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The tambouras (Greek: ταμπουράς, [tabuˈras]), is a traditional Greek string instrument.[1] It has existed since at least the 10th century, when it was known in Assyria and Egypt. At that time, it might have between two and six strings, but Arabs adopted it, and called it a Toubour. The characteristic long neck and two strings, tuned 5 notes apart.[2]
History
Origins
It is believed that the tambouras' ancestor is the ancient Greek pandouris, also known as pandoura, pandouros or pandourida (πανδουρίς, πανδούρα, πάνδουρος), from which the word is derived. The tambouras is mentioned in the Byzantine epic of Digenis Akritas, when the hero plays his θαμπούριν, thambourin (medieval form of tambouras):
“ Και αφότου αποδείπνησεν, εμπαίνει εις το κουβούκλιν
και επήρεν το θαμπούριν του και αποκατάστησέν το.
When he had finished his meal, he entered his chamber
and picked up his tamboura [thambourin] and tuned it.
”
—Digenis Akritis, Escorial version, vv. 826-827, ed. and transl. Elizabeth Jeffreys
Name
The name resembles that of the Indian tambura, but the Greek tambouras is a completely different instrument. Since modern Greek words do not have a standard transliteration into the Latin alphabet, the word may be found written in many ways: tampouras, tambouras, tabouras, taburas etc. Even the final -s may be dropped at the transliteration, since it marks the masculine nominative in Greek. Variations of the word are to be found in Greece: tsambouras, tambouri.
Type
The tambouras is a long-neck fretted instrument of the lute family,[1] close to Turkish saz and the Persian tanbur. It has movable frets that permit playing tunes in the Greek traditional modes (equivalent of the makams of Arabic music and the ichoi of Byzantine music). It was also known as Pandouris, Pandoura and Fandouros in the Byzantine Empire.[2] When the tambouras was tempered, it gave rise to the bouzouki, which is, in fact, a recent development of the tambouras.[3]
Gallery
Display of Greek tamboura[citation needed] at the right (the inst. left is a tambur).
Makriyannis tambouras.JPG
References
Notes
^ a b Eleni Kallimopoulou (2009), Paradosiaká: Music, Meaning and Identity in Modern Greece, SOAS musicology series, Ashgate Publishing, p. 53, ISBN 9780754666301
^ a b "Traditional Stringed Instruments of Greece". Retrieved 2010-03-28.
^ John Shepherd (2003), Performance and Production, Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World: Volume II: Performance and Production, 11, Continuum, p. 68, ISBN 9780826463227, retrieved 2010-03-16
Sources
Anogeianakis, Foivos. Ellinika Laika Mousika Organa. Athens: Melissa, 1991 (2nd Edition).
Jeffreys, Elizabeth. Digenis Akritis. The Grottaferrata and Escorial Versions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Grapsas, Nikos. Tambouras. Methodos Didaskalias. Athens: Nikolaidis, 2007.
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