Kaval

A 1919 Kaval. Bone ferrules decorated on the lathe with turned grooves and bird's eye decorations are applied with a preshaped cutting tool.

The kaval (pronounced [kaˈval]) is a chromatic end-blown flute traditionally played throughout Azerbaijan, Turkey, Bulgaria, Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, southern Serbia (кавал), northern Greece (Kavali or Dzhamara), southern Romania (Caval), and Armenia (Բլուլ or Blul).

The kaval is primarily associated with mountain shepherds throughout the Balkans and Anatolia and in the book "KAVAL: Traditional Folk Melodies for Balkan & Anatolian Folk Flute", author Pat MacSwyney suggest that the kaval spread with the Yoruks from the Taurus mountains of southern Turkey into the southern Balkans of souteast Europe.

Unlike the transverse flute, the kaval is fully open at both ends, and is played by blowing on the sharpened edge of one end. The kaval has 8 playing holes (7 in front and 1 in the back for the thumb) and usually 4 "devil's holes" down near the bottom of the kaval. The devil's holes are supposed to improve tone and intonation. There is a Bulgarian folk tale in which the devil tries to out-play a shepherd in a musical duel. While the shepherd is sleeping, the devil drilled holes in the shepherd's kaval but instead of ruining the kaval, this only served to enhance the shepherd's kaval playing thus thwarting the devil. While typically made of wood (cornel cherry, apricot, plum, boxwood, mountain ash, etc.), kavals are also made from water buffalo horn, Arundo donax Linnaeus 1753 (Persian Reed), metal and plastic.

When played, the kaval is held with both hands at an angle of approximately 45° from the body, with the four fingers of the one hand covering the lower holes; the upper three holes and the thumbhole are covered with the other hand. The mouth covers ~3/4 of the end. Change of the breath air pressure also changes the pitch.

The kaval is usually mounted on a wooden holder, which protects it from warping and helps keep the interior walls oiled.

According to the key, the kaval can be in the high register (C, C#), middle (D, H) or low (A, B).

The kaval plays two octaves and a fifth, in the chromatic scale. Its sound is warm, melancholic and pleasant.

While in the past it was almost entirely a shepherd's instrument, today it is widely used in folk songs and dances as part of ensembles or solo.

The kaval is sometimes used in pairs. The first leads and the second drones, with a kaval in the same key, usually a lower one, like C, C#, D, although other keys are also in use.

Wooden rim-blown flute of south-eastern Europe and Turkey, similar to the Ney of the Arab world. Kaval may once have referred to various Balkan duct and rim-blown flutes, accounting for the present day diversity of the term’s usage. It is generally made of boxwood, with seven finger-holes and one thumb-hole, and is primarily a pastoral instrument.

The Bulgarian kaval, once made of a single piece of wood, is now constructed of three separate sections (of cornel, plum or boxwood), with a total length of 60 to 90 cm. Bone rings cover the joints, to prevent the wood from cracking. Metal decoration is also found. The finger-holes are located in the central section, while the lower (shorter) section has four additional holes called dushnitsi or dyavolski dupki (‘devil’s holes’); these are not covered in performance. The kaval can be made in various tunings, D being the most common. Its range is almost three octaves, mostly chromatic.

In the south-west Rhodope mountains, two kavals in the same tuning (called chifte kavali) are played together, one performing the melody, the other a drone. This type of kaval is made from one piece of wood. A similar use of the kaval is also known in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Kosovo, where one kaval of the pair is ‘male’, the other ‘female’. The Albanian kavall is better known as the fyell.

In Turkey the term ‘kaval’ is used generally to refer to all shepherd’s pipes and more particularly (though not invariably) to ductless flutes. The presence or absence of a duct is sometimes specified by the addition of a qualification: dilsiz kaval (‘kaval without a tongue’), dilli kaval (‘kaval with a tongue’). Other qualifications may be added to describe materials, size or constructional features: kamiş kavalı (‘reed kaval’), çam kavalı (‘pine kaval’), madenı kavalı (‘metal kaval’); cura kavalı (‘small kaval’), çoban kavalı (‘shepherd’s kaval’, i.e. long kaval); üç parçalı kavalı (‘kaval with three parts’). The kaval can be made of wood, cane, bone or metal (usually brass) and has five or more finger-holes, one thumb-hole and sometimes additional unfingered holes like the Bulgarian instrument.

In Thrace and some of the Aegean islands the term ‘kavali’ refers to an end-blown flute of the floyera family. It has seven finger-holes and sometimes an additional thumb-hole. In northern Greece the term kavali is also used to denote the souravli. In Epirus the end-blown kaval is known as dzhamara.

