Category: Jam Session
Hi all.
The bouzouki is the most popular instrument in Greece and Cyprus.
In the following article you can find out more about it.
The internet is very amasing. You always learn. For example i didn't know that there was an Irish bouzouki before reading the article.
Very interesting.
The bouzouki ((plural sometimes transliterated as bouzoukia) is the mainstay of modern
Greek music,
and is also found in
Irish music.
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
mandola.
The front of the body is flat and is usually heavily inlaid with
mother-of-pearl.
The instrument is played with a
plectrum
and has a sharp metallic sound.
There are three main types of bouzouki:
List of 3 items
• Trichordo having three pairs of strings (courses).
• Tetrachordo having four pairs of strings.
• Irish having four pairs of strings and a flat back.
list end
History
In
Ancient Greece
the same instrument was known under the name «
pandouris
» or «pandourion», also called «trichord» because it had three strings; it is the first fretted instrument known, forerunner of the various families of
lutes worldwide. 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.
From Byzantium onwards it is called «tambouras» (the modern turkish
Tanbur
is practically identical to the ancient greek pandouris). On display in the National Historical Museum of Greece is the tambouras of a hero of the Greek
revolution of 1821, General
Makriyiannis.
This tambouras bears the main morphological characteristics of the bouzouki used by the
Rebetes.
The Turkish
Saz
belongs to the same family of instruments as the bouzouki. A middle-sized kind of saz is called «bozouk saz». «Bozouk» in Turkish means «broken». 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 duzeni'(<--'bozouk düzen'
meaning 'broken tuning') still exists in Greek folk music.
Following the 1919-1922
war
in
Asia Minor
and the subsequent exchange of populations between
Greece
and
Turkey,
the ethnic Greeks fled to Greece. The refugees brought with them the music known as Smyrneika, which made use of the Arabic lute (
Oud
or 'outi' as the Greeks called it). Soon the outi was replaced by the bouzouki and the Smyrneika style fused into the Rembetika.
The early bouzoukia were Trichordo, with three courses (six strings in three pairs) and were generally tuned to D3/D4 A3 D4. This tuning fits in well with
the music of the Middle East, as an open chord is neither major nor minor, allowing great flexibility with the melody. Trichordo bouzoukis are still being
made, and are very popular with aficionados of
Rembetika.
After the
Second World War,
Tetrachordo (four-course) bouzoukis started to appear. It is not known who first added the fourth course. Possibly Stefanakis or Anastasios Stathopoulos.
The tetrachordo was made popular by
Manolis Chiotis.
The Irish bouzouki, with four courses, a flatter back, and differently tuned than the Greek bouzoukis, is a more recent development, dating back to the
1960s.
The trichordo bouzouki
Greek trichordo bouzouki
This was the usual type of bouzouki, once it had changed to having fixed frets, and it has 6 strings in three pairs, tuned D-a-d (or E-b-e). It is this
type of bouzouki that is used for
rebetiko.
This particular bouzouki is a three course replica of one used by
Markos Vamvakaris
(it utilizes easier-to-find tunners from a four course instrument -- most probably mandolin).
The tetrachordo bouzouki
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 Hiotis, during the early 1940's. In the two higher-pitched (
treble)
courses, the two strings of the pair are tuned to the same note. These are used for playing melodies, usually with the two courses played together. In the
two lower-pitched (
bass)
courses, the pair consists of a thick wound string and a thin string tuned an
octave
apart. 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).
The original tuning for the four-course bouzouki is C3 F3 A3 D4 (where C4 is Middle C). In recent times, some players have taken to tuning their bouzoukis
up in pitch to D3G3B3E4. This latter tuning is identitical to the tuning of the thinner four strings of a standard Spanish tuned
guitar.
The Irish bouzouki
The
Greek bouzouki
was introduced into
Irish Traditional Music
in the 1960s by
Johnny Moynihan
and was quickly taken up by
Andy Irvine.
Soon after, the Irish bouzouki began to develop into something like its current form. Today, the
Irish bouzouki
is an important part of the
Irish trad
scene, most often (though not always) playing accompaniment, mostly a mix of two note chords, basslines, and bits of countermelody, rather than the melody.
Perhaps the best known exponent of the Irish bouzouki is
Dónal Lunny,
who also created an electric version, known as the
e-zouk.
