Lutes are
stringed musical instruments that include a body and "a neck which serves both as a handle and as a means of stretching the strings beyond the body".
The lute family includes not only ''short-necked plucked lutes'' such as the
lute
A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted.
More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...
,
oud
, image=File:oud2.jpg
, image_capt=Syrian oud made by Abdo Nahat in 1921
, background=
, classification=
* String instruments
*Necked bowl lutes
, hornbostel_sachs=321.321-6
, hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum
, ...
,
pipa
The pipa, pípá, or p'i-p'a () is a traditional Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ran ...
,
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...
,
citole
The citole was a string musical instrument, closely associated with the medieval fiddles (viol, vielle, gigue) and commonly used from 1200–1350."CITOLE, also spelled Systole, Cythole, Gytolle, &c. (probably a Fr. diminutive form of cithar ...
,
gittern
The gittern was a relatively small gut-strung, round-backed instrument that first appears in literature and pictorial representation during the 13th century in Western Europe (Iberian Peninsula, Italy, France, England). It is usually depicted pl ...
,
mandore
Mandore is a suburb Historical town located 9 km north of Jodhpur city, in the Indian state of Rajasthan.
History
Mandore is an ancient town, and was the seat of the Pratiharas of Mandavyapura, who ruled the region in the 6th century C ...
,
rubab, and
gambus and ''long-necked plucked lutes'' such as
banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...
,
tanbura,
bağlama
The ''bağlama'' or ''saz'' is a family of plucked string instruments, long-necked lutes used in Ottoman classical music, Turkish folk music, Turkish Arabesque music, Azerbaijani music, Kurdish music, Armenian music and in parts of Syria, I ...
,
bouzouki
The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...
,
veena
The ''veena'', also spelled ''vina'' ( sa, वीणा IAST: vīṇā), comprises various chordophone instruments from the Indian subcontinent. Ancient musical instruments evolved into many variations, such as lutes, zithers and arched harps ...
,
theorbo
The theorbo is a plucked string instrument of the lute family, with an extended neck and a second pegbox. Like a lute, a theorbo has a curved-back sound box (a hollow box) with a wooden top, typically with a sound hole, and a neck extending ...
,
archlute
The archlute ( es, archilaúd, it, arciliuto, german: Erzlaute) is a European plucked string instrument developed around 1600 as a compromise between the very large theorbo, the size and re-entrant tuning of which made for difficulties in the ...
,
pandura
The pandura ( grc, πανδοῦρα, ''pandoura'') or pandore, an ancient string instrument, belonged in the broad class of the lute and guitar instruments. Akkadians played similar instruments from the 3rd millennium BC. Ancient Greek artwork d ...
,
sitar
The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form ...
,
tanbur
The term ''Tanbur'' ( fa, تنبور, ) can refer to various long-necked string instruments originating in Mesopotamia, Southern or Central Asia. According to the '' New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', "terminology presents a compli ...
,
setar
A setar ( fa, سهتار, ) is a stringed instrument, a type of lute used in Persian traditional music, played solo or accompanying voice. It is a member of the tanbur family of long-necked lutes with a range of more than two and a half octav ...
, but also ''bowed instruments'' such as the
yaylı tambur,
rebab
The ''rebab'' ( ar, ربابة, ''rabāba'', variously spelled ''rebap'', ''rubob'', ''rebeb'', ''rababa'', ''rabeba'', ''robab'', ''rubab'', ''rebob'', etc) is the name of several related string instruments that independently spread via I ...
,
erhu
The ''erhu'' (; ) is a Chinese two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, which may also be called a ''Southern Fiddle'', and is sometimes known in the Western world as the ''Chinese violin'' or a ''Chinese two- ...
, and the entire family of
viol
The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitc ...
s and
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...
s.
Lutes either rose in ancient
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...
prior to 3100 BC or were brought to the area by ancient
Semitic tribes. The lutes were ''pierced lutes''; long-necked lutes with a neck made from a stick that went into a carved or turtle-shell bowl, the top covered with skin, and strings tied to the neck and instrument's bottom.
Curt Sachs
Curt Sachs (; 29 June 1881 – 5 February 1959) was a German musicologist. He was one of the founders of modern organology (the study of musical instruments). Among his contributions was the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which he created with Er ...
, a musical historian, placed the earliest lutes at about 2000 BC in his 1941 book ''The History of Musical Instruments''.
This date was based on the archaeological evidence available to him at that time. The discovery of an apparent lute on an
Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to:
* Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire
* Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language
* Akkadian literature, literature in this language
* Akkadian cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic ...
seal, now in the British Museum, may have pushed the known existence of the plucked lute back to c. 3100 BC.
The lute's existence in art was more plain between 2330–2000 BC (the 2nd Uruk period), when the art had sufficient detail to show the instrument clearly. The instrument spread among the
Hittites
The Hittites () were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-cent ...
,
Elamites,
Assyria
Assyria ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...
ns,
Mari,
Babylonians
Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c. 1 ...
and
Hurrians
The Hurrians (; cuneiform: ; transliteration: ''Ḫu-ur-ri''; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri or Hurriter) were a people of the Bronze Age Near East. They spoke a Hurrian language and lived in Anatolia, Syria and Northern Me ...
. By c. 1500 the lute had reached Egypt, through conquest, and it had reached Greece by 320 BC both through Egypt and eastern neighbors. The lute spread eastward as well; long lutes today are found everywhere from Europe to Japan and south to India.
The short lute developed in
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the fo ...
or
Northern India
North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...
in areas that had connection to Greece, China, India and the Middle East through trade and conquest. The short wood-topped lute moved east to China (as the pipa) south to India (as the Vina), and west to the Middle East, Africa and Europe as the Barbat and Oud. From these two, and from skin topped lutes known today as rubabs and plucked fiddles, instruments developed in Europe.
Europeans had access to lutes in several ways. Foreign sources came in through
Byzantium
Byzantium () or Byzantion ( grc, Βυζάντιον) was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name ''Byzantion'' and its Latinization ''Byzantium' ...
,
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
and
Andalusia
Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The ...
. In the non-literate period, they apparently experimented with locally made instruments which were referenced in documents from the
Carolingian Renaissance
The Carolingian Renaissance was the first of three medieval renaissances, a period of cultural activity in the Carolingian Empire. It occurred from the late 8th century to the 9th century, taking inspiration from the Christian Roman Empire of t ...
. This was overwhelmed by incoming instruments and Europeans developed whole families of lutes, both plucked and bowed.
Lute-family instruments penetrated from East and Southeast Asia through Central Asia and the Middle East, through North Africa, Europe and Scandinavia. These days, lute-family instruments are used worldwide.
Precursors to lutes: A theory
Theory
In theory, families of musical instruments descend from the musical bow.
Henri Breuil surveyed the
Trois Frères
''Trois'' is a 2000 erotic thriller film directed by Rob Hardy and produced by William Packer. It stars Gary Dourdan, Kenya Moore and Gretchen Palmer. The film was given a limited theatrical release and was one of the years highest grossing Afri ...
caves in France and made an engraving that attempted to reproduce a c. 13,000 BC cave painting into a black-and-white
lithograph
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
engraving.
His engraving showed a mysterious figure, a "man camouflaged to resemble a
bison
Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised.
Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North A ...
", in the midst of a mass of herd-animals, "herding the beasts and playing the musical bow".
The
artwork
A work of art, artwork, art piece, piece of art or art object is an artistic creation of aesthetics, aesthetic value. Except for "work of art", which may be used of any work regarded as art in its widest sense, including works from ...
is confused, and those who are trying to reproduce the art in color have had to work to bring out legible images.
One interpretation of the "magician-hunter" image considers his hunting-bow to be a
musical bow
The musical bow (bowstring or string bow, a subset of bar zithers) is a simple string instrument used by a number of South African peoples, which is also found in the Americas via slave trade. It consists of a flexible, usually wooden, stick 1 ...
, used as a single-stringed musical instrument.
Whether the bow in the cave illustration is a musical instrument or the hunting tool in a
paleolithic
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός '' palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...
hunt, musicologists have considered the idea that the bow could be a possible relative or ancestor to
chordophones
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner.
Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the st ...
, the lutes lyres, harps and
zither
Zithers (; , from the Greek word ''cithara'') are a class of stringed instruments. Historically, the name has been applied to any instrument of the psaltery family, or to an instrument consisting of many strings stretched across a thin, flat ...
families.
Curt Sachs said that there was good reason not to consider ''hunters' bows'' as likely musical bows.
One reason was that the oldest known musical bows were 10 feet long, useless for hunting, and that "musical bows were not associated with hunters' beliefs and ceremonies".
Sachs considered the musical bows important, however. He pointed out that the name for the Greek lute, ''
pandûra'' was likely derived from ''pan-tur'', a
Sumerian word meaning "small bow".
He considered this evidence in support of the theory that the musical bow was ancestral to the pierced lute.
The bows used for music required a
resonator
A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior. That is, it naturally oscillates with greater amplitude at some frequencies, called resonant frequencies, than at other frequencies. The oscillations in a resonator ...
, a hollowed object like a bowl, a gourd or a musician's mouth, in order to produce audible sound.
Although the musical bow could be manipulated to produce more than one tone instruments were developed from it that used one note per string.
Since each string played a single note, adding strings added new notes for instrument families such as
bow harps
Bow often refers to:
* Bow and arrow, a weapon
* Bowing, bending the upper body as a social gesture
* An ornamental knot made of ribbon
Bow may also refer to:
* Bow (watercraft), the foremost part of a ship or boat
* Bow (position), the rower s ...
,
harps
The High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) is a high-precision echelle planet-finding spectrograph installed in 2002 on the ESO's 3.6m telescope at La Silla Observatory in Chile. The first light was achieved in February 2003. ...
and
lyres.
In turn, this led to being able to play
dyads and
chords
Chord may refer to:
* Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously
** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning
* Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve
* Chord ( ...
.
Another innovation occurred when the bow harp was straightened out and a
bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually someth ...
used to lift the strings off the
stick-neck, creating the lute.
Theory disputed
This picture of musical bow to harp bow is theory and has been contested. In 1965 Franz Jahnel wrote his criticism stating that the early ancestors of plucked instruments are not currently known.
He felt that the harp bow was a long cry from the sophistication of the 4th-millennium BC civilization that took the primitive technology and created "technically and artistically well-made harps, lyres, citharas and lutes".
Long-necked lutes
The most ancient lutes had long necks. These survived into the modern era as the
tanbur
The term ''Tanbur'' ( fa, تنبور, ) can refer to various long-necked string instruments originating in Mesopotamia, Southern or Central Asia. According to the '' New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', "terminology presents a compli ...
, which Sachs said "faithfully preserved the outer appearance of the ancient lutes of
Babylonia
Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c ...
and Egypt".
Sachs, one of those who created the widespread system of musical instrument classification idea today, categorized long lutes with a "pierced lute" and "long neck lute".
The ''pierced lute ''had a neck made from a stick that pierced the body (as in the
ancient Egyptian long-neck lutes, and the modern African
gunbrī).
The ''long lute'' had an attached neck, and included the
sitar
The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form ...
,
tanbur
The term ''Tanbur'' ( fa, تنبور, ) can refer to various long-necked string instruments originating in Mesopotamia, Southern or Central Asia. According to the '' New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', "terminology presents a compli ...
and
tar
Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. "a dark brown or black bi ...
(
dutār 2 strings,
setār 3 strings, čatār 4 strings, pančtār 5 strings).
Musicologist
Richard Dumbrill today uses the word lute more categorically to discuss instruments that existed millennia before the term "lute" was coined.
Dumbrill documented more than 3000 years of
iconographic evidence for the lutes in Mesopotamia, in his book ''The Archaeomusicology of the Ancient Near East''. According to Dumbrill, the lute family included instruments in
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...
prior to 3000 BC.
He points to a
cylinder seal
A cylinder seal is a small round cylinder, typically about one inch (2 to 3 cm) in length, engraved with written characters or figurative scenes or both, used in ancient times to roll an impression onto a two-dimensional surface, generally ...
as evidence; dating from c. 3100 BC or earlier (now in the possession of the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
) the -seal depicts on one side what is thought to be a woman playing a stick "lute".
[ Culture period: Late Uruk, Date: c. 3100 BC, Museum number: 41632.] Like Sachs, Dumbrill saw length as distinguishing lutes, dividing the Mesopotamian lutes into a long variety and a short. His book does not cover the shorter instruments that became the European lute, beyond showing examples of shorter lutes in the ancient world. He focuses on the longer lutes of Mesopotamia, various types of necked chordophones that developed throughout ancient world:
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 ...
,
Egyptian (in the
Middle Kingdom),
Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
(Elamite and others),
Hittite,
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
* Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...
,
Bulgar
Bulgar may refer to:
*Bulgars, extinct people of Central Asia
*Bulgar language, the extinct language of the Bulgars
* Oghur languages
Bulgar may also refer to:
*Bolghar, the capital city of Volga Bulgaria
*Bulgur, a wheat product
* Bulgar, an Ash ...
,
Turkic,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
n,
Chinese,
Armenian/
Cilician
Cilicia (); el, Κιλικία, ''Kilikía''; Middle Persian: ''klkyʾy'' (''Klikiyā''); Parthian: ''kylkyʾ'' (''Kilikiyā''); tr, Kilikya). is a geographical region in southern Anatolia in Turkey, extending inland from the northeastern coa ...
cultures. He names among the long lutes, the
pandura
The pandura ( grc, πανδοῦρα, ''pandoura'') or pandore, an ancient string instrument, belonged in the broad class of the lute and guitar instruments. Akkadians played similar instruments from the 3rd millennium BC. Ancient Greek artwork d ...
and the
tanbur
The term ''Tanbur'' ( fa, تنبور, ) can refer to various long-necked string instruments originating in Mesopotamia, Southern or Central Asia. According to the '' New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', "terminology presents a compli ...
Experts who study the people from ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia region argue as to which people the long-necked people originated. Candidates include "East Semites" of
Akkad, peoples in
Elam
Elam (; Linear Elamite: ''hatamti''; Cuneiform Elamite: ; Sumerian: ; Akkadian: ; he, עֵילָם ''ʿēlām''; peo, 𐎢𐎺𐎩 ''hūja'') was an ancient civilization centered in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran, stretc ...
and "West Semites".
The instrument was probably distributed by the
Hittites
The Hittites () were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-cent ...
,
Hurrians
The Hurrians (; cuneiform: ; transliteration: ''Ḫu-ur-ri''; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri or Hurriter) were a people of the Bronze Age Near East. They spoke a Hurrian language and lived in Anatolia, Syria and Northern Me ...
and
Kassites
The Kassites () were people of the ancient Near East, who controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire c. 1531 BC and until c. 1155 BC (short chronology).
They gained control of Babylonia after the Hittite sack of Babylo ...
, rather than invented by them.
Examples from 2334 to 2000 BC (Uruk period 3) exist from
Ischali,
Eshnunna
Eshnunna (modern Tell Asmar in Diyala Governorate, Iraq) was an ancient Sumerian (and later Akkadian) city and city-state in central Mesopotamia 12.6 miles northwest of Tell Agrab and 15 miles northwest of Tell Ishchali. Although situated in the ...
(
Tell Asmar
Eshnunna (modern Tell Asmar in Diyala Governorate, Iraq) was an ancient Sumerian (and later Akkadian) city and city-state in central Mesopotamia 12.6 miles northwest of Tell Agrab and 15 miles northwest of Tell Ishchali. Although situated in th ...
),
Kish
Kish may refer to:
Geography
* Gishi, Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan, a village also called Kish
* Kiş, Shaki, Azerbaijan, a village and municipality also spelled Kish
* Kish Island, an Iranian island and a city in the Persian Gulf
* Kish, Iran, ...
, Mesopotamia, Iran, Iraq,
Tello,
Susa
Susa ( ; Middle elx, 𒀸𒋗𒊺𒂗, translit=Šušen; Middle and Neo- elx, 𒋢𒋢𒌦, translit=Šušun; Neo- Elamite and Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼𒀭, translit=Šušán; Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼, translit=Šušá; fa, شوش ...
.
Later examples exist from 2000 to 1500 BC (Uruk period 4). Examples were found in
Khafage, Mari,
Isin
Isin (, modern Arabic: Ishan al-Bahriyat) is an archaeological site in Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate, Iraq. Excavations have shown that it was an important city-state in the past.
History of archaeological research
Ishan al-Bahriyat was visited ...
or
Larsa
Larsa ( Sumerian logogram: UD.UNUGKI, read ''Larsamki''), also referred to as Larancha/Laranchon (Gk. Λαραγχων) by Berossos and connected with the biblical Ellasar, was an important city-state of ancient Sumer, the center of the cult ...
, Iran, Babylon,
Tell Mamabaqat Syria,
Susa
Susa ( ; Middle elx, 𒀸𒋗𒊺𒂗, translit=Šušen; Middle and Neo- elx, 𒋢𒋢𒌦, translit=Šušun; Neo- Elamite and Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼𒀭, translit=Šušán; Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼, translit=Šušá; fa, شوش ...
, and
Alaca Huyuk.
In period 5 from 1500 to 1000 BC, the Egyptians acquired the lute and their art also contributed to our knowledge, as well as actual lutes found in graves.
Prehistoric roots in Sumer, westward to Egypt
Sumerians, Babylonians,
Kassites
The Kassites () were people of the ancient Near East, who controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire c. 1531 BC and until c. 1155 BC (short chronology).
They gained control of Babylonia after the Hittite sack of Babylo ...
,
Assyrians,
Persians
The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian. ...
, Greeks all ruled the Mesopotamian area between
Tigris
The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...
and
Euphrates
The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...
rivers where the earliest examples of lutes have survived in clay and stone artwork.
Sachs described the Mesopotamian lutes as having "very small bodies, long necks with many frets, two strings attached without pegs and were played with a plectron".
The long lute entered Egypt after its conquest of
Southwest Asia
Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes Ana ...
, when it began receiving tribute in the form of "singing and dancing-girls with their instruments", illustrated in paintings at
Tell El-Amarna
Amarna (; ar, العمارنة, al-ʿamārnah) is an extensive Egyptian archaeological site containing the remains of what was the capital city of the late Eighteenth Dynasty. The city was established in 1346 BC, built at the direction of the Ph ...
.
The paintings of the Egyptian lutes are detailed enough to provide a better understanding of ancient long lutes. Furthermore, original lutes survived in tombs, some still with strings attached. The Egyptian pierced-lutes had a carved wooden bowl for the instrument's body, "usually oval", covered with rawhide. A stick which acted as the instrument's neck pierced the instrument's body. The stick was threaded through cuts in the top of the rawhide to the end of the bowl. It was attached to the strings through a "triangular opening cut in the skin" at the bottom of the bowl. Besides being woven through the skin-soundboard, the stick was supported underneath by "wooden crosspieces" that ran crosswise underneath the stick, to the edges of the bowl on either side.
The strings were "wound around the top of the handle" and tied with thongs, the tassels visible in some surviving
artwork
A work of art, artwork, art piece, piece of art or art object is an artistic creation of aesthetics, aesthetic value. Except for "work of art", which may be used of any work regarded as art in its widest sense, including works from ...
.
Nora E. Scott gave more details about the Egyptian lute's construction, saying that the lute that belonged to
Har-Mose, 1500 BC, had two bridges, the triangular bridge at the bottom, attached to the stick and protruding through the skin, and another on the neck.
[, quote=The Lute of the Singer Har-Mose] The string passed over the second bridge and was tied down to the neck with linen cord to keep its tension.
The player tuned the lute by pulling the string tight over the second bridge and tightening the linen cord to hold.
The second bridge corresponds in function to the nut on a guitar or mandolin. The soundboard skin could have as many as six soundholes.
Sachs points out one significant difference between the Egyptian lutes and other pierced lutes of the ancient world. The non-Egyptian lutes had a stick handle piercing the bowl on both ends (
spike lutes
Spike, spikes, or spiking may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Books
* ''The Spike'' (novel), a novel by Arnaud de Borchgrave
* ''The Spike'' (book), a nonfiction book by Damien Broderick
* ''The Spike'', a starship in Peter F. Hamilto ...
), rather than having one end resting inside the bowl (
tang lutes).
He also gave consideration to African skin-topped instruments that survived into the 20th century, noting that those in Morocco and Senegambia, such as the gunbri, might be descendants.
He said the instruments "degenerated" from the Egyptian instruments, but then were developed after the Arab conquest of North Africa.
Other differences he noted include different body shapes, attaching strings to "lateral pegs" (rather than tying strings directly to the neck) and reducing the instrument's size.
Gallery: ancient long-necked lutes
File:Plaque with musician playing a lute, Ischali, Isin-Larsa period, 2000-1600 BC, baked clay - Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago - DSC07344.JPG, Iraq. Musician playing a lute, Tell Ishchali, Isin-Larsa period
The Isin-Larsa period (circa 2025-1763 BCE, Middle Chronology, or 1961-1699 BCE, Short Chronology) is a phase in the history of ancient Mesopotamia, which extends between the end of the Third Dynasty of Ur and the conquest of Mesopotamia by King ...
, 2000-1600 BC, baked clay. Hanging tassels are part of harness to hold strings, one for each string.
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Langhalsluit met 2 snaren TMnr 600-12.jpg, Modern lute, with same shape as Tell Ishchali lute. Bowl is a river-turtle shell. Also has similar sound holes, size and shape as Byzantine pandura
The pandura ( grc, πανδοῦρα, ''pandoura'') or pandore, an ancient string instrument, belonged in the broad class of the lute and guitar instruments. Akkadians played similar instruments from the 3rd millennium BC. Ancient Greek artwork d ...
. Egypt, pre-1930.
File:Orthostaten (14731138433).jpg, Lute in art found at Zincirli Höyük, 10th-9th century BC, at the Pergamom museum, Berlin.
File:Museum of Anatolian Civilizations 1320164 nevit.jpg, Alacahöyük 1399–1301 BC, Hittite lute with in-curved sides, and frets on neck. Built like the Egyptian (skin top, stick woven through skin, sound holes parallel to stick-neck, one tassel to tie each string.). Unlike Egyptian lutes, stick pokes out at both ends).
File:Parthian lute player.jpg, Parthian Empire
The Parthian Empire (), also known as the Arsacid Empire (), was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe in conqu ...
, long-necked lute or tanbur
The term ''Tanbur'' ( fa, تنبور, ) can refer to various long-necked string instruments originating in Mesopotamia, Southern or Central Asia. According to the '' New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', "terminology presents a compli ...
, c. 3 BC – 3 AD. Neck ends within body.
File:Indian lute, Shunga period, 2nd century B.C.jpg, Indian lute, Bengal, Shunga
is a type of Japanese erotic art typically executed as a kind of ukiyo-e, often in woodblock print format. While rare, there are also extant erotic painted handscrolls which predate ukiyo-e. Translated literally, the Japanese word ''shunga' ...
period, 2nd century B.C.
Greece and Rome, pandura
The long-necked lute to Greece as well. In the 5th century BC the Egyptian lute made it into Greek sculpture, recognizable as a pierced lute, stick running into an oval body, with triangular bridge at base of instrument and two lines of
soundholes parallel to the stick, on either side of it.
A century later at Mantineia, the pierced lute would be changed, with a broader neck, somewhat shorter than the earlier Egyptian style lute, but still a long-necked instrument, with the neck longer than the soundbox.
A second version at Tanagra in 200 BC was carved from a single piece of wood, neck and soundbox, pear-shaped much as the short-lutes that later arrived from Central Asia.
Still another form of the pandura would have a one-piece carved triangular body with skin stretched across it.
Sachs describes the
pandura
The pandura ( grc, πανδοῦρα, ''pandoura'') or pandore, an ancient string instrument, belonged in the broad class of the lute and guitar instruments. Akkadians played similar instruments from the 3rd millennium BC. Ancient Greek artwork d ...
as having three strings, tied still to the neck as there were no pegs, and a small body.
The Greeks called the lute by multiple names, including ''trichordon'' (3-stringed) and ''pandura''.
He looks as the latter name as evidence that the instrument was foreign to Greece, introduced from the East; the name was derived from ''pan-tur'', a Sumerian name meaning ''small bow''.
Sachs said that the instrument could be called "alternatively an Assyrian, a Cappadocian and an Egyptian instrument".
While examples exist across 1100 years, the pandura was rarely covered in Greek and Roman art, compared to the
cithara
The kithara (or Latinized cithara) ( el, κιθάρα, translit=kithāra, lat, cithara) was an ancient Greek musical instrument in the yoke lutes family. In modern Greek the word ''kithara'' has come to mean "guitar", a word which etymolog ...
,
harp
The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orc ...
and
lyre
The lyre () 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 lyre is considered a yoke lute, since it ...
. One possible reason had to do with cultural values. In the Mesopotamia and in Egypt, the lute had been associated with dancing girls and with entertainment. Sumerian pottery and clay statues show that the lute players were often naked performers, with sexuality a part of the performance. The Egyptian girls are similarly scantily clad, dancing for their lords and ladies.
A millennium later at Rome in the 5th century AD, the pandura was a low-class instrument with a "disreputable association with frivolity and low merry-making".
A story about
St Theodoulos the Stylite says that he was tested by God, forced to associate with Cornelius the pandouros (pandura player). According to the story, "Theodoulos is horrified at being associated with a man from the theatre" and more horrified to find "Cornelius at the Hippodrome, holding his instrument with one hand, and with the other, a bareheaded prostitute".
Lack of artwork does not necessarily mean absence of the lute in Roman and Greek society. What images have survived of Greek and Roman pandura players are from high-class art. In the statuary, plaques and a mosaic in the Byzantine emperor's palace, players are dignified and clothed. The art, made for the wealthy upper classes doesn't show the lower-class places where Theodoulos was shocked.
Gallery: Egyptian, Coptic or Byzantine lutes
File:North African long-lute 4th century.jpg, Coptic, Byzantine or Egyptian long-necked lute, 4th century AD, Qasr Libya
Qasr Libya or Theodoureas ( ar, قصر ليبيا) is a small town in northern Libya about northwest of Bayda. In ancient times, it was called Olbia and Theodorias, the ruins of which were excavated in the 1950s. The town contains a museum with ...
