Kemenche
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
To Kifal - Head : Same as the body
2 Otia - Pegs (Ears): Same as the body
3 Goula - Neck : Same as the body
4 Spaler - Fingerboard (Slabbering bib) : Same as the body
5 Kapak - Soundboard
6 Rothounia - Soundholes (Nostrals)
7 Gaidaron - Bridge (Rider): Made from Pine
8 Palikar - Stringholder (Stalward young man)
9 Soma - Body : made of Plum, Mulberry, Walnut Jarha
10 Stoular - Soundpost
11 Hordes - Strings
A kemenche is a kind of rebec or fiddle from the Black Sea region of Asia Minor also known as the "Kementche of Laz" in Turkey. It is the main instrument used in Pontian music. It is a bottle-shaped, 3-stringed fiddle played in the upright position. It is sometimes played by resting it on the knee when sitting, and sometimes it is held out in front. A kemenche is a bowed instrument, the bow is called Doksar.
Its small light weight design allows it to be held up for a long time and in some cases the musician would follow the first dancer around (even dance as well). This is mainly due to the not-so-loud sound of the lyra.
Contents |
[edit] Pontic kemenche
Most folk fiddles ranging from Southeastern Europe to the Indian sub-continent are played by the lateral pressure of the finger nails of the player’s hand against the strings with the instrument generally being beld facing outwards. Exceptions to this are some fiddles played by ligt pressure of the pads of the fingers upon the strings as is also done with some lyras which have the third or even the second string positioned in such a way so as not to allow the easy insertion of the finger between the strings and the spike fiddles, and there are those lyras whose strings are depressed onto the neck of the instrument by the player’s finger pads in the way violin strings are pressed such as an unusual type of Dodecanesian lyra with four strings, the large Cappadocian kemanes, and the kemenche. It may be that the old dancing master’s kit or pochette fiddle one form of which outwardly resembles the Pontic lyra, was adapted and developed later in isolation in Pontos led to the present form of kemenche. On the other hand, the kemenche may be result of the natural development of an instrument which had, at once time, an elongated water gourd for its body. Compare the from south Afghina with the kemenche/Pontic lyra.
The center of lyra playing activity seems to have been the district of Trabzon and the contiguous areas of the districts to the west and east of it as well as to the south, Giresun, Rize, and Gümüşhane whose main town was Arghyrόpolis. As one moves west past Tirebolu towards Kerasounta/Giresun, the number of lyra players begins to decrease and the lute as well as the violin (keman) and tambourine (tef) begin playing a more important rple in Pontic music. Further west into the districts of the Kotyora/Ordu and before reaching the town of Samsun the lyra has virtually disappeared so that Bafra, whose inhabitants were Turkish speaking Pontics, one finds the violin (kemane), the clarinet(gırnata), lute (Ud), and bass drum (davul) as the main musical instruments, Sinope/Sinop and its environs is not usually considered in recent tradition.
Moving east of Trabzon, the picture is much the same. After Rize, the kemenche being facing competition from the bagpipes (Pontic dankiyo/tulum)).
[edit] Tuning
The lyra usually has three strings which have several tunings. Common tunings include: a-a-d, e-a-d, and many others in 4ths (the strings are of 2 octaves ... La, Mi, Ci). Since the instrument was often played alone, the tuning was often done according to the preference of the musician and his voice's range.
The musicians usually play two or all three strings at the same time, utilizing the open string(s) as a sort of drone to the melody. Sometimes they play the melody on two strings at once, giving a primitive harmony in fourths. They tend to play with many trills and embellishments, and with the unusual harmonies. Old strings were made from dried entrails but now metal strings are used (guitar and violin)
[edit] Lyra
The term lyra seems to correspond to the name given, during the Byzantine era, to the same instrument which is common today, in all its variations, throughout a vast area of the Mediterranean and the Balkans. The lyra is very similar to that made and played in Crete, except that in Crete, instrument-making has been influenced by that of the violin. The "primitive" lyra of Karpathos, and specifically that of Olympos, is made from a single block of wood, sculpted into a pear-shaped body. The slightly rounded body of lyra is prolonged by a neck ending on the top in a block which is also pear-shaped or spherical. In that, are set the pegs facing and extending forward.
Currently, numerous models tend to integrate, for decorative reasons, the shape of the scroll, the finger board and other morphology of some secondary characteristics of the violin. However, one can still see that the lyra played in Olymbos maintains the "primitive" lyra design, playing, and sound characteristics. This version preserves the proportions of the box and a type of bow-making which give it a sound quite distinct from that of the Cretan lyra. From the organologic point of view, it is in fact an instrument belonging to the family of bowed lutes (like the rebab from the Middle east), but the designation lyra may constitute a terminological survival relating to the performing method of an ancient Greek instrument. An interesting detail concerns the playing technique: The strings are never pressed from above with the flesh of the finger such as in the violin but touched by the nails laterally.
