris; also Jean de Vaerwere; – 1511) was a Renaissance music theorist and composer from the Low Countries. Up to his time, he is perhaps the most significant European writer ...

in 1480 as being like "a large spoon with three strings." By 1740, when Jean-Étienne Liotard painted his painting, the instrument in his painting has pegs for 8 strings, which are strung in four courses. The modern instrument also has four pairs or courses of strings.

Description of the instrument

Tamburs are made almost entirely of wood. The shell (''Tekne'') is assembled from strips of hardwood called ribs joined edge to edge to form a semi-spherical body for the instrument. The number of ribs traditionally amounts to 17, 21 or 23, yet examples with slightly wider and consequently fewer ribs (7, 9 or 11) can also be found among older specimens. Traditionally, thinner strips called ''fileto'' are inserted between the ribs for ornamental purposes, but are not obligatory. The most common

tonewood Tonewood refers to specific wood varieties that possess tonal properties that make them good choices for use in woodwind or acoustic stringed instruments. Varieties of tonewood As a rough generalization it can be said that stiff-but-light softwood ...

veneers used for rib-making are mahogany,

flame maple Flame maple (tiger maple), also known as ''flamed maple'', ''curly maple'', ''ripple maple'', ''fiddleback'' or ''tiger stripe'', is a feature of maple in which the growth of the wood fibers is distorted in an undulating chatoyant pattern, produ ...

Persian walnut ''Juglans regia'', the Persian walnut, English walnut, Carpathian walnut, Madeira walnut, or especially in Great Britain, common walnut, is an Old World walnut tree species native to the region stretching from the Balkans eastward to the Himala ...

, Mecca balsam wood ('' Commiphora gileadensis''), Spanish chestnut,

Greek juniper ''Juniperus excelsa'', commonly called the Greek juniper, is a juniper found throughout the eastern Mediterranean, from northeastern Greece and southern Bulgaria across Turkey to Syria and Lebanon, Jordan, the Caucasus mountains, and southern coa ...

, mulberry,

Oriental plane ''Platanus orientalis'', the Old World sycamore or Oriental plane, is a large, deciduous tree of the Platanaceae family, growing to or more, and known for its longevity and spreading crown. In autumn its deep green leaves may change to blood red ...

Indian rosewood ''Dalbergia sissoo'', known commonly as North Indian rosewood or ''shisham'', is a fast-growing, hardy, deciduous rosewood tree native to the Indian subcontinent and southern Iran. ''D. sissoo'' is a large, crooked tree with long, leathery leav ...

and apricot. Ribs are assembled on the bottom

wedge A wedge is a triangular shaped tool, and is a portable inclined plane, and one of the six simple machines. It can be used to separate two objects or portions of an object, lift up an object, or hold an object in place. It functions by converti ...

(tail) and the heel on which the fingerboard is mounted. The soundboard (''Göğüs'') is a rotund thin (2.5–3 mm) flat three-, two- or single-piece plate of resonant wood (usually Nordmann,

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

or Greek fir). This circular plate measuring about 30 to 35 cm in diameter is mounted on the bottom wedge and the heel with simmering glue and encircled with a wooden ring. A soundhole is either wanting or consists of a very small unornamented opening (mostly in historical specimens), giving the instrument its peculiar sonority. The neck (''Sap'') is a mince (only 4-4.5 cm in diameter) 100–110 cm long D-section fingerboard made of light wood and carries

catgut Catgut (also known as gut) is a type of cord that is prepared from the natural fiber found in the walls of animal intestines. Catgut makers usually use sheep or goat intestines, but occasionally use the intestines of cattle, hogs, horses, mules, ...

frets A fret is any of the thin strips of material, usually metal wire, inserted laterally at specific positions along the neck or fretboard of a stringed instrument. Frets usually extend across the full width of the neck. On some historical instrum ...

adjusted to give 36 intervals in an octave. Catgut frets are fixed on the neck by means of minute nails. The main

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

is trapezoidal and mobile, and since the shell lacks braces to support the soundboard, the latter slightly yields in under the bridge. The smaller upper bridge between the

pegbox A variety of methods are used to tune different stringed instruments. Most change the pitch produced when the string is played by adjusting the tension of the strings. A tuning peg in a pegbox is perhaps the most common system. A peg has ...

and the neck is traditionally made of bone. The plectrum is made of tortoiseshell and is called "bağa" (meaning turtle). Cut in an asymmetrical V-form and polished at 45° on the tip, it measures 2-2.5 mm × 5–6 mm × 10–15 cm. Nowadays the tambur has seven strings. In the past tamburs with eight strings were not uncommon.