(the Byzantine city of Theodoureas)
File:Coptic lute.jpg, Coptic, Byzantine or Egyptian lute, c. 1–500 AD
File:Coptic lute backside.jpg, Coptic, Byzantine or Egyptian lute, c. 1–500 AD
File:Coptic lute without soundboard.jpg, Coptic, Byzantine or Egyptian lute, c. 1–500 AD, neck is hollow like rubab neck
File:Byzantine Pandore.gif, Byzantine pandura, 6th-century AD depiction on mosaic in the Great Palace in Constantinople. The instrument has three strings and is being played with a plectrum.
File:Bear with lute-family instrument.jpg, Unknown lute-family instrument, 723-743 AD Qusayr 'Amra It is not known who the woman represents, but due to the apparent classical and late Roman style of depicting her, a number of mythological persons have been suggested.
Qusayr 'Amra or Quseir Amra, ''lit.'' "small qasr of 'Amra", sometimes also na ...
. Byzantine/Islamic culture was mixing at time of painting.
File:Cappella Palatina rubab.jpg, Unknown lute-family instrument, possible rubab or Coptic lute. C. 1140 AD, Capella Palatina, Sicily.
Tanbur family
Tanburs have been present in
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...
since the
Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to:
* Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire
* Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language
* Akkadian literature, literature in this language
* Akkadian cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic ...
era, or the 3rd millennium
BC.
Three figurines have been found in
Susa
Susa ( ; Middle elx, 𒀸𒋗𒊺𒂗, translit=Šušen; Middle and Neo- elx, 𒋢𒋢𒌦, translit=Šušun; Neo- Elamite and Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼𒀭, translit=Šušán; Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼, translit=Šušá; fa, شوش ...
that belong to 1500 BC, and in hands of one of them is a tanbur-like instrument.
Also an image on the rocks near
Mosul
Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second larg ...
that belong to about 1000 BC shows tanbur players.
Playing the tanbur was common at least by the late
Parthian era and
Sassanid
The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...
period, and the word 'tanbur' is found in
middle Persian
Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle P ...
and
Parthian language
The Parthian language, also known as Arsacid Pahlavi and Pahlawānīg, is an extinct ancient Northwestern Iranian language once spoken in Parthia, a region situated in present-day northeastern Iran and Turkmenistan. Parthian was the language of ...
texts, for instance in ''
Drakht-i Asurig ''Draxt ī Āsūrīg'' (meaning "The Assyrian Tree" or "The Babylonian Tree") is a Parthian-language poem consisting of about 120 verses and written in Book Pahlavi script. The language shows influences from Middle Persian. It is one of the oldest ...
'', ''
Bundahishn
''Bundahishn'' (Avestan: , "Primal Creation") is the name traditionally given to an encyclopedic collection of Zoroastrian cosmogony and cosmology written in Book Pahlavi. The original name of the work is not known.
Although the ''Bundahishn'' ...
'', ''
Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan'', and ''
Khosrow and Ridag''.
[ :fa:خسرو و ریدگ]
In the 10th century AD
Al-Farabi
Abu Nasr Muhammad Al-Farabi ( fa, ابونصر محمد فارابی), ( ar, أبو نصر محمد الفارابي), known in the West as Alpharabius; (c. 872 – between 14 December, 950 and 12 January, 951)PDF version was a renowned early Isl ...
described two types of tanburs found in
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, a Baghdad ''tunbūr'', distributed south and west of
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
, and a
Khorasan
Khorasan may refer to:
* Greater Khorasan, a historical region which lies mostly in modern-day northern/northwestern Afghanistan, northeastern Iran, southern Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan
* Khorasan Province, a pre-2004 province of Ira ...
''tunbūr''.
This distinction may be the source of modern differentiation between Arabic instruments, derived from the Baghdad ''tunbūr'', and those found in northern Iraq, Syria, Iran,
Sindh
Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...
and Turkey, from the Khorasan ''tunbūr''.
The Persian name spread widely, eventually taking in long-necked string instruments used in
Central Asian music
The music of Central Asia is as vast and unique as the many cultures and peoples who inhabit the region. Principal instrument types are two- or three-stringed lutes, the necks either fretted or fretless; fiddles made of horsehair; flutes, mostly ...
such as the
Dombura
The ''dombra'', also known as ''dombyra'' ( kz, домбыра, uz, dombira, ba, думбыра) is a long-necked Kazakh, Uzbek and Bashkir lute and a musical string instrument. The dombyra shares certain characteristics with the komuz a ...
and the classical
Turkish tambur
The ''tambur'' (spelled in keeping with TDK conventions) is a fretted string instrument of Turkey and the former lands of the Ottoman Empire. Like the ney, the armudi (lit. pear-shaped) kemençe and the kudüm, it constitutes one of the four ...
as well as the
Kurdish tembûr.
Until the early 20th century, the names ''chambar'' and ''jumbush'' were applied to instruments in northern Iraq.
In India the name was applied to the ''
tanpura
The tanpura (), also referred to as tambura and tanpuri, is a long-necked plucked string instrument, originating in India, found in various forms in Indian music.
It does not play melody, but rather supports and sustains the melody of an ...
'' (tambura), a fretless drone lute.
Tanbur traveled through
Al-Hirah
Al-Hirah ( ar, الحيرة, translit=al-Ḥīra Middle Persian: ''Hērt'' ) was an ancient city in Mesopotamia located south of what is now Kufa in south-central Iraq.
History
Kingdom of the Lakhmids
Al-Hirah was a significant city in pre ...
to the
Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plat ...
and in the early Islam period went to the European countries. Tanbur was called 'tunbur' or 'tunbureh/tunbura' in Al-Hirah, and in Greek it was named
tambouras
The tambouras ( el, ταμπουράς ) is a Greek traditional string instrument of Byzantine origin. It has existed since at least the 10th century, when it was known in Assyria and Egypt. At that time, it might have between two and six strings ...
, then went to
albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and share ...
as
tampura, in Russia it was named
domra
The ''domra'' (Cyrillic: до́мра, ) is a long-necked Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian folk string instrument of the lute family with a round body and three or four metal strings.
History
The first known mention of domra is in ''Admonit ...
, in
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part ...
and
Mongolia
Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million ...
as
dombra
The ''dombra'', also known as ''dombyra'' ( kz, домбыра, uz, dombira, ba, думбыра) is a long-necked Kazakh, Uzbek and Bashkir lute and a musical string instrument. The dombyra shares certain characteristics with the komuz ...
, and in
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
was named
pandura
The pandura ( grc, πανδοῦρα, ''pandoura'') or pandore, an ancient string instrument, belonged in the broad class of the lute and guitar instruments. Akkadians played similar instruments from the 3rd millennium BC. Ancient Greek artwork d ...
/bandura. It travelled through Byzantine Empire to other European countries and was called pandura, mandura, bandura, etc.
Later the Iranian (Kurdish) tanbur became associated with the music of the
Ahl-e Haqq
Yarsanism, Ahl-e Haqq or Kaka'i ( ku, یارسان, translit=Yarsan or ; fa, اهل حق, ar, كاكائي), is a syncretic religion founded by Sultan Sahak in the late 14th century in western Iran. The total number of followers of Yarsanism i ...
, a primarily Kurdish
ghulat
The ( ar, غلاة, 'exaggerators', 'extremists', 'transgressors', singular ) were a branch of early Shi'i Muslims thus named by other Shi'i and Sunni Muslims for their purportedly 'exaggerated' veneration of the prophet Muhammad (–632) and his ...
religious movement similar to a
Sufi
Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...
order, in
Kurdish areas and in the
Lorestān and
Sistan va Baluchestan provinces of
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, where it is called the 'tembûr'.
Persians have another naming system for differentiating different styles of the instrument, using the word ''tar'' with a number for the number of strings or courses of strings.
Instruments named this way include the dutar (2 strings/courses), setar (three strings/courses), cartar (4 strings/courses) and panctar (five strings/courses).
A course is multiple strings played together, so that a setar can have 6 strings altogether, but the strings are divided in three rows or courses.
The pegs on the long-lutes are different than on short lutes (such as the oud) where a pegbox has pegs accessed from the sides.
On long lutes, some are inserted from the front, some from the side.
Sachs felt that the pegs were an indication of mixed origins for tanbur. Front and side elements came from Arabo/Persian instruments, rear pegs from Turkish.
The tanbur family includes
*
bağlama
The ''bağlama'' or ''saz'' is a family of plucked string instruments, long-necked lutes used in Ottoman classical music, Turkish folk music, Turkish Arabesque music, Azerbaijani music, Kurdish music, Armenian music and in parts of Syria, I ...
(Saz)
*
bouzouki
The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...
related to tanburs but also of European lute tradition
*
çifteli
*
cura
Cura or CURA may refer to:
Music
* ''Cura'' (album), 2018 Keys N Krates release
* Cura (instrument), Turkish musical instrument
Organizations
* Center for Urban and Regional Analysis (CURA), Ohio State University
* Institute on Culture, Rel ...
*
dombra
The ''dombra'', also known as ''dombyra'' ( kz, домбыра, uz, dombira, ba, думбыра) is a long-necked Kazakh, Uzbek and Bashkir lute and a musical string instrument. The dombyra shares certain characteristics with the komuz ...
Dombura shares some of its characteristics with the Central Asian komuz and dutar.
**Dombura in Turkish ,
**Dombıra, in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan,
**Dambura or Danbura in northern Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan,
**Hazara Dambura or Hazaragi Dambura The Dambura which is played by
Hazara people
The Hazaras ( fa, , Həzārə; haz, , Āzərə) are an ethnic group and the principal component of the population of Afghanistan, native to, and primarily residing in the Hazaristan (Hazarajat) region in central Afghanistan and generally scatte ...
mostly in Afghanistan.
**Dumbura in Bashkir and Tatar,
**Dombor in Mongolia,
**Dombyra in Kazakhstan,
**Dombira or 冬不拉 (Dongbula) in Xinjiang, China
**
domra
The ''domra'' (Cyrillic: до́мра, ) is a long-necked Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian folk string instrument of the lute family with a round body and three or four metal strings.
History
The first known mention of domra is in ''Admonit ...
Russian instrument, recreated in the 1800s, modern version is shorter necked like mandolin
**
balalaika
The balalaika (russian: link=no, балала́йка, ) is a Russian stringed musical instrument with a characteristic triangular wooden, hollow body, fretted neck and three strings. Two strings are usually tuned to the same note and the thir ...
Russian instrument. Related to domra.
*
dutar
The ''dutar'' (also ''Dotara, dotar''; fa, دوتار, dutâr; russian: Дутар; tg, дутор; ug, دۇتار, ucy=Дутар, Dutar; uz, dutor; ; dng, Дутар) is a traditional Iranian long-necked two-stringed lute found in Iran and ...
*
komuz
The komuz or qomuz ( ky, комуз , az, Qopuz, tr, Kopuz) is an ancient fretless string instrument used in Central Asian music, related to certain other Turkic string instruments, the Mongolian tovshuur, and the lute. The instrument can be f ...
(not same as
kobyz
The Kobyz ( kk, қобыз, ''Qobyz''; ba, ҡумыҙ; tt-Cyrl, кубыз) or ''kylkobyz'' ( kk, қылқобыз, ''qylqobyz''; ba, ҡыл ҡумыҙ; tt-Cyrl, кылкубыз) is an ancient Turkic bowed string instrument, spread among Ka ...
), Kyrgyz instrument. Placement of this instrument in tanbur family not certain. A skin-topped version has existed.
*
pandura
The pandura ( grc, πανδοῦρα, ''pandoura'') or pandore, an ancient string instrument, belonged in the broad class of the lute and guitar instruments. Akkadians played similar instruments from the 3rd millennium BC. Ancient Greek artwork d ...
*
sato (bowed)
*
setar
A setar ( fa, سهتار, ) is a stringed instrument, a type of lute used in Persian traditional music, played solo or accompanying voice. It is a member of the tanbur family of long-necked lutes with a range of more than two and a half octav ...
looks very similar to tanbur. Has three courses of strings (normally four strings total, but as many as six)
**
Chitrali sitar
The chitrali sitar ( ur, چترالی ستھار) is a long-necked lute played in northern area, Chitral of Pakistan. It is not related to the Indian sitar and its name is related to ''setar, the Central Asian and Iranian long-necked lute.
The in ...
*
Sataer
The ''satar'' ( ug, ساتار, ucy=сатар; zh, 萨它尔) is a traditional Uyghur long-necked bowed lute. It is used by Uyghur people in Xinjiang, western China, and is an important instrument to play maqams.
Characteristics
The instru ...
bowed instrument
*
setor
The setor ( Tajik: сетор) is a stringed musical instrument played in the eastern regions of Tajikistan, within the Pamiri culture. It is a much larger instrument than the Iranian setar, and more closely resembles the Uzbek tanbur or Indian s ...
*
sitar
The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form ...
*
tambura, played in Balkan peninsula, possibly identical to
tamburica
Tamburica ( or ) or tamboura ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", tamburica, тамбурица, little tamboura; hu, tambura; el, Ταμπουράς, Tampourás; sometimes written tamburrizza or tamburitza), refers to a family of long-necked lute ...
*
tamboori The tamboori (also called a tambra) is a long-necked bowed string instrument found in Indian music. The tamboori is very similar to the tanpura, despite being smaller and played with a bow. A tamboori is played as a melodic instrument, unlike the ...
an Indian melodic instrument similar to a Tanpura
*
tambouras
The tambouras ( el, ταμπουράς ) is a Greek traditional string instrument of Byzantine origin. It has existed since at least the 10th century, when it was known in Assyria and Egypt. At that time, it might have between two and six strings ...
played in Greece
*
tamburica
Tamburica ( or ) or tamboura ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", tamburica, тамбурица, little tamboura; hu, tambura; el, Ταμπουράς, Tampourás; sometimes written tamburrizza or tamburitza), refers to a family of long-necked lute ...
any member of a family of long-necked lutes popular in Eastern and Central Europe
*
tanbur
The term ''Tanbur'' ( fa, تنبور, ) can refer to various long-necked string instruments originating in Mesopotamia, Southern or Central Asia. According to the '' New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', "terminology presents a compli ...
, tanbur, tanbūr, Tambur a long-necked, string instrument originating in the Southern or Central Asia (Mesopotamia and Persia/Iran). Three strings total (not courses).
*
Iranian tanbur (Kurdish tanbur), used in Yarsan rituals
*
Turkish tambur
The ''tambur'' (spelled in keeping with TDK conventions) is a fretted string instrument of Turkey and the former lands of the Ottoman Empire. Like the ney, the armudi (lit. pear-shaped) kemençe and the kudüm, it constitutes one of the four ...
, instrument played in Turkey
*
Yaylı tambur, also played in Turkey
*
tanpura
The tanpura (), also referred to as tambura and tanpuri, is a long-necked plucked string instrument, originating in India, found in various forms in Indian music.
It does not play melody, but rather supports and sustains the melody of an ...
, a drone instrument played in India
*
tar
Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. "a dark brown or black bit ...
*
tembor
The Tembor (; ) is a long-necked lute used in the music of Xinjiang, a diverse region of western China. Specifically, it is used by the Uyghur people, Uyghur ethnic group.
It has five strings in three courses and is tuned A A, D, G G. The string ...
longer than most
*
tzouras
The ''tzouras'' ( el, τζουράς), is a Greek stringed musical instrument related to the bouzouki.
Its name comes from the Turkish cura. It is made in six-string and eight-string varieties.
The six-string model has the same arrangement of st ...
Instruments not included on this list provide a chance to think about the instruments' evolution. Early Mesopotamian long-necked lutes would have had skin tops and sound-bowls that were either carved from wood or made from a turtle shell. There was a divergence; modern tanburs have wood tops, while rubabs have skin tops. One instrument straddled the line, the Byzantine or Coptic lute. These appear to have been successors of the middle east long-lute tradition, in which Egypt participated. They have a wooden soundboard (a tanbur trait), however, the neck is hollow (a rubab trait). Also the Byzantine lute from
Qasr Libya
Qasr Libya or Theodoureas ( ar, قصر ليبيا) is a small town in northern Libya about northwest of Bayda. In ancient times, it was called Olbia and Theodorias, the ruins of which were excavated in the 1950s. The town contains a museum with ...
, in Libya, has barbs on its top, a rubab trait. The Coptic lute also overlaps with an instrument that Curt Sachs called a pandura, the instrument illustrated in the mosaic in the Byzantine emperor's palace in Constantinople.
The other long lutes not included here are because of their rubab orientation are the
dotara
The ''dotara'' (or ''dotar'') Persian ( bn, দোতারা, as, দোতাৰা, literally, 'Of or having two strings') is a two, four, or sometimes five- stringed musical instrument, originating from Iran and Central Asia. It is comm ...
,
dramyin
The dramyin or dranyen (; dz, dramnyen; ) is a traditional Himalayan folk music lute with six strings, used primarily as an accompaniment to singing in the Drukpa Buddhist culture and society in Bhutan, as well as in Tibet, Ladakh, Sikkim and ...
,
rawap
The rawap (Uyghur: راۋاپ, равап Uzbek: rubob) is a fretted plucked long-necked stringed instrument used in folk music by residents of the Uyghur autonomous region of Xinjiang, Western China. The history of the instrument dates back ...
and
pamiri rubab
The Pamiri rubab (Russian and Tajiki: рубоб) is a fretless six-strung lute, carved from a single piece of wood with a skin head. It is played in the Badakhshan region of Tajikistan, as part of the Pamiri musical tradition.
The Pamiri ruba ...
. They have soundboards of skin and may also have hollow necks.
Gallery: Tanbur family lutes
File:Novruz Baku03.jpg, bağlama
The ''bağlama'' or ''saz'' is a family of plucked string instruments, long-necked lutes used in Ottoman classical music, Turkish folk music, Turkish Arabesque music, Azerbaijani music, Kurdish music, Armenian music and in parts of Syria, I ...
or Azerbaijani saz (left)
File:SAZ Instrument 5270.jpg, bağlama or saz
File:Ŝargijo.png, 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 ...
. Šargija
thumb
The ''šargija'' ( sh, šargija, шаргија; sq, sharki or sharkia), anglicized as ''shargia'', is a plucked, fretted long necked lute used in the folk music of various Balkan countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croati ...
, closely related to Balkan tambura
The tambura is a stringed instrument that is played as a folk instrument in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia,
and Serbia (especially Vojvodina). It has doubled steel strings and is played with a plectrum, in the same m ...
File:DSC 3510 athens Bouzouki player street july 2018.jpg, Greek bouzouki
The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...
File:Çifteli- Чифтелија е традиционален, албански, народен, жичан инструмент..jpg, Gheg Albanian
Gheg (also spelled Geg; Gheg Albanian: ''gegnishtja'', Standard sq, gegërishtja) is one of the two major variety (linguistics), varieties of Albanian language, Albanian, the other being Tosk Albanian, Tosk. The geographic dividing line betwee ...
çifteli
File:Tamburasaz-Baglamasaz.jpg, bağlama
The ''bağlama'' or ''saz'' is a family of plucked string instruments, long-necked lutes used in Ottoman classical music, Turkish folk music, Turkish Arabesque music, Azerbaijani music, Kurdish music, Armenian music and in parts of Syria, I ...
(right) and cura
Cura or CURA may refer to:
Music
* ''Cura'' (album), 2018 Keys N Krates release
* Cura (instrument), Turkish musical instrument
Organizations
* Center for Urban and Regional Analysis (CURA), Ohio State University
* Institute on Culture, Rel ...
File:Celebration of Nowruz shared by several countries, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Turkey. 1.jpg, Dombra
The ''dombra'', also known as ''dombyra'' ( kz, домбыра, uz, dombira, ba, думбыра) is a long-necked Kazakh, Uzbek and Bashkir lute and a musical string instrument. The dombyra shares certain characteristics with the komuz a ...
or dambura
File:Jean-Paul Flandrin - Odalisque with Slave - cropped to show dutar.jpg, Dutar (four strings in two courses)
File:Joueur de dutar ouzbek.jpg, Uzbek dutar
The ''dutar'' (also ''Dotara, dotar''; fa, دوتار, dutâr; russian: Дутар; tg, дутор; ug, دۇتار, ucy=Дутар, Dutar; uz, dutor; ; dng, Дутар) is a traditional Iranian long-necked two-stringed lute found in Iran and ...
. Also Tajik
File:Kyrgyz students plays the Komuz.JPG, Kirgiz komuz
The komuz or qomuz ( ky, комуз , az, Qopuz, tr, Kopuz) is an ancient fretless string instrument used in Central Asian music, related to certain other Turkic string instruments, the Mongolian tovshuur, and the lute. The instrument can be f ...
File:Hossein Alizadeh at Vahdat Hall 01.jpg, Iranian setar
A setar ( fa, سهتار, ) is a stringed instrument, a type of lute used in Persian traditional music, played solo or accompanying voice. It is a member of the tanbur family of long-necked lutes with a range of more than two and a half octav ...
, musician Hossein Alizadeh
Hossein Alizadeh ( fa, حسین علیزاده) is an Iranian musician, composer, radif-preserver, researcher, teacher, and tar, shurangiz and setar instrumentalist and improviser. He has performed with such musicians as Shahram Nazeri, Mohammad ...
File:Vrakoforos Tabouras.jpg, Greek tambouras
The tambouras ( el, ταμπουράς ) is a Greek traditional string instrument of Byzantine origin. It has existed since at least the 10th century, when it was known in Assyria and Egypt. At that time, it might have between two and six strings ...
File:Szajci.jpg, Southern/Central European tamburica
Tamburica ( or ) or tamboura ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", tamburica, тамбурица, little tamboura; hu, tambura; el, Ταμπουράς, Tampourás; sometimes written tamburrizza or tamburitza), refers to a family of long-necked lute ...
File:Pastimes of Central Asians. A Musician Playing a Tambur, a Long-necked Stringed Instrument WDL10828.png, Central Asian tanbur/tambur, 1865–1872
File:Uyghur tambur.jpg, Uyghurs
The Uyghurs; ; ; ; zh, s=, t=, p=Wéiwú'ěr, IPA: ( ), alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central and East Asia. The Uyghur ...
Tembor
The Tembor (; ) is a long-necked lute used in the music of Xinjiang, a diverse region of western China. Specifically, it is used by the Uyghur people, Uyghur ethnic group.
It has five strings in three courses and is tuned A A, D, G G. The string ...
File:Ghobad ghobadi45677.jpg, Iranian/Kurdish tanbur
The term ''Tanbur'' ( fa, تنبور, ) can refer to various long-necked string instruments originating in Mesopotamia, Southern or Central Asia. According to the '' New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', "terminology presents a compli ...
File:Osman Hamdi Bey - Two Musician Girls.jpg, Ottoman tambur, also known as Turkish tambur
The ''tambur'' (spelled in keeping with TDK conventions) is a fretted string instrument of Turkey and the former lands of the Ottoman Empire. Like the ney, the armudi (lit. pear-shaped) kemençe and the kudüm, it constitutes one of the four ...
, 1880
File:YaylıTambur of DrOzanYarman.jpg, Yaylı tambur a variation of Turkish tambur, metal and uses a bow
File:Nishat Khan Varanasi 2009.jpg, Indian sitar
The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form ...
File:Shubha Mudgal in playing the Tanpura (2527339532).jpg, Indian tanpura
The tanpura (), also referred to as tambura and tanpuri, is a long-necked plucked string instrument, originating in India, found in various forms in Indian music.
It does not play melody, but rather supports and sustains the melody of an ...
resembles a sitar
The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form ...
but has no frets
Mathematics and music
Strings are mathematical
The lute is tied to the mathematics related to pitches. Unlike the harp, in which a string produces a single note, a lute string produces more than one note. Placing a finger on a string divides the string into measurable parts. Measuring those parts leads to mathematical ratios, useful in placing
fret
A fret is any of the thin strips of material, usually metal wire, inserted laterally at specific positions along the neck or fretboard of a stringed instrument. Frets usually extend across the full width of the neck. On some historical instrume ...
s on the neck of the lute. An instrument such as the setar uses moveable frets to hit whole notes, half notes and quarter notes.
It isn't known when frets were first used. Some ancient images discovered in the Middle East from before 1000 BC appear to show frets. These are rare and most images do not show frets on the early lutes.
A rare example from about the 3rd century AD was discovered in 1907 in the
Niya ruins
The Niya ruins (), is an archaeological site located about north of modern Niya Town on the southern edge of the Tarim Basin in modern-day Xinjiang, China. The ancient site was known in its native language as Caḍ́ota, and in Chinese during th ...
in Xinjiang, China, a broken lute's neck with two gut frets intact. The neck and pegbox of the lute are similar to the lute painted on the wall in the
Dingjiazha Tomb No. 5
The Dingjiazha Tomb No. 5 () is a mural tomb of the Northern Liang kingdom when the Sixteen Kingdoms came to an end and the Northern Wei Dynasty was beginning, c. 384–441. The tomb was excavated in 1977 and has elements of art found in works f ...
(384–441 AD
), which also has frets. Buddhist artworks from the 6th-10th centuries AD in the
Mogao Caves
The Mogao Caves, also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, form a system of 500 temples southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu p ...
(558-907 AD) and
Yulin Caves
The Yulin Caves () is a Buddhist cave temple site in Guazhou County, Gansu Province, China. The site is located some east of the oasis town of Dunhuang and the Mogao Caves. It takes its name from the elm trees lining the Yulin River, which flows ...
(618-907 AD) appear to have frets. Some long lutes in the
Utrecht Psalter
The Utrecht Psalter (Utrecht, Universiteitsbibliotheek, MS Bibl. Rhenotraiectinae I Nr 32.) is a ninth-century illuminated manuscript, illuminated psalter which is a key masterpiece of Carolingian art; it is probably the most valuable manuscript ...
