Musical Instrument: Lute

In the age of supersonic speeds and nanotechnology, sometimes you really want to relax, renounce all worldly fuss and find yourself in some other world where there is no modern turmoil, for example, in the romantic era of the Renaissance. At the present time, you don’t need to invent a time machine for this, but simply visit a concert of authentic music somewhere in the Izmailovsky Kremlin or the Sheremetyevo Palace. There you will not only hear beautiful melodies that mentally carry over to past times, but also get acquainted with interesting musical instruments on which our distant ancestors played music several centuries ago. Interest in ancient music is growing today, modern performers are enthusiastically mastering the instruments of past eras, which include the traverse flute, viola da gamba, treble viola, baroque contrabass violon, harpsichord and, undoubtedly, the lute is an instrument of privileged classes and deserves special attention. The Arabs in the Middle Ages rightfully called her the queen of musical instruments.

Sound

The lute belongs to the family of stringed-plucked instruments, by the nature of its sound it is a bit like a guitar, however, its voice is much softer and more gentle, and its timbre is velvety and quivering, as it is more saturated with overtones. The source of sound on the lute is paired and single strings, which the performer plucks with his right hand and presses against the frets with his left, changing their length, thereby changing the pitch.

The musical text for the instrument was written using letters on a six-line line, and the duration of the sounds was indicated by notes placed above the letters. Range instrument about 3 octaves. The tool does not have a specific standard setting.

Photo:

Interesting Facts

• For many nations, the image of the lute served as a symbol of harmony, youth and love. Among the Chinese, it meant wisdom, as well as consistency in the family and society. For Buddhists - harmony in the world of the gods, for Christians - a lute in the hands of angels marked the beauty of heaven and the reconciliation of natural forces. In the art of the Renaissance, she symbolized Music, and an instrument with broken strings indicated disagreement and discord.
• The lute was an emblem - a symbolic image of lovers.
• The lute in the Renaissance was very often displayed on paintings, even Orpheus and Apollo were painted by artists of that time not with a lyre, but with a lute. And it is impossible to imagine a more harmonious composition than a girl or a young man with this romantic instrument.
• At one time, the lute, which was very popular, was considered a privileged instrument of the secular circle, the nobility and royalty. In the East, it was called the sultan of instruments, and in European countries there was a saying that the organ is the “King of all instruments”, and the lute is “the instrument of all kings”.
• The great English poet and playwright W. Shakespeare often mentioned the lute in his works. He admired her sound, attributing to her the ability to bring listeners to an ecstatic state.
• The greatest Italian sculptor, artist, poet and thinker Michelangelo Buonarroti, admiring the performance of the famous lute player Francesco da Milano, said that he was divinely inspired by music and all his thoughts at that time were turned to heaven.
• The performer on the lute is called a lute player, and the master who makes the instruments is called a lute.
• The instruments of the Bolognese masters - Luthier L. Mahler and G. Frey, as well as representatives of the Tieffenbrucker family from Venice and Padua, created in the 17-18 centuries, cost astronomical money by those standards.
• It was not so difficult to learn how to play the lute, but it was problematic to tune an instrument that had many strings made from natural materials, but poorly kept in tune due to changes in temperature and humidity. There was a very famous joke: a lute player spends two-thirds of the time tuning the instrument, and one-third plays music on an untuned instrument.

Design

A very elegant design of the lute includes a body and neck, ending with a peg block. The body, which has a pear shape, includes a deck and a body that acts as a resonator.

• The body is made of curved, forming a hemispherical shape, segments made from hardwood: ebony, rosewood, cherry or maple.
• The deck is the front part of the body that covers the body. It is flat, oval in shape and is usually made of resonator spruce. There is a stand on the deck in the lower part, and in the middle there is a sound hole in the form of an elegant intricate pattern or a beautiful flower.

A relatively wide, but short lute neck is attached to the body at the same level as the soundboard. An ebony overlay is glued to it, and catgut fret delimiters are also tied. At the top of the neck is a nut that controls the tension of the strings.

The peg block of the lute, on which there are adjusting pins for string tension, also has its own distinctive feature. It lies in the fact that the block is located in relation to the neck of the neck at a fairly large, almost right angle.

The number of paired strings on different lutes varies greatly: 5 to 16, and sometimes 24.

Weight the tool is very small and is approximately 400 gr., length tool - about 80 cm.

Varieties

The lute at one time, which was very popular, evolved very intensively. Musical masters constantly experimented with its shape, number of strings and tuning. As a result, a fairly significant number of instrument varieties arose. For example, Renaissance lutes, in addition to traditional instruments, including instruments with a different number of paired strings - choirs, had types of various sizes that were similar to the registers of the human voice: small octave, small treble, treble, alto, tenor, bass and octave bass. In addition, the lute family includes the baroque lute, al-ud, archilute, torban, kobza, theorba, kittaron, zither, bandora, cantabile lute, orfarion, wandervogel lute, mandora, mandola.