The Romanian caval is a large duct flute. It has five finger-holes arranged in groups of two and three, counting from the distal end. Also from Romania, the caval dobrogean (‘Dobrujan caval’) or caval bulgăresc is a similar instrument to the Bulgarian kaval.

Contents

Bulgarian Kaval:

The kaval that is most common in Bulgaria is the one in middle (D) register. The kaval in lower (C) register is also not uncommon for this country. What is characteristic for the Bulgarian style of kaval performance is the incredible diversity of sound shades and techniques. According to the pitch there are 4 different registers that can be achieved with the Bulgarian kaval. What controls which register the performer works in is mostly the air flow and to some extent the position of the mouth and the lips on the end of the kaval. A very characteristic sound of kaval is achieved in the lowest register. It could sound very mild and gentle if blown lightly while by changing the air stream a deeper (flageolet like) sound is achieved. This sound is so outstanding that some consider it another register that they call - kaba. It is also very interesting to notice that the technique of circular breathing is successfully utilized while playing the kaval. This technique lets the performer play without interrupting the air flow, while taking a breath through the nose. In the past it has been considered an extraordinary skill while nowadays it is used by more and more young performers. Some of the most famous Bulgarian kaval performers and teachers are:

Macedonian Kaval:

The results of research show that there are five types of kavals in Macedonia, according to their length and register:

d 1;

The smallest and the no-name kavals are the most used in the Macedonian music tradition.

Tone Scale and Tone Characteristics:

The ambitus of the kaval tone scale is a sixth. Thanks to the special blowing technique the ambitus could reach an eight or even twelfth. That is how the other tones are produced too.

The kavals are played in pair. So they are divided into categories of male (mashki) and female (zhenski), or left and right. While one player plays the main melody, the other one accompanies the first one with one tone named "bourdon" or iso (either the basic tone or its fifth). The instrument is held obliquely while the player's lips gently touch the half of the sharp edge in the upper part of the kaval-pipe. Both players are obliquely set so that they can look at each other while playing.

Moldvan Kaval

Traditional Hungarian instrument with five playing holes, played in the Moldvan Chango music. It has a proper whistle -unlike the Bulgarian kaval- and it is half way covered with the lower lip. The parts are joint with a copper ring and it is tunable.

Macedonian Šupelka

The šupelka is similar to the kaval (open on both ends), except that it is shorter (240-350 mm). It can be made of either walnut, barberry, ash wood, maple or other wood.

The šupelka plays the chromatic scale (two octaves), except the first note of the lower octave. In the low register, its sound is soft and pleasant, while in the upper register it is sharp and shrill.

Balkan Duduk

A Bulgarian,Macedonian folk wind musical instrument. This is a straight flute with whistle orifice. Duduk is easiest to play on in technical and musical respects. It is a pipe made of wood with six holes. Its structure is the same like that of the flute and its tonal capacity includes tow octaves. Its produced from plum-tree, cherry, pear-tree, maples, sycamore, or corneal tree.

The duduk's nozzle has a bill form. It's different from the little kaval and the tsafara with its construction and way of reproducing the sound. It's used mostly in west Bulgaria (rarely in other regions) usually in two extents - big and small duduk. It's made from ash-tree, cornet tree, sycamore or cherrytree. A kind of blocked-end flute, which in some part of Macedonia is also called kaval or kavalce. Made of barberry, maple or other wood, it comes in two sizes: 700-780mm and 240-400mm (duduce). The blocked end is flat. Playing the duduk is fairly straightforward and easy, thus it is widely used throughout Macedonia. Its sound is clean and pleasant. Plays two octaves, with diatonic and chromatic tones. When played, it is held vertically in front of the body.

Çığırtma

Çığırtma is a Turkish folk instrument of the wind type. Çığıtrma is made from the wing bone of the eagle. It is known to be used mostly by the shepherds and is an almost forgotten instrument today. It has a total of seven melody holes with six on the top and one underneath It is about 15-30 cm. long.

Svirka (Tsarafa, Svorche, a little kaval)

The shepherd's gaida called tsafara too, is a one-tubed, wooden, cylindrical tube long from 25 to 30 cm with six holes for fingers on it. The technical and the tone possibilities of the shepherd's gaida are limited. The nozzle (naustnik) and the way of blowing are the same with the way of playing on a kaval.This is a wind instrument with seven finger- holes, six on the upper side and one below. In the front part there is a bone orifice and the sound formation is the same as with the Kaval. The capacity of this instrument includes tow octaves. It is produced from sycamore, wild cherry, wild pear-tree, or corneal tree. Its total length is from 250 to 500 mm. It is produced in all tonalities.