(c. 850 AD) in France also appear fretted, as do citoles from Spain in the
Cantigas de Santa Maria
The ''Cantigas de Santa Maria'' (, ; "Canticles of Holy Mary") are 420 poems with musical notation, written in the medieval Galician-Portuguese language during the reign of Alfonso X of Castile ''El Sabio'' (1221–1284). Traditionally, they ar ...
(c. 1280).
Bringing order to infinite number of pitches
Richard Dumbrill talked about the earliest known systems of musical notes, and what makes them feel natural.
He concluded that what makes a
mode
Mode ( la, modus meaning "manner, tune, measure, due measure, rhythm, melody") may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* '' MO''D''E (magazine)'', a defunct U.S. women's fashion magazine
* ''Mode'' magazine, a fictional fashion magazine which is ...
"feel intrinsic is centuries of usage".
For the Sumerians, natural was a five-note system.
For the Akkadians, natural was a nine-note system and then a seven-note system, "the basis for our modern
esternsystem".
With a seeming infinite number of possible pitches to create modes, musicians had to choose which notes to use, and which to play together. One way of bring order to the infinite number of tones was to examine music with mathematics.
The Sumerians and Akkadians, the Greeks, and the Persians all used math to create notes used on lutes and lyres and other stringed instruments. Using the idea that a plucked or bowed string produces a note, they noticed the difference in tone when a string is stopped. "The great discovery" was hearing the double octave, that halving a string produces a note one octave above the string.
Written as a ratio 2:1.
They measured the ratios of string lengths on one side and the other of where the string was pressed, creating ratios. Those ratios allowed them to compare sounds, for example third intervals, fourths, fifths. They were able to tune one string against another in those intervals on lutes, lyres, harps, zithers. Those lutes that had frets gave them the further ability to reliably find those intervals on a played string, by marking points on the neck at mathematically spaced distances based on the ratios. Unlike modern instruments, where frets may be permanently fixed into the neck, as on a guitar, the older instruments used gut strings tied around the neck for frets, and this made their instruments adjustable. Early musicians could tune their instruments to different
modes
Mode ( la, modus meaning "manner, tune, measure, due measure, rhythm, melody") may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* '' MO''D''E (magazine)'', a defunct U.S. women's fashion magazine
* ''Mode'' magazine, a fictional fashion magazine which is ...
. Lute players could tune the strings to different
intervals
Interval may refer to:
Mathematics and physics
* Interval (mathematics), a range of numbers
** Partially ordered set#Intervals, its generalization from numbers to arbitrary partially ordered sets
* A statistical level of measurement
* Interval e ...
, and could further adjust the frets for the modes.
Knowledge passed back and forth between cultures
:''See:
Transmission of the Greek Classics
The transmission of the Greek Classics to Latin Western Europe during the Middle Ages was a key factor in the development of intellectual life in Western Europe.
''Western Civilization: Ideas, Politics, and Society'',
Marvin Perry, Myrna C ...
''
Western scholarship has traditionally credited the Greeks, including
Pythagoras
Pythagoras of Samos ( grc, Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, Pythagóras ho Sámios, Pythagoras the Samos, Samian, or simply ; in Ionian Greek; ) was an ancient Ionians, Ionian Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher and the eponymou ...
(c. 570 – c. 495 BC), with discovery of this math to determine notes on strings, called
Pythagorean tuning
Pythagorean tuning is a system of musical tuning in which the frequency ratios of all intervals are based on the ratio 3:2.Bruce Benward and Marilyn Nadine Saker (2003). ''Music: In Theory and Practice'', seventh edition, 2 vols. (Boston: Mc ...
,
which covers western tuning based on
perfect 5ths and
octave
In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...
s. However, as modern scholars have looked at cuneiform texts, it is clear that the Greeks were not the first; recorded thinking in Mesopotamia about the mathematical ratios of strings predates the Greek thinking by at least 1500 years. Furthermore, a form of written music came out of that era, called the
Hurrian songs
The Hurrian songs are a collection of music inscribed in cuneiform on clay tablets excavated from the ancient AmoriteDennis Pardee, "Ugaritic", in The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia'', edited by Roger D. Woodard, 5–6. (Cambrid ...
, currently the oldest known written music, and is based on modes of music, recorded in cuniform string ratios.
Once the Persian and Arab thinkers from the Umayyad and Abbssid periods (7th to 13th centuries AD) had translations of Greek manuscripts, they began to study music as a science as part of "mathematical arts".
Some Muslim musicians came to have access to more than one mathematically created scale, such as the Persian scale, the Arab scale and the Pythagorean scale.
Thinkers and polymaths of Central Asia and Arabia
:''See:
Golden Age of Islam
The Islamic Golden Age was a period of cultural, economic, and scientific flourishing in the history of Islam, traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 14th century. This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign ...
''
The mixing cultures of Central Asia and Arabia produced several thinkers who wrote about music, including something about the lute in their works, including
Al-Kindi
Abū Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn ʼIsḥāq aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindī (; ar, أبو يوسف يعقوب بن إسحاق الصبّاح الكندي; la, Alkindus; c. 801–873 AD) was an Arab Muslim philosopher, polymath, mathematician, physician ...
(c. 801 – c. 873),
Ziryab
Abu l-Hasan 'Ali Ibn Nafi, better known as Ziryab, Zeryab, or Zaryab ( 789– 857) ( ar, أبو الحسن علي ابن نافع, زریاب, rtl=yes) ( fa, زَریاب ''Zaryāb''), was a singer, oud and lute player, composer, poet, and teache ...
(789–857),
Al-Farabi
Abu Nasr Muhammad Al-Farabi ( fa, ابونصر محمد فارابی), ( ar, أبو نصر محمد الفارابي), known in the West as Alpharabius; (c. 872 – between 14 December, 950 and 12 January, 951)PDF version was a renowned early Isl ...
(c. 872 – c. 950),
Avicenna
Ibn Sina ( fa, ابن سینا; 980 – June 1037 CE), commonly known in the West as Avicenna (), was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, philosophers, and writers of the Islamic G ...
(c. 980 – 1037), and
Safi al-Din al-Urmawi
Safi al-Din al-Urmawi al-Baghdadi ( fa, صفی الدین اورموی) or Safi al-Din Abd al-Mu'min ibn Yusuf ibn al-Fakhir al-Urmawi al-Baghdadi (born c. 1216 AD in Urmia, died in 1294 AD in Baghdad) was a renowned musician and writer on the ...
(1216–1294). They wrote in Arabic, what had become the useful lingua-Franca of their time, and took part in Muslim society and culture. The weren't solely working in the Middle East; Islam was spread wide and some of the thinkers were from Central Asia.
The Arabs had a musical scale, described by al-Farabi, in use by some through the 13th century AD.
That tanbar scale, which divided the string into "40 equal parts" may have been a leftover from Babylon and Assyria.
However, the Arabs traded with and conquered the Persians, and they adopted Persian scales for their lutes, just as they adopted Persian short-necked lutes.
Ziryab
Abu l-Hasan 'Ali Ibn Nafi, better known as Ziryab, Zeryab, or Zaryab ( 789– 857) ( ar, أبو الحسن علي ابن نافع, زریاب, rtl=yes) ( fa, زَریاب ''Zaryāb''), was a singer, oud and lute player, composer, poet, and teache ...
moved from Baghdad to
al-Andalus
Al-Andalus DIN 31635, translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label=Berber languages, Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, ...
, where he set up a school of music and was one of the first to add a fifth string or course to oud, "between 822 and 852).
Al-Andalus, where he settled would become a center of musical instrument development for Europe.
Al-Kindi was a
polymath
A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...
who wrote as many as 15 music-related treatises. He was among the first to apply Greek musical theory to Central Asian-Arabian short lutes.
He added semi-tones between the nut and the first string.
He also added a fifth string to his oud in the east, as Ziryab had done in the west.
Al-Farabi "fully incorporated the works of
Aristoxenus
Aristoxenus of Tarentum ( el, Ἀριστόξενος ὁ Ταραντῖνος; born 375, fl. 335 BC) was a Greek Peripatetic philosopher, and a pupil of Aristotle. Most of his writings, which dealt with philosophy, ethics and music, have been ...
and
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...
into his theory of tetrachords", and wrote among books in many subjects, the
Kitab al-Musiqa al-Kabir
''Kitab al-Musiqa al-Kabir'' ( ar, كتاب الموسيقى الكبير, en, the Great Book of Music) is a treatise on music in east by the medieval philosopher al-Farabi (872-950/951). The work prescribes different aspects of music such as ma ...
, the ''Major Book of Music'', in which he detailed how to tune an oud, using mathematical ratios.
He gave instruction for both 10 frets and 12, telling where to place the tied (and moveable) gut-string frets on the neck.
His way of tuning allowed a "12-fret 'ud tuning — which results ... 'double-octave' scale", with 22 notes in each octave.
Short-necked lutes
Although the oldest iconographic evidence concerning lutes deals with long lutes in Mesopotamia and Egypt, some long-necked lutes are shorter than others. Comparatively, the Greek and Byzantine pandura is shorter than the tanbur, even though both are long lutes. Shorter lutes exist among the long-necked lutes today, including the tanburica, cura and komuz.
A short necked lute does not necessarily a small lute, as a guitar or pipa can be a large instrument. Guitars have a sound box as long as the neck. Some members of the rubab family with their long sound-boxes fit into the group of short-necked lutes.
The line of short-necked lutes developed to the east of Mesopotamia, in Central Asia, places like
Bactria
Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, southwe ...
and
Gandhara
Gandhāra is the name of an ancient region located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely in present-day north-west Pakistan and parts of south-east Afghanistan. The region centered around the Peshawar Vall ...
. There a short, almond-shaped lute surfaced, carried east and west by Sogdiana merchants, become the Chinese
pipa
The pipa, pípá, or p'i-p'a () is a traditional Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ran ...
and Middle Eastern
oud
, image=File:oud2.jpg
, image_capt=Syrian oud made by Abdo Nahat in 1921
, background=
, classification=
* String instruments
*Necked bowl lutes
, hornbostel_sachs=321.321-6
, hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum
, ...
.
[ Musician playing a 4th-to-5th-century lute, excavated in Gandhara, and part of a Los Angeles County Art Museum collection of ''Five Celestial Musicians''] Curt Sachs talked about the depictions of Ganharan lutes in art, where they are presented in a mix of "Northwest Indian art" under "a strong Greek influence".
The short-necked lutes in these Gandhara artworks were "the venerable ancestor of the Islamic, the Sino-Japanese and the European lute families".
He described the Ganhara lutes as having a "pear-shaped body tapering towards the short neck, a frontal stringholder, lateral pegs, and either four or five strings".
While the earliest may be in the Gandhara region, Northern India itself also has ancient short-necked lutes in sculpture, such as one found at Pawāyā, Madhya Pradesh, India, that dates to the
Gupta
Gupta () is a common surname or last name of Indian origin. It is based on the Sanskrit word गोप्तृ ''goptṛ'', which means 'guardian' or 'protector'. According to historian R. C. Majumdar, the surname ''Gupta'' was adopted by se ...
period, 400–499 AD. Southern India too has early images of lutes, including 2nd-3rd century AD artwork at the
Amaravati Stupa
The Amarāvati ''Stupa'', is a ruined Buddhist ''stūpa'' at the village of Amaravathi, Palnadu district, Andhra Pradesh, India, probably built in phases between the third century BCE and about 250 CE. It was enlarged and new sculptures replac ...
, where a large bodied, short-necked lute is carved into the relief sculpture. Another South India artwork showing a lute is found in the 450-490 AD painting, ''
Padmapani Bodhisattva'' in the
Ajanta Caves
The Ajanta Caves are approximately thirty rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments dating from the second century BCE to about 480 CE in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state in India. The caves include paintings and rock-cut sculptures des ...
.
Much of short lute development happened in the Central Asian area between India, China and Persia. Early short lutes were carved out of a single block of wood (monoxle), not built up in a box or bowl-like modern lutes. An example is the
barbat which has been called ancestral to both skin-topped instruments like the gambus as well as to larger wood-topped instruments such as the
oud
, image=File:oud2.jpg
, image_capt=Syrian oud made by Abdo Nahat in 1921
, background=
, classification=
* String instruments
*Necked bowl lutes
, hornbostel_sachs=321.321-6
, hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum
, ...
. Names were reused or used across multiple instruments over the millennia; the rabab group is an example of that. The family included short lute-shaped instruments, to larger lutes with multiple chambers (some covered with wood, some with skin), to long-necked lutes that retained the multiple sound chambers and skin over the bowl. Some rababs were plucked, some bowed.
File:Lute, 20th dynasty.jpg, alt=Lute, 20th dynasty, Statuette of a lute found in Egypt, attributed to the 20th dynasty (1189-1077 B.C.E.). No short lute tradition remained there by the 1st century C.E.
File:Gandhara lute, 2nd-4th century A.D.jpg, Musician playing for a dance, Gandhara, 2nd-4th century C.E.
File:Clevelandart 1980.15.jpg, Pakistan. Lute in Gandhara
Gandhāra is the name of an ancient region located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely in present-day north-west Pakistan and parts of south-east Afghanistan. The region centered around the Peshawar Vall ...
, probably Butkara in Swat, Kushan
The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, 貴霜 ) was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, i ...
period (1st century-320)
File:Gandhara Lute, Pakistan, Swat Valley, Gandhara region, 4th-5th century.jpg, Pakistan. Gandhara lute, Swat Valley, 4th-5th century.
File:Lute in Life scenes of Buddha-2nd century CE, Amravati.jpg, India. Lute in life scenes of Buddha-2nd century AD, Amaravati Stupa
The Amarāvati ''Stupa'', is a ruined Buddhist ''stūpa'' at the village of Amaravathi, Palnadu district, Andhra Pradesh, India, probably built in phases between the third century BCE and about 250 CE. It was enlarged and new sculptures replac ...
, Guntur district
Guntur district is one of the twenty six districts in the Coastal Andhra region of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The administrative seat of the district is located at Guntur, the largest city of the district in terms of area and with a po ...
, Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...
. This lute may have been developed into the veena
The ''veena'', also spelled ''vina'' ( sa, वीणा IAST: vīṇā), comprises various chordophone instruments from the Indian subcontinent. Ancient musical instruments evolved into many variations, such as lutes, zithers and arched harps ...
.
File:Indian chordophone 2nd-1st century B.C., Chandraketugarh.jpg, India, Chandraketugarh
Chandraketugarh is a 2,500 years old archaeological site located near the Bidyadhari river, about north-east of Kolkata, India, in the district of North 24 parganas, near the township of Berachampa and the Harua Road railhead. Once it was a ...
, 2nd-1st century B.C. Veena or possibly tanbura or sitar.
Central Asia, the crossroads of civilizations
:''See:
History of Central Asia
The history of Central Asia concerns the history of the various peoples that have inhabited Central Asia. The lifestyle of such people has been determined primarily by the area's climate and geography of Asia, geography. The aridity of the regio ...
''
It has been argued that Central Asia, a crossroads of multiple civilizations, the Middle East, Europe, China and India, could itself constitute a center of world civilization.
It was described by the Greek geographer,
Strabo
Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...
, as "a land of 1000 cities".
The peoples there could be loosely called
Iranians, the historic tribes, not only citizens of the modern country. Over a period of centuries Central Asia was conquered by people from different cultures including the
Greeks
The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...
,
Kushans
The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, wikt:貴霜, 貴霜 ) was a Sync ...
, various
Turkic tribes
The Turkic term ''oğuz'' or ''oğur'' (in z- and r-Turkic, respectively) is a historical term for "military division, clan, or tribe" among the Turkic peoples.
With the Mongol invasions of 1206–21, the Turkic khaganates were replaced by ...
, Persians (themselves an Iranian tribe), and Arabs. The result was a blending of the cultures, and Central Asia grew prosperous in spite of the invasions.
When the Arabs conquered Central Asia, they were conquering a culture that specialized in taking things, evaluating them for their potential value and improving on them. Their habit of evaluating applied to products to sell and to ideas.
Central Asia was
pluralistic and diverse and had some of the biggest cities on the planet, with books being "numerous and widespread", and a high rate of literacy, in which even women could read and write.
The culture of literacy and evaluation continued after the Arabs burned the Central Asian libraries (an attempt to do away with competing ideas). Arabic became a lingua-franca, joining Central Asia with the wider Muslim academic world. When the Greek classics were translated into Arabic, Central Asian polymaths worked with the translated Greek science and philosophy, making scientific discoveries that wouldn't be duplicated until the European Renaissance.
Among the products manufactured and exported to China were "lutes, harps, transverse flutes, both plucked and bowed stringed instruments, and even Central Asian dances."
One of the peoples, the Sogdians were successful merchants for centuries and traveled to Europe, China and India.
They took their music and dances with them, and the Sogdian Whirl, became popular in China. Another group from Central Asia was the people of
Kucha
Kucha, or Kuche (also: ''Kuçar'', ''Kuchar''; ug, كۇچار, Кучар; zh, t= 龜茲, p=Qiūcí, zh, t=庫車, p=Kùchē; sa, कूचीन, translit=Kūcīna), was an ancient Buddhist kingdom located on the branch of the Silk Road ...
, whose music and dances were popular in the Imperial Court, and which have survived in the Japanese Imperial Court into the modern era.
Pipa, ruan and yueqin
Pipa
The pear-shaped pipa is likely to have been introduced to China from Central Asia,
Gandhara
Gandhāra is the name of an ancient region located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely in present-day north-west Pakistan and parts of south-east Afghanistan. The region centered around the Peshawar Vall ...
, and/or India.
[The pipa: How a barbarian lute became a national symbol](_blank)
Pear-shaped lutes have been depicted in
Kusana
The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, wikt:貴霜, 貴霜 ) was a Sync ...
sculptures from the 1st century AD.
The pear-shaped pipa may have been introduced during the Han Dynasty and was referred to as Han pipa. However, depictions of the pear-shaped pipas in China only appeared after the Han Dynasty during the
Jin Dynasty in the late 4th to early 5th century.
A small ''pipa'' was found in murals of tombs in
Liaoning
Liaoning () is a coastal province in Northeast China that is the smallest, southernmost, and most populous province in the region. With its capital at Shenyang, it is located on the northern shore of the Yellow Sea, and is the northernmost ...
(遼寧) province in northeastern China. The date of these tombs is about late
Eastern Han
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...
(東漢) or
Wei (魏) period (220–265 AD). However, the pear-shaped ''pipa'' was not brought to China from
Dunhuang
Dunhuang () is a county-level city in Northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the city has a population of 186,027, though 2019 estimates put the city's population at about 191,800. Dunhuang was a major ...
(敦煌, now in northwestern China) until the
Northern Wei
Wei (), known in historiography as the Northern Wei (), Tuoba Wei (), Yuan Wei () and Later Wei (), was founded by the Tuoba (Tabgach) clan of the Xianbei. The first of the Northern and Southern dynasties#Northern dynasties, Northern dynasties ...
period (386–524 AD) when ancient China traded with the western countries through the
Silk Road
The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...
(絲綢之路). Evidence was shown on the
Dunhuang Caves
The Mogao Caves, also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, form a system of 500 temples southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu p ...
frescoes
Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...
that the frescoes contain a large number of pipa, and they date to the 4th to 5th centuries.
The pipa acquired a number of Chinese symbolisms during the Han Dynasty – the instrument length of three feet five inches represents the three realms (heaven, earth, and man) and the
five elements, while the four strings represent the four seasons.
[應劭 -《風俗通義·聲音》](_blank)
Fengsu Tongyi
''Fengsu Tongyi'' (), also known as ''Fengsu Tong'', is a book written about 195 AD by Ying Shao, who lived during the later Eastern Han period. The manuscript is similar to an almanac
An almanac (also spelled ''almanack'' and ''almanach'') is ...
(Common Meanings in Customs) by Ying Shao
Ying Shao (140–206), courtesy name Zhongyuan, was a Chinese politician, writer and historian who lived during the Eastern Han dynasty. He was an author of the ''Fengsu Tongyi'', an encyclopedic work about the folk customs and legends that exis ...
. Original text: 批把: 謹按: 此近世樂家所作,不知誰也。以手批把,因以為名。長三尺五寸,法天地人與五行,四弦象四時。 Translation: Pipa, made by recent musicians, but maker unknown. Played "pi" and "pa" with the hand, it was thus named. Length of three feet six inches represents the Heaven, Earth, and Man, and the five elements, and the four strings represent the four seasons. (Note that this length of three feet five inches is equivalent to today's length of approximately two feet and seven inches or 0.8 meter.)
Depictions of the pear-shaped pipas appeared in abundance from the
Southern and Northern Dynasties
The Northern and Southern dynasties () was a period of political division in the history of China that lasted from 420 to 589, following the tumultuous era of the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Eastern Jin dynasty. It is sometimes considered as ...
(420 to 589) onwards, and pipas from this time to the Tang Dynasty were given various names, such as Hu pipa (胡琵琶), bent-neck pipa (曲項琵琶, quxiang pipa), some of these terms, however, may refer to the same pipa. Apart from the four-stringed pipa, other pear-shaped instruments introduced include the five-stringed, straight-necked, wuxian pipa (五弦琵琶, also known as
Kuchean
Kuchean (also known as Tocharian B or West Tocharian) was a Western member of Tocharian branch of Indo-European languages, extinct from ninth century. Once spoken in the Tarim Basin in Central Asia. Tocharian B shows an internal chronological de ...
pipa (龜茲琵琶)), a six-stringed version, as well as the two-stringed hulei (忽雷). From the 3rd century onwards, through the
Sui and Tang Dynasty, the pear-shaped ''pipas'' became increasingly popular in China. By the
Song Dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
the word pipa was used to refer exclusively to the four-stringed pear-shaped instrument.
Ruan and yueqin
Another type of lute in China is the
yueqin
The ''yueqin'' (; ja, 月琴, Gekkin; ko, 월금/月琴, Wolgeum; vi, Nguyệt cầm), also called a moon lute or moon guitar, is a traditional Chinese string instrument. It is a lute with a round, hollow soundboard, a short fretted neck, a ...
, a round-bodied instrument with flat top and back. According to tradition, the instrument was invented in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
during the 3rd to 5th centuries AD
Jin Dynasty.
The
ruan
Ruan may refer to:
Buildings
* Ruan Center, office building in Des Moines, Iowa
* John Ruan House, historic mansion in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, t ...
, another Chinese instrument, is the ancestor of the yueqin.
The period overlaps with the period of immigration of
ancient non-Han Chinese peoples and invasions, by groups such as the
Five Barbarians
The Five Barbarians, or Wu Hu (), is a Chinese historical exonym for five ancient non-Han peoples who immigrated to northern China in the Eastern Han dynasty, and then overthrew the Western Jin dynasty and established their own kingdoms in the ...
.
The yueqin is a type of
ruan
Ruan may refer to:
Buildings
* Ruan Center, office building in Des Moines, Iowa
* John Ruan House, historic mansion in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, t ...
, what may be China's oldest lute. Ruans may have a history of over 2,000 years, the earliest form may be the qin pipa (秦琵琶), which was then developed into ruanxian (named after Ruan Xian, 阮咸), shortened to ruan (阮).
2] In old Chinese texts from the Han to the Tang dynasty, the term pipa was used as a generic term for a number plucked chordophones, including ruan, therefore does not necessarily mean the same as the modern usage of pipa which refers only to the pear-shaped instrument. According to the Pipa Annals 《琵琶赋》 by Fu Xuan (傅玄) of the Western Jin Dynasty, the pipa was designed after revision of other Chinese plucked string instruments of the day such as the Chinese zither, zheng (筝) and zhu (筑), or konghou (箜篌), the Chinese harp.
However, it is believed that ruan may have been descended from an instrument called xiantao (弦鼗) which was constructed by labourers on the Great Wall of China during the late Qin Dynasty (hence the name Qin pipa) using strings stretched over a pellet drum.
The antecedent of ruan in the Qin Dynasty (221 BC – 206 BC), i.e. the Qin pipa, had a long, straight neck with a round sound box in contrast to the pear-shape of pipa of later dynasties. The name of "pipa" is associated with "tantiao" (彈挑), a right hand techniques of playing a plucked string instrument. "Pi" (琵), which means "tan" (彈), is the downward movement of plucking the string. "Pa" (琶), which means "tiao" (挑), is the upward movement of plucking the string.
The present name of the ''Qin pipa'', which is "''ruan''", was not given until the Tang Dynasty (8th century). During the reign of
Empress Wu Zetian
Wu Zetian (17 February 624 – 16 December 705), personal name Wu Zhao, was the ''de facto'' ruler of the Tang dynasty from 665 to 705, ruling first through others and then (from 690) in her own right. From 665 to 690, she was first empres ...
(武則天) (about 684–704 AD), a copper instrument that looked like the ''Qin pipa'' was discovered in an ancient tomb in
Sichuan
Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...
(四川). It had 13 frets and a round sound box. It was believed that it was the instrument which the Eastern Jin (東晉) musician
Ruan Xian
Ruan Xian (fl. 3rd century), courtesy name Zhongrong, was a Chinese scholar who lived in the Six Dynasties period. One of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, he was a skilled player of the Chinese lute, an old version of pipa which has been ca ...
(阮咸) loved to play.
[Shen, Sin-Yan (1991). ''Chinese Music and Orchestration: A Primer on Principles and Practice'', p. 108. Chinese Music Society of North America, Woodridge. October 19, 2009.]
Nowadays, although the ''ruan'' was never as popular as the ''pipa'', the ''ruan'' has been divided into several smaller and better-known instruments within the recent few centuries, such as ''
yueqin
The ''yueqin'' (; ja, 月琴, Gekkin; ko, 월금/月琴, Wolgeum; vi, Nguyệt cầm), also called a moon lute or moon guitar, is a traditional Chinese string instrument. It is a lute with a round, hollow soundboard, a short fretted neck, a ...
'' ("moon" lute, 月琴) and ''
qinqin
The qinqin (wiktionary:秦, 秦wiktionary:琴, 琴; pinyin: qínqín; Vietnamese: Đàn sến) is a plucked China, Chinese lute. It was originally manufactured with a wooden body, a slender fretted neck, and three strings. photo 2Its body can ...
