Zeryab
12-09-2005, 08:53 PM
History of Kemenche
The kemençe of Turkish classical music is a small instrument, from 40-41 cm in length, and 14-15 cm wide. Its body, reminiscent of half a pear, ıts ellptical pegbox (‘kafa’ or head), and its neck (‘boyun’) are carved and shaped from a single piece of wood. On its face are two large (4x3 cm) D-shaped soundholes, with the rounded sides facing out. The holes are approximately 25 mm apart. The bridge is placed between these holes, one side of it resting on the face of the instrument, and the other on the sound post. On the back side of the instrument there is a ‘back channel’ (‘sırt oluğu’). This channel begins from a triangular raised area (‘mihrap’) which is an extension of the neck and extends to the middle of the head, widens in the middle, and ends in a point near the tailpiece (“kuyruk takozu”). Each of the gut or metal strings, attached to the tailpiece, passes over the bridge and is wound onto its own peg. There is no nut to equalize the vibrating lengths of the strings. The three strings are tuned to yegâh (low re), rast (sol) and neva (high re). All the strings are of gut, but the yegâh string is silver-wound. Today there are players who use synthetic raquet strings, aluminum-wound gut or synthetic silk strings, or chrome-wound steel violin strings. The pegs, which are from 14-15 cm long and rest on the chest during playing, form the points of a triangle on the head. Thus the middle string is 37-40 mm longer than the strings to either side of it. The vibrating lengths (that is, the portion between the bridge and the tuning pegs) of the short strings are from 25.5-26 cm. The sound post, which transmits the vibration of the strings to the back of the instrument -located under the neva string- is placed between the bridge and the back. A small hole 3-4 mm in diameter is bored in the back, directly below the bridge. Earlier, the head, neck and back channel were generally made of ivory, mother-of-pearl or tortoise shell inlay. Some kemençes made for the palace or mansions by great masters such as Büyük İzmitli or Baron, had backs, and even the edges of the sound holes, completely covered by mother-of-pearl, ivory or tortoiseshell inlay, or engraved and inlaid motifs.
It can be said that the kemençe is the most heavily decorated of the Turkish instruments.
The kemençe is played either with the tailpiece on the left knee and the tuning pegs supported on the chest, or held between the knees. The strings are seven to ten millimeters above the fingerboard, and thus the different notes are played not by pressing the fingertips on the strings as in most string instruments, but rather by pushing lightly from the side with the fingernails. Because in the fourth position (muhayyer [la]) the pitches are very close together, the likelihood of hitting a wrong note is very high. The bow is approximately sixty centimeters long, and the tension of the bowhairs can be increased or decreased during playing with the middle finger of the right hand.
The word ‘kemençe’, which means ‘small bow’ or ‘small bowed instrument’ in Persian, was used for the spike fiddle known today as the rebab (the term ‘spike fiddle’ in organology is the common name for bowed instruments with a body generally in the shape of a cut globe, and a long cylindrical neck that passes through the body, which are played upright). The kemânçe, also kalled kemân, was the only bowed instrument used in Turkish classical music up until the eighteenth century. The kemânçe was replaced by the European viola d’amore (known in Turkish as sinekemanı, or ‘breast fiddle’), and later by the European violin. The pear-shaped kemençe entered the classical ensemble towards the middle of the nineteenth century.
Before it entered the classical ensemble, the name of the pear-shaped kemençe was ‘lyra’ (in Greece, where it has become very popular in recent years, it is known as the the ‘politiki lyra’, which means ‘City lyra’, that is, the Istanbul lyra). The lira was already in use by the Byzantines in the tenth century. A definite proof of this is that the Arab historian El-Mes’udî (- app. 957) wrote “The Byzantine lyra is the Arab rebab.” Also, in the Glossarium Latino-Arabicum, an Arabic-Latin dictionary written in the eleventh century, the definition for ‘rebab’ is ‘lyra’. In addition, when El-Mes’udî’s words are added to İbn Hurdazbih’s statement to the effect that “the counterpart to the rebab is pear-shaped,” the conclusion must be that the pear-shaped kemençe was in use among the Arabs during the early eleventh century at the very latest. The fact that Abdülkadir Merâgî called the bowed instrument resembling the rebab the ‘kemançe-i oğuz’, (Oğuz kemançe, the Oğuz being a Turkish tribe) and the pear-shaped kemençe the ‘kemânçe-i rumî’ (Greek/Roman kemançe), would make us think that the lyra was used not only by the Arabs but also by the Iranians and the Turks up until the beginning of the fifteenth century at the earliest. However no instrument resembling the kemençe appears in either Ottoman, Arab or Iranian miniatures. Neither do any written sources from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries make any mention of the pear-shaped kemençe. The oldest known illustration of the instrument is in Hızır Ağa’s book, Tefhîmu’l-Makamât fî tevlîdi’n-nagamât (1760?). The caption under this illustration is ‘kemân-i kıptî’ (gypsy violin). It is not surprising that Hızır Ağa gives the name ‘keman’ to this instrument, because the term ‘keman’ was the general name for bowed instruments in Ottoman Turkish; and the adjective ‘kıptî’ is a sign that the instrument had not yet entered the classical ensemble. The picture in Blainville’s book (1767) with the caption ‘three-stringed lyra’ does not appear as realistic as that depicted by Niebuhr in 1774. The lyra in this picture, which Laborde depicts in the same way as Niebuhr, with its small holes in the face and long neck, is identical to folk instruments encountered in the present day in the south of Italy (Calabria), on the Aegean islands (especially in Crete), in the Balkans and in some towns and villages of Turkey.
