Kemençe
Kemenche
KEMENÇE
The term kemenche (Turkish , Armenian, Laz , Azerbaijani, Persian, Greek) is used to describe two types of three-stringed bowed musical instruments:
- a bottle-shaped lute, closely related to the Cappadocian Kemane, found in the Black Sea region of Asia Minor, it is also known as the “kementche of Laz” or Pontic kemenche
- a pear-shaped bowl lyre known as Classical kemenche (Turkish: Armudî kemençe), found mainly in Istanbul and the Eastern regions of Turkey and is closely related to the Byzantine lyra (Turkish: Rum Kemençesi).
Both types of kemenche are played in the downright position, either by resting it on the knee when sitting, or held in front of the player when standing. It is always played “braccio”, that is, with the tuning head uppermost. The kemenche bow is called the doksar the Greek term for bow.
TURKEY:
The only bowed instrument used in Turkish music up until the 18th century, was very popular in religious-mystic music as well as in secular music. In the Mevlevî lodges, a sort of holiness was even attributed to the kemânçe. Upon the arrival and enthusiastic adoption of the viola d’amore from Europe in the second half of the 18th century, the kemânçe fell from favor in secular music and was abandoned, surviving only in the Mevlevî lodges. Its old name of kemân or kemânçe was even forgotten, and in time the name rebab used among the Mevlevîs came to be considered its only name in all periods and circles. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Mevlevî musicians attempted to bring the rebab back into use, but without success.
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STRUCTURE: The classical kemençe is 40-41 centimeters in length and 14-15 centimeters wide. All its strings are of gut; only the yegâh string is silver-wound. Today some musicians use synthetic racquet strings, aluminum-wound gut or artificial silk strings, or chrome-wound steel violin strings. The sound post, which transmits the strings’ vibration to the back of the instrument, is fixed between the bridge and back of the instrument under the neva string. A small hole, 3-4 mm in diameter, is drilled in the back of the instrument directly under the bridge.
One can safely say that the kemençe is the most-adorned of the Turkish instruments.
HISTORY: Until the 19th century, the Persian-derived word kemençe, meaning “small bow” or “small bowed instrument,” was used for the spike fiddle known today as rebab. Also called kemân, the kemânçe was the only bowed instrument used in Turkish classical music until the late 18th century. The kemânçe gave way first to the viola d’amore and later to the European violin. The pear-shaped kemençe first entered the fasil ensemble in the mid-19th century.
Before the pear-shaped kemençe entered the fasil ensemble, it was known by the Greek word lira (consequently the instrument, which has in recent years become very popular in Greece, is known as politiki lira, meaning “city lira,” i.e. “Istanbul lira”).
Tanburî Cemil Bey (1873-1916), who learned the instrument from Vasil and quickly became a virtuoso, transformed it into a sine qua non instrument of the fasil ensemble. In this way the kemençe, which was until a century ago played in meyhanes and taverns, had before the middle of the 20th century come to be considered, along with the tanbur and ney, one of the most “genuine” instruments of Turkish music. The fact that the kemençe’s sound was much more suited to Turkish music, which in the beginning of the 20th century had taken on an extremely emotional and melancholy character, doubtless played a role in this.
In the polyphonic Turkish music he devised, reformist Hüseyin Sadettin Arel (1880-1955) planned to give the central role to a five-member “kemençe family” he had designed in 1933. This was comprised of five different prototypes, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone and bass, each with four strings of equalized length. He composed pieces especially for this new family of instruments, but before long they were abandoned. Cüneyt Orhon, one of the instructors in the Istanbul State Turkish Music Conservatory which opened in 1976, preferred to teach Arel’s soprano kemençe, which was tuned like the violin. Today, the traditional three-stringed kemençe and the four-stringed kemençe are taught separately in that institution.
This is the most widespread folk instrument of the eastern Black Sea region. It can be played either seated, resting the instrument on the knees, or standing up supported solely by the palm of the left hand. It is tuned to fourths, and has a range of about one octave. The main feature of the Black Sea kemençe is the predominance of parallel fourths in its playing.
Besides these two fiddles, there are other bowed instruments played in Turkey as well. One of these is the Azeri (Azerbaijan) kemençe, which resembles the kabak kemane but with larger overall dimensions, especially in the body. Another is the tirnak (fingernail) kemençe, a pear-shaped fiddle played especially in the western Black Sea in the region around Inebolu, Kastamonu and Çankiri, as well as by the Yörüks around Antalya. It is so called because its strings are stopped from the side by the fingernails of the left hand rather than by pressing from above.
Some various regional names for bowed instruments include givgiv, giygi, giydirai, kil kopuz, kabak, iklik, nhora and kemençe.
