Bağlama
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The bağlama (Turkish: bağlama, from bağlamak, "to tie") is a stringed musical instrument shared by various cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean, Near East, and Central Asia. It is sometimes referred to as the saz (from the Persian Template:Rtl-lang, meaning a kit or set). According to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "the terms 'bağlama' and 'saz' are used somewhat interchangeably in Turkey."[1]
The term saz is mainly used to refer to a family of plucked string instruments, long-necked lutes used in Ottoman classical music, Turkish folk music, Kurdish music, Azeri music, Persian music, Assyrian music, and in parts of Syria, Iraq and the Balkan countries. The baglama is the most common of these, and is often called by the generic name. It can be played with a plectrum or with a fingerpicking style known as şelpe.
In the Music of Greece the name Baglama is given to a treble bouzouki, a closely related instrument.
Turkish bağlama
The most commonly used string folk instrument in Turkey, the baglama has seven strings divided into courses of two, two and three. It can be tuned in various ways and takes different names according to region and size: Bağlama, Divan Sazı, Bozuk, Çöğür, Kopuz Irızva, Cura, Tambura, etc. The cura is the smallest member of the bağlama family: larger than the cura is the tambura, tuned an octave lower. The Divan sazı, the largest instrument in the family, is tuned one octave lower still.
A bağlama has three main parts, the bowl (called tekne), made from mulberry wood or juniper, beech, spruce or walnut, the spruce sounding board (göğüs) and a neck of beech or juniper (sap ). The tuning pegs are known as burgu (literally screw). Frets are tied to the tekne with fishing line, which allows them to be adjusted. The bağlama is usually played with a tezene (similar to a guitar pick) made from cherrywood bark or plastic. In some regions, it is played with the fingers in a style known as Şelpe or Şerpe.
There are also electronic bağlamas, which can be connected to an amplifier. These can have either single or double pickups.
The kopuz and the bağlama
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The bağlama is believed to be a synthesis of historical musical instruments in Central Asia and pre-Turkish Anatolia. It is partly descended from the Turkic komuz. The kopuz, or komuz, differs from the bağlama in that it has a leather-covered body and two or three strings made of sheep gut, wolf gut, or horsehair. It is played with the fingers rather than a plectrum and has a fingerboard without frets. Bağlama literally translates as "something that is tied up", probably a reference to the tied-on frets of the instrument. The word bağlama is first used in 18th-century texts. The French traveler Jean Benjamin de Laborde, who visited Turkey during that century, recorded that "the bağlama or tambura is in form exactly like the cogur, but smaller." He was probably referring to the smallest of the bağlama family, the cura.
According to the historian Hammer, metal strings were first used on a type of komuz with a long fingerboard known as the kolca kopuz in 15th-century Anatolia. This was the first step in the emergence of the çöğür (cogur), a transitional instrument between the komuz and the bağlama. According to 17th-century writer Evliya Çelebi, the cogur was first made in the city of Kütahya in western Turkey. To take the strain of the metal strings the leather body was replaced with wood, the fingerboard was lengthened and frets were introduced. Instead of five hair strings there were now twelve metal strings arranged in four groups of three. Today, the cogur is smaller than a medium-size bağlama.
Bağlama (Saz) family
Name | Freq. (low) | Neck Length | Bowl Radius | Neck Length | Wire Length | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cura | 586Hz D | 22.5 | 13.5 | 30 | 48 | The smallest (for demo click [1]). |
Üçtelli sazi | Three wire strings, single course). | |||||
Çöğür saz | The Cogur | |||||
Tambura | 293Hz D | 38 | 22.8 | 52 | 80 | See Tanbur |
Bağlama | 220Hz A | 44.5 | 24.9 | 55 | 88 | The most common. |
Bozuk saz | G | See bouzouki. | ||||
Meydan sazi | 110Hz A | 52.5 | 31.5 | 70 | 112 | |
Aşik sazı | ||||||
Divan sazi | 146Hz D | 49 | 29.4 | 65 | 104 | |
Bas sazi | Bass version |
Bağlama tunings
There are three string groups, or courses, on the bağlama, with strings double or tripled. These string groups can be tuned in a variety of ways, known as düzen. For the bağlama düzeni, the most common tuning, the courses are tuned from top downward, A-G-D. Some other düzens are Kara Düzen (C-G-D), Misket Düzeni (A-D-F), Müstezat (A-D-F), Abdal Düzeni, and Rast Düzeni.
- Name Notes (lower, middle, upper) course
- Bağlama düzeni (La, Sol, Re) (A, G, D)
- Bozuk düzen, kara düzen (Sol, Re, La) (G, D, A)
- Misket düzeni (Fa#, Re, La) (F#, D, A)
- Fa müstezat düzeni (Fa, Re, La) (F, D, A)
- Abdal düzeni (La, La, Sol) (A, A, G)
- Zurna düzeni (Re, Re, La) (D, D, A)
- Do müstezat düzeni (Sol, Do, La) (G, C, A)
Bağlama scale
The Bağlama has a different scale than Western European instruments like the guitar. The scale is not logaritmic but based on just intonation intervals, like present on many other Non-western lute like instruments. The octave is divided in 15 intervals (the octave is the 15th fret).
- Fret one: 15/16
- Fret two: 8/9
- Fret three: 5/6
- Fret four: 5/4
- Fret five: 4/3
- Fret six: 8/11
- Fret seven: 2/3
Notable performers
- Ashig Alasgar
- Neşet Ertaş
- Orhan Gencebay
- Hasret Gültekin
- Ahmet Koç
- Erol Parlak
- Arif Sağ
- Karl Sanders
- Erkan Oğur
References
- ^ Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John, eds. (2001). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd ed.). London: Macmillan.
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See also
- Alevism
- Music of Turkey
- Kurdish music
- Komuz
- Dutar
- Dombra
- Greek bağlama
- Sallaneh (lute)
- Çiftelia
- Šargija
- Bouzouki (Greece)
- Buzuq (Lebanon)
- Tambura
- Setar
- Hicaz Hümâyun Saz Semâisi
- Tanbur
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Saz and Bağlama
- Sazmania
- Bağlama
- Trying to play
- Virtual Tuner
- Baglama
- All about Turkish bağlama and pictures
- Bağlama pictures
- www.baglamacilar.net
- http://www.eraydinsazevi.com.tr
- Bağlama ve Nota Bilgileri
The Turkish settlement of Anatolia from the late tenth century onward saw the introduction of a two-string Turkmen dutar, which was played in some areas of Turkey until recent times.
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