From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The tambura is a type of stringed instrument found in different versions in different places around the world; most are plucked lutes. The New Grove Dictionary of Music assigns the term to the Eastern European variety of the saz, and to the Indian fretless drone lute.^[1]

Contents 1 Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia 2 Bulgaria 3 India 4 References 5 See also 6 External links

Main article: Tamburitza

The tradition of playing the tambura has lasted for centuries in Croatia and Serbia. Until the Great Migration of the Serbs at the end of the 17th century, the type of tambura most frequently used had a long neck and two or three strings (sometimes doubled). Similar string instruments are (tambura, saz, sargija, çiftelia, bouzouki, lute and oud). The movable neck frets are arranged to allow the playing of modes according to Pythagoras’ theory of intervals. The body of the instrument is made of a hollow gourd.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia, especially their Pannonian parts Slavonia and Vojvodina, the tambura (often referred to by the diminutive tamburica) is the basic instrument for traditional folk music. This is usually performed by small orchestras of three to ten members, but large orchestras capable of playing even classical pieces arranged for tambura also exist.

There are several types of tambura, with three to four strings. The basic forms are samica (three double strings), bisernica (two double strings and two single strings; four tones), prim (one double string and three single strings; four tones), bas-prim or brač (two double strings and two single strings; four tones), čelović (two double strings and two single strings; four tones), čelo (four strings), bas or berda (four strings), and bugarija or kontra (two double strings and one single string; three tones). The names of the instruments and method of playing them depends on the tuning of the strings.

• Tambura
• Tambura
• Tambura images

The Bulgarian tambura is a long-necked, fretted, bouzouki-like string instrument that comes in two styles: eight-string (four pairs) and four-string (two pairs), played with a plectrum.

Actually this type of tambura is something between mandolin and baglama. It has a higher pitch and stronger, sharper sound perfect for solos, but the instrument is not very common since it does not really sound good if played alone. All the members of the tambura family have no ribs. The body is normally made of single piece hardwood and is pear-shaped, but also there are old examples of luteback tamburas made with the technique of bending and gluing thin pieces of wood together.

The Bulgarian tambura is played in two ways. As an accompaniment instrument, it is tuned similarly to the first four strings of a guitar and played as such. As a melodic instrument it is tuned in fifths, with the strings that are not being played for melody sounding as drones.

See also Music of Bulgaria.

• Pirin tambura
• 8 string pirin tambura
• Thrace tambura
• Kontrabass tambura
• Bass tambura
• Cello tambura
• Macedonian tambura

It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article. (Discuss)

A tambura (South India) or tanpura (North India) is a long-necked Indian lute, unfretted and round-bodied. The neck is hollow, and it has four or five (rarely, six) wire strings, which are plucked one after another in a regular pattern to create a tonic resonance field (bourdon or drone function). The name 'tanpura' is probably derived from tana, referring to a musical phrase, and pura which means "full" or "complete". The special overtone-rich sound is achieved by applying the principle of jivari which creates a sustained, "buzzing" sound in which particular harmonics will resonate with focused clarity. Every string emits a wide spectrum of sound. 'Jiva' refers to 'soul'. By applying the principle of jivari seems to imply that one has to 'animate' the tone. The principle of jivari can be likened to the prismatic refraction of white light into the colours of the rainbow, as its acoustic twin.

To achieve this effect, the strings pass over a wide, arched bridge-piece, the front of the bridge sloping gently away from under the strings. When the string is plucked vertically, it will have an intermittent contact with the bridge at a point close to the front edge. This intermittent, grazing contact is not static, as the contactpoint will gradually shift, being a function of amplitude. Right after the pluck amplitude is maximal, and as it gradually decays, the contact point with the bridge creeps up the slope of the bridge toward point zero when the energy has run out of the tone. This dynamic sonic process can be fine-tuned using a cotton thread between string and bridge. By shifting the thread minutely the grazing contact is also shifted to a different position on the bridge, thus changing the harmonic content a bit. in this way, tanpuras are most attentively tuned to achieve a particular tonal shade in function of the qualities of the raga.

Tanpuras come in different sizes: bigger "males" and smaller "females". Male vocalists pitch their tonic note (Sa) to about C#, female singers usually a fifth higher. The male instrument has an open string length of one metre, the female is sized down to 3/4. The standard tuning is 5881, sol do' do' do, or in Indian sargam: PA sa sa SA. For ragas that omit the fifth, the first string will be tuned down to the natural fourth: 4881 or Ma sa sa Sa. Some ragas require a less common tuning with shuddh NI (semitone below octave sa) : NI sa sa SA. With a five-string instrument, the seventh or NI (natural minor or major 7th) is added: PA NI sa sa SA (57881).

It is designed in three different styles:

• Miraj style: the favourite form of tanpura for Hindustani performers. It is usually between three to five feet in length, with a well-rounded resonator plate (tabli) and a long, hollow straight neck. The round lower chamber to which the tabli, the connecting heel-piece and the neck (dandh) are fixed is actually a selected and dried gourd (tumba). Wood used is either tun or teak, bridges are usually cut from one piece of bone.
• Tanjore style: this is a south Indian style of tambura, used widely by Carnatic music performers. It has a somewhat different shape and style of decoration from that of the Miraj, but is otherwise much the same size. Typically, no gourd is used, but the spherical part is gouged out of a solid block of wood. The neck is somewhat smaller in diameter. Jackwood is used throughout, bridges are usually cut from one piece of rosewood. Often two rosettes are drilled out and ornamented with inlaywork.
• Tamburi: this style has become more popular recently, due to its small size and portability. It is two to three feet long, with a shallow resonator and a slightly curved tabli. It may have from four to six strings. The small five-string tamburi are tuned to the higher octave and are the preferred instruments for providing the drone for solo-performances by string-playing artists, as the lighter, more transparent sound does not drown out the lower register of a sitar, sarod, or sarangi.

• Pandura
• Tanbur
• Electronic tanpura

• tanpura mp3 downloads free tanpura mp3 downloads from Matthew Rahaim (sa-pa and sa-ma) A, B, C, C#, D
• http://www.macedoniagiftshop.com/macedonain_instruments.html
• Makar-records.com: Indian Classical Music Instrument Index
• seasite.niu.edu: World music: Tampura (Tambura)
• Tanpura or Tambura — by David Courtney
• Tanpura Talk article about tuning and playing of tanpura, and why electronic tanpuras are bad for music
• izvor music
• tamburaland Croatian website dedicated to the tambura
• Tambura About tambura, how they look like and related chordophones
• Sharena Gajda (Tambura)
• Ka mi ispadnala moma Katerina(Burcak Tarlasi)
• Balkan World Music performed on Macedonian Tambura