Instruments resembling today's baglama have been
found in archaeological excavations of Sumerian
and Hittite mounds in Anatolia dating to before
Christ, and in ancient Greek works. However, the
lack of data to establish their link to recent history
has resulted in these relics not being evaluated
beyond the mere fact of their appearance there.
The oldest existing written sources about instruments
resembling the baglama (generally called "lute"
in the literature) generally come from Chinese sources
and begin in the first century after Christ. For
this reason most researchers consider the kopuz,
which was brought to Anatolia after the great migrations
from Asia, as the origin of the baglama and baglama-type
instruments. As much as this view may be supported
by its adherents, it is not wise to suppose that
as major a cultural region as Anatolia was a vacuum
and that this vaccum was filled only at a very late
date by means of migrations. What stands out is
that when one takes into consideration the variety,
richness of playing styles, and broad range of uses
of the baglama-type instruments, it is clear that
Anatolia is very advanced. Embarking on this subject,
which is every bit as complicated as that of where
and by whom fire was first discovered, it would
be best to evaluate the culture of instrument-making
and instrument use of the peoples of Asia and Anatolia
together.
There are varying views on the point of origin,
as well as the form, of instruments in general and
those in the kopuz (baglama) family. One of the
most evident is the idea that man, appreciating
the sound of the vibrating bowstring on hunting
bows, improved upon this knowledge (by the addition
of a sound box such as a gourd or other material,
the later construction of this out of a single piece
of wood, the idea of a sound board, increasing the
number of strings, tuning pegs, a fret system, etc.)
and arrived at today's instruments. Especially when
one examines the instruments in regions such as
north Asia, which to a large extent have remained
closed, and those in Central and South Asia which
have been influenced relatively little by change
and devleopment, this view gains the most weight.
In these areas, it is very easy observed that instruments
are still very close to their prototypes —
curved necks, primitive sound boxes/soundboards,
strings made of horse hair or gut, etc.; and very
old-style playing techniques. Drawing from widely
published examples of this theory, Erol Parlak has
illustrated it in the drawing below:
The Birth of String Instruments
The kopuz culture is founded on the pre-Islamic
belief system of Shamanism, deep evidence of which
appears in the traditions and customs of Asia and
Anatolia.
Playing stringed instruments with the hand or an
arrow (used as a bow) is one of the oldest of traditions.
It has been proved that the prototypes of several
saz and baglama prototypes were played with an arrow
or by hand.
The evolution of today's many different bowed and
non-bowed instruments, including the baglama, has
occured over a very long period. Many common elements,
such as morphologic structure, playing technique
etc., can be seen in the whole body of kopuz-derived
instruments belonging to the cultures of Asia and
Anatolia.
The word "kopuz" is common to both Asia
and Anatolia. In the culture of North Asia, more
closed to outside influence, the term kopuz is used
alongside onomatopoeic instrument names, that is,
names which resemble the sound they describe. Heading
south, one meets, along with onomatopoeic terms,
the custom of naming instruments according to the
number of strings, in Persian: dutar, setar (two-string,
three-string), etc. This tradition is present in
Anatolia as well; however, the names are all Turkish:
ikitelli, üçtelli, etc.
The strings used on the saz and their qualities,
are very important. Research has shown that the
first material used for saz strings is horse hair.
After a long period of using horse hair, gut began
to be used, and later, where it was available, silk.
The last material to be used was metal. However
the use of horse hair has continued throughout every
period.
Metal strings brought various changes to the saz
in the way of timbre and playing technique. One
of the most important of these changes, besides
increase in size, the use of a wooden body and hand
playing, was the advent of the plectrum (called
variously pena, mizrap, or tezene).
In the saz culture of Asia, generally two- or three-string
sazes are seen. Although instruments with three
or more strings are found in the region, this culture's
most characteristic type is two-stringed.
The great majority of two- or three-stringed sazes
in Asia are played with the hand or with a bow,
and in those with two strings, the bottom string
is the most important playing string. Our research
has proved that this approach was present in Anatolia
as well and formed the base for the shift to "baglama"
tuning.