Application

Art historians consider the lute not only one of the most interesting, but also a fundamentally important instrument in the history of European music of the 16th and 17th centuries. It has received recognition from representatives of various walks of life, from commoners to royalty, and has been used as an accompanying, solo and ensemble instrument. The rapidly growing popularity of the lute constantly required replenishment and updating of the repertoire. Very often, the composers of works were at the same time performers, so a whole galaxy of wonderful lute composers appeared in European countries. In Italy - F. Spinachino, F. Milano, V. Galilei, A. Rippe, G. Morley, V. Capirola, A. Piccinini. In Spain - L. Milan, M. Fuenlyana. In Germany - H. Neusiedler, M. Neusiedler, I. Kapsberger, S. Weiss, W. Lauffensteiner. In England - D. Dowland, D. Johnson, F. Cutting, F. Rosseter, T. Campion. In Poland - V. Dlugoraj, J. Reis, D. Kato, K. Klabon. In France - E. Gauthier, D. Gauthier, F. Dufau, R. Wiese. It should also be noted that even such great masters as I.S. Bach, A. Vivaldi, G. Handel, J. Haydn paid attention to the lute, enriching its repertoire with their works.

At the present time, interest in early music, and at the same time in the lute, does not weaken. Its sound can be heard more and more often on the stages of concert halls. Among modern composers who compose for the instrument today, many interesting works should be noted by I. David, V. Vavilov, S. Kallosh, S. Lundgren, T. Sato, R. MacFarlen, P. Galvao, R. MacKillop, J. Wissems , A. Danilevsky, R. Turovsky-Savchuk, M. Zvonarev.

Notable artists

Unusually fashionable in the Renaissance and Baroque, but supplanted by other instruments and unfairly forgotten, the lute today again arouses great interest, and not only among authentic musicians. Its sound can now be heard more and more often at various concert venues, not only solo, but also in an ensemble with other beautiful ancient musical instruments. In the 21st century, the most famous virtuoso performers who do a lot to popularize the instrument are V. Kaminik (Russia), P. O "Dett (USA), O. Timofeev (Russia), A. Krylov (Russia, Canada), A Suetin (Russia), B. Yan (China), J. Imamura (Japan), R. Lislevand (Norway), E. Karamazov (Croatia), J. Held (Germany), L. Kirchhoff (Germany), E. Eguez (Argentina), H. Smith (USA), J. Lindbergh (Sweden), R. Barto (USA), M. Lowe (England), N. North (England), J. van Lennep (Netherlands) and many others .

Story

It is impossible to trace the entire history of the emergence of the lute, which was considered one of the most perfect instruments in Eastern countries. Such tools were already widespread in many countries of the world four millennia ago. They were played in Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, Persia, Assyria, Ancient Greece and Rome. However, art scholars suggest that the lute had an immediate predecessor, the oud, an instrument that is still treated with special reverence in the Middle East, claiming that it is the result of the creation of the Prophet's grandson. The oud had a pear-shaped body, which was made of walnut or pear wood, a pine soundboard, a short neck and a back-curved head. The sound was extracted with a plectrum.

The conquest of Europe by the lute began in the 8th century from Spain and Catalonia, after the Moors conquered the Iberian Peninsula. The tool not only very quickly joined the cultures of these countries, but also, due to the Crusades, began to spread rapidly to other European countries: Italy. France, Germany, displacing other instruments that existed at that time, such as the cistern and pandura. The lute, gaining popularity, was constantly subjected to various improvements. Masters made changes to the design of the instrument, modified the body and neck, added strings. If initially he had from 4 - 5 paired strings - choirs, then later the number gradually increased. By the 14th century, the lute in Europe was not only fully formed, but also became one of the most popular instruments not only in court, but also in home music-making. It was used not only as an accompaniment, but also as a solo instrument. For the lute, they composed a lot of diverse music, made transcriptions not only of popular songs and dances, but also of sacred music. In the 15th century, the popularity of the instrument increased even more, painters often depict it on their art canvases. Composers continue to intensively enrich the repertoire. Performers abandon the plectrum, preferring the finger extraction method, which significantly expanded the technical possibilities, allowing the performance of both harmonic accompaniment and polyphonic music. Lutes continued to improve, and the instruments with six paired strings became the most sought after.

In the 16th century, the popularity of the lute reached its peak. She dominated both professional musicians and amateurs. The instrument sounded in the palaces of kings and the highest nobility, as well as in the homes of ordinary citizens. It performed solo and ensemble works, accompanied vocalists and choirs, and, in addition, introduced them to orchestras. In different countries, schools for the production of lute instruments were created, the most famous of them was in Italy in the city of Bologna. The instruments were constantly modified, the number of paired strings increased: first ten, then fourteen, and later their number reached 36, which accordingly required changes in the design of the instrument. There were many varieties of the lute, among them there were seven that corresponded to the tessitura of the human voice, from discount to bass.

By the end of the 17th century, the popularity of the lute began to decline noticeably, as it was gradually supplanted by such instruments as guitar, harpsichord, and later the piano. In the 18th century, it was actually no longer used, with the exception of several varieties that existed in Sweden, Ukraine and Germany. And only at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, due to the renewed interest in ancient instruments of English enthusiasts led by the instrumental master, professional musician and musicologist Arnold Dolmich, attention to the lute again increased greatly.

The lute is an ancient elegant musical instrument with a beautiful gentle voice, which at one time was forced out of use and unfairly forgotten. Time passed, the musicians remembered him, became interested and again brought him to the concert stage to conquer the listeners with a sophisticated sound. Today, the lute is often a participant in authentic music concerts, performing both as a solo and ensemble instrument.

Video: listen to the lute

With the help of which Japanese storytellers or singers accompanied themselves during the performance. The closest European analogue of the shamisen is . Shamisen along with hayashi and shakuhachi flutes, tsuzumi drum and . Refers to traditional Japanese musical instruments.