The lyra is played held in vertical position with the base set on the left knee. The short bow, whose horsetail hair is somewhat slack, is covered with small bells which provide an additional rhythmic interest, particularly if the instrument is played alone. And that is the reason why bells were installed on the bow. The laouto accompanying in Karpathos didn’t take place until the beginning of the century. Up to that time, lyra played alone or along with the tsambouna during the dancing portions of an event, therefore the lyra player provided some additional means of rhythm by adding those bells on the bow.
There are three strings which are tuned to the notes LA-RE-SOL (or A3-D3-G3), but the tuning is variable and generally higher. The central chord, serves mostly as a drone but not in all cases. The first is touched to produce the highest five notes, and the third is played empty, so as to complete the basic hexachord. Thus, along with the tsambouna(Gaida), it shares a certain conceptual analogy, but in its case, it is possible to distinguish between three modal scales which alternate in accordance with different blocks of melodic phases. It suffices to note that with the lyra, the "neutral" third of the tsambouna subdivides into two distinct thirds (minor and major), and that, if the first two scales can be used in a concomitant way with the tsambouna, the last, which allows for the augmentation of the fourth degree excludes this possibility.
The performance of the dance Sousta, which is more complex, also includes the inversion of roles between strings in the playing of the drone and melodic line, as well as the addition of a melodic seventh degree of the scale, thus making it impossible to perform on the tsambouna
[edit] Kabak Kemane (Gourd violin)
Kabak Kemane is a bowed Turkish folk instrument. Shows variation according to regions and its form. It is known that instruments known as Kabak, Kemane, Iklıg, Rabab, Hegit at Hatay province, Rubaba in Southeastern Turkey, Kamancha in Azerbaijan and Gicak, Giccek or Gijek,Ghaychak among the central Asian Turks all come from the same origin.
Its body or the tekne part is generally made from vegetable marrow but wooden ones are also common. The sap is from hard woods. There is a thin wooden or metal rod underneath the body which is placed on the knee and enables the instrument to move to the left and right. The bow is made by tying horse hair on two ends of a stick. Previously strings made from gut called Kiriş were used which were replaced by metal ones at the present.
Kabak kemane is an instrument without pitches and produces all types of chromatic sounds easily. Its sound sis suitable for long plays and can be used for legato, Staccato and Pizzicato paces.
[edit] Classical Kemenche
The kemençe of Turkish classical music is a small instrument, from 40-41 cm in length, and 14-15 cm wide. Its body, reminiscent of half a pear, ıts ellptical pegbox (‘kafa’ or head), and its neck (‘boyun’) are carved and shaped from a single piece of wood. On its face are two large (4x3 cm) D-shaped soundholes, with the rounded sides facing out. The holes are approximately 25 mm apart. The bridge is placed between these holes, one side of it resting on the face of the instrument, and the other on the sound post. On the back side of the instrument there is a ‘back channel’ (‘sırt oluğu’). This channel begins from a triangular raised area (‘mihrap’) which is an extension of the neck and extends to the middle of the head, widens in the middle, and ends in a point near the tailpiece (“kuyruk takozu”). Each of the gut or metal strings, attached to the tailpiece, passes over the bridge and is wound onto its own peg. There is no nut to equalize the vibrating lengths of the strings. The three strings are tuned to yegâh (low re), rast (sol) and neva (high re). All the strings are of gut, but the yegâh string is silver-wound. Today there are players who use synthetic raquet strings, aluminum-wound gut or synthetic silk strings, or chrome-wound steel violin strings. The pegs, which are from 14-15 cm long and rest on the chest during playing, form the points of a triangle on the head. Thus the middle string is 37-40 mm longer than the strings to either side of it. The vibrating lengths (that is, the portion between the bridge and the tuning pegs) of the short strings are from 25.5-26 cm. The sound post, which transmits the vibration of the strings to the back of the instrument -located under the neva string- is placed between the bridge and the back. A small hole 3-4 mm in diameter is bored in the back, directly below the bridge. Earlier, the head, neck and back channel were generally made of ivory, mother-of-pearl or tortoise shell inlay. Some kemençes made for the palace or mansions by great masters such as Büyük İzmitli or Baron, had backs, and even the edges of the sound holes, completely covered by mother-of-pearl, ivory or tortoiseshell inlay, or engraved and inlaid motifs.
[edit] References
- Özhan Öztürk (2005). Karadeniz (Black Sea): Ansiklopedik Sözlük (Encyclopedic Dictionary). 2 Cilt (2 Volumes). Heyamola Yayıncılık. İstanbul. ISBN 975-6121-00-9
- Petrides, Th. "Traditional Pontic dances accompanied by the Pontic lyra" (Pontic Lyra)
- Images taken from www.pontian.info "Pontian Music" (http://www.pontian.info/MUSIC/lyra.htm)
