The bülban is a historical musical instrument from the
Caucasus,
Middle East and
Central Asia.
It was a reed pipe, with an apricot wood body
[ and tipped with a tubular ]single-reed
A single-reed instrument is a woodwind instrument that uses only one reed to produce sound. The very earliest single-reed instruments were documented in ancient Egypt, as well as the Middle East, Greece, and the Roman Empire. The earliest types o ...
. It had 7 fingerholes and a thumbhole and played a diatonic scale
In music theory, a diatonic scale is any heptatonic scale that includes five whole steps (whole tones) and two half steps (semitones) in each octave, in which the two half steps are separated from each other by either two or three whole steps, ...
from E1 to E3.[ By half-covering fingerholes, it could play a chromatic scale.][ The instrument has been documented in Azerbaijan,][ and one can be seen in a photo from the mid-19th-century Russian Turkestan.
The body of the bülban is about 280 mm long.][ The reed's diameter is 5mm wide.][ The bore of the instrument is very narrow, and the bell at the bottom has a small hole for the air to flow through.][
The instrument is very similar to the Georgian pilili, with the same style of reed tip, though the Georgian instrument now uses bamboo. The reed tip is the same as the sümsü (or sipsi) and tulum (an Azerbaijani bagpipe).][ Other instruments using these tips include the dili tuiduk reed pipe and the ghoshmeh.
The instrument declined in Azerbaijan in the 15th century and is nearly forgotten.][ However, in a period of cultural recovery, the instrument has received some attention by being documented.][
The instrument is still played, according to a 2004 source, in ]Khorezm
Khwarazm (; Old Persian: ''Hwârazmiya''; fa, خوارزم, ''Xwârazm'' or ''Xârazm'') or Chorasmia () is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, bordered on the north by the (former) Aral Sea, on the ...
, Uzbekistan, where it is called ''bulaman'', ''balaman'' or ''balaban''.[ That last name, ]balaban Balaban may refer to:
Places
Azerbaijan
* Balaxanı, Azerbaijan, formerly Balaban
Iran
* Balaban, Khoy (Persian: , ''Balabān'')
* Balaban, Piranshahr (Persian: , ''Bālābān'')
Syria
* Balaban ( ar, بلابان, Bālābān) is a village ...
, is more widely used however for another kind of double-reed instrument.[
File:Troupe of Musicians. Group of Musicians and a Batcha, or Dancing Boy WDL11112.png, Musicians from Russian Turkestan. Instruments from the left bülban, nagara drums, 2 zurnas, ]daf
Daf ( fa, دف) also known as Dâyere and Riq is a Middle Eastern (mainly Iranian) frame drum musical instrument, used in popular and classical music in South and Central Asia. It is also used in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Iran, Uzbe ...
, sanj, qairaq
The qairaq or kairak are flat oval stones used as clappers or castanets. They are small enough to hold two in one hand and are used in the music of Tajik and Uzbek peoples. They are used as a percussion instrument and shaken, a pair in each hand ...
s.
File:Reeds kataglott anaglott.jpg, Drawings of Tubular single reeds. Tubular body is the same style as used in bülban. Reeds above split from from middle upward and from top downward.
File:Rörblad svensk säckpipa.jpg, Tubular single reed from a Swedish bagpipe.
File:Enkelt rörblad till svensk säckpipa.jpg, Tubular single reeds from a Swedish bagpipe
Swedish bagpipes (säckpipa, sv, svensk säckpipa, or ''dråmba'', ''koppe'', ''posu'', or ''bälgpipa'') are a variety of bagpipes from Sweden. The term itself generically translates to "bagpipes" in Swedish, but is used in English to describe t ...
. Similar to the reed in the bülban
File:Sipsi.jpg, Sipsi reed pipe. Tubular single-reed is split from top downward.
References
{{Azerbaijani musical instruments
Clarinets
Single-reed instruments
Uzbekistani musical instruments
Azerbaijani musical instruments