A Variant: The Yaylı Tambur

The yaylı tambur has a similar physical appearance, although the shell -a nearly perfect semi-sphere- might be made of metal. It is played with a bow instead of a plectrum. The technique was introduced by Cemil Bey in the end of the 19th century. Ercüment Batanay was, after Cemil Bey, the most outstanding virtuoso of this instrument, until his death. The yaylı tambur is held vertically on the knees, as opposed to the regular one where the neck is maintained horizontal to the ground at all times. File:Tanbûr from the book Kitâb-i ‘Ilmü’l Mûsîkî ala Vechi’l-Hurûfat by Dimitrie Cantemir.jpg, 1700-1703. Tanbûr from the book Kitâb-i ‘Ilmü’l Mûsîkî ala Vechi’l-Hurûfat by

Dimitrie Cantemir Dimitrie or Demetrius Cantemir (, russian: Дмитрий Кантемир; 26 October 1673 – 21 August 1723), also known by other spellings, was a Romanian prince, statesman, and man of letters, regarded as one of the most significant e ...

File:Monsieur Levett et Mademoiselle Hélène Glavani en Costume Turc (1740) by Jean-Étienne Liotard.jpg, 1740, painter Jean-Étienne Liotard. Europeans dressed up in traditional " Tartar" costume. File:Osman Hamdi Bey - Two Musician Girls - Google Art Project.jpg, 1880. Painting by

Osman Hamdi Bey Osman Hamdi Bey (30 December 1842, in Istanbul 24 February 1910) was an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman administrator, intellectual, art expert and also a prominent and pioneering painter. He was also an accomplished archaeologist, and is regarded as th ...

File:YaylıTambur of DrOzanYarman.jpg, Yaylı Tambur

Performers and techniques

Owing to its long past, the tambur has let flourish several schools of interpretation. The oldest description of tamburîs is reported by the French traveller Charles Fonton who describes the use of catgut frets. A Turkish musical theory written in the beginning of the 18th century by the famous Kantemir Pasha -first an Ottoman citizen of Polish-Moldovian origin, then voivode of Moldovia- elucidates for the first time the proper intervals to use. Yet there is little mention of playing styles and the first tambur master recorded by chronicles and of whom we have solid information is İzak Efendi, who is said to have brought the playing technique to maturity. Today, he is considered as the reference of the "old style" in tambur playing, partially recovered in the 20th century by

Mesut Cemil Mesut Cemil (; b. 1902 – d. October 31, 1963) was a Turkish composer, and a notable ''tanbur'' lute and cello player. His father was Tanburi Cemil Bey. He participated in the 1932 Cairo Congress of Arab Music. Cemil took cello and violin l ...

. Sheikh of the Rifai Tekkesi in Kozyatağı (Istanbul) Abdülhalim Efendi was his pupil and carried on the same tradition. Among notable 18th-century players were Numan Ağa, Zeki Mehmed Ağa, Küçük Osman Bey, all of whom remained representatives of this allegedly old style. The first virtuoso to claim renovation was

Tanburi Büyük Osman Bey Tanburi Büyük Osman Bey or Tamburi Büyük Osman Bey (1816–1885) was an Ottoman composer and Turkish tambur player. He is considered one of the most outstanding peşrev compositors in Ottoman classical music. Life Tanburi Büyük Osman Bey ...

who broke with his father Zeki Mehmed Ağa's technique to present his own. Later on, this later style became so prevalent that the older technique came to suffer oblivion. The musical heritage transmitted to Suphi Ezgi by Abdülhalim Efendi, and from the former to

, an eminent figure in 19th Turkish Classical Music, has helped retrieve the essentials of this old technique. One last important tamburi successfully performing according to principles of the old school was Cemil Özbal (1908–1980) from Gaziantep. Yet the most renowned and probably the most prolific of tamburis is Cemil Bey, who not only excelled in virtuosity but bequeathed a heritage that later prominent figures of Turkish Classical Music such as Neyzen Niyazi Sayın and Tamburi Necdet Yaşar claimed.

References

External links