The Irish bouzouki generally has a flat or lightly arched back (like that of a guitar or an Irish, American, or Portuguese style mandolin) in place of stave-built
round back of the Greek bouzouki, and unlike the Greek instrument is usually tuned to GDAD or GDAE (an octave below the
mandolin).
For all intents and purposes, the modern Irish bouzouki is a member of the mandolin family, and a bouzouki in name only. However, the Irish bouzouki is
distinguished from the somewhat similar-looking
octave mandolin
in that it has a longer fretboard and characteristic tuning. Like mandolins, Irish bouzoukis are variously made with flat, carved (arched) and bent tops.
Hardly anyone uses the Greek bouzouki for Irish music today;
Alec Finn
is the only professional of any consequence to continue in playing one.
The typical scale length of the Irish bouzouki is 22 to 24 inches (550 to 610 mm), although some are as long as 26 inches (660 mm); an instrument in the
same tuning with a scale length of 20 inches (500 mm) or less is generally termed an
octave mandola
(Europe, Ireland, and the UK) or
octave mandolin
(US and Canada).
The first Irish bouzouki was probably one built by
Peter Abnett,
an English luthier who continues to build bouzoukis and other mandolin family instruments to this day. Luthiers
Stefan Sobell
and
Joe Foley
have also been major figures in the development of the instrument.
Retrieved from "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouzouki"
Nikos,
Hi Connie.
I am glad you liked my posts.
It would be interesting to get some replies from Irish users so they can tell us about the Irish bouzouki a bit more.
I might try and look on the internet and see if i can find any audio samples because i am wondering how it sounds like.
Ok.
Go to http://www.crane.gr.jp/~tassi/nations_inst/IRISH_BOUZOUKI/IRISH_BOUZOUKI.mp3 and you can listen how the Irish bouzouki sounds like.
It is very simmilar to the Greek but i will find a sample and post it as well.
For a Greek sample go to http://www.takiskokotas.com/audio/ymoraitis_11.mp3
Hmm I've heard the Irish bouzouki on The Waterboy's album Fisherman's Blues, it's beautiful..
Thanks Goblin. I will have to check them out.
Also there is another good article at http://www.irishbouzouki.com/ancienttones.html
I didn't paste it here because it's a long one.
Hi Fellows,
Thanks Connie. I will listen.
This website is interesting.
The good thing about it is that you can listen to a short sample for each track.
The Irish bouzouki can be heard at disk 2 track1 and track 13 as well.
Maybe it can be heard in other tracks as well but bbecause of the low quality sound it is not easy to recognise it.
hmm that is interesting Nikos...
...I checked out what you said and
note that yes, on Disc #2, the 6th selection is Fisherman's Blues ~
Whereas on disc #1 Fisherman's Blues is the 1st song mentioned.
On disc #1 the time is listed as 4:26 whereas ~
On disc #2 the time is listed as previously unreleased / Bonus Track 5:49
Takin' a listen' on each and brief wording can make out:
Disc #1: I wish I were the brakeman...
Disc #2:..on the sea, far away from dry land...
The musical instrumentation: I like it.
very interesting. I want to pick one of these up as well as a mandalin.
Interesting topic, Nikos, and as I peronally play the turkish saz, i agree that it is definitely the same family of instruments although you have different kinds of saz.
I think i will tell of this topic to Willy, a fellow who comes on here because he has a great knowledge of those things and could even give us more comments. Cheers. John
No problem Nikos it's Irish folk/modern stuff.
The saz. Sounds interesting. I will try and find a sample and post it here.
Also you could upload an audio profile playing the saz. It would be very interesting.
Hi.
I found the following link.
http://www.philobos.com/MEME/
It is a Turkish concert i think. At track2 there is an instrument which sounds very similar to the bouzouki.It might be the saz. But i never heard it before so i don't know.
I found a BBC website which has got samples of 3 Turkish instruments including the saz.
It is http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/world/onyourstreet/thestreet/turkey/turkey_instruments.shtml
Yes nikos it is a saz. but i must also tell you that there are different kinds of saz. The buglama saz is the one i play and you hare the koora saz which i spell like this for the sake of jaws, and this one's sound is very similar to that of the bouziki. Instead of mine, it has 6 strings. Mine has 7.. But yes it is definitely a saz.