String musical oriental instruments. Arabic musical instruments: types and features Oriental musical instruments
You may, of course, ask why we should study arabic musical instruments, if we are not musicians, but dancers, but it's better not to ask :) Because music has the most direct relation to us - after all, we dance to the music, and it is this that we must feel and express with our dance. Theoretical knowledge about the instruments that are used in oriental melodies will help us to perceive what we hear even more deeply, and to beat it with movements more competently and interestingly.
Egypt also has frame drums RIC (tambourine) and DEF.
RIC
- a small frame drum that looks like a tambourine. It can be heard in classical, pop and dance oriental music. Also used as a As a rule, the rik is 17 cm in diameter, and the depth of the rim is 5 cm. The outer side of the rim is inlaid with mother-of-pearl, just like in the classical Egyptian tabla. Five pairs of copper plates are installed in the rim, creating an additional ringing. Therefore, ricks are often quite heavy in weight.
DEF
– a large-diameter frame drum without metal cymbals on the rim, used for bass rhythmic accompaniment.
There is also a big drum DOHOL
- a percussion musical instrument consisting of a hollow cylindrical body, about 1 m in diameter and 25-30 cm high. Both ends of the cylinder are covered with highly stretched skin. On the dohol
they extract the sound either, or with two sticks, one of which looks like a cane, and the other looks like a thin rod.
Sometimes you can see how belly dancer during the performance, she accompanies herself with small metal cymbals, dressed on her fingers - this SAGATS.
These are two pairs of plates, usually made of brass, worn on the middle and thumb of each hand, for dancers - small, for musicians - more.
Sagata
- this is a very ancient musical instrument that has analogues in many countries (Russia - spoons, Spain - castanets). AT Arabic dances they have very often been part of the musical accompaniment of the dancer since the days of the Gavezi. Now in oriental dances sagats
used in folklore and classical performance (rax sharki, beledi).
SISTR
- a musical instrument from the category of percussion (castanets); Ancient Egyptian temple rattle. It consists of a metal plate in the form of an oblong horseshoe or bracket, to the narrower part of which a handle is attached. Through small holes made on the sides of this horseshoe, metal rods of various sizes were threaded, the ends of which were bent with a hook. Plates or bells put on hooks of metal rods tinkled or rattled when shaken.
Well, now after such loud and percussive instruments, let's move on to more melodic ones :)
EVE
- This harp-like stringed musical instrument. It is placed horizontally and played with the help of metal tips put on the fingers. It's pretty hard to play. And when they hear eve in the composition, and as a rule it sounds in a certain part by itself, solo, they use various combinations of shaking in their improvisation.
UDD
It is a fretless plucked lute with a short neck, shaped like half a pear. Super popular in Egyptian and Turkish music for hundreds of years, the oud is also found in North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and the Sahara.
MISMAR
- wind musical instrument. It has two reeds and two pipes of the same length. Mizmar belongs to the world of folk music and is most often heard in Eastern folklore, especially in Saidi.
NAY
It is a flute that is open on both sides. It comes in different sizes and is traditionally made from cane or bamboo. However, nowadays plastic or even metal is used instead of traditional materials. The structure and use of this tool deceives with its simplicity: most often nay
has one finger hole at the bottom and six at the top, and the musician simply blows into the tube. Thanks to a special technique, a musician can play within more than three octaves. Basic tone nay
depends on the length of the tube.
RABABA - a stringed bowed instrument of Arabic origin, with an almost round body and a small round hole for resonance on the soundboard. It usually has one or two strings. Often used in Gulf music.
"RABABA"
Delving into the world of musical instruments of the Persian Gulf countries, it is also impossible not to talk about TAP - the most important instrument of the classical musical tradition of Iran. Tar - a stringed instrument played with a metal plectrum, a mezrab, inserted into a ball of wax. In the past Iranian tar had five strings, but six strings are currently made. Most often a resonator (deck) container carved from seasoned mulberry wood. The older and drier the wood gets, the better the instrument will sound. The frets are usually made from some type of sheep intestine, and the neck and head container - walnut. The shape of the resonator of the instrument is like two hearts put together, on the reverse side it looks like a seated person. The stand for strings, called "donkey", is made from the horn of a mountain goat. Camel bone is used on both sides of the front of the neck.
"TAR"
DUTAR (translated from Persian as "two strings") is an Iranian stringed plucked instrument which, as its name suggests, has two strings. When playing this instrument, they usually use not a plectrum, but a fingernail. Dutar It has a pear-shaped body and a rather long neck (about 60 cm). The pear-shaped part of the dutar is made of black mulberry wood, and its neck is made of apricot wood or walnut wood.