'' (Qin
ynastylute, 秦琴) . The short-necked ''yueqin'', with no sound holes, is now used primarily in
Beijing opera
Peking opera, or Beijing opera (), is the most dominant form of Chinese opera, which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics. It arose in Beijing in the mid-Qing dynasty (1644–1912) and became fully developed and recognize ...
accompaniment. The long-necked ''qinqin'' is a member of both Cantonese (廣東) and Chaozhou (潮州) ensembles.
Gallery: Asian plucked lutes, long and short-necked
Musical instruments came into China from Central Asia, such as the pipa, or may have been invented locally such as the Qin-Pipa or sanxian. China became a source of instruments for (or shares instruments in common with) other cultures, including Korea, Japan and Vietnam. Three ways to categorized these are:
*short-necked pipas (such as the pipa, liuqin, bipa, and Tỳ bà)
*short and long-necked moon lutes (such as the yueqin, ruan, gekkin, đàn tứ, đàn đáy, zhongruan, qinqin, đàn sến, đàn nguyệt)
*long-necked lutes ( such as the sanxian, tianqin, shamisen, đàn tam, and đàn tính).
File:China (2482258684) (2).jpg, China, pipa
The pipa, pípá, or p'i-p'a () is a traditional Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ran ...
, 2008.
File:Biwa (1).jpg, Japan, biwa
The is a Japanese short-necked wooden lute traditionally used in narrative storytelling. The is a plucked string instrument that first gained popularity in China before spreading throughout East Asia, eventually reaching Japan sometime duri ...
File:Liuqin.jpg, China, liuqin
The ''liuqin'' (Chinese: , pinyin: ) is a three, four or five -stringed Chinese mandolin with a pear-shaped body. The range of its voice is much higher than the ''pipa'', and it has its own special place in Chinese music, whether in ...
, smaller than pipa
File:Bipa (Korean musical instrument).jpg, Korea, bipa
The ''bipa'' is a pear-shaped lute that is a traditional Korean musical instrument. It is derived from Chinese ''pipa'' and was introduced through the Silk Road to Goguryeo and Silla. There are two major types of ''bipa'': the four stringed ''da ...
File:Tỳ bà.jpg, Vietnam, đàn tỳ bà
File:Lai-Afong, Female Musicians and Singers of Foo-Chow.jpg, China, (left to right) sanxian
The (, literally "three strings") is a three-stringed traditional Chinese lute. It has a long fretless fingerboard, and the body is traditionally made from snake skin stretched over a rounded rectangular resonator. It is made in several sizes ...
, pipa
The pipa, pípá, or p'i-p'a () is a traditional Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ran ...
, two huqin
''Huqin'' () is a family of bowed string instruments, more specifically, a spike fiddle popularly used in Chinese music. The instruments consist of a round, hexagonal, or octagonal sound box at the bottom with a neck attached that protrudes up ...
type fiddles, c. 1907, Fuzhou
Fuzhou (; , Fuzhounese: Hokchew, ''Hók-ciŭ''), alternately romanized as Foochow, is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian province, China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute t ...
.
File:MUSICIANS 2.jpg, China, huqin
''Huqin'' () is a family of bowed string instruments, more specifically, a spike fiddle popularly used in Chinese music. The instruments consist of a round, hexagonal, or octagonal sound box at the bottom with a neck attached that protrudes up ...
type fiddle (left) and a yueqin
The ''yueqin'' (; ja, 月琴, Gekkin; ko, 월금/月琴, Wolgeum; vi, Nguyệt cầm), also called a moon lute or moon guitar, is a traditional Chinese string instrument. It is a lute with a round, hollow soundboard, a short fretted neck, a ...
(moon lute) or ruan
Ruan may refer to:
Buildings
* Ruan Center, office building in Des Moines, Iowa
* John Ruan House, historic mansion in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, t ...
, c. 1874.
File:Woman Playing a Moon Zither.jpg, Japan, gekkin, 1886.
File:Đàn tứ.jpg, Vietnam, đàn tứ, tứ meaning "four" for 4 strings. Also called đàn đoản (đoản meaning "short", referring to the instrument's neck). Related to Chinese yueqin
The ''yueqin'' (; ja, 月琴, Gekkin; ko, 월금/月琴, Wolgeum; vi, Nguyệt cầm), also called a moon lute or moon guitar, is a traditional Chinese string instrument. It is a lute with a round, hollow soundboard, a short fretted neck, a ...
, although 4 individual strings makes it closer to the ruan
Ruan may refer to:
Buildings
* Ruan Center, office building in Des Moines, Iowa
* John Ruan House, historic mansion in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, t ...
.
File:Blind girl sing for a living in Jiufeng.jpg, China, southern yueqin
The ''yueqin'' (; ja, 月琴, Gekkin; ko, 월금/月琴, Wolgeum; vi, Nguyệt cầm), also called a moon lute or moon guitar, is a traditional Chinese string instrument. It is a lute with a round, hollow soundboard, a short fretted neck, a ...
or possibly a zhongruan
The ''zhongruan'' (), is a Chinese plucked string instrument. The ''zhongruan'' has a straight neck with 24 frets on the fingerboard and 4 strings. It is usually played with a plectrum (guitar pick). It can also be played with fingers (index f ...
(中阮, lit. "medium ruan"), 1960. Southern yueqins had long necks, unlike the northern. This instrument lacks the large soundholes that are a trait of the ruan. These are being revived in Taiwan.
File:Dan Nguyet (Vietnamese moon lute).jpg, Vietnam, đàn nguyệt literally means "moon string-instrument" (đàn is the generic term for "string instrument" and nguyệt means "moon"). Image taken in Australia, 2017
File:Cambodian musician playing Chapey, 1880.jpg, Cambodia, Chapei dong veng
The Chapei Dang Veng (Khmer language, Khmer: ចាប៉ីដងវែង) or chapey (ចាប៉ី) is a Cambodian two-stringed, long-necked guitar that is usually plucked. It has two double courses of nylon Strings (music), strings. The top ...
(ចាប៉ីដងវែង) and Thailand grajabpi
Krachappi (Thai: กระจับปี่, pronounced ra.tɕàp.pìː, also spelled Grajabpi, is plucked, fretted lute of Thailand, used in central Thai classical music. It has four strings in two courses that are plucked with a plectru ...
(กระจับปี่), c. 1880. Origin uncertain: China (ruan or yueqin), Islamic (rubab or tanbir), India ("''chapei'' derives from the Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
''kacchap(î)''" turtle shell, used for sound bowl).
File:Man playing a đàn đáy.jpg, Vietnam đàn đáy
The ''đàn đáy'' (Chữ Nôm: 彈𡌠)is a Vietnamese plucked lute with three strings, a trapezoidal wooden body, and a very long wooden neck with ten raised frets. Players formerly used silk strings, but since the late 20th century have gen ...
. Possibly related to Chapei dong veng
The Chapei Dang Veng (Khmer language, Khmer: ចាប៉ីដងវែង) or chapey (ចាប៉ី) is a Cambodian two-stringed, long-necked guitar that is usually plucked. It has two double courses of nylon Strings (music), strings. The top ...
as both are heptatonic
A heptatonic scale is a musical scale that has seven pitches, or tones, per octave. Examples include the major scale or minor scale; e.g., in C major: C D E F G A B C—and in the relative minor, A minor, natural minor: A B C D E F G A; the mel ...
. Also shares characteristic with some Indonesian and Malaysian boat lutes: has an open back.
File:Qinqinplayer.jpg, China, qinqin
The qinqin (wiktionary:秦, 秦wiktionary:琴, 琴; pinyin: qínqín; Vietnamese: Đàn sến) is a plucked China, Chinese lute. It was originally manufactured with a wooden body, a slender fretted neck, and three strings. photo 2Its body can ...
(秦琴) or ''plum blossom qin'' (梅花琴)
File:Đàn Sến.jpg, Vietnam, đàn sến
The ''đàn sến'' is a Vietnamese plucked string instrument with two strings and a slender neck with raised frets. It is derived from the Chinese ''qinqin'' and is used primarily in the traditional music of southern Vietnam. Garland Encyclopedia ...
. Vietnamese version of qinqin
File:Flickr - dalbera - Huong Thanh Trio, (musée Guimet, Paris) (4).jpg, Vietnam đàn nguyệt or đàn sến
The ''đàn sến'' is a Vietnamese plucked string instrument with two strings and a slender neck with raised frets. It is derived from the Chinese ''qinqin'' and is used primarily in the traditional music of southern Vietnam. Garland Encyclopedia ...
File:Chinese orchestra 1 5499690323 c0495e85e5 o.jpg, Larger ruans in an orchestra
File:Dalian Liaoning China Ruan-Player-in-Dalian-Labour-Park-01.jpg, China, ruan
Ruan may refer to:
Buildings
* Ruan Center, office building in Des Moines, Iowa
* John Ruan House, historic mansion in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, t ...
-family instrument, either a bass daruan (大阮) or contrabass diyinruan (低音阮)
File:Tapete-Sanxian.JPG, China, sanxian
The (, literally "three strings") is a three-stringed traditional Chinese lute. It has a long fretless fingerboard, and the body is traditionally made from snake skin stretched over a rounded rectangular resonator. It is made in several sizes ...
, 1780.
File:ShamisenBuskerPittStreetSydney.JPG, Japanese style shamisen
The , also known as the or
(all meaning "three strings"), is a three-stringed traditional Japanese musical instrument derived from the Chinese instrument . It is played with a plectrum called a bachi.
The Japanese pronunciation is usual ...
, 2006 played by a man in Australia. Related to sanxian
The (, literally "three strings") is a three-stringed traditional Chinese lute. It has a long fretless fingerboard, and the body is traditionally made from snake skin stretched over a rounded rectangular resonator. It is made in several sizes ...
File:Dan tam (three-stringed lute) - Vietnam Museum of Ethnology - Hanoi, Vietnam - DSC02536.JPG, Đàn tam, tam means three (for three strings). Related to sanxian
The (, literally "three strings") is a three-stringed traditional Chinese lute. It has a long fretless fingerboard, and the body is traditionally made from snake skin stretched over a rounded rectangular resonator. It is made in several sizes ...
.
File:Thai tinh tau.png, Vietnam, đàn tính, or tianqin (天琴). Gourd lute. A musical instrument of Zhuang people
The Zhuang (; ; za, Bouxcuengh, italic=yes; ) are a Tai-speaking ethnic group who mostly live in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in Southern China. Some also live in the Yunnan, Guangdong, Guizhou, and Hunan provinces. They form one of ...
came to some ethnic groups in Northern mountainous region in Vietnam
File:Vatch music teacher 02.jpg, Thailand sueng
The ''sueng'' ( th, wikt:ซึง, ซึง, Burmese language, Burmese: ၄ကြိုးထပ်ပို (ဆီုင်), , also spelled ''seung'' or ''süng'') is a plucked fretted lute from the Northern Thailand, northern (Lanna) region ...
File:Pinaŭo.jpg, Thailand and Laos, phin
The phin ( th, พิณ, ) is a type of lute with a pear-shaped body, originating in the Isan region of Thailand and played mostly by ethnic Laotians in Thailand and Laos. It has frets on the neck over which two or three metal strings run that a ...
Entering the Middle East, Northern Africa and Europe, the barbat and oud
Bactria and Gandhara became part of the
Sasanian Empire
The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...
(224–651), the last empire of the Persians. Under the Sasanians, a short almond shaped lute from Bactria came to be called the
barbat or barbud, which was developed into the later Islamic world's ''
oud
, image=File:oud2.jpg
, image_capt=Syrian oud made by Abdo Nahat in 1921
, background=
, classification=
* String instruments
*Necked bowl lutes
, hornbostel_sachs=321.321-6
, hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum
, ...
'' or ''ud''.
The lute was brought from
Al-Hira
Al-Hirah ( ar, الحيرة, translit=al-Ḥīra Middle Persian: ''Hērt'' ) was an ancient city in Mesopotamia located south of what is now Kufa in south-central Iraq.
History
Kingdom of the Lakhmids
Al-Hirah was a significant city in pre-Is ...
in Persia to Mecca by
Nadr ibn al-Harith
Al-Naḍr ibn al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAlqama ibn Kalada ibn ʿAbd Manāf ibn Abd al-Dār ibn Quṣayy () (d. 624 CE) was an Arab pagan physician who lived in the same time and region as the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He was captured after the Battle of ...
, probably prior to 602 AD and was adopted by the
Quraish
The Quraysh ( ar, قُرَيْشٌ) were a grouping of Arab clans that historically inhabited and controlled the city of Mecca and its Kaaba. The Islamic prophet Muhammad was born into the Hashim clan of the tribe. Despite this, many of the Qu ...
, a mercantile
Arab tribe
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, No ...
.
He taught the instrument and the song (
ghina, Arabic: غِنَاء) that accompanied it to his people, where the instrument and song "were adopted by singing girls".
Early musicians to use the lute include the Persian
Sa'ib Khathir (died 683 AD), who brought the lute to Medina and
Ibn Suraij in Mecca, said to have been the first to sing Arab songs on a lute "built in the Persian style" in 684 AD.
When the
Umayyads conquered Hispania in 711 and created
Andalusia
Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...
, they brought their ud or
quitra
The kwitra (also '' quwaytara'', ''kouitra'' and ''quitra''); Arabic الكوترة or عود أندلسي (literally Andalusian oud); is an Algerian stringed instrument, sometimes referred to as the Algerian lute. The instrument is tied to And ...
along, into a country that had already known a lute tradition under the Romans, the
pandura
The pandura ( grc, πανδοῦρα, ''pandoura'') or pandore, an ancient string instrument, belonged in the broad class of the lute and guitar instruments. Akkadians played similar instruments from the 3rd millennium BC. Ancient Greek artwork d ...
.
During the 8th and 9th centuries, many musicians and artists from across the Islamic world flocked to Iberia.
Among them was
Abu l-Hasan 'Ali Ibn Nafi' (789–857),
a prominent musician who had trained under
Ishaq al-Mawsili
Ishaq al-Mawsili ( ar, إسحاق الموصلي; 767/772 – March 850) was an Arab musician of Persian origin active as a composer, singer, music theorist and writer on music. The leading musician of his time in the Abbasid Caliphate, he served ...
(d. 850) in
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
and was exiled to Andalusia before 833 AD. He taught and has been credited with adding a fifth string to his oud
and with establishing one of the first schools of
music
Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...
in
Córdoba.
By the 11th century, Muslim sections of Spain, or
Al-Andalus
Al-Andalus DIN 31635, translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label=Berber languages, Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, ...
, had become a center for the manufacture of instruments. These goods spread gradually to
Provence
Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...
, influencing French
troubadour
A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a ''trobairit ...
s and
trouvères and eventually reaching the rest of Europe. While Europe developed the lute, the ''oud'' remained a central part of Arab music, and broader Ottoman music as well, undergoing a range of transformations.
Beside the introduction of the lute to Spain by the Moors, another important point of transfer of the lute from Arabian to European culture was
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
, where it was brought either by Byzantine or later by Muslim musicians.
[Colin Lawson and Robin Stowell, ''The Cambridge History of Musical Performance'', Cambridge University Press, Feb 16, 2012]
/ref> There were singer-lutenists at the court in Palermo following the Norman conquest of the island from the Muslims, and the lute is depicted extensively in the ceiling paintings in the Palermo's royal Cappella Palatina
The Palatine Chapel ( it, Cappella Palatina) is the royal chapel of the Norman Palace in Palermo, Sicily. This building is a mixture of Byzantine, Norman and Fatimid architectural styles, showing the tricultural state of Sicily during the 12t ...
, dedicated by the Norman King Roger II of Sicily
Roger II ( it, Ruggero II; 22 December 1095 – 26 February 1154) was King of Sicily and Africa, son of Roger I of Sicily
Roger I ( it, Ruggero I, Arabic: ''رُجار'', ''Rujār''; Maltese: ''Ruġġieru'', – 22 June 1101), nicknamed Rog ...
in 1140. Sicilian influence increased as Tuscan poets visited Sicily in the 13th century to partake of the local culture. His Hohenstaufen
The Hohenstaufen dynasty (, , ), also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynasty ...
grandson Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick II (German language, German: ''Friedrich''; Italian language, Italian: ''Federico''; Latin: ''Federicus''; 26 December 1194 – 13 December 1250) was King of Sicily from 1198, King of Germany from 1212, King of Italy and Holy Roman Em ...
(1194–1250) continued integrating Muslims into his court, including Moorish musicians.[Roger Boase, ''The Origin and Meaning of Courtly Love: A Critical Study of European Scholarship'', Manchester University Press, 1977, pp. 70–71.]
/ref> By the 14th century, lutes had disseminated throughout Italy and, probably because of the cultural influence of the Hohenstaufen kings and emperor, based in Palermo, the lute had also made significant inroads into the German-speaking lands.
Although the major entry of the short lute was in western Europe, leading to a variety of lute styles, the short lute entered Europe in the East as well; as early as the 6th century, the Bulgars brought the short-necked variety of the instrument called Komuz
The komuz or qomuz ( ky, комуз , az, Qopuz, tr, Kopuz) is an ancient fretless string instrument used in Central Asian music, related to certain other Turkic string instruments, the Mongolian tovshuur, and the lute. The instrument can be f ...
to the Balkans.
Additionally, the Byzantine Empire bordered on both Europe and Persia. The Central Asian lute, now middle Eastern, can be seen in Byzantine artwork from the 9th and 10th centuried.
File:Shahrud.jpg, Shahrud
The Shahrud (Turkish ''Şehrud'' from Persian شاهرود, DMG ''šāh-i rūd'' or ''šāh-rūd'') was a short-necked lute, illustrated in the '' Surname-i Hümayun'', resembling an oud or barbat, but being much larger. The larger size gave th ...
, illustrated in the '' Surname-i Hümayun''
Muslim and European instruments, blended tradition
Fusion, instruments and music
Instruments from approximately the 12th and 13th centuries in Spain and Sicily, areas conquered by Muslims and then European Christians. Instrument identities are educated guesses, even by experts, as none of these were labeled and historical descriptions of different types are vague. Places where cultures interact is a breeding ground of new ideas, where experimentation creates new instruments, the same process that blends different types of music to create new music by fusion
Fusion, or synthesis, is the process of combining two or more distinct entities into a new whole.
Fusion may also refer to:
Science and technology Physics
*Nuclear fusion, multiple atomic nuclei combining to form one or more different atomic nucl ...
. A similar process happened in Central Asia, over centuries of repeated trade by different cultures and conquests by different tribes.
Even after the Muslims were conquered in Spain or driven out, the process of experimentation continued, leading to a number of European instruments, including the guitar. A similar process occurred in Italy. Both Spain and Italy experimented with the viol
The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitc ...
or vihuela
The vihuela () is a 15th-century fretted plucked Spanish string instrument, shaped like a guitar (figure-of-eight form offering strength and portability) but tuned like a lute. It was used in 15th- and 16th-century Spain as the equivalent of t ...
which led to bowed viols, viola
The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...
s vielle
The vielle is a European bowed stringed instrument used in the medieval period, similar to a modern violin but with a somewhat longer and deeper body, three to five gut strings, and a leaf-shaped pegbox with frontal tuning pegs, sometimes with a ...
s, and guitars
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
. Other experiments led to the citole
The citole was a string musical instrument, closely associated with the medieval fiddles (viol, vielle, gigue) and commonly used from 1200–1350."CITOLE, also spelled Systole, Cythole, Gytolle, &c. (probably a Fr. diminutive form of cithar ...
and cittern
The cittern or cithren ( Fr. ''cistre'', It. ''cetra'', Ger. ''Cister,'' Sp. ''cistro, cedra, cítola'') is a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is d ...
or Portuguese guitar
The Portuguese guitar or Portuguese guitarra ( pt, guitarra portuguesa, ) is a plucked string instrument with twelve steel strings, strung in six course (music), courses of two strings. It is one of the few musical instruments that still uses wat ...
, the gittern
The gittern was a relatively small gut-strung, round-backed instrument that first appears in literature and pictorial representation during the 13th century in Western Europe (Iberian Peninsula, Italy, France, England). It is usually depicted pl ...
and vandola (mandore, mandola) which also led to the guitar, but also to the mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
family. Spanish instruments that survived in Spanish colonies include the tiple
A tiple (, literally treble or soprano), is a plucked typically 12-string chordophone of the guitar family. A tiple player is called a ''tiplista''. The first mention of the tiple comes from musicologist Pablo Minguet e Irol in 1752. Although ma ...
.
Portuguese experiments led to the Portuguese guitar, and other instruments seen today in places that Portuguese ships landed, including the cavaquinho
The cavaquinho (pronounced in Portuguese) is a small Portuguese string instrument in the European guitar family, with four wires or gut strings.
More broadly, ''cavaquinho'' is the name of a four-stringed subdivision of the lute family of instr ...
and ukulele
The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings.
The tone and volume of the instrumen ...
.
File:European and Islamic musicians in 13th century playing stringed instruments.jpg, Al Andalus
Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...
, Cantigas de Santa Maria
The ''Cantigas de Santa Maria'' (, ; "Canticles of Holy Mary") are 420 poems with musical notation, written in the medieval Galician-Portuguese language during the reign of Alfonso X of Castile ''El Sabio'' (1221–1284). Traditionally, they ar ...
, Musicians playing lute-family instruments. These have been called guitarra latina
The guitarra latina is a plucked string instrument of the Medieval period in Europe. It has single string courses, and it is normally played with a pick. This gittern or citole with curved sides is illustrated in the medieval musical text the Ca ...
, guitarra morisca
The Guitarra morisca or Mandora medieval is a plucked string instrument. It is a lute that has a bulging belly and a headstock as sickle. Part of that characterization came from a c. 1330 poem, ''Libro de buen amor'' by Juan Ruiz, arcipestre de ...
and tambura
File:Guitar latina morisca.jpg, Al Andalus
Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...
, Cantigas de Santa Maria
The ''Cantigas de Santa Maria'' (, ; "Canticles of Holy Mary") are 420 poems with musical notation, written in the medieval Galician-Portuguese language during the reign of Alfonso X of Castile ''El Sabio'' (1221–1284). Traditionally, they ar ...
, European musicians playing lute family instruments, possibly (left) citole
The citole was a string musical instrument, closely associated with the medieval fiddles (viol, vielle, gigue) and commonly used from 1200–1350."CITOLE, also spelled Systole, Cythole, Gytolle, &c. (probably a Fr. diminutive form of cithar ...
s or guitarra latina
The guitarra latina is a plucked string instrument of the Medieval period in Europe. It has single string courses, and it is normally played with a pick. This gittern or citole with curved sides is illustrated in the medieval musical text the Ca ...
and (right) guitarra morisca
The Guitarra morisca or Mandora medieval is a plucked string instrument. It is a lute that has a bulging belly and a headstock as sickle. Part of that characterization came from a c. 1330 poem, ''Libro de buen amor'' by Juan Ruiz, arcipestre de ...
File:Vihuela de arco en las Cantigas de Alfonso X el Sabio.jpg, Al Andalus
Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...
, Cantigas de Santa Maria
The ''Cantigas de Santa Maria'' (, ; "Canticles of Holy Mary") are 420 poems with musical notation, written in the medieval Galician-Portuguese language during the reign of Alfonso X of Castile ''El Sabio'' (1221–1284). Traditionally, they ar ...
, European musicians playing viol
The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitc ...
a de arco
Two European lutes with oud soundholes.jpg, Al Andalus
Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...
, Cantigas de Santa Maria
The ''Cantigas de Santa Maria'' (, ; "Canticles of Holy Mary") are 420 poems with musical notation, written in the medieval Galician-Portuguese language during the reign of Alfonso X of Castile ''El Sabio'' (1221–1284). Traditionally, they ar ...
, Europeans holding lutes with W sound holes (a Muslim instrument feature) and the drilled dots (found on the Gambus and on Eastern European lutes into the early 20th century AD.
File:Capellapalatinamusician.jpg, Palmero, Sicily, c. 1140 AD, oud from the Capella Palatina.
File:Cantigas Santa Maria.jpg, Al Andalus
Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...
, Cantigas de Santa Maria
The ''Cantigas de Santa Maria'' (, ; "Canticles of Holy Mary") are 420 poems with musical notation, written in the medieval Galician-Portuguese language during the reign of Alfonso X of Castile ''El Sabio'' (1221–1284). Traditionally, they ar ...
, European musicians playing (left) viol
The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitc ...
a de arco and (right) citole
The citole was a string musical instrument, closely associated with the medieval fiddles (viol, vielle, gigue) and commonly used from 1200–1350."CITOLE, also spelled Systole, Cythole, Gytolle, &c. (probably a Fr. diminutive form of cithar ...
s or plucked fiddles or guitarra latina
The guitarra latina is a plucked string instrument of the Medieval period in Europe. It has single string courses, and it is normally played with a pick. This gittern or citole with curved sides is illustrated in the medieval musical text the Ca ...
File:Cantigas de Santa María, Codex of the musicians, B-I-2 162R lute rebab.jpg, Al Andalus, Cantigas de Santa Maria, large instrument has been called barbat, oud
, image=File:oud2.jpg
, image_capt=Syrian oud made by Abdo Nahat in 1921
, background=
, classification=
* String instruments
*Necked bowl lutes
, hornbostel_sachs=321.321-6
, hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum
, ...
and lute
A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted.
More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...
. Smaller instrument is a type of rubab or rebab
The ''rebab'' ( ar, ربابة, ''rabāba'', variously spelled ''rebap'', ''rubob'', ''rebeb'', ''rababa'', ''rabeba'', ''robab'', ''rubab'', ''rebob'', etc) is the name of several related string instruments that independently spread via I ...
.
