"κι απ' αγαπά του φαίνεται απο την παρπατηξά του
όμπρος και πίσω συντηρά να δει την πεθυμιά του"
"τ΄ αγαπημένα φαίνουνται που την παρπατησιάν τους
τζιαι απού το σούσμαν τον σιερκών τζι' απου το λυϊσμάν τους"
Friday 25 January 2013
Monday 14 January 2013
Friday 4 January 2013
Instruments: zurna / ζορνές
The zurna, ancestor of the Western oboe (through the medieval Shawm), exists in various forms throughout the world, from the Balkans to China.
In the Balkans, it was gradually, though not completely, replaced by other wind instruments, e.g. in northern Greece by the clarinet (see this documentary by ERT). This replacement took place to a much lesser extent in Turkey, where the davul-zurna combination is still prominent in folk music.
In the Arabic world it goes by the name of mizmar (see e.g. here, here, or most famously the Berber "Master musicians of Jajouka" here, and there's even this guy who made a MIDI zurna using arduino), or zamr/zamour in the Levant. [Other instruments also go by the name of mizmar, e.g. the Yemeni version of the Levantine mijwiz.]
There's the Iranian sorna.
The version that is most commonly encountered between Iran and North-west India is called the shehnai, here played by the master Bismillah Khan. The Southern Indian version is called nadaswaram.
Moving toward the 'far east', there's the Chinese suona. There's many other far eastern variations, but we won't cover them here.
In Cyprus, the davul-zurna pairing is still in use by Turkish-Cypriots, who play them in weddings and other festivities.
There's some older recordings from the 70s on this CD (the user who had uploaded the CD on youtube has made it private for some reason, so the link to the saz pieces on that CD from my previous post no longer work either).
There's also this photograph by Haigaz Mangoian of Cypriot musicians playing davul and zurna:
It wasn't exclusively the Turkish Cypriots who used the zurna and davul. I have heard people say they remember Greek Cypriots also playing these instruments. I've also previously posted a video of Maronites singing along to the zurna in this post.
In the Balkans, it was gradually, though not completely, replaced by other wind instruments, e.g. in northern Greece by the clarinet (see this documentary by ERT). This replacement took place to a much lesser extent in Turkey, where the davul-zurna combination is still prominent in folk music.
In the Arabic world it goes by the name of mizmar (see e.g. here, here, or most famously the Berber "Master musicians of Jajouka" here, and there's even this guy who made a MIDI zurna using arduino), or zamr/zamour in the Levant. [Other instruments also go by the name of mizmar, e.g. the Yemeni version of the Levantine mijwiz.]
There's the Iranian sorna.
The version that is most commonly encountered between Iran and North-west India is called the shehnai, here played by the master Bismillah Khan. The Southern Indian version is called nadaswaram.
Moving toward the 'far east', there's the Chinese suona. There's many other far eastern variations, but we won't cover them here.
In Cyprus, the davul-zurna pairing is still in use by Turkish-Cypriots, who play them in weddings and other festivities.
There's some older recordings from the 70s on this CD (the user who had uploaded the CD on youtube has made it private for some reason, so the link to the saz pieces on that CD from my previous post no longer work either).
There's also this photograph by Haigaz Mangoian of Cypriot musicians playing davul and zurna:
It wasn't exclusively the Turkish Cypriots who used the zurna and davul. I have heard people say they remember Greek Cypriots also playing these instruments. I've also previously posted a video of Maronites singing along to the zurna in this post.
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