Dvoyanka

A double flute made of a single piece of wood, with six sound holes on one side. It is most frequently made of ash-wood, plum tree, pear tree, cornel or boxwood. The tune is played on the one pipe, which is accompanied by a flat tone on the other pipe. This kind of playing is similar by structure to music played on the kaval. It is also a favorite instrument of shepherds. Line-dances and lively melodies are frequently played on the dvoyanka. It is a known fact that shepherds directed their flocks by their playing, since sheep remember and recognize a melody in time. A shepherd could “teach” his flock to start from the pen towards the pasture at one melody, and to return to the village in the evening at another. The dvoyanka is similar to the dvojnica, an instrument typical for the regions of Central and Western Serbia and Serbian regions across the river Drina, which is made and played somewhat differently. It is a double pipe (gaida), which has a form of a rectangular prism or which is more rarely is composed form two parallel cylindrical tubes. It has a length from 30 to 40 cm. All of the two tubes begin with a bill formed nozzle in which the tone is produced with an ordinary blowing. When playing on a duduk the two tubes are temporary blown. Dvoianka is a wind musical instrument in the form of a rectangular prism with tow parallel channels. The one channel sets the tone, and the other on which the six holes are situated reproduces the melody. This double flute is also called "the little bagpipe". Its made from plum tree, cherry, pear tree, maple, ash, beech, oak or corneal tree. The music which play double flute has a very peculiar colouring.

Related Instruments: Similar instruments are found in Albania (cyla-diare), Macedonia (piska), Greece (disavli), Romania (fluierul gemanat), and Serbia (dvojnice) in one form or another. One difference, however, is that where the Bulgarian dvoyanka is rectangular in shape, where the two tubes are bored straight through the block of wood and the material in between remains intact, in Albania and Serbia the wood between the tubes may be cut away so that they resemble two separate "legs" (the instrument then resembles an upside-down Y; see other instruments in this case).

Salamuri

Salamuri recorder instrument type. Sometimes two are played in harmony by one in each hand by one player. Salamuri is widespread wind musical instrument in all regions of Georgia (especially in Kartli, Kakheti, Meskheti, Tusheti, Pshavi, and Imereti). Relics obtained from archeological excavations prove the existence of Salamuri in Georgia from the ancient times. Among the relics found by an archeological expedition in Mtskheta (Eastern part of Georgia), one thing very interesting for Georgian musical culture attracts out attention. This is a bone pipe, found in 1938 at the northern section of Samtavro’s sepulchre. This “Salamuri” is made of swan(shin) bone. It is unreeded and has only three small keys on the front side. The surface of the instrument is well polished. Its length is 19,9cm. The size of blowing part is 1,1cm and the bottom’s part is 1,8cm. It has been put with 14-15 year old dead boy into the grave. Many other things were also put there: earthenware, crockery, arms, clothes, a talisman and so on. It is worthy of note that there were sheep bones, bull’s head and feet bones there as well. On account of this the guide of the expedition the academician Iv. Djavakhishvili called it “The grave of a little shepherd”. The examination of sepulchre showed that it is dated back to XII-XI century B.C. and if we take into consideration the instrument’s well developed design, it should have been widely spread in Georgia a long time before the mentioned date. Bone-pipes (Salamuris) were also found in “Uphliscikhe” (monastery) among the things contributed to the God of Beauty. In 1930 a bone salamuri (flute) was found together with other things in ancient burials of Samtavro in Mtskheta. Supposedly it dates back to the 15 th-13 th centuries B.C.

At present this Salamuri is kept in "Simon Janashia State Museum". Researchers once have tried to make sound from it and have issued only four sounds. What they considered to be sufficient for their archeological researches also have counted sufficient. It was understandable as no one expected anything greater. It is necessary to note, that the researchers did not pay adequate attention to these four sounds. This instrument has an absolutely perfected and correct tetra chord that outstrips by thousands of years Greek tetra chord formation. But this Salamuri keeps much more secrets in itself! It appeared, that it is possible to issue 10 sounds from it not by the over-blowing, but by inclining the instrument under different angles, and in this way we get seven different tetra chords that, as the final result, it represents sound system.

