In this article we will tell you what a musical instrument saz is. Photos of him are presented in the article. It belongs to the family of vestibules and is similar to a lute. Its name comes from the Persian word, which is translated as “instrument”. Common among the peoples of Turkey, Afghanistan, Iran, Transcaucasia, as well as among the Bashkirs and Tatars.
History of creation
The ancestor of the Turkish musical instrument saz, according to the Encyclopedia of Iranik, most likely was Shirvan tanbur. Kotry was popular in Tabriz and described in the 15th century by Abdulgadir Maraghi, a Persian music theorist. Saz is one of the most ancient instruments of Azerbaijan of national origin.
Its predecessors are setar and dutar, which had a similar shape. According to the opinion of Azerbaijani art historian Majnun Kerimov, the saz musical instrument is a perfect descendant of the gopuz, which took its current form in the 16th century, in the era of the Iranian shah Ismail Khatai.
Under the term we are interested in, constructions that differ in structure, number of strings, shape and size are combined. The pear-shaped body is a common feature of all the sazs, as well as a neck with a draped hand, a wooden resonator, sound extraction with a plectrum and built or double strings.
In Turkey, two similar musical instruments are called saz: “Baglama” - large with 7 strings and “Jura” - small with 6 strings. In Iran, he is known as “chogur”. The word "saz" is usually used to denote any of the musical instruments. We may also be interested in these parts under the Turkish name of “baglama”.
Embodiment
Making a saz musical instrument is a very time-consuming and lengthy process. Usually, craftsmen use several types of wood to create its various elements. The case is made of mulberry of selected species. The vulture here is often cherry, and the lintel, on which the instrument is assembled using wooden nails, is made of hard walnut.
The saz musical instrument has an unusual arrangement of pegs, they are placed here not one opposite the other, but at an angle of ninety degrees. In Azerbaijan, it has a deep pear-shaped case made of mulberry or walnut, glued or hollowed from individual staves. Also, such a tool has a long neck, on the back it is rectangular or round.
The body is assembled from an odd number of staves connected to each other. Usually there are nine of them. The rivets on the butt are pulled together. This junction of the body and the neck is called “kup”. After that, a neck is mounted on the rivets. The top of the case is covered with a thin wooden deck and 16-17 hands are tied to the bar. Armenian saz has a similar design with Azerbaijan.
The only difference is the tuning of the second group of strings, here they sound an octave higher. The Dagestan version is called Chungur. It is two-stringed; its paired strings are tuned into a quart.
Structure
A saz musical instrument includes three parts: a head, a neck and a pear-shaped body. Pegs are attached to the head, with their help, the strings are tuned.