File:Cantiga rabé morisco.jpg, Al Andalus, Cantigas de Santa Maria, Andalusian or Magreb rebab
File:Cantigas de Santa Maria (fragment).jpg, Al Andalus, Cantigas de Santa Maria, Right Image:Vielle
The vielle is a European bowed stringed instrument used in the medieval period, similar to a modern violin but with a somewhat longer and deeper body, three to five gut strings, and a leaf-shaped pegbox with frontal tuning pegs, sometimes with a ...
or viola de arco
The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitch ...
and citole
The citole was a string musical instrument, closely associated with the medieval fiddles (viol, vielle, gigue) and commonly used from 1200–1350."CITOLE, also spelled Systole, Cythole, Gytolle, &c. (probably a Fr. diminutive form of cithar ...
or guitarra latina
The guitarra latina is a plucked string instrument of the Medieval period in Europe. It has single string courses, and it is normally played with a pick. This gittern or citole with curved sides is illustrated in the medieval musical text the Ca ...
. Left image Vielle
The vielle is a European bowed stringed instrument used in the medieval period, similar to a modern violin but with a somewhat longer and deeper body, three to five gut strings, and a leaf-shaped pegbox with frontal tuning pegs, sometimes with a ...
File:Spanische Musikanten - Miniatur 13. Jh. Escorial.jpg, Al Andalus, Cantigas de Santa Maria, unknown fiddles
File:Vielle and Plucked fiddle from Cantigas de Santa Maria.jpg, Al Andalus, Cantigas de Santa Maria, fiddle and plucked fiddle.
File:Vielles and Citole, Manuscript T (El Escorial, Biblioteca del Real Monasterio, MS. T. I. 1), fol. 5r, detail.jpg, two vielles and a citole
File:Cappella Palatina-ceiling-ISL15015.jpg, Sicily, c. 1140 AD. Lute family instrument or rubab. Not clear whether wood or leather top; both rubab and lute style soundholes.
File:Guitarra morisca (Chitarrino Arabo).jpg, Sicily, 12th century image from the Cefalù Cathedral. Skin topped lute, possibly guitarra morisca
The Guitarra morisca or Mandora medieval is a plucked string instrument. It is a lute that has a bulging belly and a headstock as sickle. Part of that characterization came from a c. 1330 poem, ''Libro de buen amor'' by Juan Ruiz, arcipestre de ...
or rubab
File:Moorish women playing chess, European woman playing lute.jpg, León and Galicia, c. 1283. European image of Muslim Spain, showing a European woman, playing lute or oud for Moorish women.
Indo-Persian-Chinese-Mongolian culture
In areas around the Himalayas, variations of the rubab developed, part of Indo-Persian culture
Indo-Persian culture refers to a cultural synthesis present in the Indian subcontinent. It is characterised by the absorption or integration of Persian aspects into the various cultures of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. The earliest introductio ...
. From India, north through Pakistan, Nepal, into Persian/Turk areas of Central Asia, a group of barbed lutes and double-chested, skin-topped lutes developed. Today these include both plucked and bowed instruments, the sarod
The sarod is a stringed instrument, used in Hindustani music on the Indian subcontinent. Along with the sitar, it is among the most popular and prominent instruments. It is known for a deep, weighty, introspective sound, in contrast with the sweet ...
, rubab, sarinda, rebab
The ''rebab'' ( ar, ربابة, ''rabāba'', variously spelled ''rebap'', ''rubob'', ''rebeb'', ''rababa'', ''rabeba'', ''robab'', ''rubab'', ''rebob'', etc) is the name of several related string instruments that independently spread via I ...
, tungana.
The instruments had a connection to the steppes
In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes.
Steppe biomes may include:
* the montane grasslands and shrublands biome
* the temperate grasslands, ...
horse cultures, that conquered from China to Europe in waves of invaders. Images have been found from Mongolian peoples in northern China, to the Turkic and Persian peoples in Northern India, Central Asia and Iran. Like the barbat and oud, these instruments went both east and west. They can be found in Nepal, Tibet, Southeast Asia and China. The instruments also traveled through Arabia (and on boats from there to Southeast Asia), across Northern Africa to the Iberian peninsula.
Chinese sanxian
It has been suggested that the sanxian
The (, literally "three strings") is a three-stringed traditional Chinese lute. It has a long fretless fingerboard, and the body is traditionally made from snake skin stretched over a rounded rectangular resonator. It is made in several sizes ...
, a form of spike lute
Spike, spikes, or spiking may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Books
* ''The Spike'' (novel), a novel by Arnaud de Borchgrave
* ''The Spike'' (book), a nonfiction book by Damien Broderick
* ''The Spike'', a starship in Peter F. Hamilto ...
, may have its origin in the Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
, and older forms of spike lute were also found in ancient Egypt. Similar instruments may have been present in China as early as the Qin dynasty
The Qin dynasty ( ; zh, c=秦朝, p=Qín cháo, w=), or Ch'in dynasty in Wade–Giles romanization ( zh, c=, p=, w=Ch'in ch'ao), was the first Dynasties in Chinese history, dynasty of Imperial China. Named for its heartland in Qin (state), ...
as ''qin pipa'' (''pipa
The pipa, pípá, or p'i-p'a () is a traditional Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ran ...
'' was used as a generic term in ancient China for many other forms of plucked chordophone
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner.
Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the st ...
s) or ''xiantao'' (弦鼗). Some thought that the instrument may have been re-introduced into China together with other instruments such as ''huqin
''Huqin'' () is a family of bowed string instruments, more specifically, a spike fiddle popularly used in Chinese music. The instruments consist of a round, hexagonal, or octagonal sound box at the bottom with a neck attached that protrudes up ...
'' by the Mongols during the Yuan dynasty
The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fifth ...
(1271–1368), however, an image of a sanxian-like instrument was found in a stone sculpture dating from the Southern Song
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. ...
period (1217–79). The first record of the name "sanxian" may be found in a Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
text.
The instrument was transmitted to other East Asian countries, for example to Japan as ''shamisen
The , also known as the or
(all meaning "three strings"), is a three-stringed traditional Japanese musical instrument derived from the Chinese instrument . It is played with a plectrum called a bachi.
The Japanese pronunciation is usual ...
''.
File:SanXian.JPG, A ''sanxian''
Gambus and rabâb, skin tops plucked and bowed, rebab, rubab rabâb, robab
In ''The History of Musical Instruments'', Sachs talked about a second kind of short lute found in the "Islamic Near East", carved from a single piece of wood, no distinct neck and a pegbox that was sickle shaped. There was also a kind with "an inferior stringholder".
The instruments that would become the gambus with sickle shaped pegbox traveled east "as far as the Celebes
Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu A ...
in Southeast Asia and southwards to Madagascar off the east coast of Africa". Another scholar thinks they traveled across the Indian ocean as well on Yemeni ships, as the Yemeni quanbus The gambus is among the last of the family of skin-topped lutes. Sachs names the instruments gambus, kabosa and qūpūz.
The gambus is plucked, but many of the variants are bowed. By the time the instrument became bowed, it was named rabâb, a name that has been used for long-necked skin topped instruments as well. The Cantigas de Santa Maria in Southern Spain had examples of both bowed and unbowed instruments.
The early instruments traveled west to enter Europe through Andalusia
Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...
and Eastern Europe where they gained wooden tops and became lyras. In Yemen, the instrument was known as the quanbus. It traveled to Southeast Asia with Yemeni sailors. Over time, some of these became intertwine with spike fiddles. Variations of these instruments can be found in China, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and Europe.
Variations include the rebab
The ''rebab'' ( ar, ربابة, ''rabāba'', variously spelled ''rebap'', ''rubob'', ''rebeb'', ''rababa'', ''rabeba'', ''robab'', ''rubab'', ''rebob'', etc) is the name of several related string instruments that independently spread via I ...
s that spread via Islamic trading route
A trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. The term can also be used to refer to trade over bodies of water. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a sing ...
s over much of North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
, the Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
, parts of Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, and the Far East
The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.
The ter ...
. The Medieval European Rebec
The rebec (sometimes rebecha, rebeckha, and other spellings, pronounced or ) is a bowed stringed instrument of the Medieval era and the early Renaissance. In its most common form, it has a narrow boat-shaped body and one to five strings.
Origi ...
, Croatian 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 H ...
, Cretan Cretan lyra
)
* Lira da braccio
* Rabāb (Arabic الرباب)
* Lijerica
* Violin
, musicians =
* Andreas Rodinos
* Alekos Karavitis
* Antonis Papadakis (Kareklas)
* Kostas Mountakis
* Nikos Xilouris
* Psarantonis
* Ross Daly
* Yiorgos Kalou ...
, 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 ...
and Russian Gudok
The gudok (, russian: гудок), gudochek (, russian: гудочек) is an ancient Eastern Slavic string musical instrument, played with a bow. , the Gusle
The gusle ( sr-cyrl, гусле) or lahuta ( sq, lahutë) is a single-stringed musical instrument (and musical style) traditionally used in the Dinarides region of Southeastern Europe (in the Balkans). The instrument is always accompanied by s ...
used in Serbia, Romania, Albania and Bulgaria, the Eastern Mediterranean Kemenche
Kemenche ( tr, kemençe) or Lyra is a name used for various types of stringed bowed musical instruments originating in the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly in Armenia, Greece, Iran, Turkey, and Azerbaijan. and regions adjacent to the Black S ...
and Persian 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 ...
, the Kazakh Kobyz
The Kobyz ( kk, қобыз, ''Qobyz''; ba, ҡумыҙ; tt-Cyrl, кубыз) or ''kylkobyz'' ( kk, қылқобыз, ''qylqobyz''; ba, ҡыл ҡумыҙ; tt-Cyrl, кылкубыз) is an ancient Turkic bowed string instrument, spread among Ka ...
, Bangladeshi Ektara
Ektara ( bn, একতারা, hi, एकतारा, ur, اِک تارا, ne, एकतारे, pa, ਇਕ ਤਾਰਾ, ta, எக்டரா; literally 'one-string', also called actara, iktar, ektar, yaktaro, gopichand, gopichant, ...
are variations.
Gallery: skin topped lutes and rubabs
These can blur the line between long-necked instruments and short necked. The soundbox is, in some cases, so long that it effectively adds to the instrument's scale-length, like a long neck.
Gambus or qanbus
File:Qanbuz.JPG, Yemen or Indonesia. Gambus or qanbūs
File:Syrian qanbus nyc met.jpg, Syria, 1899. Qanbūs.
Short-necked rabab with double sound chamber
File:'By @ibneAzhar'-BaltitFort-Hunza-GB-Pakistan- (99).JPG, Pakistan. Rubab with upper sound chamber expose
File:Robab.jpg, Iran. Robab, upper sound chamber covered with wood, top has frets
File:Ustad Ghulam Hussein.JPG, Afghanistan. Rubab, top has frets
File:Aashish Khan.jpg, India. Sarod
The sarod is a stringed instrument, used in Hindustani music on the Indian subcontinent. Along with the sitar, it is among the most popular and prominent instruments. It is known for a deep, weighty, introspective sound, in contrast with the sweet ...
, has no frets
Barbed lutes, long-necked with double chamber or chamber extending into neck
File:Rabab ca. 1885 Indian (north), Metropolitan Museum of Art.jpg, India (Northern). Rabab c. 1885, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Was called rudra veena
The ''Rudra veena'' ( sa, रुद्र वीणा) (also spelled ''Rudraveena'' or ''Rudra vina'')—also called ''Bīn'' in North India—is a large plucked string instrument used in Hindustani Music, especially dhrupad. It is one of the m ...
when collected.
File:Sursanga 19th century by Ali Akbar Khan, Metropolitan Museum of Art.png, Sursingar
The sursingar (IAST: ), sursringar or surshringar (Sringara: Pleasure in Sanskrit), is a musical instrument originating from the Indian subcontinent having many similarities with the sarod. It is larger than the sarod and produces a deeper sound. ...
or sursanga, 19th century by Ali Akbar Khan. Metropolitan Museum of Art
File:Rahmat Khan.jpg, Sursingar player
File:Indian village musicians.jpg, Tambura; this one is very similar in shape to the bowed Kamaica and Seni rebab
The Seni rebab ( Hindustani: सेनी रबाब (Devanagari), (Nastaleeq), Punjabi: ਸੇਨੀ ਰੱਬਾਬ), also known as the Seniya rabab ( Hindustani: सेनिया रबाब (Devanagari), (Nastaleeq)) is a plucked str ...
File:Un iranien joue au Tar.JPG, Iran. Tar
Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. "a dark brown or black bit ...
, double sound chambers with a skin top
File:Iranian or Persian youth playing tar or rubab.jpg, Iran, rubab or tar, (possibly showing wooden upper top, skin lower top), c. late 16th century AD
File:Sgra-Snyan,14th–16th century,Tibetan.jpg, Sgra-Snyan, 14th–16th centuries, Tibetan. Two sound chambers
File:RubabPamiri9strings.jpg, Pamiri rubab
The Pamiri rubab (Russian and Tajiki: рубоб) is a fretless six-strung lute, carved from a single piece of wood with a skin head. It is played in the Badakhshan region of Tajikistan, as part of the Pamiri musical tradition.
The Pamiri ruba ...
, longer necked type of rubab, sound holes up neck show it is hollow
File:Luth dranyen (musée d'ethnographie, Neuchâtel, Suisse) (28873179047).jpg, Bhutan. Dranyen.
File:Muhammad Jaffar 1590.jpg, Iranian style rubab c. 1590, longer neck, painted by Muhammad Jaffar
File:Rubab late 12th or early 13th century AD.jpg, Iranian or Persian rubab, late-12th to early 13th century AD, Iran
File:Bangladesh dotara.JPG, Bangladesh, Bengal, and Assam. Dotara
The ''dotara'' (or ''dotar'') Persian ( bn, দোতারা, as, দোতাৰা, literally, 'Of or having two strings') is a two, four, or sometimes five- stringed musical instrument, originating from Iran and Central Asia. It is comm ...
File:Prakash Gandharva playing the arbajo आरबाजो.png, Nepal, arbajo
The aarbajo () is a Nepali four-string lute used as a rhythm instrument (Tālabājā ()). It is the traditional instrument of the Gandarbha caste of musical performers, and is considered a companion to the Nepali sarangi. The Gandarbhas consider ...
File:Nepalese instrument.jpg, Nepali tungana
File:Dranyen.png, Dramyin or dranyen
The dramyin or dranyen (; dz, dramnyen; ) is a traditional Himalayan folk music lute with six strings, used primarily as an accompaniment to singing in the Drukpa Buddhist culture and society in Bhutan, as well as in Tibet, Ladakh, Sikkim and ...
, 2005, Tibet
File:Musical instruments Rubabs and Dutars in Tajikistan.JPG, Bottom Tajik rubab (or rawap
The rawap (Uyghur: راۋاپ, равап Uzbek: rubob) is a fretted plucked long-necked stringed instrument used in folk music by residents of the Uyghur autonomous region of Xinjiang, Western China. The history of the instrument dates back ...
), middle tar
Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. "a dark brown or black bit ...
, top dutar
The ''dutar'' (also ''Dotara, dotar''; fa, دوتار, dutâr; russian: Дутар; tg, дутор; ug, دۇتار, ucy=Дутар, Dutar; uz, dutor; ; dng, Дутар) is a traditional Iranian long-necked two-stringed lute found in Iran and ...
. The sound chamber on the rawap does not extend beyond the round bowl.
Gallery: spike fiddles, bowed rabâbs, kamanchas, liras
File:Sarinda1.gif, India, sarinda. Double chambered like Afghan rubab.
File:Anchor Shaped Sarinda.jpg, Eastern India. Tribal fiddle instruments called " Dhodro Banam" used by Santal people
The Santal or Santhal are an Austroasiatic speaking
Munda ethnic group in South Asia. Santals are the largest tribe in the Jharkhand and West Bengal state of India in terms of population and are also found in the states of Odisha, Bihar and A ...
.
File:Nepali sarangi.jpg, Nepal. Nepali sarangi
File:Sakar Khan-Amarrass-Artist.jpg, India. Kamsica, close relative to the plucked Seni rebab
The Seni rebab ( Hindustani: सेनी रबाब (Devanagari), (Nastaleeq), Punjabi: ਸੇਨੀ ਰੱਬਾਬ), also known as the Seniya rabab ( Hindustani: सेनिया रबाब (Devanagari), (Nastaleeq)) is a plucked str ...
and sursingar
The sursingar (IAST: ), sursringar or surshringar (Sringara: Pleasure in Sanskrit), is a musical instrument originating from the Indian subcontinent having many similarities with the sarod. It is larger than the sarod and produces a deeper sound. ...
File:The Childrens Museum of Indianapolis - Sarangi.jpg, India, 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 ...
File:National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka - Rabab Andalusiyyah - Morocco - Made around 1991.jpg, Morocco, 1991. Maghreb rebab
The Maghreb rebab is a bowed lute now played mainly in Northern Africa. It fits within the wider rebab traditions of the Arab world, but also branched into European musical tradition in Spain, Sicily, and the Holy Roman Empire. In the late Middle ...
or Rabab Andalusiyyah (Andalusian Rabab), brought to North Africa from The Iberian Peninsula after Reconquista
The ' (Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the Nasrid ...
File:Rabab saharaoui.jpg, rabâb saharaoui, 1879
File:Joseph Scherer - Blind lyra-player - 1844.jpg, kemenche
Kemenche ( tr, kemençe) or Lyra is a name used for various types of stringed bowed musical instruments originating in the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly in Armenia, Greece, Iran, Turkey, and Azerbaijan. and regions adjacent to the Black S ...
, 1844
File:Liraris.jpg, kemenche
Kemenche ( tr, kemençe) or Lyra is a name used for various types of stringed bowed musical instruments originating in the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly in Armenia, Greece, Iran, Turkey, and Azerbaijan. and regions adjacent to the Black S ...
, Greece, late 19th or early 20th century
File:Cappella Palatina-ceiling-Female musician.jpg, Rebab, Sicily, c. 1140 AD. Painting from the Cappella Palatina
The Palatine Chapel ( it, Cappella Palatina) is the royal chapel of the Norman Palace in Palermo, Sicily. This building is a mixture of Byzantine, Norman and Fatimid architectural styles, showing the tricultural state of Sicily during the 12t ...
. Same sound holes found on Al Andalusia lutes
File:Russ instr gudok.gif, gudok
The gudok (, russian: гудок), gudochek (, russian: гудочек) is an ancient Eastern Slavic string musical instrument, played with a bow. , Russia
File:Lira calabrese.JPG, 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=
, ...
File:Azerbaijani player in chaganeh.jpg, Azerbaijan, 3010. Chagane
The Chagane ( az, cağan, çəqanə, ka, ჩაგანი) is an Azerbaijani four-stringed bowed musical instrument. Its range is F#2 to F#5.
While played, instrument is held in a vertical position. Sound is produced with a bow in the right ha ...
File:Uyghur satar or sataer (ساتار).jpg, Uyghur man playing Satar
Za'atar ( ; ar, زَعْتَر, ) is a culinary herb or family of herbs. It is also the name of a spice mixture that includes the herb along with toasted sesame seeds, dried sumac, often salt, as well as other spices. As a family of related ...
, Xinjiang
Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...
, China
File:Pastimes of Central Asians. Musicians. A Man Practicing the Kamancha, a Long-necked Stringed Instrument WDL10824.png, kamancha
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, a ...
, a Long-necked Stringed Instrument, c. 1865–1872, Turkestan
File:Man with folklor.jpg, 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 ...
, 2016, Egypt
File:2 Kamānches, Persia, ca. 1880.jpg, 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 ...
, c. 1880s, Iran
File:Kokyu LACMA M.80.219.60.jpg, kokyū
The is a traditional Japanese string instrument, the only one played with a bow. A variant of the instrument also exists in Okinawa, called in Okinawan.
The , like the , has its origins in Okinawa. Although it is similar to Chinese , it a ...
, Japan, 19th century
File:Mongolian Musician.jpg, morin khuur
The ''morin khuur'' ( mn, морин хуур, morin khuur), also known as the horsehead fiddle, is a traditional Mongolian bowed stringed instrument. It is one of the most important musical instruments of the Mongol people, and is considered a ...
, Mongolia 2005
File:20170309 090540 Ravanahatha player Jaisalmer anagoria.jpg, ravanahatha
A ravanahatha (variant names: ''ravanhatta'', ''rawanhattha'', ''ravanastron'', ''ravana hasta veena'') is an ancient bowed, stringed instrument, used in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and surrounding areas. It has been suggested as an ancestor of t ...
, 2017, India
File:Família d'instruments huqin.jpg, huqin
''Huqin'' () is a family of bowed string instruments, more specifically, a spike fiddle popularly used in Chinese music. The instruments consist of a round, hexagonal, or octagonal sound box at the bottom with a neck attached that protrudes up ...
-family instruments, China
File:Vatch music teacher 01.jpg, Thailand, coconut shell saw u
The ''saw u'' ( th, ซออู้, , ; also spelled ''saw ou'') is a Thai bowed string instrument. It has a lower pitch than the saw duang and is the lowest sounding of the saw family.
Reliable evidence shows that pattern of the Saw U was prob ...
ซออู้, the lowest pitch instrument in its family, which also includes the hardwood or ivory saw duang
A saw is a tool consisting of a tough blade, Wire saw, wire, or Chain saw, chain with a hard toothed edge. It is used to cut through material, very often wood, though sometimes metal or stone. The cut is made by placing the toothed edge against ...
(ซอด้วง) and three-stringed Saw sam sai (ซอสามสาย).
File:Khmer instruments 04.jpg, Cambodia, Tro (ទ្រ). This family of instruments includes coconut-shell tro u (ទ្រអ៊ូ), small hardwood tro sau toch (ទ្រសោតូច), bigger hardwood tro sau thom (ទ្រសោធំ), and the tro che. Also a three-stringed tro Khmer (ទ្រខ្មែរ).
File:Emile gsell cambodian woman.jpg, Cambodia, c. 1880, tro Khmer
The ''tro Khmer'' () is a traditional bowed string instrument from Cambodia. Its body is made from a special type of coconut covered on one end with snake skin, and it has three strings. Instruments are not standardized, and coconuts vary in si ...
(ទ្រខ្មែរ)
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Een rebabspeler TMnr 60052115.jpg, Indonesia, Rebab
The ''rebab'' ( ar, ربابة, ''rabāba'', variously spelled ''rebap'', ''rubob'', ''rebeb'', ''rababa'', ''rabeba'', ''robab'', ''rubab'', ''rebob'', etc) is the name of several related string instruments that independently spread via I ...
. Some of the Indonesian rebabs have the same shaped-coconut that the Cambodian and Thai instruments use. Others have ordinary round coconuts.
File:Haegeum player.jpg, Korea, haegeum
The ''haegeum'' () is a traditional Korean string instrument, resembling a vertical fiddle with two strings; derived from '' xiqin'', traditional Instrument of Xi people, which was introduced in Goryeo Dynasty through Northern Song. It has ...
2 strings
File:DPRK-Sohaegeum.jpg, North Korea, sohaegeum
The sohaegeum () is a North Korean musical instrument, developed in the 1960s. It is essentially a modernized form of the '' haegeum'' (a traditional Korean bowed vertical fiddle). ''So'' (hanja: 四) in ''sohaegeum'' means "four", because it ha ...
, 4 strings
India and Southeast Asia
Among modern lutes in India are the sitar
The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form ...
, tanpura
The tanpura (), also referred to as tambura and tanpuri, is a long-necked plucked string instrument, originating in India, found in various forms in Indian music.
It does not play melody, but rather supports and sustains the melody of an ...
and Saraswati veena
The Sarasvatī vīṇa (also spelled Saraswati vina) (Devanagari: सरस्वती वीणा (vīṇā), te, సరస్వతి వీణ, kan, ಸರಸ್ವತಿ ವೀಣೆ, ta, சரஸ்வதி வீணை, Malayalam ...
.
The sitar
The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form ...
is currently believed to have developed from tanbur
The term ''Tanbur'' ( fa, تنبور, ) can refer to various long-necked string instruments originating in Mesopotamia, Southern or Central Asia. According to the '' New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', "terminology presents a compli ...
s during Muslim rule in the north, after 1192 C.E. The Saraswati veena
The Sarasvatī vīṇa (also spelled Saraswati vina) (Devanagari: सरस्वती वीणा (vīṇā), te, సరస్వతి వీణ, kan, ಸರಸ್ವತಿ ವೀಣೆ, ta, சரஸ்வதி வீணை, Malayalam ...
was developed in about 1600-1634 during the reign of Raghunatha Nayak
Raghunatha Nayak was the most powerful king of the Thanjavur Nayak Dynasty. He was the third ruler of Thanjavur, southern India, from the Nayak dynasty. He ruled from 1600 to 1634 and is noted for the attainments of Thanjavur in literature, art, ...
.[Vīṇā eena Alastair Dick, Richard Widdess, Philippe Bruguière and Gordon Geekie https://doi.org/10.1093/omo/9781561592630.013.90000347354 Published in print: 12 August 2014 Published online: 29 October 2019] It was developed from the "barbed rabab" of the Moghul courts, with the tuning, frets, upper resonator, string and running coming from the native stick-zither instruments such as the kinnari vina
The ''kinnari vina'' (Sanskrit: किन्नरी वीणा) is a historical veena, a tube zither with gourds attached to act as resonators and frets. It was played in India into the late 19th century and was documented by two European arti ...
.[
However, this is not to say India was unfamiliar with lutes earlier in its history. Images of Indian lutes exist, both short necked and long necked instruments as far back as the Shunga Empire in the 2nd century B.C.
In the north of India a lute from the first century C.E. may be seen in a Mathuran sculpture. In the 1st-4th centuries C.E., lutes traveled with Buddhists in Northern India along the Silk Road and can be seen in sculptures in ]Gandhara
Gandhāra is the name of an ancient region located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely in present-day north-west Pakistan and parts of south-east Afghanistan. The region centered around the Peshawar Vall ...
, where Buddhism mixed with Hellenism.
In the south of India, images at the Ajanta Caves
The Ajanta Caves are approximately thirty rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments dating from the second century BCE to about 480 CE in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state in India. The caves include paintings and rock-cut sculptures des ...