In Georgia, there are two kinds of Salamuri preserved till the present day: reeded and unreeded Salamuri. These two kinds of Salamuri differ in their timber, form, sound range and resonance. The unreeded Salamuri represents a pipe of approx. 380-400mm in length. It has 8 front keys and sometimes one key on the back side. The first front key is placed 13cm. apart from the head, but the other 6 front keys are separated by equal distance (3cm). It is often made from cane, apricot-tree, reed and elder. It becomes slightly narrower towards the end, to blow in comfortably. The unreeded Salamuri has a diatonic scale of one octave. By overblowing, its compass increases. The unreeded Salamuri is mainly used in parts of east Georgia (Kakheti, Kartli, Meskheti, Tusheti and Pshavi). But the reeded Salamuri represents a wooden pipe of 23-36cm. in length with a cut-off head. As usual, it has 8 front keys and one back key (between front first and second keys). The reed of Salamuri is a small tap (1,2-1,5cm) inside the pipe. Reeded Salamuri is more often made out of walnut and apricot trees. Despite the fact that the reeded Salamuri is smaller than the unreeded one, its technical abilities are considerably higher (richer sounding and larger sound range). It is more difficult to design the reeded Salamuri and requires master’s experienced hand. The salamuri has a diatonic scale of one octave. By overblowing, its compass increases. The wood material for Salamuri should be proportionally grown up, straight, carefully cut down and drilled from the beginning to the end. The hollow and surface should be well polished. Then they would cut the pipe’s head and attach the instrument’s reed to this place. On the surface, the area of reed is a bit cut off. Only from this air way the air should be emitted, that is why the blowing part (neck) is entirely closed. Then they cut 8 oval front keys along the instrument’s reed. They should be separated from each other by equal distance (2cm). The 9th key is cut out on the opposite side of the pipe (between first and the second keys). Thus, Salamuri is divided into three parts: the head or neck part, body or the key part and the ending. Each of them has its own size and a certain interrelation. The closer the first key is to the reed of the instrument the more high-pitched sound is produced. Men usually play Salamuri. Reeded Salamuri is widely spread all over Georgia. Salamuri started its existence in pastoral atmosphere. Consequently, Salamuri’s repertoire mainly consists of shepherd melodies. It was often accompanied combined with “Doli” (drum). The reeded Salamuri seems to be originated a bit later than the unreeded one and it was the widest spread folk instrument all over Georgia. That is made evident not only by the legends but also by the monuments of classical literature. According to the people’s belief, the sorrows of human being were the reason of creating Salamuri. The legend says that when the first reed grew up on the orphan’s grave, the wind blew and the reed moaned in a sad voice. Salamuri was an inseparatable close friend of a farmer that cheered him up in times of sorrow and sweetened his merriments. According to people’s belief, nothing can destroy a reed pipe; even fire cannot damage it. The parents’ faces are seen through its ashes and even the broken parts emit sweet tunes. According to some of the legends, people were presented with this instrument by God. That is why it is considered to be a divine musical instrument.

Georgian people, when creating each musical instrument tried resemble the nature’s sounds with them. For instance, Salamuri’s tunes sounds like birds’ song. According to the legends, Salamuri’s tunes cheered people up, tamed animals, makes birds sing, its sad tunes relieved human sorrows. According to one tale, Salamuri’s sad tunes could even make the grass cry.

Professional Salamuri players say that there is a difference between techniques of performance on these instruments: the reeded Salamuri is more difficult to play than the unreeded one. However, one can play any melody he/she wants on reeded Salamuri. The technical abilities of unreeded Salamuri are limited.

When designing Salamuri, masters take into account with which instrument it is going to be played. According to this, they define the octave range of the instrument. The masters can design two kinds of Salamuri: I-part and II-part (deep-voiced Salamuri is also produced).

Today this instrument has a stable place in Georgian folk ensembles. It has been traveling all over the world together with the spirited Georgian dances and has been spreading the sweet tunes of Iberian Salamuri. When covering Salamuri by our fingers while slightly blowing we get C of the first octave. We pronounce the sound “T”. When lifting one low finger completely we get the sound D and if we lift the finger partly from C we get C. If we lift a finger from D completely we get E and lifting finger partly from E we get E. Then comes F when completely lifting the finger from E and when lifting a finger partly from F we get F. The G comes, partly lifting G, then A, B, completely lifting, H- lifting partly. When covering by all the fingers and blowing strongly we get C of the second octave. The sounds of the second octave we can get by lifting the fingers and blowing stronger

Svilpa

Svilpa is a transverse flute type instrument. It is made of willow or aspen bark, or of ash or maple wood. A cylindrical pipe is made with a thin and a wide end. At times the pipe was made of several shorter pipes stacked together. The mouthpiece is may be similar to that of a flute, a skudutis or lamzdelis (see above). While playing, the left hand holds the svilpa, and the index finger of the right hand covers the open end. The sound of the svilpa is soft, the timbre is gentle. The svilpa is a solo instrument for free improvisation, song and dance melodies, and sutartines.

Khobyrakh (Shoor)

An open end-blown flute similar to that used by the Bashkirs and the Caucasians. It is a long, smooth, hollow pipe (about 70 cm long) made of an umbel (hollow stem of a big, parasol-like umbelifer) or wood, with 3 or sometimes 6 finger-holes. Nowadays, it is also made of plastic.

See also

External links

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