The classical ''kemenche'' ( tr, Klasik kemençe), ('pear-shaped kemenche') or ( el, πολίτικη λύρα, '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: Greece 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 ...

immigrants from

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

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

Rebetiko Rebetiko ( el, ρεμπέτικο, ), plural rebetika ( ), occasionally transliterated as rembetiko or rebetico, is a term used today to designate originally disparate kinds of urban Greek music which have come to be grouped together since the s ...

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

Ottoman classical music Ottoman music ( tr, Osmanlı müziği) or Turkish classical music ( tr, Türk sanat müziği) is the tradition of classical music originating in the Ottoman Empire. Developed in the palace, major Ottoman cities, and Sufi lodges, it traditionally ...

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) ( fa, کمانچه, az, kamança, hy, Քամանչա, ku, کەمانچە ,kemançe) is an Iranian bowed string instrument used in Persian, Azerbaijani, Armenian, Kurdish, Georgian, Turkmen, and ...

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

lyre The lyre () is a stringed musical instrument that is classified by Hornbostel–Sachs as a member of the lute-family of instruments. In organology, a lyre is considered a yoke lute, since it is a lute in which the strings are attached to a yoke ...

and was used in medieval times, see

Byzantine lyra The Byzantine lyra or lira ( gr, λύρα) 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 ...

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 ( tr, Yay) and the ''doksar'' ( el, δοξάρι), the Greek term for bow. 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 string instrument played in traditional music from South Asia – Punjabi folk music, Rajasthani folk music, and Boro folk music (there known as the ''serja'') – in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. It is ...

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 ( ar, ابوالقاسم عبیدالله ابن خرداذبه; 820/825–913), commonly known as Ibn Khordadbeh (also spelled Ibn Khurradadhbih; ), was a high-ranking Persian bureaucrat and ...

(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 north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

and the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as 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 throughout the who ...

. Examples are the Bulgarian

Gadulka The gadulka ( bg, гъдулка) is a traditional Bulgarian bowed string instrument. Alternate spellings are "gǎdulka", "gudulka" and "g'dulka". Its name comes from a root meaning "to make noise, hum or buzz". The gadulka is an integral part o ...

, the

Calabrian Lira {{Infobox Instrument , name=Calabrian lira , names=Lira Calabrese, Lira , image=IMAG1951.jpg , background=string , classification=Necked bowl lutes , hornbostel_sachs=321.321-71 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Necked bowl lute sounded by a bow , range= , ...

in Italy, the

lyra Lyra (; Latin for lyre, from Greek ''λύρα'') 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 ...

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...

and the

Dodecanese The Dodecanese (, ; el, Δωδεκάνησα, ''Dodekánisa'' , ) are a group of 15 larger plus 150 smaller Greek islands in the southeastern Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean, off the coast of Turkey's Anatolia, of which 26 are inhabited. ...

, the

Lijerica ) * Gudok (''russian: гудок'' '' uk, гудок'') * Kemenche * Rabel (instrument) * Rabāb (Arabic الرباب) * Rebec * violin The lijerica () is a musical instrument from the Croatian region of Dalmatia and Croatian parts of eastern Her ...

of the Croatian Adriatic.

Notable kemençe and lyra virtuosi

* Fahire Fersan (1900–1997) *

Tamburi Cemil Bey Tanburi Cemil Bey (1873, Istanbul – July 28, 1916, Istanbul) was an Ottoman tanbur, Turkish tambur, yaylı tambur, kemençe, and lavta virtuoso and composer, who has greatly contributed to the ''taksim'' (improvisation on a makam/maqam) g ...

(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