"DUTAR"
Similar to the previous tool, SETAR (from Persian “three strings”) is an Iranian stringed plucked instrument, which is usually played not with a plectrum, but with a fingernail. In the past setar had three strings, now it has four (the third and fourth strings are close to each other, they are touched simultaneously when playing, as a result of which they are usually “combined”, called the bass string).
"SETAR"
Having named quite a few arabic musical instruments, I want to say that this is not all :) East large, and in almost every country, every region has its own characteristic national instruments. But with the main ones, with whom we often meet, dancing our favorite Eastern dance, we may have introduced you. Also, in addition to truly oriental instruments, in songs for belly dance we can often hear sounds that are more familiar to us accordion, synthesizer, violin, trumpet, saxophone, guitar and even organ.
Each musical instrument has its own character, its own personality and its own charm. We wish you a pleasant listening and acquaintance with them, and further fruitful creative collaboration in belly dancing :)
In the Arabic orchestra, percussion instruments are responsible for the rhythm, and the melody and additional ornamentation are at the mercy of string, wind and keyboard instruments. Stringed instruments include the udd, qanun, and rebab.
The UDD is a stringed plucked instrument, which is the Arabic version of the lute.
Oud. consists of three parts: a pear-shaped body, usually made of pear, walnut or sandal wood, a fretless neck and a head with pegs for tuning the strings. The material of the strings is silk threads, lamb intestines or a special nylon.
The number of strings can vary from 2 to 6, but the 4-string version is considered a classic. The 6th bass string for udd was added already in the 20th century, and we owe this to the Syrian composer Farid al Atrash. Udd is also characterized by the presence of paired strings.
To play the udd, it is placed horizontally with the body on the right knee. The right hand presses the udd to the chest and plays the strings with the help of the pektr. The left hand at this moment holds the udd by the neck.
Kanun is a stringed plucked instrument, a relative of the harp. 
Kanun is a trapezoidal box on which the strings are stretched. The material of the box is hardwood. The upper part of the kanun is wooden and the rest is covered with fish skin.
The leather-covered part contains 3 resonator holes and 4 string rests. The strings are attached at one end to the holes on the body of the instrument, pass over the stands, and at their other end are fixed to the shelves. At the shelves under the strings are "lings" (iron levers), with the help of which the pitch changes by half a tone. On the eve there are 26 silk strings or strings from mutton intestine.
To perform kanun horizontally and play the strings with metal tips worn on the fingers
REBAB is an Egyptian stringed bowed instrument with one or two, and a Turkish version with three strings. The body of the rebab is almost completely round and has a round resonant hole on the soundboard. There are also flat cases, heart-shaped or trapezoidal. The tool has a long round and pointed neck with 2 long transverse pegs. At the bottom of the case is a metal leg. In the past, horsehair was used as a material for strings, but later metal strings began to be used.
When playing, the instrument rests on the left knee and the sound is extracted with an arcuate bow, on which a lamb intestine is stretched, but sometimes it was also played with the help of plucks
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 the Turkish düdük), squeaker, svorche, glasnik, additional - Naroden darven is a musical instrument of the aerophonite 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.
ORIENTAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
"ARABS SAY THAT WHEN A WOMAN DANCES A BELY DANCE, PERCUSSION INSTRUMENTS LEAD HER HIPS, WIND INSTRUMENTS - HEART, AND STRINGS - HEAD"
Get to know the musical traditional instruments used in the Middle East and, if possible, listen to them.
DUMBEK
(also known as tabla or darbuka). In dance, the musical rhythm is of the greatest importance and the doomback helps to maintain it. Initially, doombacks were ceramic and covered with fish or goat skin, but today most of them are metal with a plastic surface.
Dulcimer
(“sagats” in Arabic or “tsilli” in Turkish). Usually, the cymbals are used by the dancers themselves, putting them on their fingers, but sometimes they are also played by musicians in a group. They use bigger cymbals that fit a man's hand and would be too big to dance with, but they sound really nice.
TAMBOURINE
- This percussion instrument is used to maintain the main rhythm and as an accessory. On brass plates along the circumference of the tambourine, as well as on its circumference, they strike with fingers.
UDD
- an egg-shaped stringed instrument with a large "belly", the forerunner of the modern guitar, resembles a lute played in medieval Europe.
