Balaban

Balaban may refer to:

Places

Other uses

See also

Balaban, İzmit

Balaban is a village on the hillside of Kartepe Mountain near İzmit, Kocaeli Province, Turkey.

Geography

Balaban, located in the Kocaeli Region’s Samanlı Mountain range, on the slopes of Kartepe mountain. It is at the south side of the city of İzmit, Kocaeli Province, on the hillside of Kartepe Mountain between Büyük Derbent and Suadiye towns. It is 24 km from the center of city and 2.5 km from the nearest town, Büyük Derbent.

History

The first settlements date back to ancient times. There are only some materials founded on the village area from Astakos from 712 BCE and also as the inhabitants called as Subaşı area, there are some tunnels and cisterns founded supposedly belonged to Byzantine Empire periods.

Also on the farm place at east side of village, as inhabitants call Taşlı Tarla (en: stony field) there are many materials founded like a piece of valve, keramik pots etc. As a folk story, they belong to "missing mountain" where was overthrown at the big earthquake which happens every 100 years around İzmit on a civilization living there. But its origins are still unknown and there is no academic research about them yet.

Balaban (instrument)

Balaban, or balaman (Azerbaijani: Balaban) is cylindrical-bore, double-reed wind instrument about 35 centimetres (14 in) long with seven finger holes and one thumb hole. This instrument is played in eastern Azerbaijan in Iran and in the Republic of Azerbaijan. In Turkey it is called mey.

Balaban can be made of mulberry or other harder woods, such as walnut. The bore through the instrument is about 1.5 centimetres (0.59 in) in diameter. The double reed is made out of a single tube of cane about six cm long and pressed flat at one end. The performer uses air stored in his cheeks to keep playing the balaban while he inhales air into his lungs. This “circular” breathing technique is commonly used with all the double-reed instruments in the Middle East.

Structure

The balaban consists of a stem, a reed, a regulator, and a cap.

The stem of the balaban, or govda, is a 280–320 millimetres (11–13 in) cylindrical tube made primarily of apricot wood (sometimes also hazel, pear, mulberry, boxwood, etc.). The process of carving a balaban stem is called balaban chakma. The upper end of the stem (bash or kup) is given a round shape, whereas the lower end (ayag) is sharpened. The bore is 10 millimetres (0.39 in) in diameter. Eight holes or "tones" constituting a "sound tone" (sas pardasi) are made on the obverse and another one is made on the bottom side, opposite of the interval between the first and the second holes of the sas pardasi. Sometimes an additional hole called nizam pardasi is made on the lower end of the bottom side to ensure good timbre.