Renato
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What is this: Greek saz, Turkish Buzuk, etc?
Hello friends,
A woman approached me after I played saz at the Turkish Cultural Center here in Santiago, Chile and wanted to know what this instrument was. She said
it was a saz, then I thought it might be a bozuk. (picture attached)
She says her grandmother was Arab and Greek. This instrument looks like a Greek saz, but also I´ve seen pictures of similar instruments played in
Uzbekistan, with widely spread out frets, and little diamonds on the neck. Also in Afghanistan they have a similar saz-like creature.
IS is a buzuk/bozuk?
What is it?
Thanks,
renato
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Multi Kulti
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Foto is required please  we will help you
Nikos
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Mike
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Here is the instrument Renato is asking about.
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Peyman
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This looks like a Persian (or kurdish) Tanboor, which typically has 3 strings 2 of which are tuned in unison. There are 4 string tanboors too with 2
pairs of the strings tuned in unison. Persian-kurdish tanboors don't have quarter notes. It also could be a european take on a Turkish saz. I don't
see a bridge. Tanboors have very short bridges.
Hope this helps.
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al-Halabi
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Peyman, I think you are right, even though one sometimes runs into instruments that the makers built with an unconventional feature drawn from a
related instrument. The two dark strips on the ends of the soundboard are commonly found on the Turkish saz, but the soundhole is not (although old
19th-century baglamas that I have seen often had a soundhole on the face). The white dots on the neck and the wide strips used on the bowl are also
not typical of the Turkish saz. The ebony pegs are not the traditional ones kind of peg used on these instruments, and it could very well be that they
are not original. This tanbur would have a floating bridge rather than one that is glued on the soundboard.
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Peyman
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my bad!
Sorry, I was wrong. It's not a tanboor. The tanboors from Iran always have 14 frets. This is definitely turkish. It's a take on a cura (Jorreh), the
small version of the baglama, probably from a village. The reason I say this is because I have seen undesized curas played by villagers that don't
have quarter notes. The two toned soundboard and the soundhole are also very turkish. Here are my baglama and cura.
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al-Halabi
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Peyman, your two pretty instruments look distinctly Turkish (your smaller saz, though, appears to be substantially bigger than the typical cura and
more like a kisa sap baglama - are you sure it's a cura?). I think that the soundhole on Renato's instrument is not typical of Turkish instruments of
the saz family - at least I have not seen it on recent instruments in all my time in Turkey. I checked a bit and found a photo of a Kurdish musician
in Iraq playing a tanbura with a soundhole on the face of the instrument (it's in the album titled "Kurdish Music" issued as part of the Unesco
Collection). Small soundholes with rosettes are also found on buzuqs, but Renato's instrument is not a buzuq (I have attached a photo of my buzuq).
Another question has to do with the frets. It looks to me from the photo that they may not be accurately placed on the neck, with strangely large
intervals even up the neck where the frets would be closer together (unless some of the frets are not clearly visible on the image). It's possible
that frets have been moved or came off, and that we are seeing something that is no longer representative of the original.
I can't exactly place this instrument, although it is definitely not a typical instrument of the urban saz family. It could be a Kurdish or rural
version of a saz from the areas of eastern Anatolia or northern Iraq. In the rural areas of the Middle East there is a rich variety of instruments,
but they are not quite as known or studied as are the more familiar instruments from urban settings.
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Peyman
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Thanks for the compliment al-Halabi. But I am sure it's a cura because I bought it from the maker as a cura. The picture is a little decieving, the
baglama is much larger than it appears.
As for renato's dilemma, this is not a buzuq; it is definitely a member of the saz family. Some baglamas still do come with soundholes and rosettes,
even bigger than this. The shape of the instrument also suggests it might be designed for doing 'selpe' (shelpeh) or the 'shorreh' techniques, the
glissando-like technique from Anatolia and Western Iran.
We don't know the length and we can't tell if those dots are inlays on the instrument. It also looks like someone fitted it with ebony violin pegs and
that there might have been a 5th peg. I initially thought it was a hole for hanging the instrument.
Al-Halabi is most likely right, and it's really hard to make a geographical guess on where it is from.
Anyway, it's a nice instrument. I'd probably take out those nylon frets. They looks too thick. I'd fit it with thinner fishing lines.
Good luck.
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alex-nozh
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this instrument is a 'TANBUR" or persian "SETAR"'
http://www.setar.info
Regards
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Brian Prunka
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Al-halabi, that's a very nice buzuq you have . . .
who was the maker?
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al-Halabi
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Brian, thanks. The maker of the buzuq is Fu'ad Haydar in Damascus.
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Renato
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Thank you all for your comments, opinions, guesses!! The instrument needs a brige and a few other fixes, but I`m apt to believe now that it is a
really old saz, as one saz teacher told me, or a tambur. It is a bit big for a setar, but then again, along the borders of all of the middle eastern,
central asian countries, there is a lot of mixing and matching of designs, etc. So, at least I know it is not a buzuq.
Grazie a todos!!
ciao,
renato
Anyone know of Ud instructors, players here in Chile? It is a bit lonely down here!! I am currently playing ud and saz in a band called "Canto de
Agua", or Su Sarkisi (Song of the water). We play traditional Turkish, sufi, and central asian tunes used in music therapy in Turkey and Central Asian
over the last three centuries.
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Peyman
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Hey Renato,
I found a similar instrument listed on Ebay. See if the measurements match your instrument. It's called a "Greek saz."
http://cgi.ebay.com/TURKISH-STRING-MUSICAL-INSTRUMENT-GREEK-SAZ_W0Q...
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