The name contrasts with the genre of music for bunraku and kabuki - nagauta (long song). The most famous and most complex of the performance styles is the gidayu, named after Takemoto Gidayu (1651-1714), a bunraku puppeteer from Osaka. Instruments and plectrums are the largest, and the guide himself is both a singer and a commentator on what is happening on stage. The storyteller's work is so complex that in the middle of the performance, the guide changes. The narrator must absolutely know the text and the melody. Since the 19th century, onna-gidayu, female storytellers, have also appeared.

Origin

Shamisen in its original form originated in the depths of Western Asia, from there it came to China (XIII century), where it was called "sanxian", then moved to the Ryukyu Islands (modern Okinawa) and only from there came to Japan. This event is very clearly marked in history - in contrast to the time of the appearance of other musical instruments - and dates back to 1562.

The forerunner of the shamisen, the sanshin, was played in the Ryukyu Kingdom, which at that time became a prefecture. Sanshin, in turn, comes from the Chinese instrument sanjian, which evolved from Central Asian instruments.

The shamisen was also the most important instrument for the itinerant blind goze musicians who appeared at the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate.

Unlike Europe, where traditional/antique instruments do not receive much attention, shamisen and other national instruments in Japan are widely known and loved. Popularity is due not only to the respect of the Japanese for their culture and history, but also to the use of national instruments, in particular, the shamisen, in the traditional Japanese theater - primarily in the Kabuki and Bunraku theaters.

Shamisen was most widespread in the Tokugawa era, and the skill of playing it was part of the mandatory training program for maiko - geisha students. That is why the "fun quarters" were often called "quarters where shamisen does not stop."

Varieties and applications

There are several types of instruments that differ from each other in the thickness of the neck.

Tools with narrow neck called hosozao and are mainly used in music nagauta.

Tools with vulture medium thicknesses are called chuzao and are used in such musical genres as kiyomoto, tokiwazu, jiuta etc.

In the north of Japan, especially in the Tsugaru area (western part of Aomori Prefecture), a separate thick-necked version of the shamisen — tsugarujamisen, the game on which requires special virtuosity. The Tsugarujamisen with the thickest neck is called futozao and is used in joruri.

Device

The body of the shamisen is a wooden frame tightly covered with skin. In the Ryukyu Islands, for example, snake skin was used, and in Japan itself, the skin of cats or dogs was used for this purpose. The case is covered with leather on both sides, plus a small piece of leather is glued to the front membrane to protect it from plectrum (bati) blows.

Three strings of varying thickness are strung between the pegs and the lower end of the neck, which protrudes from the center of the bottom of the body. The strings are made from silk, nylon and tetlon. The length of the shamisen is about 100 cm.

The shamisen is played with a large bachi plectrum, which is made from materials such as wood, ivory, tortoise shell, buffalo horn, and plastic. Bati for nagaut and jiuta are almost regular triangles, with very sharp edges.

Tsugarujamisen suggests a smaller plectrum, more like a ginkgo leaf.

Shamisen playing technique

Three styles of playing the shamisen have been formed:

Uta-mono - song style. One of the main genres of musical accompaniment of theater performances kabuki. This genre is represented by long musical interludes played by the hayashi ensemble (this ensemble usually accompanies theater performances, it consists of a flute and three types of drums).

Katari-mono is a fantasy style. It is most characteristic of Japanese traditional music and is represented by a specific type of singing.

Minyo is a folk song.

When the shamisen first appeared in Japan, the strings were plucked with a small plectrum (yubikake) and only over time the musicians began to use the plectrum, which greatly expanded the timbre possibilities of the instrument. Whenever the lower string is plucked, in addition to its sound, overtones and slight noise are heard, this phenomenon is called "savari" ("touch"). Savaries also appear when other strings resonate with the bottom string, especially when the pitch interval between the strings is an octave (two octaves, three, fifths, etc.). The ability to use this additional sound is a sign of the high skill of the performer, and the acoustic effect itself is tightly controlled by the shamisen makers.

The plectrum is held in the right hand, and at the right moment, the sound of the strings is stopped by three fingers of the left hand on a fretless neck. The thumb and little finger are not used in the game. The most characteristic method of playing the shamisen is the simultaneous strike of the plectrum on the membrane and on the string. In addition, there are many other important factors that determine the specifics of the sound, such as the thickness of the strings, neck, membranes, the place where the plectrum strikes the strings, etc. Also on the shamisen, you can pluck the strings with your left hand, getting a more elegant timbre. This ability to change the tone is one of the hallmarks of the shamisen.

In addition to the way of playing, the timbre of the instrument can be changed by varying the length of the string, neck or plectrum, as well as their dimensions, thickness, weight, material - mass indicators! There are almost two dozen shamisen, differing from each other in pitch and timbre, and the musicians select the instrument that most closely matches their genre of music, or re-tune it just before the performance.

In shamisen music, the voice line almost coincides with that played on the instrument: the voice is only slightly ahead of the melody, which makes it possible to hear and understand the text, and also emphasizes the contrast between the sound of the voice and the shamisen.

Shamisen in modern music

Shamisen, due to its specific sound, is often used to enhance the "national" sound in some Japanese films and anime (like in Russia). So, shamisen sounds in the soundtrack of the Naruto anime series, Puni Puni Poemi.

