Turkish long-necked lute of the Tanbūr family (for illustration see Kurdish music, fig.2). The pear-shaped bowl resonator is carved (oyma) or carvel-built (yapraklı). The soundtable is of wood, usually coniferous. The neck has a variable number of movable frets. Traditionally these were made of sheepgut or copper wire but nylon line is now used. The instrument’s name, dating from the 17th century, derives from these ‘tied’ frets (bağ: ‘fret’, ‘knot’; bağlamak: ‘to tie, knot’). The movability of the frets allows the setting of scales to include microtones. There are three double courses of metal strings tuned with wooden pegs. The bağlama is generally played with a cherry-bark plectrum, though formerly the fingertips were widely used. The melody is commonly played on the first double course of strings, while the remaining courses are struck open as drones. Sometimes, however, the second and third courses are also fingered. The second finger of the plectrum hand is often used to strike the soundtable to add a percussive element to the melody.
The bağlama is the most popular and widely played long-necked lute in Turkey. It is often known as, simply, Saz (‘instrument’). By the 11th century, a long-necked lute similar to the bağlama, called kopuz, was the favoured instrument of the minstrel poets (ozan) of the Oğuz Turkish tribes of south-west Asia. Their Ottoman descendants, called saz şairleri (‘saz minstrel poets’) or aşıklar (sing.: aşık), use the bağlama to accompany the recitation of epics and popular tales (halk hikayeleri) as well as their own compositions and repertory of songs by earlier aşıklar. The bağlama is still played in the dervish ceremonies of some sects, including the Alevi. The instrument itself is viewed as symbolically significant: the body is ‘Alī, the neck his sword, and so on; see Islamic religious music §III, 2(i).
The bağlama is also the prime melody instrument of entertainment and dance music in both town and country. In this case it is sometimes accompanied by percussion instruments such as dümbelek (goblet drum), parmak zili and zilli maşa (types of cymbal). The bağlama is also played in small ensembles with other types of saz (long-necked lutes). In the 1970s the addition of a built-in electric pick-up produced a type of instrument known as elekrosaz. This is used at rural weddings with voice and darbuka (goblet drum). The bağlama and elektrosaz are important in Turkish music (see Turkey, 1–4.
The Greek baylamas is a miniature version of the bouzouki, with three double courses of metal strings, and is used mainly to accompany the bouzouki or the smaller tzouras (long-necked lutes).
L. Picken: Folk Musical Instruments of Turkey (London, 1975)
M. Stokes: The Arabesk Debate: Music and Musicians in Modern Turkey (Oxford, 1992)
R. CONWAY MORRIS