4, 5 thousand years ago, in the excavations of the Ashur culture, they found an instrument that coincides with the type of modern lute. Moreover, they found notes called “nineva”. The Germans opened these notes and for the first time the stories were sounded by a German orchestra. Apparently the Arabs took the lute or udd with them when they discovered Spain. It is no coincidence that the Bible says that David's psalms are played on the lute (udde). Udd (Arabic lute) is an instrument that is the main instrument of the Arab world. In the excavations of Yemen, the udd has 4 strings, and in the excavations of Syria - 5 strings and for many centuries remained 5 strings. In the 20th century, an Arab composer, Syrian by origin, Farid al Atrash (countryman of Kamal Ballan) added a 6 bass string "to". Farid al Atrash is known as the king of the udd, who skillfully extracts the philosophy of music, the gunpowder of passion, the depth of the lyrics from the silent strings of the Arabic lute. After Farid, there were many experimental musicians, but Farid remained a planet with a posthumous glory for all time. Farid al Atrash is the composer of the famous work “Arabic Tango”.
Arabic lute lessons (udd)
from a virtuoso of his craft, a unique Arab composer and performer
Kamal Ballana.
8 925 543 80 20
EVE
- this harp-like stringed instrument is laid horizontally and played with metal tips worn on the fingers. It is quite difficult to play it. To take full advantage of the full range of eve sounds, the dancer can perform a series of shakes to slow music.
ACCORDION
The first European accordions, modeled after one of the oldest Chinese musical instruments, appeared in Australia around 1830. Within a few years this instrument began to be used in Egyptian music, and was slightly modified to allow the fourth notes of the Arabic musical scale to be played on it. Today, the accordion is an indispensable instrument in a group playing oriental music, and the taksims played on it have amazing hypnotic power. . In one type of impromptu song called "rising beledi", the accordion enters slowly and gradually progresses to a series of accents, picking up the tempo, and at the end, when the drums join it, it reaches a fast maximum.
REBAB
Rebab- stringed bowed instrument of Arabic origin. The term "rebab" in Arabic means the combination of short sounds into one long one.
It has a wooden flat or convex, trapezoidal or heart-shaped body with small notches on the sides. The shells are made of wood or coconut, the soundboards are made of leather (from the intestines of a buffalo or bladder of other animals). The neck is long, round, pointed; at the top it has 1-2 long transverse pegs, at the bottom it passes through the body and protrudes in the form of a faceted metal leg. Strings (1-2) originally from horsehair, later - metal (copper or brass).
Sounds are extracted with the help of a bow-shaped bow. It was also used as a plucked instrument. folk singers ( shairas) accompanied themselves on the rebab when performing folk songs and elegiac poems.
The description of the instrument is contained in Al-Farabi's Great Treatise on Music (1st half of the 10th century).
LIRA
Lyra - a stringed plucked musical instrument in the form of a collar with two curved posts protruding from the resonator body and connected closer to the upper end by a crossbar, to which five or more core strings are stretched from the body.
Originating in prehistoric times in the Middle East, the lyre was one of the main instruments of the Jews, and later the Greeks and Romans. The instrument served to accompany singing, in which case it was played with a large plectrum.
With the decline of the Greco-Roman civilization, the distribution area of the lyre moved to Northern Europe. The northern lyre, as a rule, differed in design from the ancient one: the posts, the crossbar and the resonator body were often carved from one piece of wood.
After 1000 AD e. not plucked, but bowed lyres became widespread, especially among the Welsh and Finns. Nowadays, only the Finns, as well as their Siberian relatives Khanty and Mansi, use the lira.
In ancient Greece, recitation was accompanied by playing the lyre. The lyre of classical antiquity was usually played by plucking the strings with a plectrum, like playing a guitar or zither, rather than by plucking the strings, like playing a harp. The fingers of the free hand muted the strings that were unnecessary for a given chord.
Although many prominent musicians used the lyre, increasing the number of strings on it to 9 (Theophrastus of Pieria) and even up to 12 (Melanippid), in the classical and Hellenistic era it was mainly a “home” instrument, since its sound was not loud. It taught beginners.
Women also played the lyre, since it was not as heavy as the cithara and did not require great physical strength. Moreover, unlike the wind instrument of the aulos, or aulus, playing the lyre was not considered an obscene occupation for a decent woman, since some Muses were also depicted with a lyre.
MISMAR
Mizmar (mizmar) is an Arabic wind instrument, a kind of zurna.
It has two reeds and two pipes of the same length. Mizmar belongs to the world of folk music and is most often heard in Eastern folklore, especially in Saidi.
A double reed and a special mouthpiece for resting the lips give the instrument its characteristic performance features and determine the overall character of the sound, which is sharper than that of the oboe. The lack of direct contact with the reed makes the sound of the instrument less flexible. 