Agatsuma Hiromitsu plays in the New Age style.

It is used by representatives of the European musical avant-garde (for example, Henri Pousseur).

The compositions performed by the Yoshida Brothers are quite popular, their shamisen sounds like.

Michiro Sato performs improvisations on the shamisen, and jazz pianist Glenn Horiuchi inserted fragments of shamisen playing into his compositions.

Guitarist Kevin Kmetz leads the California-based band God of the Shamisen, in which he plays the tsugarujamisen.

Video: Shamisen on video + sound

Thanks to these videos, you can get acquainted with the instrument, watch the real game on it, listen to its sound, feel the specifics of the technique:

Sale: where to buy/order?

The encyclopedia does not yet contain information on where to buy or order this instrument. You can change it!

Xi Jinping, Chairman of the People's Republic of China, speaking at a symposium dedicated to the 69th anniversary of the victory over the Japanese invaders during the World War, calling on Japan to take a more responsible approach to assessing...

added: 04 Mar 2014

National Japanese music and instruments

The Land of the Rising Sun Japan has a distinctive and unique culture. The legacy of a great nation is closely linked to music. National Japanese music is the same original phenomenon, which was due to the isolation of the country.

The people of Japan always carefully and respectfully treat the monuments of the culture of their homeland. Any music is impossible without musical instruments. The musical culture of Japan has its own unique genre. This explains the variety of instruments that are used to create musical masterpieces.

Notable musical instruments

One of the most famous Japanese musical instruments is shamisen, which is analogous to the lute. It belongs to the category of three-stringed plucked instruments. He originated from sanshina, which in turn is derived from sanxian which is native to China.

Japanese music and dance are not complete without shamisen, which is still revered in the Japanese islands today and is often used in Japanese theater. Bunraku and Kabuki. It is also important that the game on the shamisen is included in the training program for geisha - maiko.

National Japanese music is also inextricably linked with flutes. Musical instrument fue belongs to a family of flutes that are known for their high pitch. They are made from bamboo. This flute originated from the Chinese flute - " paixiao«.

The most famous flute from the fue family is shakuhachi, which is used as a musical instrument by Zen Buddhist monks. According to legend, the shakuhachi was invented by an ordinary peasant. When he was transporting the bamboo, he heard a marvelous melody that came out of the bamboo when the wind blew into it.

The fue flute, as well as the shamisen, is often used as an accompaniment in the Banraku and Kabuki theaters, and various ensembles. Some of the fuet can be tuned to the Western way, and thus become soloists. It is interesting that earlier playing the fue was characteristic only for Japanese wandering monks.

Suikinkutsu

Another instrument that represents Japanese culture is suikinkutsu. It has the shape of an inverted jug, over which water flows. Getting inside through certain holes, it causes the instrument to make a sound that is very similar to the ringing of a bell. This instrument is played before the tea ceremony, and is also used as an attribute of the traditional Japanese garden.

By the way, for convenience, the tea ceremony can take place in the garden. The sound of the instrument plunges a person into an inexplicable feeling of relaxation, creates a contemplative mood. Such a state is very suitable for immersing yourself in Zen, since relaxing in the garden during the tea ceremony is part of the Zen tradition.

More understandable for our perception is the tool taiko,which in translation into Russian means "drum". Taiko became famous in military affairs, by the way, as well as its counterparts in other countries. As they say, in the chronicles of Gunji Yeshu, nine by nine blows meant a call to battle, and in turn, nine by three meant that the enemy must be pursued.

It should be borne in mind that during the performance of a drummer, attention is paid to the aesthetics of the performance he offers, since not only the melody and rhythm of the performance are important, but also the appearance of the instrument on which the melody is played.

Japanese music genres

The folk music of Japan has come a long way in its development. Its origins were magical songs, later Confucianism and Buddhism influenced the development and formation of the musical genre. Thus, Japanese music, one way or another, is associated with rituals, traditional holidays, theater performances and other activities. Japanese ethnic music, which, in the modern world, can be listened to online at any time of the day and anywhere, has become an important part of the country's cultural heritage.

There are two main most popular types of national Japanese music.

• The first one is shomyo, which is a Buddhist chants.
• Second - gagaku, which is orchestral court music.

But, also, there are such genres that do not have ancient roots. They belong to yasugi bushi and enka.

The most popular genre of Japanese folk songs is yasugi bushi, which is named after the city of Yasugi. The theme of the genre is connected with ancient history and mytho-poetic tales. But yasugi bushi is not only songs, but also a dance sukui dojo as well as the art of juggling to music zeni daiko, in which bamboo stalks are used as a musical instrument, which are filled with coins.

Enka, as a genre, emerged relatively recently, in the postwar period. In it, Japanese folk motifs are intertwined with jazz and blues music. Thus, Japanese music has its own national characteristics, and thus differs from other musical genres in other countries. So, there are musical instruments that are called singing wells, which you will not see anywhere on earth, except perhaps in Tibet.

Japanese music is characterized by constantly changing tempo and rhythm. Often there is no size in it. Japanese music is close to the sounds of nature, which makes it even more mysterious and unusual.

Video: Japanese music online

Dutar. Du - two. Tar - string. An instrument with forged frets and two vein strings. Do you think the fewer strings the easier it is to play?