The kemençe of Turkish classical music is a small instrument, from 40-41 cm in length, and 14-15 cm wide. Its body, reminiscent of half a pear, ıts ellptical pegbox (‘kafa’ or head), and its neck (‘boyun’) are carved and shaped from a single piece of wood. On its face are two large (4x3 cm) D-shaped soundholes, with the rounded sides facing out. The holes are approximately 25 mm apart. The bridge is placed between these holes, one side of it resting on the face of the instrument, and the other on the sound post. On the back side of the instrument there is a ‘back channel’ (‘sırt oluğu’). This channel begins from a triangular raised area (‘mihrap’) which is an extension of the neck and extends to the middle of the head, widens in the middle, and ends in a point near the tailpiece (“kuyruk takozu”). Each of the gut or metal strings, attached to the tailpiece, passes over the bridge and is wound onto its own peg. There is no nut to equalize the vibrating lengths of the strings. The three strings are tuned to yegâh (low re), rast (sol) and neva (high re). All the strings are of gut, but the yegâh string is silver-wound. Today there are players who use synthetic raquet strings, aluminum-wound gut or synthetic silk strings, or chrome-wound steel violin strings. The pegs, which are from 14-15 cm long and rest on the chest during playing, form the points of a triangle on the head. Thus the middle string is 37-40 mm longer than the strings to either side of it. The vibrating lengths (that is, the portion between the bridge and the tuning pegs) of the short strings are from 25.5-26 cm. The sound post, which transmits the vibration of the strings to the back of the instrument -located under the neva string- is placed between the bridge and the back. A small hole 3-4 mm in diameter is bored in the back, directly below the bridge. Earlier, the head, neck and back channel were generally made of ivory, mother-of-pearl or tortoise shell inlay. Some kemençes made for the palace or mansions by great masters such as Büyük İzmitli or Baron, had backs, and even the edges of the sound holes, completely covered by mother-of-pearl, ivory or tortoiseshell inlay, or engraved and inlaid motifs.
It can be said that the kemençe is the most heavily decorated of the Turkish instruments.
The kemençe is played either with the tailpiece on the left knee and the tuning pegs supported on the chest, or held between the knees. The strings are seven to ten millimeters above the fingerboard, and thus the different notes are played not by pressing the fingertips on the strings as in most string instruments, but rather by pushing lightly from the side with the fingernails. Because in the fourth position (muhayyer [la]) the pitches are very close together, the likelihood of hitting a wrong note is very high. The bow is approximately sixty centimeters long, and the tension of the bowhairs can be increased or decreased during playing with the middle finger of the right hand.
The word ‘kemençe’, which means ‘small bow’ or ‘small bowed instrument’ in Persian, was used for the spike fiddle known today as the rebab (the term ‘spike fiddle’ in organology is the common name for bowed instruments with a body generally in the shape of a cut globe, and a long cylindrical neck that passes through the body, which are played upright). The kemânçe, also kalled kemân, was the only bowed instrument used in Turkish classical music up until the eighteenth century. The kemânçe was replaced by the European viola d’amore (known in Turkish as sinekemanı, or ‘breast fiddle’), and later by the European violin. The pear-shaped kemençe entered the classical ensemble towards the middle of the nineteenth century.
Before it entered the classical ensemble, the name of the pear-shaped kemençe was ‘lyra’ (in Greece, where it has become very popular in recent years, it is known as the the ‘politiki lyra’, which means ‘City lyra’, that is, the Istanbul lyra). The lira was already in use by the Byzantines in the tenth century. A definite proof of this is that the Arab historian El-Mes’udî (- app. 957) wrote “The Byzantine lyra is the Arab rebab.” Also, in the Glossarium Latino-Arabicum, an Arabic-Latin dictionary written in the eleventh century, the definition for ‘rebab’ is ‘lyra’. In addition, when El-Mes’udî’s words are added to İbn Hurdazbih’s statement to the effect that “the counterpart to the rebab is pear-shaped,” the conclusion must be that the pear-shaped kemençe was in use among the Arabs during the early eleventh century at the very latest. The fact that Abdülkadir Merâgî called the bowed instrument resembling the rebab the ‘kemançe-i oğuz’, (Oğuz kemançe, the Oğuz being a Turkish tribe) and the pear-shaped kemençe the ‘kemânçe-i rumî’ (Greek/Roman kemançe), would make us think that the lyra was used not only by the Arabs but also by the Iranians and the Turks up until the beginning of the fifteenth century at the earliest. However no instrument resembling the kemençe appears in either Ottoman, Arab or Iranian miniatures. Neither do any written sources from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries make any mention of the pear-shaped kemençe. The oldest known illustration of the instrument is in Hızır Ağa’s book, Tefhîmu’l-Makamât fî tevlîdi’n-nagamât (1760?). The caption under this illustration is ‘kemân-i kıptî’ (gypsy violin). It is not surprising that Hızır Ağa gives the name ‘keman’ to this instrument, because the term ‘keman’ was the general name for bowed instruments in Ottoman Turkish; and the adjective ‘kıptî’ is a sign that the instrument had not yet entered the classical ensemble. The picture in Blainville’s book (1767) with the caption ‘three-stringed lyra’ does not appear as realistic as that depicted by Niebuhr in 1774. The lyra in this picture, which Laborde depicts in the same way as Niebuhr, with its small holes in the face and long neck, is identical to folk instruments encountered in the present day in the south of Italy (Calabria), on the Aegean islands (especially in Crete), in the Balkans and in some towns and villages of Turkey.