HAND
MADE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS |
| | | | | | | OUD | VIOLIN | TANBUR | KANUN | LAVTA | AHENK | | | | | | | | | | | | | CLASSICAL
KEMENCE | KEMENCE | BAGLAMA | NEVUD | BUZUKI | PIANOLIN | | | | | | | |
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 | BAGLAMA (SAZ) |
 PERSIAN
AND TURKISH FOR "MUSICAL INSTRUMENT
The saz is a long-necked Turkish lute with 10-19+ movable frets
made of knotted strings. It shares an ancestor with the bouzouki,
and has many different names ("saz" merely meaning "instrument").
The neck is usually made of fir, and the teardrop-shaped resonator
is usually made of a single piece of mulberry wood. Small soundholes
may appear in the thin wooden soundboard, and openings may also
be carved in the sides of the body. Alternately, there may be no
soundholes. Strings are either steel or brass, and are plucked by
a long cherry bark plectrum. The deepest tuning is in the middle
(e.g., d'-g-a; but there are numerous possible tunings). The sounds
created by the saz are metallic and buzzing.
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BAGLAMA GALLERY |
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This instrument comes in many sizes, the main ones being:
- cura: smallest; 3 strings; most frequently used
by street-singers
- baglama: mid-sized; 6 paired strings; most popular
size (pictured here)
- divan saz and meydan saz: largest; 9 strings
Like its ancestor the kopuz, the Turkmens of Anatolia attached sacred
significance to the baglama, and the religious ceremonies of the
Alevi and Bektasi sects begin by kissing the baglama and touching
it to the head before beginning to play the hymns which made up
a large part of the ritual. Alevi and Bektasi dervishes could be
regarded as itinerant poets, and because its small size made it
easy to carry they usually played the cura. Dr. Covel, who visited
Turkey in 1673 and 1674 described it as "a
little pittifull instrument with three wire strings, which every
fellow thrums ordinarily about the streets", while Jean Thevenot
around the same time noted that the Turks "have several instruments
of music, the most common is a little lute with three strings on
which they'll play a whole day and not put it out of tune".
One of the most common types of baglama used in Turkey today is
the divan, the largest of the family in terms of both body size
and fingerboard length. It is generally played in a plain, unornamented
style, and is used for playing at low pitch. It has seven strings
in three groups.
Another is the tambura, the modern version of the dombra, a two
stringed Kazakh and Kirghiz instrument. Its body is the same size
as that of a baglama with a short fingerboard, but it is played
like the long fingerboard baglama. Like the divan it has three groups
of seven strings.
The short fingerboard baglama is that regarded as sacred by the
Alevi and Bektasi sects, and with the long fingerboard baglama is
the most common type in Turkey today. The long fingerboard baglama
is known as the bozuk in vernacular Turkish and has more frets.
Both types have seven strings in three groups.
The smallest of the baglama family, the cura, has a small body and
short fingerboard. It is played like the long and short fingerboard
baglama, but has only six strings in three groups.
Dr. Cengiz Sarıkuş has a general standard for baglama making: he uses "baked"
wood for the body and juniper wood is glued together in strips.
Spruce is used for the sounding board, and kelebek wood for the
fingerboard. The size of the body and length of the fingerboard
depends on the top note desired by the musician ordering the instrument
He uses Anatolian Yoruk and Edirnekari design on the mainboard.
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