Well, then listen to one of the best dutar players, Abdurahim Khait, an Uighur from Xinjiang, China.
There is also a Turkmen dutar. The strings and frets of the Turkmen dutar are metal, the body is hollowed out of a single piece of wood, the sound is very bright, sonorous. The Turkmen dutar has been one of my favorite instruments over the past three years, and the dutar shown in the photo was brought to me from Tashkent quite recently. Amazing tool!

Azerbaijani saz. The nine strings are divided into three groups, each of which is tuned in unison. A similar instrument in Turkey is called baglama.

Be sure to listen to how this instrument sounds in the hands of a master. If you have little time, then watch at least starting at 2:30.
From saz and baglama came the Greek instrument bouzouki and its Irish version.

Oud or al-ud, if you call this instrument in Arabic. It is from the Arabic name of this instrument that the name of the European lute originated. Al-ud - lute, lute - do you hear? The usual oud has no frets - the frets on this specimen from my collection appeared on my initiative.

Listen to how a master from Morocco plays the oud.

From the Chinese two-stringed erhu violin with a simple resonator body and a small leather membrane, the Central Asian gidjak originated, which in the Caucasus and Turkey was called kemancha.

Listen to how the kemancha sounds when Imamyar Khasanov plays it.

The rubab has five strings. The first four of them are doubled, each pair is tuned in unison, and the bass string is one. The long neck has frets in accordance with the chromatic scale for almost two octaves and a small resonator with a leather membrane. What do you think the downward curved horns coming from the neck towards the instrument mean? Does its shape remind you of a sheep's head? But okay form - what a sound! You should have heard the sound of this instrument! It vibrates and trembles even with its massive neck, it fills all the space around with its sound.

Listen to the sound of the Kashgar rubab. But my rubab sounds better, honestly.

The Iranian tar has a double hollowed-out body made from a single piece of wood and a membrane made from fine fish skin. Six paired strings: two steel strings, followed by a combination of steel and thin copper, and the next pair is tuned to an octave - a thick copper string is tuned an octave below the thin steel. The Iranian tar has forced frets made of veins.

Listen to how the Iranian tar sounds.
The Iranian tar is the ancestor of several instruments. One of them is an Indian setar (se - three, tar - string), and I will talk about the other two below.

Azerbaijani tar has not six, but eleven strings. Six of the same as the Iranian tar, an additional bass string and four unplayed strings that resonate when played, adding echoes to the sound and making the sound last longer. Tar and kemancha are perhaps the two main instruments of Azerbaijani music.

Listen for a few minutes, starting at 10:30 or at least starting at 13:50. You have never heard such a thing and could not imagine that such a performance is possible on this instrument. This is played by the brother of Imamyar Khasanov - Rufat.

There is a hypothesis that the tar is the ancestor of the modern European guitar.

Recently, when I talked about the electric cauldron, they reproached me - they say, I take out the soul from the cauldron. Probably, about the same thing was said to a person who, 90 years ago, guessed to put a pickup on an acoustic guitar. About thirty years later, the best examples of electric guitars were created, which remain the standard to this day. A decade later, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Pink Floyd followed.
And all this progress has not hindered the manufacturers of acoustic guitars and classical guitar players.

But musical instruments did not always spread from east to west. For example, the accordion became an extremely popular instrument in Azerbaijan in the 19th century, when the first German settlers arrived there.

My accordion was made by the same master who made instruments for Aftandil Israfilov. Hear what this instrument sounds like.

The world of oriental musical instruments is large and diverse. I haven't even shown you a part of my collection, which is far from complete. But I must tell you about two more instruments.
A pipe with a bell at the top is called a zurna. And the instrument under it is called duduk or balaban.

Celebrations and weddings begin with the sounds of the zurna in the Caucasus, Turkey and Iran.

Here is what a similar instrument looks like in Uzbekistan.

In Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, zurna is called surnay. In Central Asia and Iran, the lingering sounds of another instrument, the karnay, are necessarily added to the sounds of the surnay and tambourines. Karnay-surnay is a stable phrase denoting the beginning of the holiday.

Interestingly, an instrument related to karnay exists in the Carpathians, and its name is familiar to many - trembita.

And the second pipe, shown in my photo, is called balaban or duduk. In Turkey and Iran, this instrument is also called mey.

Listen to how Alikhan Samedov plays the balaban.

We will return to the balaban, but for now I want to talk about what I saw in Beijing.
As far as you understand, I collect musical instruments. And as soon as I had a free moment during my trip to Beijing, I immediately went to the musical instrument store. What I bought myself in this store, I will tell you another time. And now that I did not buy and what I regret terribly.
In the window there was a pipe with a bell, the design exactly resembling a zurna.
- How does is called? I asked through an interpreter.
- Sona, - they answered me.
- How similar to "sorna - surnay - zurna" - I thought aloud. And the translator confirmed my guess:
- The Chinese do not pronounce the letter r in the middle of a word.

You can read more about the Chinese variety of zurna
But, you know, zurna and balaban go hand in hand. Their design has a lot in common - maybe that's why. And what do you think? Next to the sona instrument was another instrument - the guan or guanji. Here's what it looked like:

Here's what it looks like. Guys, comrades, gentlemen, but this is the duduk!
And when did he get there? In the eighth century. Therefore, it can be assumed that it came from China - the timing and geography coincide.
So far, it is only documented that this tool spread to the east from Xinjiang. Well, how do they play this instrument in modern Xinjiang?