(450-490 A.D.) and Pawaya (4th-5th century A.D.) also show the instruments in years approaching the medieval period
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
. Sculptures by Buddhist and Hindu cultures at Champa (Cham culture), Ku Bua, Thailand (Dvaravati culture), and Borobudur, show Indian cultural influence and images of lutes dating to the 7th through the 9th century A.D.
Lutes in Hindu and Buddhist artwork
:''See: Ancient maritime history
Maritime history dates back thousands of years. In ancient maritime history, evidence of maritime trade between civilizations dates back at least two millennia. The first prehistoric boats are presumed to have been dugout canoes which were devel ...
'' ''See: Veena
The ''veena'', also spelled ''vina'' ( sa, वीणा IAST: vīṇā), comprises various chordophone instruments from the Indian subcontinent. Ancient musical instruments evolved into many variations, such as lutes, zithers and arched harps.< ...
''
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
consists of countries connected to the continent, such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, Laos, as well as island nations such as Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
and Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
and New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu
Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea).
It is a simplified version of ...
. During the first millennium AD, Southeast Asia has had connections to India, Africa, China, Melanesia
Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from Indonesia's New Guinea in the west to Fiji in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea.
The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Va ...
and the Arab Peninsula. Musical instruments can be grouped by geographic location, ethnicity or religion; all of these have had an effect on what instruments are used in a community.
Speaking of Southeast Asia, Curt Sachs
Curt Sachs (; 29 June 1881 – 5 February 1959) was a German musicologist. He was one of the founders of modern organology (the study of musical instruments). Among his contributions was the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which he created with Er ...
said its history began "in the first centuries A.D. when it became an immense, though loosely knit, Indian colony. Hinduism and Buddhism spread throughout what are now Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, all the way to China."
Austronesians navigated an area from Easter Island to Madagascar, setting up the Maritime Silk Road
The Maritime Silk Road or Maritime Silk Route is the maritime section of the historic Silk Road that connected Southeast Asia, China, the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian peninsula, Somalia, Egypt and Europe. It began by the 2nd century BCE and ...
though Southeast Asia. The Autronesians, who included the Javanese and Sumatrans, passed on the catamaran
A Formula 16 beachable catamaran
Powered catamaran passenger ferry at Salem, Massachusetts, United States
A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size. It is a geometry-stab ...
and outrigger boat to South India and Sri Lanka about 1000-600 BC and reached China c. 220-200 BC.
The waterways became international as ships from the Islands sailed all the way to India and Madagascar, and Indian ships sailed the other direction. Southeast Asia formed ties to India as early as the 4th century BC. About a millennium later, Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms were formed in Southeast Asia. These included Champa
Champa (Cham: ꨌꩌꨛꨩ; km, ចាម្ប៉ា; vi, Chiêm Thành or ) were a collection of independent Cham polities that extended across the coast of what is contemporary central and southern Vietnam from approximately the 2nd cen ...
(192–1832 AD), the Khmer Empire (802–1431 AD), Dvaravati
The Dvaravati ( th, ทวารวดี ; ) was an ancient Mon kingdom from the 7th century to the 11th century that was located in the region now known as central Thailand. It was described by the Chinese pilgrim in the middle of the 7th ce ...
(6th-11th century AD), and the Shailendra dynasty
The Shailendra dynasty (, derived from Sanskrit combined words ''Śaila'' and ''Indra'', meaning "King of the Mountain", also spelled Sailendra, Syailendra or Selendra) was the name of a notable Indianised dynasty that emerged in 8th-century ...
(8th-11th century AD, ruling the Medang Kingdom
The Mataram Kingdom (, jv, ꦩꦠꦫꦩ꧀, ) was a Javanese Hindu–Buddhist kingdom that flourished between the 8th and 11th centuries. It was based in Central Java, and later in East Java. Established by King Sanjaya, the kingdom was rule ...
and Srivijaya
Srivijaya ( id, Sriwijaya) was a Buddhist thalassocratic empire based on the island of Sumatra (in modern-day Indonesia), which influenced much of Southeast Asia. Srivijaya was an important centre for the expansion of Buddhism from the 7th t ...
).
These cultures produced carved stone reliefs, which reveal musical instruments used in the cultures, including lutes. Lutes been seen in artwork at ruins in Thailand's Ku Bua (c. 650-700 AD), Vietnam's Mỹ Sơn
Mỹ Sơn () is a cluster of abandoned and partially ruined Hindu temples in central Vietnam, constructed between the 4th and the 14th century by the Kings of Champa, an Indianized kingdom of the Cham people. The temples are dedicated to the wo ...
(c. 850s AD), and Malaysia's Borobudur
Borobudur, also transcribed Barabudur ( id, Candi Borobudur, jv, ꦕꦤ꧀ꦝꦶꦧꦫꦧꦸꦝꦸꦂ, Candhi Barabudhur) is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in Magelang Regency, not far from the town of Muntilan, in Central Java, Indone ...
(9th century). The smaller oval bodied lutes resemble lutes from India in the Gupta
Gupta () is a common surname or last name of Indian origin. It is based on the Sanskrit word गोप्तृ ''goptṛ'', which means 'guardian' or 'protector'. According to historian R. C. Majumdar, the surname ''Gupta'' was adopted by se ...
period in the 4th and 5th centuries AD, and also the biwa
The is a Japanese short-necked wooden lute traditionally used in narrative storytelling. The is a plucked string instrument that first gained popularity in China before spreading throughout East Asia, eventually reaching Japan sometime duri ...
family.
File:Kinnara with kachchapa veena, part of the Bodhisattva Padmapani, Cave 1, Ajanta, India.jpg, India, in Ajanta Caves
The Ajanta Caves are approximately thirty rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments dating from the second century BCE to about 480 CE in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state in India. The caves include paintings and rock-cut sculptures des ...
, Cave 1, c. 450-490 AD. ''Kinnara
A kinnara is a celestial musician, part human and part bird, who are musically paradigmatic lovers, in Hinduism and Buddhism. In these traditions, the ''kinnaras'' (male) and ''kinnaris'' (female counterpart) are two of the most beloved myth ...
'' with "''kacchapī veena''" (Sanskrit for "tortise veena") or ''panchangi veena'' (5-stringed veena). Part of the painting ''Bodhisattva Padmapani''.[The use of ''kacchapī veena'' is not settled and remains a name that researchers place onto examples of early veenas as a ''possibility''. There is a difference of opinion between the published works of many western scholars (especially later 19th-century and early 20th-century scholars) and modern Indian scholars. Both colonialism and nationalism can have a role in people's beliefs about the research.]
File:Large-5d6e38b2567c4.jpg, Hindu. 650-700 AD, Thailand, Ku Bua, (Dvaravati
The Dvaravati ( th, ทวารวดี ; ) was an ancient Mon kingdom from the 7th century to the 11th century that was located in the region now known as central Thailand. It was described by the Chinese pilgrim in the middle of the 7th ce ...
culture). Three musicians in right are playing (from center) a 5-stringed lute, cymbals, a tube zither
The tube zither is a stringed musical instrument in which a tube functions both as an instrument's neck and its soundbox. As the neck, it holds strings taut and allows them to vibrate. As a soundbox or it modifies the sound and transfers it to ...
or bar zither
Bar zither is class of musical instruments (subset of zither) within the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system for a type of simple chordophone (stringed instrument), in which the body of the instrument is shaped like a bar.
In the system, bar ...
with gourd resonator.
File:Cham lute, from the Mỹ Sơn pedestal E1 in the Museum of Cham Sculpture, Da Nang, Vietnam.jpg, Hindu. 8th century AD, Champa
Champa (Cham: ꨌꩌꨛꨩ; km, ចាម្ប៉ា; vi, Chiêm Thành or ) were a collection of independent Cham polities that extended across the coast of what is contemporary central and southern Vietnam from approximately the 2nd cen ...
. Cham
Cham or CHAM may refer to:
Ethnicities and languages
*Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia
**Cham language, the language of the Cham people
***Cham script
***Cham (Unicode block), a block of Unicode characters of the Cham script
*Cham Albanian ...
lute, from the Mỹ Sơn
Mỹ Sơn () is a cluster of abandoned and partially ruined Hindu temples in central Vietnam, constructed between the 4th and the 14th century by the Kings of Champa, an Indianized kingdom of the Cham people. The temples are dedicated to the wo ...
pedestal E1 in the Museum of Cham Sculpture, Da Nang, Vietnam.
File:Borobudur lute and harp, 9th century CE.jpg, Hindu, Buddhist. 9th century AD, Borobudur (Shailendra dynasty). 3-stringed lute and harp. In this time, the Chinese pipa was still being played horizontally. Lute player may be using plectrum.
File:Borobudur lute, stick zither and flute, 1880 photo.jpg, Hindu, Buddhist. 9th century AD, Borobudur (Shailendra dynasty). 3-stringed lute (second from left). It is a small part of a larger image illustrating the Lalitavistara Sūtra
The ''Lalitavistara Sūtra'' is a Sanskrit Mahayana sutras, Mahayana Buddhist sutra that tells the story of Gautama Buddha from the time of his descent from Tushita until his first sermon in the Deer Park at Sarnath near Varanasi. The term ''La ...
, Bodhisattva in Tusita Heaven.
File:Gandavyuha - Level 3 Balustrade, Borobudur - 115 West Wall (8601288269).jpg, Hindu, Buddhist. 9th century AD, Borobudur, Level 3, 115 West Wall
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Reliëf op de Borobudur TMnr 10015651.jpg, Hindu, Buddhist. 9th century AD, Borobudur, from the now buried "hidden base" section of the monument. Stick zither
Bar zither is class of musical instruments (subset of zither) within the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system for a type of simple chordophone (stringed instrument), in which the body of the instrument is shaped like a bar.
In the system, bar ...
(left) and a lute.
File:Borobudur 9th century lutenist.jpg, Hindu, Buddhist. 9th century AD, Borobudur (second gallery, main wall). Girl in a dance position playing a lute.
File:Brodobudur lute with frets, from second gallery, main wall.jpg, Hindu, Buddhist. Brodobudur, second gallery, main wall. Lute with frets
File:Lute from Borobudur, the buried "hidden base" section, cropped from photo by Kassian Céphas, 1890-1891.jpg, Hindu, Buddhist. Borobudur (buried section), 1890–1891. Lute resembling modern ''sapeh
The sape' (sampek, sambe', sapek) is a traditional lute of the Kenyah and Kayan community who live in the longhouses that line the rivers of East Kalimantan and North Kalimantan, Indonesia and Northern part of Sarawak, Malaysia. Sape' are carv ...
''.
Boat lutes in the island regions
Modern boat lutes in the island regions of Southeast Asia include the Sapeh
The sape' (sampek, sambe', sapek) is a traditional lute of the Kenyah and Kayan community who live in the longhouses that line the rivers of East Kalimantan and North Kalimantan, Indonesia and Northern part of Sarawak, Malaysia. Sape' are carv ...
from Borneo, the Sumatran Hasapi
Hasapi, also written as kacapi, hapitan, and kulcapi, is a two-stringed lute played by the Batak people of the Indonesian island of Sumatra
Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully wi ...
and Philippine Kutiyapi
The kutiyapi, or kudyapi, is a Philippine two-stringed, fretted boat-lute. It is four to six feet long with nine frets made of hardened beeswax. The instrument is carved out of solid soft wood such as that from the jackfruit tree.
Common to all ...
. The history of these has not been fully documented, but musicologists look to India for origins. Hans Brandeis, a researching musicologist working with the Philippine Kutiyapi lutes, considers the instrument could have traveled to the Philippines by way of Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand. He pointed out similarities between the alligator zithers of those countries, such as the Chakhe or Mi gyaung
The ''mi gyaung'' ( my, မိကျောင်း ) or ''kyam'' ( mnw, ကျာံ, ; pronounced "chyam") is a crocodile-shaped fretted, plucked zither with three strings that is used as a traditional instrument in Burma. It is associated w ...
and the boat lutes, including the way they are strung with a melody and drone string, movable frets and a plectrum tied to a finger to play. Another feature in common is the way the alligator zithers and boat lutes are made, carved out of a log from the back, leaving a wooden soundboard intact in the front.
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Luit met twee snaren TMnr 2082-10.jpg, Pre-1951, Sumba
Sumba ( id, Pulau Sumba) is an island in eastern Indonesia. It is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands and is in the province of East Nusa Tenggara. Sumba has an area of , and the population was 779,049 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as a ...
, Indonesia. A ''jungga'' boat lute.
File:Junga, from Sumba.jpg, Sumba
Sumba ( id, Pulau Sumba) is an island in eastern Indonesia. It is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands and is in the province of East Nusa Tenggara. Sumba has an area of , and the population was 779,049 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as a ...
. A junga, showing influence of Portuguese instruments on lute-making culture, now a guitar-family instrument.
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Langhalsluit met twee snaren TMnr 1802-5.jpg, 1948, Borneo. Boat lute (not named when collected).
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Langhalsluit met twee snaren TMnr 2241-10.jpg, Pre-1953, Toba Batak people
Toba people (Surat Batak: ᯅᯖᯂ᯲ ᯖᯬᯅ) also referred to as Batak Toba people are the largest group of the Batak people of North Sumatra, Indonesia. The common phrase of ‘Batak’ usually refers to the Batak Toba people. This mista ...
. Riman boat lute. Appears to be carved from top with separate soundboard.
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Korthalsluit met twee snaren TMnr 1579-1.jpg, Pre-1942, Southern Sulawesi. Ketjapi.
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Langhalsluit met twee snaren TMnr 1384-1.jpg, Pre-1940, Kenyah people
The Kenyah people are an indigenous, Austronesian-speaking people of Borneo, living in the remote Baram Lio Matoh, Long Selaan, Long Moh, Long Anap, Long Mekaba, Long Jeeh, Long Belaong, Long San, Long Silat, Long Tungan, Data Kakus, Data S ...
, Indonesia. Ketjapi.
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Langhalsluit met twee snaren TMnr 5053-18.jpg, Pre-1986, Toba Batak people
Toba people (Surat Batak: ᯅᯖᯂ᯲ ᯖᯬᯅ) also referred to as Batak Toba people are the largest group of the Batak people of North Sumatra, Indonesia. The common phrase of ‘Batak’ usually refers to the Batak Toba people. This mista ...
. Hasapi
Hasapi, also written as kacapi, hapitan, and kulcapi, is a two-stringed lute played by the Batak people of the Indonesian island of Sumatra
Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully wi ...
.
File:Lute (kutyapi), Mindanao, wood, Honolulu Museum of Art.jpg, Maguindanao
Maguindanao (, Maguindanao language, Maguindanaon: ''Prubinsya nu Magindanaw''; Iranun language, Iranun'': Perobinsia a Magindanao''; tl, Lalawigan ng Maguindanao) was a Provinces of the Philippines, province of the Philippines located in the ...
, Philippines. ''Kutiyapi
The kutiyapi, or kudyapi, is a Philippine two-stringed, fretted boat-lute. It is four to six feet long with nine frets made of hardened beeswax. The instrument is carved out of solid soft wood such as that from the jackfruit tree.
Common to all ...
'' decorated with ukkil motifs.
Muslim-origin lutes in Malaysia and Indonesia
After the fall of Borobudur, Indian influence declined. The arrival of Muslim traders and communities would add further influences to the region's music as Muslim communities were established throughout the region. Immigrants from Yemen brought with them the qanbūs
A ''qanbūs'' ( ar, قنبوس) is a short-necked lute that originated in Yemen and spread throughout the Arabian peninsula. Sachs considered that it derived its name from the Turkic komuz, but it is more comparable to the oud. The instrument ...
a skin-topped lute.
The instruments were "transmitted" from the Muslim world to the Malay at an undermined time. Links to the Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
begin as early as the 5thor 6th centuries AD, with trading networks and occupation in the 15th century. Experts have tentatively given dates for the instruments' arrival between the 9th and 15th centuries AD. In looking for origins, musicologists have also noted some similarities with the Chinese ''pipa
The pipa, pípá, or p'i-p'a () is a traditional Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ran ...
''.
Following a new wave of immigrants from Yemen in the 18th century, the term gambus began being applied to an instrument resembling the oud
, image=File:oud2.jpg
, image_capt=Syrian oud made by Abdo Nahat in 1921
, background=
, classification=
* String instruments
*Necked bowl lutes
, hornbostel_sachs=321.321-6
, hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum
, ...
with a wood soundboard, instead of the skin soundboard of the other gambus and the qanbus.
Lute from an African tradition
Africa today retains the largest variety of skin-topped pierced lutes, in which the neck is a stick that penetrates the body of the instrument. In some, the neck pokes out the bottom and strings are attached there. Others have the neck end within the instrument's body, edge of the neck's end poking up through the skin, securing the strings. These are not merely instruments brought in from outside and copied across generations, but include instruments that originate from local designs. Ultimately the banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...
was one of these.
File:Gnaouas d'Oran (Algérie) avec leur geumbri.JPG, Oran, Algeria
Oran ( ar, وَهران, Wahrān) is a major coastal city located in the north-west of Algeria. It is considered the second most important city of Algeria after the capital Algiers, due to its population and commercial, industrial, and cultural ...
, early 20th century. The Geumbri is also an instrument of Morocco, used in Gnawa
The Gnawa (or Gnaoua, Ghanawa, Ghanawi, Gnawi'; Arabic: ڭناوة) are an ethnic group inhabiting Morocco.
The name Gnawa probably originated in the indigenous language of North Africa and the Sahara Desert. The phonology of this term accordi ...
ceremonies.
File:Lute with turtle-shell body, Democratic Republican of the Congo.jpg, Lute with turtle-shell body, Democratic Republican of the Congo
File:Lute with turtle-shell body, Democratic Republican of the Congo, back.jpg, Lute with turtle-shell body, back, Democratic Republican of the Congo
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Langhalsluit met drie snaren TMnr 4728-1.jpg, Morocco, pre-1981, skin-topped lute, carved wooden bowl, Amazigh, Amazighen, Berber cultures. Called "Lothar". Labeled " Gimbrī" in ''Koptishe Lauten'' (Ricardo Eichmann, 1994, page 101)
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Langhalsluit met 4 snaren TMnr A-11007.jpg, West Africa, pre-1887, skin-topped lute, calabash bowl, has sound holes
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Langhalsluit met 4 snaren TMnr 3925-153.jpg, Mali, pre-1970, skin-topped lute, carved wooden bowl, Fellani, Foulah, Ful, Fulani, Fulbe, Peul, Toucouleur cultures, called "Hoddu"
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Langhalsluit met 2 snaren TMnr 2212-5.jpg, Africa, pre-1953, skin-topped lute, carved wooden bowl
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Langhalsluit met 1 snaar TMnr 2760-74.jpg, Libya, pre-1959, skin topped lute, calabash bowl, has sound holes, Touareg, Tuareg cultures
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Langhalsluit met 4 snaren TMnr 4185-1.jpg, Rhodesia-Zambia, skin topped lute or banjo, metal can for body, Kaonde culture
File:Joueur d'ekonting à Bagaya.jpg, Senegal, akonting
The ''akonting'' (, or ''ekonting'' in French transliteration) is the folk lute of the Jola people, found in Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau in West Africa. It is a banjo-like instrument with a skin-headed gourd body, two long melody strings ...
. Possibly related to banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...
.
File:Akonting cmdt.jpg, Gambia, akonting with pegs
File:Taj Mahal MQ2007-j.jpg, United States. Banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...
in the hands of Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal (; ) is an Islamic ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1631 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mu ...
.
European lutes
Lute
The European lute and the modern Near-Eastern ''oud
, image=File:oud2.jpg
, image_capt=Syrian oud made by Abdo Nahat in 1921
, background=
, classification=
* String instruments
*Necked bowl lutes
, hornbostel_sachs=321.321-6
, hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum
, ...
'' descend from a common ancestor via diverging evolutionary paths. The lute is used in a great variety of instrumental music from the Medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...
to the late Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
eras and was the most important instrument for secular music in the Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
. During the Baroque music
Baroque music ( or ) refers to the period or dominant style of Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Classical period after a short transiti ...
era, the lute was used as one of the instruments which played the ''basso continuo
Basso continuo parts, almost universal in the Baroque era (1600–1750), provided the harmonic structure of the music by supplying a bassline and a chord progression. The phrase is often shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing th ...
'' accompaniment
Accompaniment is the musical part which provides the rhythmic and/or harmonic support for the melody or main themes of a song or instrumental piece. There are many different styles and types of accompaniment in different genres and styles ...
parts. It is also an accompanying instrument in vocal works. The lute player either improvises ("realizes") a chordal accompaniment based on the figured bass
Figured bass is musical notation in which numerals and symbols appear above or below (or next to) a bass note. The numerals and symbols (often accidentals) indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones that a musician playing piano, harpsic ...
part, or plays a written-out accompaniment (both music notation
Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...
and tabulature
Tablature (or tabulature, or tab for short) is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches.
Tablature is common for fretted stringed instruments such as the guitar, lute or vihuela, as well as many ...
("tab") are used for lute). As a small instrument, the lute produces a relatively quiet sound.
Medieval lutes were 4- or 5- course instruments, plucked using a quill as a plectrum
A plectrum is a small flat tool used for plucking or strumming of a stringed instrument. For hand-held instruments such as guitars and mandolins, the plectrum is often called a pick and is held as a separate tool in the player's hand. In harpsic ...
. There were several sizes, and by the end of the Renaissance, seven different sizes (up to the great octave bass) are documented. Song accompaniment was probably the lute's primary function in the Middle Ages, but very little music securely attributable to the lute survives from the era before 1500. Medieval and early-Renaissance song accompaniments were probably mostly improvised, hence the lack of written records.
In the last few decades of the 15th century, to play Renaissance polyphony on a single instrument, lutenists gradually abandoned the quill in favor of plucking the instrument with the fingertips. The number of courses grew to six and beyond. The lute was the premier solo instrument of the 16th century, but continued to accompany singers as well.
By the end of the Renaissance the number of courses had grown to ten, and during the Baroque era the number continued to grow until it reached 14 (and occasionally as many as 19). These instruments, with up to 26–35 strings, required innovations in the structure of the lute. At the end of the lute's evolution the archlute
The archlute ( es, archilaúd, it, arciliuto, german: Erzlaute) is a European plucked string instrument developed around 1600 as a compromise between the very large theorbo, the size and re-entrant tuning of which made for difficulties in the ...
, theorbo
The theorbo is a plucked string instrument of the lute family, with an extended neck and a second pegbox. Like a lute, a theorbo has a curved-back sound box (a hollow box) with a wooden top, typically with a sound hole, and a neck extending ...
and torban
The torban ( ua, Торбан, also ''teorban'' or ''Ukrainian theorbo'') is a Ukrainian musical instrument that combines the features of the Baroque lute with those of the psaltery. The Тorban differs from the more common European bass lute kno ...
had long extensions attached to the main tuning head to provide a greater resonating length for the bass strings, and since human fingers are not long enough to stop strings across a neck wide enough to hold 14 courses, the bass strings were placed outside the fretboard, and were played ''open'', i.e., without pressing them against the fingerboard with the left hand.
Over the course of the Baroque era the lute was increasingly relegated to the continuo accompaniment, and was eventually superseded in that role by keyboard instruments. The lute almost fell out of use after 1800. Some sorts of lute were still used for some time in Germany, Sweden, Ukraine.
Bowed fiddles, lyra, kamānģa rūmī, vièla, viola
Spain had bowed instruments as early as the 10th and 11th centuries AD, when they were included in Spanish manuscripts, such as the ''Commentary on the Apocalypse
''Commentary on the Apocalypse'' (''Commentaria in Apocalypsin'') is a book written in the eighth century by the Spanish monk and theologian Beatus of Liébana (730–785) and copied and illustrated in manuscript in works called "Beati" during t ...
'' Beatus of Liébana Emilianense Codex.
The Byzantines had a bowed lute called a "kamānģa rūmī" in the east, also known as the Byzantine lira
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 ...
in "Greece, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia". The instrument still has a presence in the Eastern Mediterranean, in Southern Italy as 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 Bulgaria as the 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 ...
, in Greece, Iran, Turkey, Armenia, and regions adjacent to the Black Sea the kemenche
Kemenche ( tr, kemençe) or Lyra is a name used for various types of stringed bowed musical instruments originating in the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly in Armenia, Greece, Iran, Turkey, and Azerbaijan. and regions adjacent to the Black S ...
, in Dalmatia as 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 H ...
.
Sachs said that the Byzantine lyra would become the main bowed instrument in Europe, eventually becoming the "fiddle, vièle, ndviola". The rebec
The rebec (sometimes rebecha, rebeckha, and other spellings, pronounced or ) is a bowed stringed instrument of the Medieval era and the early Renaissance. In its most common form, it has a narrow boat-shaped body and one to five strings.
Origi ...
also had a presence in Europe, but was not derived from the lyra but from the rabâb.
Cythara, a European lute-building tradition?
The word ''cythara
The cythara is a wide group of stringed instruments of medieval and Renaissance Europe, including not only the lyre and harp but also necked, string instruments. In fact, unless a medieval document gives an indication that it meant a necked inst ...
'' was used generically for a wide variety stringed instruments of medieval and Renaissance Europe, including not only the lyre
The lyre () 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 lyre is considered a yoke lute, since it ...
and harp
The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orc ...
but also necked, string instruments
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner.
Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the Str ...
. In fact, unless a medieval document gives an indication that it meant a necked instrument, then it likely was referring to a lyre. It was also spelled ''cithara
The kithara (or Latinized cithara) ( el, κιθάρα, translit=kithāra, lat, cithara) was an ancient Greek musical instrument in the yoke lutes family. In modern Greek the word ''kithara'' has come to mean "guitar", a word which etymolog ...
