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Bouzouki
Bouzouki
Classification
Related instruments

The bouzouki (gr. το μπουζούκι; pl. A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified for the purpose of making Music. Plucked string instruments are a subcategory of String instruments that are played by plucking the strings Plucking is a way of pulling and releasing the string in A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified for the purpose of making Music. The bağlama is a stringed Musical instrument shared by various Cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean, Near East, and Central The cittern (occasionally spelled " cithern " is a stringed instrument of the Lute / Guitar family dating from the Renaissance. For other uses of this term including another kind of musical instrument see Tar (disambiguation. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Plural is a Grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the Referent in the real world τα μπουζούκια) (plural sometimes transliterated as bouzoukia) is the mainstay of modern Greek music. The musical legacy of Greece is as diverse as its history. Cypriot music has certain similarities to traditional Greek Music, and their It is a stringed instrument with a pear-shaped body and a very long neck. The bouzouki is a member of the 'long neck lute' family and is similar to a mandolin. Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck (either Fretted or unfretted and a deep round back or more specifically to an instrument from A mandolin is a musical instrument in the Lute family (plucked or strummed The front of the body is flat and is usually heavily inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Nacre, also known as mother of pearl, is an organic-inorganic Composite material produced by some Mollusks as an inner shell layer The instrument is played with a plectrum and has a sharp metallic sound. Often called a pick or plec, a plectrum is a small flat tool used to pluck or strum a stringed instrument.

Many musicians such as Manolis Chiotis and Giorgos Zampetas began using specially designed pickups to achieve a slightly thicker humbucker-like sound in the mid-1960s. Manolis Chiotis (Greek Μανώλης Χιώτης was a famous Greek Rebetiko composer singer and Bouzouki player Giorgos Zampetas (Γιώργος Ζαμπέτας sometimes Romanized as George Zambetas) was a well-known Bouzouki musician A conventional humbucker (or Humbucking pickup) is a type of Electric guitar pickup that uses two coils both generating string signal These pickups are widely used by several Greek artists today and came in active and (usually) passive versions. Bouzouki pickup manufacturers include EMG, Lace Actodyne and Seymour Duncan. EMG Inc is the current legal name of a company based in Santa Rosa, California which manufactures Guitar pickups. The Lace Sensor is a Guitar pickup designed by Don Lace and manufactured by AGI (Actodyne General International since 1985. Seymour Duncan is a company that is best known for manufacturing of Guitar pickups and currently has a line of effects pedals

There are three main types of bouzouki:

Contents

History

In Greece, this instrument was known as the pandura or pandourion, also called the "trichordo" because it had three strings; it was the first fretted instrument known, forerunner of the various families of lutes worldwide. Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία The pandura is an ancient String instrument from the Mediterranian basin The source of our knowledge about this instrument is the Mantineia marble (4th century BC, now exhibited at Athens Archaeological Museum), depicting the mythical contest between Apollo and Marsyas, where a pandouris is being played by a muse seated on a rock. In Greek mythology, the Satyr Marsyas ( gr) appeared in two vignettes: in one he picked up the double flute ( Aulos

From Byzantine times it was called the tambouras. The modern Turkish Tanbur is practically identical to the ancient Greek pandouris. The term tanbūr ( Persian: تنبور) can refer to various long-necked Fretted Lutes originating in the Middle East On display in the National Historical Museum of Greece is the tambouras of a hero of the Greek revolution of 1821, General Makriyiannis. The Greek War of Independence (1821–1829 also commonly known as the Greek Revolution (Ελληνική Επανάσταση Elliniki Epanastasi; Ottoman This tambouras bears the main morphological characteristics of the bouzouki used by the Rebetes. A rebetis (pl rebetes) ( Greek ρεμπέτης) is a musician involved in the scene of the Greek musical genre of

The Turkish Saz and the Lebanese Buzuq belong to the same family of instruments as the bouzouki. The saz (from Persian:) is a family of Plucked string instruments popular in Iran, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia and the The buzuq ( Arabic: بزق; also transliterated bozuq, bouzouk, etc A middle-sized kind of saz is called a "bozouk saz". Bozouk in Turkish means "broken, not functioning, modified". Turkish ( tr Türkçe IPA) is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Here it is used in order to specify the size of the instrument. It is concluded, therefore, that the bouzouki has been named after the jargon of the Turkish saz. An alternative popular etymology maintains that the word "Bozouk" was used because different tunings (the Turkish 'düzen') are required for the instrument to play in different musical scales (known as Dromoi in Greek, Maqam (pl. Maqamat) in Arabic). A tuning known as the "bozouk düzeni" (broken tuning) still exists in Greek folk music.

The early bouzoukia were mostly Three-string (Trichordo), with three courses (six strings in three pairs) and were tuned in different ways, as to the scale one wanted to play.

After the late '50s, four-course (Tetrachordo) bouzoukia started to appear. The four-course Bouzouki was made popular by Manolis Chiotis. Manolis Chiotis (Greek Μανώλης Χιώτης was a famous Greek Rebetiko composer singer and Bouzouki player Chiotis also used a tuning akin to standard guitar tuning, which made it easier for guitarists to play bouzouki, even as it angered purists.

The Irish bouzouki, with four courses, a flatter back, and differently tuned from the Greek bouzouki, is a more recent development, dating back to the 1960s.

The three-course bouzouki (trichordo)

Greek trichordo bouzouki

This is the usual type of bouzouki. It has fixed frets and it has 6 strings in three pairs, in modern Times tuned Dd-aa-dd. This type of bouzouki was used for rebetiko. Rebetiko, plural rebetika, ( Greek ρεμπέτικο and ρεμπέτικα respectively occasionally transliterated as Rembetiko The illustrated bouzouki is a replica of a trichordo bouzouki used by Markos Vamvakaris. Markos Vamvakaris ( May 10, 1905 in Ano Chora in Syros - February 8, 1972) (Greek Μάρκος Βαμβακάρης was a It has tuners for eight strings, but has only six strings. The luthiers of the time often used sets of four tuners on trichordo instruments, as these were more easily available, since they were used on mandolins.

The four-course bouzouki (tetrachordo)

This type of bouzouki has 8 metal strings which are arranged in 4 pairs, known as courses. It was conceived and established in the scene by a major Rebetis, Manolis Chiotis, during the 1960s. A rebetis (pl rebetes) ( Greek ρεμπέτης) is a musician involved in the scene of the Greek musical genre of In the two higher-pitched (treble) courses, the two strings of the pair are tuned to the same note. In the two lower-pitched (bass) courses, the pair consists of a thick wound string and a thin string tuned an octave apart. Bass (ˈbɛɪs as in base) when used as an adjective is used to describe tones of low Frequency or range. In Music, an octave ( is the the use of which is "common in most musical systems These 'octave strings' add to the fullness of the sound and are used in chords and bass drones (continuous low notes that are played throughout the music).

Notable bouzouki players

See also

External links

References

Further reading

Dictionary

bouzouki

-noun

  1. (music) A Greek long-necked plucked fretted lute having a sharp, metallic sound
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