Watch and listen from the 18th second! Just listen to what a luxurious sound the Uighur balaman has - yes, here it is called exactly the same as in the Azerbaijani language (there is such a pronunciation of the name).

And let's look for additional information in independent sources, for example, in the Iranian encyclopedia:
BALABAN
CH. ALBRIGHT
a cylindrical-bore, double-reed wind instrument about 35 cm long with seven finger holes and one thumb hole, played in eastern Azerbaijan in Iran and in the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Or does Iranika sympathize with the Azerbaijanis? Well, the TSB also says that the word duduk is of Turkic origin.
Azerbaijanis and Uzbeks bribed the compilers?
Well, well, you definitely won’t suspect the Bulgarians of sympathy for the Turks!
on a very serious Bulgarian site for the word duduk:
duduk, dudyuk; duduk, dudyuk (from Turkish düdük), squeaker, svorche, glasnik, additional - Narodden darven is a musical instrument of the aerophone type, half-closing pipes.
Again they point to the Turkish origin of the word and call it their folk instrument.
This tool is widespread, as it turned out, mainly among the Turkic peoples, or among the peoples who had contact with the Turks. And every nation reasonably considers it to be its folk, national instrument. But only one takes credit for its creation.

After all, only the lazy did not hear that "duduk is an ancient Armenian instrument." At the same time, they hint that the duduk was created three thousand years ago - that is, in an unprovable past. But the facts and elementary logic show that this is not so.

Go back to the beginning of this article and take another look at musical instruments. Almost all of these instruments are played in Armenia too. But it is quite clear that all these instruments appeared among much more numerous peoples with a clear and understandable history, among which the Armenians lived. Imagine a small people living in dispersion among other peoples with their own states and empires. Will such a people create a complete set of musical instruments for an entire orchestra?
Frankly, I also thought: “Okay, those were big and complex instruments, let’s leave them aside. But at least the Armenians could come up with a pipe?” And it turns out that no, they didn't. If they came up with it, then this pipe would have a purely Armenian name, and not the poetic and metaphorical tsiranopokh (the soul of an apricot tree), but something simpler, more popular, with one root, or completely onomatopoeic. So far, all sources point to the Turkic etymology of the name of this musical instrument, and the geography and dates of distribution show that the duduk began its distribution from Central Asia.
Well, let's make one more assumption and say that the duduk came to Xinjiang from ancient Armenia. But how? Who brought him there? What peoples migrated from the Caucasus to Central Asia at the turn of the first millennium? There are no such nations! But the Turks were constantly moving from Central Asia to the west. They could well spread this tool in the Caucasus, and on the territory of modern Turkey and even in Bulgaria, as the documents indicate.

I foresee one more argument of the defenders of the version of the Armenian origin of the duduk. Like, a real duduk is made only from an apricot tree, which in Latin is called Prúnus armeniáca. But, firstly, apricots in Central Asia are no less common than in the Caucasus. The Latin name does not indicate that this tree has spread throughout the world from the territory of the area bearing the geographical name of Armenia. Just from there it penetrated into Europe and was described by botanists about three hundred years ago. On the contrary, there is a version that the apricot spread from the Tien Shan, part of which is in China, and part in Central Asia. Secondly, the experience of very talented peoples shows that this instrument can even be made from bamboo. And my favorite balaban is made from mulberry and sounds much better than apricot ones, which I also have and are made just in Armenia.

Listen to how I learned to play this instrument in a couple of years. People's Artist of Turkmenistan Gasan Mammadov (violin) and People's Artist of Ukraine, my countryman from Ferghana, Enver Izmailov (guitar) participated in the recording.

With all this, I want to pay tribute to the great Armenian duduk performer Jivan Gasparyan. It was this man who made the duduk an instrument known throughout the world, thanks to his work a wonderful school of playing the duduk arose in Armenia.
But speaking of "Armenian duduk" is justified only about specific instruments, if they are made in Armenia, or about the type of music that arose thanks to J. Gasparyan. Only those people who allow themselves unsubstantiated statements can point to the Armenian origin of the duduk.

Please note that I myself do not indicate either the exact place or the exact time of the appearance of the duduk. Probably, it is already impossible to establish and the prototype of the duduk is older than any of the living peoples. But I am building my hypothesis about the spread of the duduk, based on facts and elementary logic. If someone wishes to object to me, then I want to ask in advance: please, when building hypotheses, in the same way, rely on provable and verified facts from independent sources, do not shy away from logic and try to find another intelligible explanation for the facts listed.

I once promised to talk about Japanese musical instruments. This time has come. Biva fell into my hands quite by accident, but it fell to her to open the topic :)

Today, our attention will be captured by the magical - although not gentle, and not airy, but rather harsh, metallic and rhythmic - the sounds of a traditional Japanese musical instrument called biwa (biwa).
Biwa is a Japanese variety of lute or mandolin, it came to Japan from China in the 7th century, in China a similar instrument is called pipa (pipa), but it came to China from Persia in the fourth century AD.
And the roots of the European lute also go to Central Asia.
In Japan, over a thousand years of biwa development, many models, many schools of playing and singing have appeared.

(This is a kind of biwa concerto with orchestra. Gion shoja. Composer Hirohisa Akigishi
In the recording of the prologue of "The tale" s of Heike" (the story of Heike, also called "Taira monogatari") This is the main modern work that is performed in biwa. This recording was made in Seoul, in 2004 at the Sejong center)

The tool is similar in shape to an almond nut pointed upwards. The front wall of the body is slightly curved forward, the back is flat. The walls - that is, two wooden boards - are not far apart, the instrument is rather flat. There are three holes in the front wall.
The biwa has four or five strings made of the finest silk threads glued together with rice glue. The fretboard has five very high frets.