'' or ''kithara'' and was Latin for the Greek lyre. However, lacking names for some stringed instruments from the medieval period, these have been referred to as fiddles and citharas/cytharas, both by medieval people and by modern researchers. The instruments are important as being ancestors to or influential in the development of a wide variety of European instruments, including fiddles, vielle
The vielle is a European bowed stringed instrument used in the medieval period, similar to a modern violin but with a somewhat longer and deeper body, three to five gut strings, and a leaf-shaped pegbox with frontal tuning pegs, sometimes with a ...
s, viola
The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...
s, citole
The citole was a string musical instrument, closely associated with the medieval fiddles (viol, vielle, gigue) and commonly used from 1200–1350."CITOLE, also spelled Systole, Cythole, Gytolle, &c. (probably a Fr. diminutive form of cithar ...
s, guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...
s. Although not proven to be completely separate from the line of lute-family instruments that dominated Europe (lute
A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted.
More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...
, oud
, image=File:oud2.jpg
, image_capt=Syrian oud made by Abdo Nahat in 1921
, background=
, classification=
* String instruments
*Necked bowl lutes
, hornbostel_sachs=321.321-6
, hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum
, ...
, gittern
The gittern was a relatively small gut-strung, round-backed instrument that first appears in literature and pictorial representation during the 13th century in Western Europe (Iberian Peninsula, Italy, France, England). It is usually depicted pl ...
, mandore
Mandore is a suburb Historical town located 9 km north of Jodhpur city, in the Indian state of Rajasthan.
History
Mandore is an ancient town, and was the seat of the Pratiharas of Mandavyapura, who ruled the region in the 6th century CE ...
), arguments have been made that they represent a European-based tradition of instrument building, which was for a time separate from the lute-family instruments.
Gallery: Europe, lutes of unknown development lines
Images showing instruments that have been labeled "cythara" in the medieval documents that they came from. Their lineage is not clearly understood. The Rylands Beatus instruments come from Spain, and may link to the Arabian/Muslim traditions of instrument making there, or be a form of plucked-fiddle, similar to those seen in Central Asia (an area that the Persians and Arabs conquered and picked up musical traditions from.)
The traditions of other cytharas are less understood and may represent a time of European experimentation, in which the cithara-lyre was transformed into the cythara-lute.
File:Stuttgarter Psalter Folio 23 - Miniatur 108r Detail.jpg, Stuttgart Psalter, 820–830 AD, cythara
File:Musician playing a medieval cythara 6.jpg, Stuttgart Psalter, 820–830 AD, cythara
File:B Facundus 117v cropped with cytharas.jpg, Beatus of Liébana, Ms. Vitr. 14.2, 1047 AD, angels holding cytharas
File:Rylands Beatus Cythara 1.jpg, Rylands Beatus, c. 1175, cythara
File:Rylands Beatus Cythara 2.jpg, Rylands Beatus, c. 1175, cythara
File:Utrechts-Psalter PSALM-70 cithara and harp intruments of psaltery.jpg, Utrecht Psalter, c. 850, cythara
The cythara is a wide group of stringed instruments of medieval and Renaissance Europe, including not only the lyre and harp but also necked, string instruments. In fact, unless a medieval document gives an indication that it meant a necked inst ...
(held), cithara
The kithara (or Latinized cithara) ( el, κιθάρα, translit=kithāra, lat, cithara) was an ancient Greek musical instrument in the yoke lutes family. In modern Greek the word ''kithara'' has come to mean "guitar", a word which etymolog ...
and organ
Organ may refer to:
Biology
* Organ (biology), a part of an organism
Musical instruments
* Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone
** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument
** Hammond ...
(on ground)
File:Utrechts-Psalter PSALM-91 harp and cythara.jpg, Utrecht Psalter, c. 850, cythara
The cythara is a wide group of stringed instruments of medieval and Renaissance Europe, including not only the lyre and harp but also necked, string instruments. In fact, unless a medieval document gives an indication that it meant a necked inst ...
and harp
The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orc ...
File:Utrechts-Psalter PSALM-134 Lyre and Cythara.jpg, Utrecht Psalter, c. 850, cythara
The cythara is a wide group of stringed instruments of medieval and Renaissance Europe, including not only the lyre and harp but also necked, string instruments. In fact, unless a medieval document gives an indication that it meant a necked inst ...
and lyre
The lyre () 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 lyre is considered a yoke lute, since it ...
File:Cithara from Utrecht Psalter Psalm 42.jpg, Utrecht Psalter, c. 850 cythara
The cythara is a wide group of stringed instruments of medieval and Renaissance Europe, including not only the lyre and harp but also necked, string instruments. In fact, unless a medieval document gives an indication that it meant a necked inst ...
. Quoted text illustrated: "Confitebor tibi in cithara Deus Deus meus" (To thee, O God my God, I will give praise upon the cithara)
File:Lute Charles the Bald Bible.jpg, Bible of Charles the Bald, 9th century, cythara
The cythara is a wide group of stringed instruments of medieval and Renaissance Europe, including not only the lyre and harp but also necked, string instruments. In fact, unless a medieval document gives an indication that it meant a necked inst ...
as lute or lyre combined, from the Bible of Charles the Bald, 9th century
Gittern and mandola
Gittern
The gittern
The gittern was a relatively small gut-strung, round-backed instrument that first appears in literature and pictorial representation during the 13th century in Western Europe (Iberian Peninsula, Italy, France, England). It is usually depicted pl ...
was a relatively small gut strung round-backed instrument that first appears in literature and pictorial representation during the 13th century in Western Europe (Iberian Peninsula, Italy, France, England). It is usually depicted played with a quill plectrum
A plectrum is a small flat tool used for plucking or strumming of a stringed instrument. For hand-held instruments such as guitars and mandolins, the plectrum is often called a pick and is held as a separate tool in the player's hand. In harpsic ...
, as we can see clearly beginning in manuscript illuminations from the 13th century.
It was also called the guitarra in Spain, guiterne or guiterre in France, the chitarra in Italy and quintern in Germany. A popular instrument with court musicians, minstrels
A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer who ...
, and amateurs, the gittern is considered ancestral to the modern guitar and possibly to other instruments like the mandore
Mandore is a suburb Historical town located 9 km north of Jodhpur city, in the Indian state of Rajasthan.
History
Mandore is an ancient town, and was the seat of the Pratiharas of Mandavyapura, who ruled the region in the 6th century C ...
and gallichon
File:Mandora MET DP168838.jpg, 6~9 courses lute (Calchedon, Calichon) (1726)Georg Kinsky: Musikhistorisches Museum von Wilhelm Heyer in Cöln, Bd. 2, Köln 1912, S. 98.
File:Gallichon, Muzeum Instrumentów Muzycznych w Pradze.jpg, Gallichon
The ...
.
From the early 16th century, a vihuela
The vihuela () is a 15th-century fretted plucked Spanish string instrument, shaped like a guitar (figure-of-eight form offering strength and portability) but tuned like a lute. It was used in 15th- and 16th-century Spain as the equivalent of t ...
shaped (flat-backed) guitarra began to appear in Spain, and later in France, existing alongside the gittern. Although the round-backed instrument appears to have lost ground to the new from which gradually developed into the guitar familiar today, the influence of the earlier style continued. Examples of lutes converted into guitars exist in several museums, while purpose-built instruments like the gallichon utilised the tuning and single string configuration of the modern guitar. A tradition of building round-backed guitars in Germany continued to the 20th century with names like '' gittar-laute'' and '' Wandervogellaute''.
Mandola or mandore
The mandore
Mandore is a suburb Historical town located 9 km north of Jodhpur city, in the Indian state of Rajasthan.
History
Mandore is an ancient town, and was the seat of the Pratiharas of Mandavyapura, who ruled the region in the 6th century CE ...
(or mandola in Italian) is a musical instrument, a small member of the lute
A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted.
More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...
family, teardrop shaped, with four to six courses of gut strings and pitched in the treble range. It was considered a new instrument in French music books from the 1580s, but is descended from and very similar to the gittern
The gittern was a relatively small gut-strung, round-backed instrument that first appears in literature and pictorial representation during the 13th century in Western Europe (Iberian Peninsula, Italy, France, England). It is usually depicted pl ...
. It is considered ancestral to the modern mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
. Other earlier instruments include the medieval European citole
The citole was a string musical instrument, closely associated with the medieval fiddles (viol, vielle, gigue) and commonly used from 1200–1350."CITOLE, also spelled Systole, Cythole, Gytolle, &c. (probably a Fr. diminutive form of cithar ...
and the Greek and Byzantine pandura
The pandura ( grc, πανδοῦρα, ''pandoura'') or pandore, an ancient string instrument, belonged in the broad class of the lute and guitar instruments. Akkadians played similar instruments from the 3rd millennium BC. Ancient Greek artwork d ...
.
The history of modern mandolins, mandola
The mandola (US and Canada) or tenor mandola (Ireland and UK) is a fretted, stringed musical instrument. It is to the mandolin what the viola is to the violin: the four double courses of strings tuned in fifths to the same pitches as the viola ...
s and guitars
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
are all intertwined. The instruments shared common ancestor instruments. Some instruments became fashionable widely, and others locally. Experts argue as to the differences; because many of the instruments are so similar but not identical, classifying them has proven difficult
The Cantigas de Santa Maria
The ''Cantigas de Santa Maria'' (, ; "Canticles of Holy Mary") are 420 poems with musical notation, written in the medieval Galician-Portuguese language during the reign of Alfonso X of Castile ''El Sabio'' (1221–1284). Traditionally, they ar ...
shows 13th-century instruments similar to lutes, mandores, mandolas and guitars, being played by European and Islamic players. The instruments moved from Spain northward to France and eastward towards Italy by way of Provence.
Like the earlier gittern, the mandore's back and neck were in earlier forms carved out of a block of wood. This "hollowed out construction" did still exist in the 16th century, according to James Tyler, but was becoming rare. The method was being replaced by gluing curved staves together to form back, and adding a neck and peg box.
Moving toward the acoustic guitar
The modern acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...
comes from a long evolution of stringed musical instruments. It has often been claimed that the guitar is a development of the medieval instrument vihuela
The vihuela () is a 15th-century fretted plucked Spanish string instrument, shaped like a guitar (figure-of-eight form offering strength and portability) but tuned like a lute. It was used in 15th- and 16th-century Spain as the equivalent of t ...
as evolution of ancient lute
A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted.
More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...
.
Although the word ''guitar'' today indicates a specific musical instrument family, centered around the acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...
, in the past it has been used in English about members of the cittern
The cittern or cithren ( Fr. ''cistre'', It. ''cetra'', Ger. ''Cister,'' Sp. ''cistro, cedra, cítola'') is a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is d ...
family as well, for example the English guitar
The English guitar or guittar (also citra), is a stringed instrument – a type of cittern – popular in many places in Europe from around 1750–1850. It is unknown when the identifier "English" became connected to the instrument: at the time of ...
and Portuguese guitar
The Portuguese guitar or Portuguese guitarra ( pt, guitarra portuguesa, ) is a plucked string instrument with twelve steel strings, strung in six course (music), courses of two strings. It is one of the few musical instruments that still uses wat ...
.
Further, the ancestor instrument of the citterns, the cytole, came from Spain during the period that one of the ancestors of the guitar, the gittern, was being played. It also has been confused with the Guitarra latina
The guitarra latina is a plucked string instrument of the Medieval period in Europe. It has single string courses, and it is normally played with a pick. This gittern or citole with curved sides is illustrated in the medieval musical text the Ca ...
from the early period of instrument development in Spain, and no clear relationship nor distinction has been formed about these guitar ancestors or cousins.
Gittern
The gittern was a relatively small gut-strung, round-backed instrument that first appears in literature and pictorial representation during the 13th century in Western Europe (Iberian Peninsula, Italy, France, England). It is usually depicted pl ...
s, a small plucked guitar were the first small guitar-like instruments created during the spanish Middle Ages with a round back like that of a lute. Modern guitar shaped instruments were not seen until the Renaissance era where the body and size began to take a guitar-like shape.
The earliest string instruments that related to the guitar and its structure were broadly known as the vihuelas within Spanish musical culture. Vihuelas were string instruments that were commonly seen in the 16th century during the Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
. Later, Spanish writers distinguished these instruments into two categories of vihuelas. The vihuela de arco was an instrument that mimicked the violin, and the vihuela de penola was played with a plectrum
A plectrum is a small flat tool used for plucking or strumming of a stringed instrument. For hand-held instruments such as guitars and mandolins, the plectrum is often called a pick and is held as a separate tool in the player's hand. In harpsic ...
or by hand. When it was played by hand it was known as the vihuela de mano. Vihuela de mano shared extreme similarities with the Renaissance guitar as it used hand movement at the sound hole or sound chamber of the instrument to create music.
By 1790 only six-course vihuela guitars (six unison-tuned pairs of strings) were being created and had become the main type and model of guitar used in Spain. Most of the older 5-course guitars were still in use but were also being modified to a six-coursed acoustical guitar. Fernando Ferandiere's book ''Arte de tocar la guitarra espanola por musica'' (Madrid, 1799) describes the standard Spanish guitar from his time as an instrument with seventeen frets and six courses with the first two 'gut' strings tuned in unison called the ''terceras'' and the tuning named to 'G' of the two strings. The acoustic guitar at this time began to take the shape familiar in the modern acoustic guitar. The coursed pairs of strings eventually became less common in favor of single strings.
Finally, c. 1850, the form and structure of the modern guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...
is credited to Spanish guitar maker Antonio Torres Jurado
Antonio de Torres Jurado (13 June 1817 – 19 November 1892) was a Spanish guitarist and luthier, and "the most important Spanish guitar maker of the 19th century."
It is with his designs that the first recognisably modern classical guitars a ...
, who increased the size of the guitar body, altered its proportions, and invented the breakthrough fan-braced pattern. Bracing, which refers to the internal pattern of wood reinforcements used to secure the guitar's top and back and prevent the instrument from collapsing under tension, is an important factor in how the guitar sounds. Torres' design greatly improved the volume, tone, and projection of the instrument, and it has remained essentially unchanged since.
Citole and cittern
The citole
The citole was a string musical instrument, closely associated with the medieval fiddles (viol, vielle, gigue) and commonly used from 1200–1350."CITOLE, also spelled Systole, Cythole, Gytolle, &c. (probably a Fr. diminutive form of cithar ...
was a string musical instrument, closely associated with the medieval fiddles (viol
The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitc ...
, vielle
The vielle is a European bowed stringed instrument used in the medieval period, similar to a modern violin but with a somewhat longer and deeper body, three to five gut strings, and a leaf-shaped pegbox with frontal tuning pegs, sometimes with a ...
, gigue
The gigue (; ) or giga () is a lively baroque dance originating from the English jig. It was imported into France in the mid-17th centuryBellingham, Jane"gigue."''The Oxford Companion to Music''. Ed. Alison Latham. Oxford Music Online. 6 July 200 ...
) and commonly used in Europe from 1200–1350. The earliest representations of the instrument are in sculpture in Spain and Italy, with Spain having the most. Another link to Spain is the similarity to plucked fiddles in the Spanish Beatus Apocalypse manuscripts, such as the Ryland Beatus. Examples of these plucked fiddles trace back to Central Asian art, such as the Airtam Frieze. This artwork is too distant in time to be considered a relative, though it is very similar to many citoles.
The one surviving citole has a hollowed neck, a feature of the rubabs and Coptic lute.
Although it was largely out of use by the late 14th century, the Italians "re-introduced it in modified form" in the 16th century as the ''cetra'' (cittern
The cittern or cithren ( Fr. ''cistre'', It. ''cetra'', Ger. ''Cister,'' Sp. ''cistro, cedra, cítola'') is a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is d ...
in English), and it was possibly ancestral to the Spanish guitar as well. Three possible descendant instrument are the English guitar
The English guitar or guittar (also citra), is a stringed instrument – a type of cittern – popular in many places in Europe from around 1750–1850. It is unknown when the identifier "English" became connected to the instrument: at the time of ...
, Waldzither
The waldzither (german: "forest zither") is a plucked string instrument from Germany that came up around 1900 in Thuringia. It is a type of cittern that has nine steel strings in five courses. Different types of waldzither come in different tuni ...
, Portuguese guitar
The Portuguese guitar or Portuguese guitarra ( pt, guitarra portuguesa, ) is a plucked string instrument with twelve steel strings, strung in six course (music), courses of two strings. It is one of the few musical instruments that still uses wat ...
and the Corsican Cetera, all types of cittern.
The cittern
The cittern or cithren ( Fr. ''cistre'', It. ''cetra'', Ger. ''Cister,'' Sp. ''cistro, cedra, cítola'') is a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is d ...
or cithren (Fr. cistre, It. cetra, Ger. zitter, zither, Sp. cistro, cedra, cítola) is a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is descended from the Medieval citole (or cytole). It looks much like the modern-day flat-back mandolin and the modern Irish bouzouki
The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...
. Its flat-back design was simpler and cheaper to construct than the lute. It was also easier to play, smaller, less delicate and more portable. Played by all classes, the cittern was a premier instrument of casual music-making much as is the guitar today.
Viola, 4-course guitars, late 15th century
By the late 15th century, small guitar shaped instruments were appearing in Spain and Italy. The instruments were smaller than lutes, which separates them from the later vihuela, which they resembled. As these took over from the gittern, they began to be called guitars in the 16th century. The use of these newer guitars overlapped with the older gittern, which may have seen occasional use into the 18th century.
Known by modern musicologists as the "Renaissance four-course guitar", the instrument was contemporary with the lute and the vihuela
The vihuela () is a 15th-century fretted plucked Spanish string instrument, shaped like a guitar (figure-of-eight form offering strength and portability) but tuned like a lute. It was used in 15th- and 16th-century Spain as the equivalent of t ...
. The instruments were called violas by the French and Italians. As the instruments were developed in Italy, Spain and France, they grew larger, while the Portuguese kept making the smaller guitars, and still called them violas.
The instrument remained popular enough for music to be published for it in England and Italy into the 17th century, and Spain into the 18th century.
Plucked viol and vihuela
The vihuela was a guitar-shaped instrument that existed at the same time as the 4-course and 5-course guitars, tuned as a lute, with moveable gut frets. Its resemblance to the guitar has caused speculation that it might be related. However the 4-course guitar predates the vihuela, and that was the instrument was which was modified to create the 5-course guitar.
The guitar was an instrument of popular music; the vihuela was an instrument for the "virtuoso player". ''Vihuela'' was used as a word in Spain starting in the 13th century. The instrument was popular in Spain in the 15th and 16th centuries. In Italy and Portugal it was called viola.
There were several different types of vihuela (or different playing methods at least):
*Vihuela de mano: 6 or 5 courses played with the fingers
*Vihuela de penola: played with a quill plectrum
*Vihuela de arco: played with a bow (ancestor of the viola da gamba)
*Viola da Gamba: leg viol
*Viola da braccio: arm viol
Plucked vihuelas, being essentially flat-backed lutes, evolved in the mid-15th century, in the Kingdom of Aragón, located in north-eastern Iberia (Spain). In Spain, Portugal, and Italy the vihuela was in common use by the late 15th through to the late 16th centuries. In the second half of the 15th century some vihuela players began using a bow, leading to the development of the viol
The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitc ...
.
The vihuela faded away, along with the complex polyphonic music that was its repertoire, in the late 16th century. The vihuela's descendants that are still played are the violas campaniças of Portugal. Much of the vihuela's place, role, and function was taken up by the subsequent Baroque guitar
The Baroque guitar (c. 1600–1750) is a string instrument with five courses of gut strings and moveable gut frets. The first (highest pitched) course sometimes used only a single string.
History
The Baroque guitar replaced the Renaissance lut ...
(also sometimes referred to as vihuela or bigüela).
Today, instruments like the tiple are descendants of vihuelas brought to America in the 16th century.
Baroque guitar
The Baroque guitar
The Baroque guitar (c. 1600–1750) is a string instrument with five courses of gut strings and moveable gut frets. The first (highest pitched) course sometimes used only a single string.
History
The Baroque guitar replaced the Renaissance lut ...
(c. 1600–1750) is a string instrument with five courses of gut strings
Catgut (also known as gut) is a type of cord that is prepared from the natural fiber found in the walls of animal Gut (anatomy), intestines. Catgut makers usually use sheep or goat intestines, but occasionally use the intestines of cattle, Domest ...
and moveable gut frets. 5-course guitars were used in Italy by the late 1400s. Like the 4-course guitar and the vihuela, this instrument could also be called ''viola'' or ''vihuela'' and use the variations, such as ''viola da mano'', ''vihuela del mano''.
The "Hispano-Italian guitar" was made fashionable in the 17th century by Italian actors, working in Paris. It was first an instrument of aristocrats, inspired by the actors, and later it became an amateur instrument.
The Baroque guitar replaced the Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
lute
A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted.
More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...
as the most common instrument found in the home. The earliest attestation of a five-stringed guitar comes from the mid-sixteenth-century Spanish book ''Declaracion de Instrumentos Musicales'' by Juan Bermudo Juan Bermudo (1510 in Écija, Province of Seville – 1565) was a Spanish Friar Minor who is best known as a composer, music theorist and mathematician.
Life
Bermudo entered the Franciscan Order in 1525, belonging to the Province of Andalusia. ...
, published in 1555. The first treatise published for the Baroque guitar was ''Guitarra Española de cinco ordenes'' (The Five-course Spanish Guitar), c. 1590, by Juan Carlos Amat. The baroque guitar in contemporary ensembles took on the role of a basso continuo
Basso continuo parts, almost universal in the Baroque era (1600–1750), provided the harmonic structure of the music by supplying a bassline and a chord progression. The phrase is often shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing th ...
instrument and players would be expected to improvise a chordal accompaniment
Accompaniment is the musical part which provides the rhythmic and/or harmonic support for the melody or main themes of a song or instrumental piece. There are many different styles and types of accompaniment in different genres and styles ...
. Several scholars have assumed that the guitar was used together with another basso continuo instrument playing the bass line
Bassline (also known as a bass line or bass part) is the term used in many styles of music, such as blues, jazz, funk, dub and electronic, traditional, or classical music for the low-pitched instrumental part or line played (in jazz and some f ...
. However, there are good reasons to suppose that the guitar was used as an independent instrument for accompaniment in many situations. Intimately tied to the development of the Baroque guitar is the alfabeto system of notation
In linguistics and semiotics, a notation is a system of graphics or symbols, characters and abbreviated expressions, used (for example) in artistic and scientific disciplines to represent technical facts and quantities by convention. Therefore, ...
.
6-string guitar
In the second half of the 18th century, the doubled strings of the 5-course guitar began to become single strings, and by the end of the century, the 5-string guitar was out of fashion, in favor of the 6-string guitar. Examples of the new instrument with its additional low ''E'' string were seen in Spain (by 1780), Italy, France and England.
By the second half of the 19th century, luthier Antonio de Torres Jurado
Antonio de Torres Jurado (13 June 1817 – 19 November 1892) was a Spanish guitarist and luthier, and "the most important Spanish guitar maker of the 19th century."
It is with his designs that the first recognisably modern classical guitars are ...
(1817–1892) had created the modern classical guitar
The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar or Spanish guitar) is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor o ...
. Ignacio Fleta
Ignacio Fleta Pescador (31 July 1897 – 11 August 1977) was a Spanish luthier and a crafter of string instruments such as guitars, violins, cellos, violas, as well as historical instruments. Fleta is widely regarded as one of the foremost classi ...
(1897–1977) and Hermann Hauser Sr.
Hermann Hauser Sr. (born in Erding, 28 December 1882–died Reisbach, 28 October 1952) was a German luthier. He worked in Munich and later in the Bavarian Reisbach. Guitar models by Hermann Hauser Sr. included the Vienna Model and the Munich Mode ...
(1882–1952) have also been linked to creating fine early versions of the instrument in the 20th century.
Spanish and Portuguese descendant lutes in former colonies
Both Spain and Portugal took their instruments with them overseas. Spanish instruments were related to the vihuela. The Portuguese cavaquinho
The cavaquinho (pronounced in Portuguese) is a small Portuguese string instrument in the European guitar family, with four wires or gut strings.
More broadly, ''cavaquinho'' is the name of a four-stringed subdivision of the lute family of instr ...
also was the forerunner of a family of instruments.
Even after the Muslims were conquered in Spain or driven out, the process of experimentation continued, leading to a number of European instruments, including the guitar. A similar process occurred in Italy. Both Spain and Italy experimented with the viol
The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitc ...
or vihuela
The vihuela () is a 15th-century fretted plucked Spanish string instrument, shaped like a guitar (figure-of-eight form offering strength and portability) but tuned like a lute. It was used in 15th- and 16th-century Spain as the equivalent of t ...
which led to bowed viols, viola
The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...
s vielle
The vielle is a European bowed stringed instrument used in the medieval period, similar to a modern violin but with a somewhat longer and deeper body, three to five gut strings, and a leaf-shaped pegbox with frontal tuning pegs, sometimes with a ...
s, and guitars
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
. Other experiments led to the citole
The citole was a string musical instrument, closely associated with the medieval fiddles (viol, vielle, gigue) and commonly used from 1200–1350."CITOLE, also spelled Systole, Cythole, Gytolle, &c. (probably a Fr. diminutive form of cithar ...
and cittern
The cittern or cithren ( Fr. ''cistre'', It. ''cetra'', Ger. ''Cister,'' Sp. ''cistro, cedra, cítola'') is a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is d ...
or Portuguese guitar
The Portuguese guitar or Portuguese guitarra ( pt, guitarra portuguesa, ) is a plucked string instrument with twelve steel strings, strung in six course (music), courses of two strings. It is one of the few musical instruments that still uses wat ...
, the gittern
The gittern was a relatively small gut-strung, round-backed instrument that first appears in literature and pictorial representation during the 13th century in Western Europe (Iberian Peninsula, Italy, France, England). It is usually depicted pl ...
and vandola (mandore, mandola) which also led to the guitar, but also to the mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
family. Spanish instruments that survived in Spanish colonies include the tiple
A tiple (, literally treble or soprano), is a plucked typically 12-string chordophone of the guitar family. A tiple player is called a ''tiplista''. The first mention of the tiple comes from musicologist Pablo Minguet e Irol in 1752. Although ma ...
.
