The classical ''kemenche'' (), ('pear-shaped kemenche') or (, 'Constantinopolitan lyre') is a pear-shaped bowed instrument that derived from the medieval Greek Byzantine lyre. It was mainly used by

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

immigrants from

Asia Minor Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

and in classical Ottoman music. The instrument was also used earlier for popular music, such as early "Smyrna-Style"

Rebetiko Rebetiko (, ), plural rebetika ( ), occasionally transliterated as rembetiko or rebetico, is a term used to designate previously disparate kinds of urban Greek music which in the 1930s went through a process of musical syncretism and develope ...

and played till nowadays. It has become the main bowed instrument of

Ottoman classical music Ottoman music () or Turkish classical music (, or more recently ) is the tradition of Art music, classical music originating in the Ottoman Empire. Developed in the palace, major Ottoman cities, and Sufi lodges, it traditionally features a sol ...

since the mid 19th century.

Etymology

The name ''Kemençe'' derives from the

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

Kamancheh The kamancheh (also kamānche or kamāncha) (, , , ) is an Iranian bowed string instrument used in Persian, Azerbaijani, Armenian, Kurdish, Georgian, Turkmen, and Uzbek music with slight variations in the structure of the instrument. Th ...

, and means merely "small bow". The name ''lyra'' derives from the name of the ancient Greek

lyre The lyre () (from Greek λύρα and Latin ''lyra)'' is a string instrument, stringed musical instrument that is classified by Hornbostel–Sachs as a member of the History of lute-family instruments, lute family of instruments. In organology, a ...

and was used in medieval times, see

Byzantine lyra The Byzantine lyra or lira () was a medieval bowed string musical instrument in the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire. In its popular form, the lyra was a pear-shaped instrument with three to five strings, held upright and played by stopping ...

Playing

It is played in the downright position, by resting it between both knees or on one knee when sitting. It is always played "braccio", that is, with the tuning head uppermost. The kemenche bow is called the yay () and the ''doksar'' (), the Turkish and Greek terms for bow respectively. The strings are stopped by touching them by the side with the nails, like for many folk fiddles from Southeastern Europe to the Indian sub-continent, including the Indian

sarangi The sārangī is a bowed, short-necked three-stringed instrument played in traditional music from South Asia – Punjabi folk music, Rajasthani folk music, Sindhi folk music, Haryanvi folk music, Braj folk music, and Boro folk music (the ...

Construction

Its pear-shaped body, elliptical pegbox and neck are fashioned from a single piece of wood. Its sound-board has two D-shaped soundholes of some 4x3 cm, approximately 25 mm apart, the rounded side facing outwards. The bridge is placed between, one side resting on the face of the instrument and the other on the sound post. A small hole 3–4 mm in diameter is bored in the back, directly below the bridge, and a 'back channel' ('sırt oluğu') begins from a triangular raised area ('mihrap') which is an extension of the neck, widens in the middle, and ends in a point near the tailpiece ("kuyruk takozu") to which the gut or metal strings are attached. There is no nut to equalize the vibrating lengths of the strings. The pegs, which are 14–15 cm long, form a triangle on the head, the middle string being 37–40 mm longer than the strings to either side of it. The vibrating lengths of the short strings are 25.5–26 cm. All the strings are of gut but the yegâh string is silver-wound. Today players may use synthetic racquet strings, aluminium-wound gut, synthetic silk or chromed steel violin strings. Formerly the head, neck and back channel might be inlaid with ivory, mother-of-pearl or tortoise shell. Some kemençes made for the palace or mansions by great makers such as Büyük İzmitli or Baron had their backs and even the edges of the sound holes completely covered with such inlays with engraved and inlaid motifs.

Related instruments

The

(Latin: ''lira'') was a pear-shaped bowed string instrument. The

geographer

Ibn Khurradadhbih Abu'l-Qasim Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah ibn Khordadbeh (; 820/825–913), commonly known as Ibn Khordadbeh (also spelled Ibn Khurradadhbih; ), was a high-ranking bureaucrat and geographer of Persian descent in the Abbasid Caliphate. He is the aut ...

(d. 911) was the first to describe the Byzantine lyra as a typical Byzantine instrument (Margaret J. Kartomi, 1990). Variations of the instrument (sharing the same form and method of playing) exist through a vast area of the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

and the

Balkans The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...

. Examples are the Bulgarian Gadulka, the

Calabrian Lira The Calabrian lira ({{langx, it, lira Calabrese) is a traditional musical instrument characteristic of some areas of Calabria, a region in southern Italy. Characteristics The lira of Calabria is a bowed string instrument with three strings ...

in Italy, the

lyra , from ; pronounced: ) is a small constellation. It is one of the 48 listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and is one of the modern 88 constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union. Lyra was often represented on star ...

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

and the

Dodecanese The Dodecanese (, ; , ''Dodekánisa'' , ) are a group of 15 larger and 150 smaller Greek islands in the southeastern Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean, off the coast of Anatolia, of which 26 are inhabited. This island group generally define ...

, the

Lijerica The lijerica () is a musical instrument from the Croatian region of Dalmatia and Croat parts of eastern Herzegovina. It is a pear-shaped, three-stringed instrument which is played with a bow. It is played to accompany the traditional linđo dan ...

of the Croatian Adriatic.

Notable kemençe and lyra virtuosi

* Fahire Fersan (1900–1997) * Tamburi Cemil Bey (1873–1916) * Derya Türkan * Sokratis Sinopoulos * Labros Leontaridis * İhsan Özgen * Cüneyd Orhon * Ruşen Ferit Kam

References

Bibliography

* Margaret J. Kartomi: On Concepts and Classifications of Musical Instruments. Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology, University of Chicago Press, 1990. * The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments: Londra, 1984. * M. Nazmi Özalp: Türk Sanat Mûsikîsi Sazlarından Kemençe, Ankara, tarihsiz (1985'ten önce). * Laurence Picken: Folk Musical Instruments of Turkey, Londra, 1975. * Rauf Yekta: Türk Musikisi (çev: Orhan Nasuhioğlu), İstanbul, 1986.

External links

Kemençe

Video

Classical kemençe video
{{DEFAULTSORT:Classical kemence Necked bowl lutes Bowed instruments Greek musical instruments Turkish musical instruments Instruments of Ottoman classical music Instruments of Turkish makam music