The strings are taut quite freely, that is, they are not very taut. The musician, pressing the string harder, changes its tension, that is, raises the pitch. We can say that the instrument is not tuned at all in the Western European sense of the word, but the musician can play certain notes by changing the force of pressing the strings.
But the point of the game is not at all to hit the right note. Therefore, there is no death grip on the string, the finger changes pressure all the time, which makes the sound float. In addition, you can move the string along the wide frets with your finger, from which the string begins to buzz, as on Indian stringed instruments such as sitar or wine.

The biwa is held vertically and a triangular wooden plectrum, shaped like a small fan, is used when playing. One of its sides reaches 30 centimeters in length, it is a kind of shoulder blade. The manufacture of these blades is a great art, they must be hard and elastic at the same time. The tree for the mediator is dried for ten years. Of course, a rare tree species is used.
With a pick you can hit not only the strings, but also the body, as well as scratch the strings, however, the masters say that this is a modern technique, this was not the case before.
But it is clear that there is more than one way to strike a string with such a large plectrum - and this, of course, is perfectly audible.

BIWA (King Records, 1990)
The CD has two instrumental tracks and four vocal-instrumental tracks. The most impressive is the epic song "Kawanakajima" ("Island Between Two Rivers") performed by Enomoto Shisui.
Enomoto Shizui died in 1978 and was born in the 19th century. He belonged to the famous biwa masters of the era before the Second World War.
In the 19th century and in the first half of the 20th, the art of biwa experienced a revival, in Tokyo alone there were 30 masters making musical instruments, after the war in all of Japan - and the whole world - there was only one left. This art had a chance to disappear forever, because the lyrics were imbued with the now politically incorrect samurai spirit.
Compared to the new generation of singers, Enomoto Shizuya's voice sounds more tragic, more hysterical and, I would say, more ruthless.
The island to which this song is dedicated is a strip of land between two rivers. In this place in the 16th century, several battles took place between the armies of two military leaders.
I can't believe that this is entertaining music that people listen to in the evening, tired of important things. No, no, this music clearly reminds the samurai of their duty and ignites their fighting spirit.

Another well-known item is Atsumori, which is also a biwa in the picture.

Sharp metal strikes - similar to a sword strike - contrast with the slowly unfolding voice of the singer. The vowels drag on for a long time, the rhythm is free, there are many pauses in the music, but by no means can it be called sluggish. She is very tense and focused.
By the way, pauses, emptiness, moments of silence in the Japanese tradition are also considered an acoustic element, that is, sound. It is called the word "ma". Silence can be short or long, tense or calm, unexpected or logical. Silence emphasizes some sounds and shifts the emphasis in a musical phrase.

There were two parallel streams in the history of the biwa: firstly, the biwa was part of the court orchestra. An ancient biwa lay horizontally on the floor and was played with a small plectrum. She was a percussion instrument.
In the Middle Ages, the biwa was played by aristocrats and their vassals. It is believed that this music was purely instrumental. In classical literature, many descriptions of the medieval solo biwa, its graceful and refined sound and sublime melodies that came from China have been preserved, but the solo biwa has not been preserved in the tradition of court music to this day. In the Gagaku orchestra, the biwa part is so simple that it is impossible to get rid of the impression that something important has been lost through the ages.
The tradition of the biwa as a solo instrument was interrupted in the 13th century and was revived only in the 20th.

"Ichinotani" en laúd Biwa por Silvain Guignard (fragmento). European version, as you can see

But the main function of the biwa is to accompany long songs and stories.
Until the 20th century, the biwa was played almost exclusively by blind musicians, they were called biwahoshi. Some of them were Buddhist monks and recited sutras and hymns, but still, most of the singers narrated about wars and battles of legendary heroes.
The most famous heroic epic from the biwahoshi repertoire is Heike Monogatari.
This is a huge and rather bloody poem about how the Heike clan (aka Taire), after a short heyday, was defeated by the Genji clan (Genji, aka Minamoto) in the second half of the 12th century.
The poem has 200 episodes, of which 176 are ordinary, 19 are secret, and the remaining 5 are top secret.

(sorry for the picture and sound quality. Played by Yukihiro Goto)
All stories in one way or another illustrate the Buddhist ideas of cause and effect, as well as the impermanence of fate.
Today, "Heike Monogatari" is performed by only a few of the musicians who play the biwa. Everyone else has a much more modern repertoire.
However, there is an opinion that the heroic songs performed in the Middle Ages by blind monks have disappeared, as well as the tradition of the instrumental court biwa. The tradition of heroic singing has been revived several times, and, most likely, not at all in the form in which it existed 700 years ago.
Although the history of the instrument goes back to the 7th century, but the music that has survived to this day, apparently, no longer has anything to do with the Middle Ages, the style, which today is called ancient and classical, was formed not so long ago.
An important moment in the history of the biwa is the 16th century.
Then a new instrument, the Satsuma biwa, was created: the leader of the Satsuma clan gave the order to improve the weak and modest lute of the blind monks in such a way that it would become a loud instrument with an impressive and sharp sound. The biwa became larger, its body was made of harder wood. Her sound became more masculine, if not aggressive.
http://youtu.be/7udqvSObOo4
(better sound, but embedding is not allowed)
New songs were also written. The purpose of this action was educational and propaganda: the young men who underwent military training - that is, the future samurai, had to grow in spirit and learn the basics of knightly prowess under these songs.
Then there was no canon of playing and singing - any samurai could shout out a heroic text and, for greater expressiveness, beat the strings from time to time. The songs no longer only called on the youth to exploits, the samurai who survived the war told about their campaigns, also to the sounds of biwa.
With the passage of time, the quite peaceful population began to take a keen interest in this militaristic music. Accordingly, a style appeared for civilians: machi fu (urban style) - and for the military: shi fu (samurai style).
New types of instruments appeared. Let's say chikuzen biwa (chikuzen-biwa) appeared in the 19th century, it has one additional - a high string. Therefore, this biwa is considered feminine, softer. Play it, respectively, women.