Portuguese
Portuguese violas
:''See: Violas portuguesas (Portuguese Wikipedia)''
The Portuguese violas are a collection of instruments shaped like a classical guitar
The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar or Spanish guitar) is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor o ...
but smaller. Although the body is shaped like an "8", these instruments are not related to the guitar. While the modern guitar was introduced in Portugal in the 18th century from France and has 6 simple strings, the Portuguese violas are older, were developed from the Iberian vihuela
The vihuela () is a 15th-century fretted plucked Spanish string instrument, shaped like a guitar (figure-of-eight form offering strength and portability) but tuned like a lute. It was used in 15th- and 16th-century Spain as the equivalent of t ...
, are smaller and have 5 courses of double strings. Due to the widespread use in Portugal of the word "viola" to designate the guitar, it is common to call these violas "violas of 10 strings". However, there are no records of being called "10-string guitars".
Some of them are on the verge of extinction, but others continue to enjoy great popularity, despite being restricted to the interpretation of popular music. From Portugal, these instruments were taken to Brazil.
Violas native to Portugal include the Viola Braguesa, Viola Amarantina, Viola Toeira, Wire Viola, Viola Campaniça, and Viola Beiroa.
Brazilian violas
In Brazil, the viola became the viola caipira
The ''viola caipira'', often simply ''viola'', (Portuguese for ''country guitar'') is a Brazilian ten-string guitar with five courses of strings arranged in pairs. It was introduced in the state of São Paulo, where it is widely played as the b ...
, while the classical guitar
The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar or Spanish guitar) is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor o ...
was called the violão. The viola caipira is an instrument of the Brazilian rural music while the violão an instrument of urban life.
Brazilian violas include the
*viola caipira
The ''viola caipira'', often simply ''viola'', (Portuguese for ''country guitar'') is a Brazilian ten-string guitar with five courses of strings arranged in pairs. It was introduced in the state of São Paulo, where it is widely played as the b ...
, common in the states of Goiás , Paraná , São Paulo , Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro
*Angrense or coastal viola, Common on the coast of the states of Paraná , São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro , and associated with caiçara culture.
*Viola branca (white viola), specific to the region of Iguape and Cananéia , on the coast of the state of São Paulo.
* Viola de Queluz, Specific the ancient city of Queluz.
*Viola machete, also called machete, machim, machinho, machetinho or mochinho, and possibly originally from Madeira Island.
*Viola de cocho
The viola de cocho is a singular plucked string instrument from Brazil. It is typical in the states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul and has been designated a part of Brazil's intangible national heritage by IPHAN, the Brazilian instituti ...
, common in the states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul.
*Viola de buriti, common in the state of Tocantins , from the use of buriti wood . Created in the 1940s in the community of Mumbuca do Jalapão.
*Viola dinâmica (or viola nordestina), Common in the Northeastern Brazilian states and very associated with record players , who often use the Paraguaçu tuning . It has acoustic amplifiers in the form of aluminum cones
Cavaquinho
Portuguese experiments led to the Portuguese guitar, and other instruments seen today in places that Portuguese ships landed. There are several forms of cavaquinho used in different regions and for different styles of music. Separate varieties are named for Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
, Braga
Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (in ...
(''braguinha''), Minho (''minhoto''), Lisbon
Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
, Madeira
)
, anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira")
, song_type = Regional anthem
, image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg
, map_alt=Location of Madeira
, map_caption=Location of Madeira
, subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...
, Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, and Cape Verde
, national_anthem = ()
, official_languages = Portuguese
, national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole
, capital = Praia
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, demonym ...
; other forms are the ''braguinha'', ''cavacolele'', cavaco, machete
Older machete from Latin America
Gerber machete/saw combo
Agustín Cruz Tinoco of San Agustín de las Juntas, Oaxaca">San_Agustín_de_las_Juntas.html" ;"title="Agustín Cruz Tinoco of San Agustín de las Juntas">Agustín Cruz Tinoco of San ...
, and ukulele
The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings.
The tone and volume of the instrumen ...
.
Ukulele
The ukulele
The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings.
The tone and volume of the instrumen ...
originated in the 1880s, based on several small guitar-like instruments of Portuguese origin, the machete
Older machete from Latin America
Gerber machete/saw combo
Agustín Cruz Tinoco of San Agustín de las Juntas, Oaxaca">San_Agustín_de_las_Juntas.html" ;"title="Agustín Cruz Tinoco of San Agustín de las Juntas">Agustín Cruz Tinoco of San ...
, the cavaquinho
The cavaquinho (pronounced in Portuguese) is a small Portuguese string instrument in the European guitar family, with four wires or gut strings.
More broadly, ''cavaquinho'' is the name of a four-stringed subdivision of the lute family of instr ...
, the timple
The timple is a traditional five-string plucked string instrument of the Canary Islands. It started being manufactured in the 19th century.
In La Palma island and in the north of the island of Tenerife, many timple players omit the fifth (D) ...
, and the rajão
The rajão ( pt, machete de rajão) is a 5-stringed instrument from Madeira, Portugal. The instrument traces back to the country's regional folk music, where it is used in folklore dances of Portugal in addition to other stringed instruments fr ...
, which were introduced to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
immigrants from Madeira
)
, anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira")
, song_type = Regional anthem
, image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg
, map_alt=Location of Madeira
, map_caption=Location of Madeira
, subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...
and Cape Verde
, national_anthem = ()
, official_languages = Portuguese
, national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole
, capital = Praia
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, demonym ...
. Three immigrants in particular, Madeira
)
, anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira")
, song_type = Regional anthem
, image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg
, map_alt=Location of Madeira
, map_caption=Location of Madeira
, subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...
n cabinet makers Manuel Nunes, José do Espírito Santo, and Augusto Dias, are generally credited as the first ukulele makers. Two weeks after they disembarked from the SS ''Ravenscrag'' in late August 1879, the ''Hawaiian Gazette
Hawaiian may refer to:
* Native Hawaiians, the current term for the indigenous people of the Hawaiian Islands or their descendants
* Hawaii state residents, regardless of ancestry (only used outside of Hawaii)
* Hawaiian language
Historic uses
* ...
'' reported that "Madeira Islanders recently arrived here, have been delighting the people with nightly street concerts." The instrument gained great popularity elsewhere in the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
during the early 20th century and from there spread internationally.
Spanish
Tiple
A tiple
A tiple (, literally treble or soprano), is a plucked typically 12-string chordophone of the guitar family. A tiple player is called a ''tiplista''. The first mention of the tiple comes from musicologist Pablo Minguet e Irol in 1752. Although ma ...
(literally treble or soprano) is a plucked-string chordophone of the guitar family. The first mention of the tiple comes from musicologist Pablo Minguet e Irol in 1752. David Pelham says of the Colombian tiple
The Colombian tiple (in Spanish: ''tiple'', pronounced: ''tee-pleh''), is a plucked string instrument of the guitar family, common in Colombia where it is considered one of the national instruments. About three-fourths the size of a classical ...
: "The tiple is a Colombian adaptation of the Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
Spanish vihuela
The vihuela () is a 15th-century fretted plucked Spanish string instrument, shaped like a guitar (figure-of-eight form offering strength and portability) but tuned like a lute. It was used in 15th- and 16th-century Spain as the equivalent of t ...
brought to the New World in the 16th century by the Spanish conquistadors. At the end of the 19th century, it evolved to its present shape.
The tipple of Puerto Rico is the smallest of the three string instruments of Puerto Rico that make up the orquesta jibara (i.e., the Cuatro, the Tiple and the Bordonua). According to investigations made by Jose Reyes Zamora, the tiple in Puerto Rico dates back to the 18th century. It is believed to have evolved from the Spanish guitarrillo. There was never a standard for the tiple and as a result there are many variations throughout the island of Puerto Rico including the most common tiple doliente, two smaller tiples (the tiple requinto and tiple vihuela), the larger tiplón or tiple con macho, and the largest tiple grande de Ponce.
Bordonua
The Puerto Rico bordonua
The Bordonua (Bordonúa) is a large, deep body (sound-boxes are usually deep) bass guitar which is native to Puerto Rico. They are made using several different shapes and sizes.
The Bordonúa is the least common of the three stringed instrum ...
is said to have evolved from the old 16th century Spanish Acoustic bass guitar called the Bajo de la Una. There were also special melodic Bordonuas that were used during the 1920s and 1930s as accompaniment to melody instead of the bass role. These were oddly tuned like a Tiple. This configuration is no longer used on the island. They are also related to the Spanish renaissance Vihuela, brought to the Island by conquering Spanish.
Cuatro
The cuatro
Cuatro is Spanish language, Spanish (and other Romance languages) for the 4 (number), number four.
Cuatro may also refer to:
* Cuatro (instrument), name for two distinct Latin American instruments, one from Puerto Rico (see cuatro (Puerto Rico), ...
is a family of Latin American string instruments
Instrument may refer to:
Science and technology
* Flight instruments, the devices used to measure the speed, altitude, and pertinent flight angles of various kinds of aircraft
* Laboratory equipment, the measuring tools used in a scientific lab ...
played in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and other Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
n countries. The instrument's 15th-century predecessors were the Spanish vihuela and the Portuguese cavaquinho. Although some have viola
The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...
-like shapes, most cuatros resemble a small to mid-sized classical guitar
The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar or Spanish guitar) is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor o ...
. In Puerto Rico and Venezuela, the cuatro is an ensemble instrument for secular and religious music, and is played at parties and traditional gatherings.
Bandurria, bandolón and bandola
The bandurria
The bandurria is a plucked chordophone from Spain, similar to the mandolin and bandola, primarily used in Spanish folk music, but also found in former Spanish colonies.
Instrument development
Prior to the 18th century, the bandurria had a round ...
was the Spanish version of the mandore
Mandore is a suburb Historical town located 9 km north of Jodhpur city, in the Indian state of Rajasthan.
History
Mandore is an ancient town, and was the seat of the Pratiharas of Mandavyapura, who ruled the region in the 6th century CE ...
, and the modern instrument is thus related to the mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
family. The similarity of the instruments affects the history of other instruments from South and Central America; a variety of instruments exist called bandola
The bandola is one of many varieties of small pear-shape chordophones found in Venezuela and Colombia. They are related to the bandurria and mandolin.
Traditional varieties
Instruments known as ''bandola'' include:
*Bandola llanera: tra ...
s. At least one, the bandola andina colombiana, is related to the bandurria. The others are not clear at this time, and possibilities include mandolin family instruments such as the mandola or the cittern
The cittern or cithren ( Fr. ''cistre'', It. ''cetra'', Ger. ''Cister,'' Sp. ''cistro, cedra, cítola'') is a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is d ...
family. These were all present in Spain and Portugal during the colonization era. The bandolas have multiple courses of strings, like the bandurrias, mandolins and citterns.
Juan Ruiz first mentioned the term "mandurria" in the 14th century in his ''Libro De Buen Amor''. After that, Juan Bermudo gave the description of the bandurria in his "''Comiença el libro llamado declaraciõ de instrumentos''" as a three-string instrument in 1555, but he also mentioned other types with four or even five strings.
It had become a flat-backed instrument by the 18th century, with five double courses of strings, tuned in fourths. The original bandurrias of the Medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...
period had three strings. During the Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
they gained a fourth string. During the Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
period the bandurria had 10 strings (5 pairs).
There are also many different varieties of bandurria in South America, especially Peru and Bolivia. They have four courses, unlike the traditional Spanish six courses. The four courses are double, triple or quadruple, and the tuning is guitar-like, rather than the fourths tuning used on the Spanish type. In Lima, Peru, harp and bandurria duos were common in the early 20th century. Nowadays people there still play bandurria accompanying with the popular vals peruano, or vals criollo.
The Philippine harp bandurria is a 14-string bandurria used in many Philippine folkloric songs, with 16 frets and a shorter neck than the 12-string bandurria. This instrument probably evolved in the Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
during the Spanish period, from 1521 to 1898.
Larger instruments gave developed in the bandurria family including the Mexican bandolón
A bandolón is a musical instrument from Mexico. It is a guitar sized instrument, resembling a flatback mandolin with 18 strings, arranged in 6 courses, three strings per course, and played with a pick. It is associated with the típica orquest ...
and several instruments called bandola
The bandola is one of many varieties of small pear-shape chordophones found in Venezuela and Colombia. They are related to the bandurria and mandolin.
Traditional varieties
Instruments known as ''bandola'' include:
*Bandola llanera: tra ...
from Venezuela, Colombia and Peru. These include the Bandola llanera, bandola andina colombiana, bandola oriental, bandola guayanesa, and bandola Andina (or bandola Aymara or Peruvian bandola).
Mexican instruments
In the 17th and 18th centuries, Mexican artisans built several types of instruments with double strings in three, four, five, six, seven and eight courses, influenced by their Spanish ancestors. Descendants of these instruments are bandolon, guitarra séptima, quinta huapanguera
The huapanguera, guitarra quinta huapanguera or guitarra huapanguera is a Mexican guitar-like instrument that usually forms part of a conjunto huasteco ensemble, along with the jarana huasteca and violin. Because of its large body and deeper st ...
, jarana jarocha
The jarana jarocha is a guitar-shaped fretted stringed instrument from the southern region of the state of Veracruz, Mexico. Typically strung with 8 strings in 5 courses, usually arranged in two single outer strings with three double-courses in ...
, concheras
Concheras or conchas are Mexican stringed-instruments, plucked by concheros dancers. The instruments were important to help preserve elements of native culture from Eurocentric-Catholic suppression. The instruments are used by Concheros dancer ...
, and guitarra chamula, among others.
Mexican vihuela
Although the Mexican vihuela has the same name as the historic Spanish plucked string instrument, the two are distinct. The Mexican vihuela has more in common with the Timple Canario (see: timple
The timple is a traditional five-string plucked string instrument of the Canary Islands. It started being manufactured in the 19th century.
In La Palma island and in the north of the island of Tenerife, many timple players omit the fifth (D) ...
) due to both having five strings and both having vaulted (convex) backs. The Mexican vihuela is a small, deep-bodied rhythm guitar built along the same lines as the guitarrón Guitarrón or guitarron is a common name for a number of stringed instruments found in Latin America and may refer to:
* Guitarrón argentino, a six-stringed musical instrument from Argentina
* Guitarrón chileno, a 25-stringed, plucked instrument ...
. The Mexican Vihuela is used by Mariachi
Mariachi (, , ) is a genre of regional Mexican music that dates back to at least the 18th century, evolving over time in the countryside of various regions of western Mexico. The usual mariachi group today consists of as many as eight violins, t ...
groups.
Guitarron mexicano
Although similar to a guitar, the Guitarrón mexicano was developed from the 16th-century Spanish bajo de uña ("fingernail pluckedbass").
Guitarra panzona
The guitarra panzona
The guitarra panzona, guitarra túa or guitarra blanca is a Mexican guitar with six strings and deep body. This guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's b ...
, guitarra túa or guitarra blanca is a Mexican guitar
Mexican may refer to:
Mexico and its culture
*Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America
** People
*** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants
*** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...
—with six strings and deep body. This guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...
is sometimes substituted by a guitarron. It provides a tubby sounding rhythm for calentano music, accompanying violin, guitar and tamborita.
Guitarra de golpe
A Guitarra de golpe
The Guitarra de golpe is a stringed musical instrument from Mexico. It has 5 nylon strings in 5 courses. The headstock traditionally has a traditional shape that is designed to look like a stylised owl with wooden pegs, but nowadays this is some ...
is a type of 5-string guitar designed in Mexico. The perked once had a distinct traditional shape that is designed to look like a stylised owl with wooden pegs, but nowadays this is sometimes replaced with a guitar or vihuela style headstock with machine heads. For a while during the 20th century, the Guitarra De Golpe fell into disuse in traditional Mariachi groups, and was replaced by the Classical guitar. It has now however been revived.
Huapanguera
The huapanguera
The huapanguera, guitarra quinta huapanguera or guitarra huapanguera is a Mexican guitar-like instrument that usually forms part of a conjunto huasteco ensemble, along with the jarana huasteca and violin. Because of its large body and deeper str ...
, guitarra quinta huapanguera or guitarra huapanguera is a Mexican guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...
-like instrument that usually forms part of a conjunto huasteco
The term ''conjunto'' (, literally 'group', 'ensemble') refers to several types of small musical ensembles present in different Latin American musical traditions, mainly in Mexico and Cuba. While Mexican conjuntos play styles such as '' norteño' ...
ensemble, along with the jarana huasteca
The jarana huasteca, jarana de son huasteco or jaranita is a string instrument. It is most often called simply jarana. It is a guitar-like chordophone with 5 strings, tuned in thirds (low to high): G, B, D, F# and A. It has a range similar ...
guitar and violin
The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...
. Because of its large body and deeper structure, the huapanguera is able provide a much deeper sound compared to a regular acoustic guitar. Here it takes on the role of the bass instrument using a rhythmical strumming
In music, strumming is a way of playing a stringed instrument such as a guitar, ukulele, or mandolin. A strum or stroke is a sweeping action where a finger or plectrum brushes over several Strings (music), strings to generate sound. On most st ...
technique. Its physical construction features a large resonating body with a short neck.
Jarana huasteca
The jarana huasteca, jarana de son huasteco or jaranita is a string instrument
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner.
Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the ...
. It is most often called simply jarana. It is a guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...
-like chordophone
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner.
Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the st ...
with 5 strings. It is smaller than the ''guitarra huapanguera
The huapanguera, guitarra quinta huapanguera or guitarra huapanguera is a Mexican guitar-like instrument that usually forms part of a conjunto huasteco ensemble, along with the jarana huasteca and violin. Because of its large body and deeper str ...
'' and usually forms part of the ''trío huasteco
The term ''conjunto'' (, literally 'group', 'ensemble') refers to several types of small musical ensembles present in different Latin American musical traditions, mainly in Mexico and Cuba. While Mexican conjuntos play styles such as '' norteño' ...
'' ensemble, along with the ''quinta huapanguera
The huapanguera, guitarra quinta huapanguera or guitarra huapanguera is a Mexican guitar-like instrument that usually forms part of a conjunto huasteco ensemble, along with the jarana huasteca and violin. Because of its large body and deeper str ...
'' and violin
The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...
, taking on the role of the rhythmical accompaniment to the ensemble.
Bajo sexto
The bajo quinto is probably a descendant of the Italian baroque chitarra battente
The chitarra battente (in Italian "strumming guitar", however "battente" literally means "beating" related to the fact that this guitar thumps the rhythm of the music) is a musical instrument, a chordophone of the guitar family. It is similar to ...
.
The manufacture of bajo quinto and sexto reached a peak in quality and popularity in the 19th century in central and southern Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, in the states of Guerrero
Guerrero is one of the 32 states that comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 81 municipalities and its capital city is Chilpancingo and its largest city is Acapulcocopied from article, GuerreroAs of 2020, Guerrero the pop ...
, Michoacán
Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo (; Purépecha: ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of ...
, Morelos
Morelos (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Morelos ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Morelos), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 36 municipalities and its capital city is Cuer ...
, Puebla
Puebla ( en, colony, settlement), officially Free and Sovereign State of Puebla ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its cap ...
, Oaxaca
Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of Mexico. It is ...
, and Tlaxcala
Tlaxcala (; , ; from nah, Tlaxcallān ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tlaxcala ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tlaxcala), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 60 municipaliti ...
.[''Bajos de espiga. Diccionario de la Música Española e Hispanoamericana''. Sociedad General de Autores y Editores. Madrid (2002). ]
Native American creations
Concheras
In Mexico, the Concheras
Concheras or conchas are Mexican stringed-instruments, plucked by concheros dancers. The instruments were important to help preserve elements of native culture from Eurocentric-Catholic suppression. The instruments are used by Concheros dancer ...
lute tradition may date to the Spanish Conquest in the 16th century. Native Americans imitated the European instruments, making their own. Sounds boxes were made from armadillo shells, from calabash gourds, and from strips of wood like the lute
A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted.
More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...
. The dancers who use the Concheras
Concheras or conchas are Mexican stringed-instruments, plucked by concheros dancers. The instruments were important to help preserve elements of native culture from Eurocentric-Catholic suppression. The instruments are used by Concheros dancer ...
(also known as conchas) call them "Mecahuehuetl" (from Nahuatl
Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...
: Meca(tl) = chord + Huehue(tl)= old one "drum"). The tradition is rooted in the Otomi
The Otomi (; es, Otomí ) are an indigenous people of Mexico inhabiting the central Mexican Plateau (Altiplano) region.
The Otomi are an indigenous people of Mexico who inhabit a discontinuous territory in central Mexico. They are linguisticall ...
, Jonaz, Chichimeca
Chichimeca () is the name that the Nahua peoples of Mexico generically applied to nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples who were established in present-day Bajio region of Mexico. Chichimeca carried the meaning as the Roman term "barbarian" that des ...
, and Caxcan
The Caxcan were a partly nomadic indigenous people of Mexico. Under their leader, Tenamaztle, the Caxcan were allied with the Zacatecos against the Spaniards during the Mixtón Rebellion in 1540-42. During the rebellion, they were described as " ...
tribes.
As Christians tried to suppress the native's religion, the instruments became a tool to preserve music. Early Concheros dancers were able to incorporate the precolumbian dance and drum rhythms into the music made on the guitars and lutes. A traditional conchero can tell which step should be carried out by how the melody is being strummed on the conchas.
Modern instruments include the mandolina conchera, vihuela conchera, and guitarra conchera. The vihuela and guitar types are tuned using reentrant tuning
On a stringed instrument, a break in an otherwise ascending (or descending) order of string pitches is known as a re-entry. A re-entrant tuning, therefore, is a tuning where the strings (or more properly the courses) are not all ordered from th ...
, each course having two strings an octave apart.
Charango
The charango
The charango is a small Andean stringed instrument of the lute family, from the Quechua and Aymara populations in the territory of the Altiplano in post-Colonial times, after European stringed instruments were introduced by the Spanish during c ...
was developed in what is now Bolivia and Peru. Adapted from European styles such as vihuela and round-backed mandolin (or earlier types such as bandurria or mandore). Native Americans have been credited with using armadillo
Armadillos (meaning "little armored ones" in Spanish) are New World placental mammals in the order Cingulata. The Chlamyphoridae and Dasypodidae are the only surviving families in the order, which is part of the superorder Xenarthra, along wi ...
hide to create a round back, which is made of wood in modern times. The instrument is widespread throughout the Andean regions of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, northern Chile and northwestern Argentina, where it is a popular musical instrument that exists in many variant forms.
Two sizes are common: The smallest is the Walaycho
The walaycho (hispanicized spelling ''hualaycho'', also ''walaychu'') is a small lute-like fretted stringed instrument, the smallest member of the charango family. It is the same or similar to the ''maulincho''. The ''walaychu'' along with the ch ...
(also hualaycho, maulincho, or kalampiador) with a scale typically around 30 cm long (up to about 56 cm with mechanical tuners). It has ten strings, which may be of metal, nylon, or nylon fishing line, arranged in five courses of two strings each. The Charangón (also charangone) is larger, in effect a tenor charango. About 75 cm long by 22 cm wide with a 42–51 cm scale.
A flat-backed version has been developed, the hatun charango or "grand charango", an extended-range charango developed in Peru in the modern era. It has either seven or eight strings, all set in single string courses except for the third course, which is double-strung.
Gallery, Latin America, Indonesia, Philippines, Hawaii
File:LucielFotoGilArduz.jpg, Bolivia. Luciel Izumi playing modern charango
File:Armadillo backed Bolivian Charango 05.jpg, Bolivia. Charango, rounded back made from an armadillo
Armadillos (meaning "little armored ones" in Spanish) are New World placental mammals in the order Cingulata. The Chlamyphoridae and Dasypodidae are the only surviving families in the order, which is part of the superorder Xenarthra, along wi ...
File:Charango hinten.JPG, Modern charango with wood back
File:Presentación de Timples 2000 en Puerto del Rosario.jpg, Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...
, Fuerteventura
Fuerteventura () is one of the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean, part of the North Africa region, and politically part of Spain. It is located away from the northwestern coast of Africa. The island was declared a biosphere reserve by UNES ...
. timple
The timple is a traditional five-string plucked string instrument of the Canary Islands. It started being manufactured in the 19th century.
In La Palma island and in the north of the island of Tenerife, many timple players omit the fifth (D) ...
File:Guitarronero001.jpg, Chilean guitarron
File:Pedro Nel Martínez P.jpg, Colombia. Colombian tiple
The Colombian tiple (in Spanish: ''tiple'', pronounced: ''tee-pleh''), is a plucked string instrument of the guitar family, common in Colombia where it is considered one of the national instruments. About three-fourths the size of a classical ...
File:Bandola 3.jpg, Columbia. Bandola andina
File:Kahi Ata Ratu performing live at CME-Fest, cropped.jpg, Sumba
Sumba ( id, Pulau Sumba) is an island in eastern Indonesia. It is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands and is in the province of East Nusa Tenggara. Sumba has an area of , and the population was 779,049 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as a ...
, Indonesia. Kahi Ata Ratu performing on the Junga. Originally a boat lute, this type was modeled after a Portuguese instrument.
File:Charango (Mexico) and Metal Scraper (Cuba) - Met Museum of Art, New York, NY.jpg, Merida, Yucatán, Mexico, 19th century. Six-stringed charanga or jamanita.
File:Mejorana2.jpg, Panama. Mejorana
The mejoranera or mejorana is a folkloric chordophone from Panama. It is carved from one block of wood (usually cedar) or from dry fibers of Bejuco, and is shaped like a small guitar. It has five nylon, horse hair, or gut strings. The mejoraner ...
File:TipleDoliente.jpg, Puerto Rican tiple doliente
File:Phoenix-Musical Instrument Museum-Puerto Rico Exhibit-Tiple Requinto--1800s.jpg, Puerto Rico, 19th century, tiple requinto
File:Bandola llanera.jpg, Venezuela. Bandol llanera
File:Antonio Facure - Bandola oriental.jpg, Venezuela. Bandola oriental
Notes
References
*{{EB1911, wstitle=Citole , volume=6 , page=397
History
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
Lutes
A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted.
More specifically, the term "lute" can refer ...