The bağlama (, from bağlamak, "to tie", ) is a stringed musical instrument shared by various cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean, Near East, and Central Asia.

It is sometimes referred to as the saz (from the Persian , meaning a kit or set), although the term "saz" actually refers to a family of plucked string instruments, long-necked lutes used in Ottoman classical music, Turkish folk music, Azeri music, Kurdish music, Persian music, Assyrian music, and in parts of Syria, Iraq and the Balkan countries. The bağlama is the most common of these, and is often called by the generic name; according to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "the terms "bağlama" and "saz" are used somewhat interchangeably in Turkey." Like the Western lute and the Middle-Eastern oud, it has a deep round back, but a much longer neck. It can be played with a plectrum or with a fingerpicking style known as şelpe.

In the music of Greece the name baglamas (Greek μπαγλαμάς) is given to a treble bouzouki, a related instrument. The Turkish settlement of Anatolia from the late tenth century onward saw the introduction of a two-string Turkmen dutar, which was played in some areas of Turkey until recent times.

Turkish bağlama

The most commonly used string folk instrument in Turkey, the bağlama has seven strings divided into courses of two, two and three. It can be tuned in various ways and takes different names according to region and size: Bağlama, Divan Sazı, Bozuk, Çöğür, Kopuz Irızva, Cura, Tambura, etc. The cura is the smallest member of the bağlama family: larger than the cura is the tambura, tuned an octave lower. The Divan sazı, the largest instrument in the family, is tuned one octave lower still.

A bağlama has three main parts, the bowl (called tekne), made from mulberry wood or juniper, beech, spruce or walnut, the spruce sounding board (göğüs) and a neck of beech or juniper (sap ). The tuning pegs are known as burgu (literally screw). Frets are tied to the sap with fishing line, which allows them to be adjusted. The bağlama is usually played with a tezene (similar to a guitar pick) made from cherrywood bark or plastic. In some regions, it is played with the fingers in a style known as Şelpe or Şerpe.

There are also electric bağlamas, which can be connected to an amplifier. These can have either single or double pickups.

The kopuz and the bağlama

Name	Bağlama

The bağlama is a synthesis of historical musical instruments in Central Asia and pre-Turkish Anatolia. It is partly descended from the Turkic komuz. The kopuz, or komuz, differs from the bağlama in that it has a leather-covered body and two or three strings made of sheep gut, wolf gut, or horsehair. It is played with the fingers rather than a plectrum and has a fingerboard without frets. Bağlama literally translates as "something that is tied up", probably a reference to the tied-on frets of the instrument. The word bağlama is first used in 18th-century texts. The French traveler Jean Benjamin de Laborde, who visited Turkey during that century, recorded that "the bağlama or tambura is in form exactly like the cogur, but smaller." He was probably referring to the smallest of the bağlama family, the cura.

According to the historian Hammer, metal strings were first used on a type of komuz with a long fingerboard known as the kolca kopuz in 15th-century Anatolia. This was the first step in the emergence of the çöğür (cogur), a transitional instrument between the komuz and the bağlama. According to 17th-century writer Evliya Çelebi, the cogur was first made in the city of Kütahya in western Turkey. To take the strain of the metal strings the leather body was replaced with wood, the fingerboard was lengthened and frets were introduced. Instead of five hair strings there were now twelve metal strings arranged in four groups of three. Today, the cogur is smaller than a medium-size bağlama.

Bağlama (Saz) family

Bağlama tunings

There are three string groups, or courses, on the bağlama, with strings double or tripled. These string groups can be tuned in a variety of ways, known as düzen (literally, "order"). For the bağlama düzeni, the most common tuning, the courses are tuned from top downward, A-G-D. Some other düzens are Kara Düzen (C-G-D), Misket Düzeni (A-D-F), Müstezat (A-D-F), Abdal Düzeni, and Rast Düzeni.

Name Notes (lower, middle, upper) course

Bağlama düzeni (La, Sol, Re) (A, G, D)

Bozuk düzen, kara düzen (Sol, Re, La) (G, D, A)

Misket düzeni (Fa#, Re, La) (F#, D, A)

Fa müstezat düzeni (Fa, Re, La) (F, D, A)

Abdal düzeni (La, La, Sol) (A, A, G)

Zurna düzeni (Re, Re, La) (D, D, A)

Do müstezat düzeni (Sol, Do, La) (G, C, A)

Bağlama scale

Saz player during Novruz festivities]] The Bağlama has a different scale than Western European instruments like the guitar. The scale is not logarithmic but based on just intonation intervals, like present on many other Non-western lute like instruments. The octave is divided in 15 intervals (the octave is the 15th fret).