In all epic songs performed to the accompaniment of a biwa, the text is rhythmic prose interspersed with short poetic passages. Some phrases are sung to canonical melodies, followed by short instrumental breaks. But, as a rule, a blow or two on the biwa strings sounds at the end of each phrase or stanza. These beats are different in timbre - the biwa has much more possibilities than the drum.
If the sounds of the biwa illustrate what the narrator sings about, then it is only in timbre - a thin sound or a deaf one, it sounds metallic or hissing ... The text is sung in classical Japanese, the listeners must understand what is being said: intonation, rhythm and coloring sounds are related to the content of the drama.
This is music for direct listening, for those who empathize with the action, completely captured by it.
We, not knowing the language, apparently simply do not perceive much in this music, but, surprisingly, it does not become exotic, bizarre or fantastic from this. No, no, it retains its meaningfulness and persuasiveness.
It is also interesting that this is very emotional music, very intense, open. And the Japanese - like all other Buddhists - seem to avoid showing their feelings.

In Japan, the force that moves the universe is called ki. It is a spiritual force similar to the Greek pneuma.
The expression ki has the highest precedence in all Japanese arts. In the macrocosm, ki corresponds to the winds; in the microcosm, to the breath of man. In Japanese, there are many words related to ki: ki-shФ (weather), ki-haku (spirit).
The basis of the singing voice is breathing, and therefore singing is one of the manifestations of ki.
The ancient Japanese believed that by pronouncing or, better to say, exhaling, blowing out a word, they perform a spiritual act. And in Russian the words "breath" and "spirit" are not at all alien to each other.
The Japanese tradition of singing is directly related to this attitude to the word as a breath loaded with meaning.

And this short recording is not just a piece of music, it is Gagaku - the ceremonial music of the Japanese Imperial Palace.

European singing - like all other music - is based on the pitch and duration of sounds. In ancient Japan, singing fused such acoustical elements as sound coloration, its energy, loudness and its quality into a single sound hieroglyph.
It is something immeasurably more than the right note.
And biwa music is in many respects unlike Western European music. The Japanese instrument assumes a completely different attitude to the sound, to the rhythm.
The Japanese modernist composer Toru Takemitsu has written several compositions that use biwa along with the symphony orchestra. There is a traditional way of recording biwa music - compared to Western European it seems very approximate.

Kwaidan Music, Haochi the Earles, Toru Takemitsu, 1964

This is dedicated to Toru Takemitsu

When a biwa performer in one of his compositions volunteered to study Western European notation, Takemitsu forbade her to do so. “This is the last thing I would expect from you,” said the composer. “I will study the traditional recording of biwa music myself and learn how to use it, you will not need Western notes. Today, the traditional sense of sound is dying out due to the Western system of fine tuning musical instruments and notating music."

Once upon a time, an ancient biwa disappeared from the palace of the Emperor Tennoh. Her name was Genjo. She had no price, she was very expensive. The emperor could not find a place for himself. If it was stolen, then the thief had to break it - it was impossible to sell it. The emperor was sure that his biwa was stolen to darken his soul.
Minamoto no Hiromasa was an aristocrat and an excellent musician. He, too, was very saddened by the loss.
One night he heard the sound of a string - there could be no doubt: it was Genjo's biwa. Hiromasa woke up the servant boy and they went to catch the thief. They were getting closer to the sound, but it kept moving away. Some kind of spirit played on the biwa - only Hiromasa could hear the sounds of the strings.
He followed the sound until he reached the southernmost point of Kyoto - the ominous Rashomon Gate. Hiromasa and his servant stood under the gate, the sound of a lute came from above. "It's not a human," Hiromasa whispered, "it's a demon."
He raised his voice, "Hey, who's playing the Genjo! The Tenno Emperor has been searching for the tool since it went missing. I know you're here, I've been following you all the way from the palace!"
The music stopped, something fell from above and hung in the aisle. Hiromasa recoiled - he thought it was a demon. But Genjou's lute hung from a rope on top.
The emperor was very happy about the return of Genjo, no one had any doubts that it was the demon who stole the treasure and then gave it away. Hiromasa was generously rewarded.
Genjo is still in the imperial palace. This is not just a lute, it is something alive with its own character. If it is picked up by an inept musician, it does not make a sound.
One day there was a fire in the palace. Everyone ran out and no one thought of saving Genjo. But, mysteriously, she was found on the lawn in front of the palace, where she apparently got herself!

Andrey Gorokhov © 2001 Deutsche Welle