Baglama

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The bağlama is a stringed musical instrument shared by various cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean. In Turkish bağlamak means 'to tie,' a reference to the tied-on frets of the instrument. Like most stringed instruments, it can either be played with a plectrum (i.e., pick), or with a fingerpicking style known as şelpe.

1 Turkish bağlama
2 The kopuz and the baglama
3 Baglama accord
4 Greek baglama
5 Albanian çiftelia
6 Sallaneh
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] Turkish bağlama

Turkish baglama

The bağlama, sometimes referred to as saz or a member of saz family, is the fundamental instrument in Turkish folk music. Its name literally translates to "something that is tied up".

The bağlama is a string instrument consisting of 7 strings divided into groups of 2, 2 and 3. These groups of strings can be tuned to different combinations, each corresponding to a different system.

The bağlama is believed to be a synthesis of historical musical instruments in Central Asia and pre-Turkish Anatolia. Bağlama is the most commonly used string folk instrument in Turkey. It takes different names according to the regions and according to its size such as Bağlama, Divan Sazı, Bozuk, Çöğür, Kopuz Irızva, Cura, Tambura, etc.

Cura is the smallest member of the bağlama family with the highest pitched sound. The member one size bigger than cura which gives a sound that is one octave lower than cura is the tambura. And the one with the deepest sound is the Divan sazı whose sound is one octave lower compared to tambura. Bağlama has three main parts called Tekne, Göğüs and Sap. Tekne part is generally made from mulberry trees as well as from woods of juniper, beech, spruce or walnut. The göğüs part is made from spruce and the sap section from beech or juniper. There are pieces called burgu (screw) at the end of the sap which is opposite to tekne part to which the strings are tied. These screws are used for tuning. There are pitches on the sap tied fith fish line. Bağlama is played with a Mızrap or Tezene made from cherry wood bark or plastic and fingers are used in some regions. The later technique is called Şelpe. Thee three string groups on bağlama in groups of two or three. These string groups can be tuned in a variety of ways. For example in the tuning style called bağlama Düzeni, the strings in the lower group give "A" note, middle group strings "D" note and upper group strings give "E" notes. Besides this type of tuning there are Kara Düzen, Misket Düzeni Müstezat, Abdal Düzeni, Rast Düzeni etc. styles. We also manufacture electric baglama which can be connected to an amplifier. It can be either single pickup or double pickups. See picture on the left.

After my opinion the section about the baglama should we rewritten and based on scientific research and not political/ideological ideas.

Some points: 1. There is no relationship between the kopuz and saz/baglama. See article of Tamila Djani-Zade: Die organologische und ikonographische Gestalt der türkischen Lauten. Über das historische Zupfinstrument qâpâz-i ôz. Also see Walter Feldman: Music of the Ottoman Court and sections about the baglama, saz and tanbur in the New Grove Dictionary. It is generally accepted that the baglama belonges to the tanbur family. 2. Jean-Benjamin de Laborde never travelled to Turkey. In his Essai sur la music ancienne et modern from 1780 he describes the baglama as a small type of lute. In Anatolia the traditional baglama also belonged to the smaller saz instruments. His sources for the baglama are still unknown. 3. The genesis of the baglama is more complex as is suggested by the item about this instrument in Wikipedia. 4. The rise of the modern baglama and baglama family is a recent development. 5. The foundation of the Republic in 1923 was of great influence on the folk music of Anatolia and its lute culture.

[edit] The kopuz and the baglama

The kopuz differs from the baglama in having a leather covered body, a fingerboard without frets, and two or three strings made either of horsehair, or of sheep or wolf gut. It is played by beating with the fingers, rather than being plucked with a plectrum.

The Turkish settlement of Anatolia from the late 10th century onwards saw the introduction of a two-string descendant of the kopuz, the Turkmen dutar, which was still being played in some areas of Turkey until recent times. According to the historian Hammer, metal strings were first used on a type of kopuz with a long fingerboard known as the kolca kopuz in 15th century Anatolia. This marked the first step in the emergence of the cogur, a transitional instrument between the kopuz and the baglama. According to the 17th century writer Evliya Celebi the cogur was first made in the city of Kutahya in western Turkey. To take the strain of the metal strings the leather body was replaced by wood, the fingerboard lengthened and frets 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 sized baglama.

Meanwhile the five string kopuz is thought to have been transformed into the six string instrument known as the sestar or seshane by the 13th century mystic Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi. The word sestar is also mentioned in the poems of the 14th century poet Yunus Emre. Evliya Celebi describes the kopuz as a smaller version of the seshane.

The word baglama is first used in 18th century texts. The French traveller Jean Benjamin de Laborde, who visited Turkey during that century, recorded that "the baglama or tambura is in form exactly like the cogur but smaller". He was probably referring to the smallest of the baglama family, the cura.

In this family, from the smallest to the largest, we can find the

cura saz
üçtelli saz
çöğür saz
tambura saz
bağlama saz
bozuk saz
meydan saz
aşik saz
divan saz
baş saz

[edit] Baglama accord

Bağlama düzeni (La, Sol, Re)
Bozuk düzen, kara düzen (Sol, Re, La)
Misket düzeni (Fa#, Re, La)
Fa müstezat düzeni (Fa, Re, La)
Abdal düzeni (La, La, Sol)
Zurna düzeni (Re, Re, La)
Do müstezat düzeni (Sol, Do, La)

"Ağır Zeybek" - An Aegean folk song (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- A good example of saz playing
- Problems listening to the file? See media help.

[edit] Greek baglama

Greek baglama with staved back

The baglama (Greek μπαγλαμάς) is very different from the Turkish baglama.

It is a half-sized version of the bouzouki. The Greek baglama has a small body, with a bowl, that is either made from staves or carved from solid wood. The neck is fretted, with the fret spacing corresponding to the notes of Western music. It has three pairs of strings, of which the higher two pairs are tuned in unison to D and A, and an octave pair tuned to D. The high pitched sound of the baglama is often very prominent in Pireas style Rembetika.

For additional information, consult the history of Greece over the last hundred years, with particular reference to rembetika (also called rebetika), which was a blend of numerous styles, including Turkish fasil music, derived from the Ottoman classical genre.

[edit] Albanian çiftelia

Çiftelia is an Albanian authentic string instrument. It has just two strings, which have scale lengths different from one another, often tuned to B and E (like the highest two strings of a guitar). There are different sizes of Çiftelia. Çiftelia is made of wood. There also exists an amplified version.

[edit] Sallaneh

Hossein Alizadeh playing the sallaneh

The sallaneh (سلانه) is a newly developed plucked string instrument made under the supervision of the Iranian musician Hossein Alizadeh, and constructed by Siamak Afshari.