Fret one: 15/16

Fret two: 8/9

Fret three: 5/6

Fret four: 5/4

Fret five: 4/3

Fret six: 8/11

Fret seven: 2/3

Fret eight

Fret nine

Fret ten:

Fret eleven:

Fret twelve

Fret thirteen:

Fret fourteen

Fret fifteen: 1/2

Notable performers

Ashig Alasgar

Neşet Ertaş

Orhan Gencebay

Hasret Gültekin

Ahmet Koç

Erol Parlak

Arif Sağ

Asik Daimi

Erkan Oğur

Asik Veysel

Çetin Akdeniz

Erdal Erzincan

Ali Fuat Aydin

See also

Alevism

Music of Turkey

Art of Azerbaijani Ashiqs

Tanbur

Komuz

Dutar

Dombra

Baglamas

Sallaneh (lute)

Çiftelia

Šargija

Bouzouki (Greece)

Buzuq (Lebanon)

Tambura

Setar

Hicaz Hümâyun Saz Semâisi

Tanbur

References

External links

Saz and Bağlama

Sazmania

Trying to play

Virtual Tuner

Baglama

All about Turkish bağlama and pictures

Bağlama pictures

Category:Iranian musical instruments Category:Lutes Category:Necked bowl lutes Category:Turkish musical instruments Category:Armenian musical instruments Category:Azerbaijani musical instruments Category:Serbian musical instruments Category:Bosnian musical instruments Category:Macedonian musical instruments Category:Turkmen musical instruments Category:Turkmen music Category:Azerbaijani music Category:Uzbekistani music Category:Turkish words and phrases

Name	Orhan Gencebay
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Orhan Kencebay
Born	August 04, 1944
Origin	Samsun, Turkey
Genre	World fusion, Arabesque, Turkish folk, Turkish classic, psychedelic, pop folk
Occupation	Singer, composer, music producer, music director, arranger, actor
Years active	1963–present
Instrument	Baglama, tanbur, violin, sitar, guitar, ney, piano, cumbus, oud, bouzouki, percussion

Orhan Gencebay (born August 4, 1944 in Samsun, Turkey as Orhan Kencebay) is a Turkish musician, bağlama virtuoso, composer, singer, arranger, music producer, music director, and actor.

Early life and musical background

Orhan was born in the coastal town of Samsun on August 4, 1944. He started learning music at the age of 6, taking violin and mandolin lessons from Emin Tarakci who was an old Classical Musician from the Ukraine Conservatoire. At the age of 7, Orhan started playing the bağlama (a traditional Turkish instrument), and continued taking traditional Turkish folk music lessons. At 10, he created his first composition. At 13, he started playing the tambur, an instrument often used in Turkish classical music to improve himself in the theoretical and practical details of Turkish classical music.

During his high school years, he performed in Classical and Traditional Turkish Folk Music societies playing the tambur and baglama, taught music lessons in his own music courses, and took part in organizing community music centers in Istanbul and Samsun.

From 16, he became interested in jazz and rock music, and played tenor saxophone in wind orchestras. He entered the Turkish conservatory in Istanbul, and stayed there for 4 years. In the military, he kept on playing saxophone in the military brass band.

Career

At 20 and 22, he passed the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) exams, allowing him to become a resident baglama player at the network for several months.

In 1966 he got an excellent grade in National Baglama Contest with Arif Sağ and Cinucen Tanrikorur, two other contemporary masters of Turkish music.

In the late sixties he collaborated with a wide range of musicians in performances and film music. Between 1966 and 1968 he played baglama with Arif Sag in many records with singers such as Muzaffer Akgun, Yildiz Tezcan, Ahmet Sezgin, Sukran Ay, Sabahat Akkiraz, and Nuri Sesiguzel. Orhan also took part as a music director in many Turkish films such as Ana, Kuyu, Kizilirmak-Karakoyun. He also collaborated with many musicians from different genres, such as Erkin Koray, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Ismet Siral, Burhan Tonguc, Ozer Senay, Vedat Yildirimbora, Neşet Ertaş, Abdullah Nail Baysu. He appeared as a baglama performer and a well-known composer in musical societies, besides releasing several singles in genre of traditional Turkish Folk music. In 1968, he released his first "free-style" single "Sensiz Bahar Gecmiyor/Basa Gelen Cekilirmis", and was rewarded. During the 1970s he released many singles in a new genre that is a fusion of traditional Turkish Folk music, Turkish classical music, Western classical music, jazz, rock, country, progressive, psychedelic, Indian, Arabic, Spanish, and Greek music styles. Even though some musical societies such as TRT named that kind of World fusion music recordings Arabesque music, Orhan Gencebay refused the term arabesque, saying it was inadequate to define his style. In 1972, he founded the Kervan Record Company, which became very successful, attracting many other talented musicians such as Erkin Koray, Ajda Pekkan, Muazzez Abaci, Mustafa Sagyasar, Ahmet Ozhan, Kamuran Akkor, Semiha Yanki, Samime Sanay, Nese Karabocek, Bedia Akarturk, Nil Burak, Ziya Taskent, Semiramis Pekkan and Ferdi Ozbegen.

Throughout his career Orhan has performed leading roles in 36 movies, has been a composer almost in 90 movies, composed of about a thousand works, released almost 35 singles, 15 albums, and dozens of MC's. His albums sold out over 65 million legal copies.

As a composer, film musician, and as a person interested in other musical cultures, Orhan Gencebay is one of the major exponents of Turkish music in the 20th century.

In 2005, Gencebay was featured in the film by German Turkish director Fatih Akın, as well as on the film's soundtrack with the song "Hatasiz Kul Olmaz."

References

External links

Radikal ve Özgün Gencebay'cılık

Turkish Progressive Music and Orhan Gencebay

Orhan Gencebay review

Official Web Site

Fan Site

Category:1944 births Category:Living people Category:Turkish male singers Category:Turkish folk singers Category:Turkish singer-songwriters Category:Pop folk singers Category:Turkish-language singers Category:State Artists of Turkey Category:Turkish people of Crimean Tatar descent