Çifteli

Çiftelia

The çifteli (çiftelia, qifteli, Albanian: "doubled" or "double stringed") is a plucked string instrument, with only two strings, played mainly by the Gheg people of northern and central Albania and Kosovo.

The çifteli is frequently used by Albanians in weddings, at concerts, and by many musicians such as Nikollë Nikprelaj. It is also used to accompany Albanian epics and ballads.

Construction

Çifteli vary in size, but are most often tuned to B and E (the same as the top two strings of a guitar). Usually the lower string is played as a drone, with the melody played on the higher string. The çifteli is a fretted instrument, but unlike most it is not fretted in a chromatic scale (one fret per semitone), but in the diatonic scale with seven notes to the octave.^{[citation needed]}

Etymology

The term çifteli may come from the Turkish language: çift ("double") and tel ("string"). It may also be derived from the Albanian language çift ("pair").

History

The çifteli is believed to be of Turkish or Persian origin, and possibly from Central Asia before that. The instrument in its modern form is no longer played in Central Asia or Anatolia, but historically Turkic peoples played an instrument known as the ıklığ, also meaning "two string" (iki meaning "two" and lik "-ness").

See also

• Dutar, a Central Asian instrument, whose name means "two strings" in Persian
• Baglama
• Šargija, a baglama-like Balkan instrument
• Saz (musical instrument)
• Tanbur