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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." The Çoğur/Çöğur was in many ways a transitional Instrument between old Komuz and new Bağlama style and has a body shape similar to the Instrument called panduri in Georgia.Īccording 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. The word bağlama is first used in 18th-century texts. Bağlama literally translates as "something that is tied up", probably a reference to the tied-on frets of the instrument. It is played with the fingers rather than a plectrum and has a fingerboard without frets. 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.
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It is partly descended from the Turkic komuz.
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The bağlama is a synthesis of historical musical instruments in Central Asia and pre-Turkish Anatolia. Since 2009 the art of Azerbaijani Ashiqs has been inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This art is one of the symbols of Azerbaijani culture and considered an emblem of national identity and the guardian of Azerbaijani language, literature and music.Ĭharacterized by the accompaniment of the kopuz, a stringed musical instrument, the classical repertoire of Azerbaijani Ashiqs includes 200 songs, 150 literary-musical compositions known as dastans, nearly 2,000 poems and numerous stories. The art of Azerbaijani Ashiqs combines poetry, storytelling, dance and vocal and instrumental music into a traditional performance art. The Azerbaijani saz was mainly used by Ashiqs. These can have either single or double pickups. There are also electric bağlamas, which can be connected to an amplifier. In some regions, it is played with the fingers in a style known as Şelpe or Şerpe. The bağlama is usually played with a mızrap or tezene (similar to a guitar pick) made from cherrywood bark or plastic. Frets are tied to the sap with fishing line, which allows them to be adjusted. The tuning pegs are known as burgu (literally screw). The Divan sazı, the largest instrument in the family, is tuned one octave lower still.Ī bağlama has three main parts, the bowl (called tekne), made from mulberry wood or juniper, beech, spruce or walnut, the spruce sound board ( göğüs) and a neck of beech or juniper ( sap). The cura is the smallest member of the bağlama family: larger than the cura is the tambura, tuned an octave lower. 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 most commonly used string folk instrument in Turkey, the bağlama has seven strings divided into courses of two, two and three. The Turkish settlement of Anatolia from the late eleventh 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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In the music of Greece the name baglamas ( Greek: μπαγλαμάς) is given to a treble bouzouki, a related instrument. It can be played with a plectrum or with a fingerpicking style known as şelpe. Like the Western lute and the Middle-Eastern oud, it has a deep round back, but a much longer neck. Īccording to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "the terms 'bağlama' and 'saz' are used somewhat interchangeably in Turkey." Saz ( Persian: ساز) means "to make to compose" in Persian. īağlama ( Turkish: bağlama) is Turkish from bağlamak, "to tie". 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, Iraq, and the Balkan countries.