Though the term "kopuz" gave way to the
term "baglama" in around the 17the century,
it survives in many different regional names in
Anatolia. The reasons for the abandonment of the
term "kopuz" are many. The most important
of these is the "slander" of the kopuz
which started around the 16th century. Because of
this the name and the kopuz itself, which had come
down through thousands of years, began to be abandoned.
This way of thinking, which began in the cities,
gained influence in several parts of Anatolia with
the exception of the Alevi-Bektasi communities who
had placed the music, like the kopuz tradition,
on a religious and philosophical foundation. It
became a basis of an attitude, which remains to
this day, that playing an instrument is a sin, and
outside of the Alevi-Bektasi communities which didn't
abandon the instrument, the kopuz (baglama) began
to be abandoned and to be seen as only an entertainment
instrument.
In Anatolia, the term that replaced "kopuz"
is generally "Saz" or "Baglama."
The idea of using a plectrum for the kopuz (baglama)
began around the 14th century on, with the advent
of metal strings, in the Ottoman Palace and its
environs. This concept began to be accepted in and
after the 17th century, to achieve an increase in
volume especially for instruments that were problematic
in fasil performance. Under the influence of Ottoman
Palace culture, it began crossing over to cities
of Anatolia, and from there at last reached the
villages.
The adoption of the plectrum by the Anatolian villager,
who held tightly to his traditions, came very slowly
and with much difficulty. It took almost until after
the establishment of the Republic for the poor Anatolian
people, for whom metal strings were very difficult
to acquire, to move completely to the use of the
plectrum. Some, like Asik Veysel, played with his
hand but moved easily to playing with a plectrum.
 |
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| Aşık Veysel |
Zakir Ismail |
Alongside him however were many masters who never
adopted the plectrum and continued the tradition
of playing only with the hand:
 |
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| Ramazan Güngör |
Nesimi Çimen |
With the advent of the plectrum, various changes
appeared in the saz and the music of Anatolia. After
it was adopted, the number of strings on sazes increased,
the switch was made to all-metal strings, and wood
was used for the face of the instrument. The classification
of "plucked instruments" came into being;
and some sazes, through an error in terminology,
have been placed into this classification even though
they are still played with the hand. Along with
the concept of the pick, strumming patterns started
to take shape, and later, general characteristics
of music became bound to these patterns. With time,
hand-playing was completely abandoned and the concept
of the saz as solely a plucked instrument became
established.
After the establishment of the Republic of Turkey,
important changes and developments took place. With
the founding of the radio and public music arena,
baglama production became a business sector, and
as a result of this, all kinds of techniques and
materials came into use. The Radio had as its goal
to unite the music of many regions, each with its
own characteristics, into one whole, and as a result,
baglamas with additional frets for different semitones
became the norm.
The tradition and technique of playing by hand
survives chiefly among the Yörük Turkmens
in the Teke region of Anatolia, the Alevi-Bektasi
communities of central, south and east Anatolia,
and, though only to a small extent, among the Turkemens
of the Oguzeli region of Gaziantep.
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Halil Ibrahim
Ünal
(Dirmil, Burdur Region)
|
Ömer Kanyilmaz
(Dirmil, Burdur Region)
|
Today, it is becoming more and more clear what
the baglama and its culture, color, and playing
techniques were, and what they should be. In my
opinion, the place to start should be with the first-hand
source — this culture's true owners and transmittors
— the folk singers, minstrels, poets, local
artists, dedes, zakirs etc.; and city musicians
and academicians who have knowledge of the facts
and have based their works on this foundation. This
natural process is after all still taking place
in its real setting.
With the baglama, which is moving quickly down the
road to worldwide recognition, important developments
are taking place in the formation of national tastes
and pereferences. But there is a danger that these
developments may take form in a monotonous and one-sided
way. The inability of true intellectuals to move
society ahead in this sense, and market quarrels
in the music industry among the fundamental factors
in this development. It should not be forgotten
that Anatolian culture and the music associated
with it is a whole, and anyone with the goal of
promoting this whole should take pains to protect,
develop, and pass on the future all of its values.
Erol Parlak
