What is domra? The legendary “balalaika” and “harp” of Ukrainian kobzars, Belarusian songs and Russian storytellers have not lost their popularity for many years. Domra is a musical instrument that over the years has become a national symbol of the south of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. It is actively used by thousands of artists in recordings of both instrumental melodies and song compositions.
What is domra
Domra is a stringed musical instrument belonging to a subgroup of folk instruments and characteristic of the South Slavic peoples. In its structure, the domra is similar to a balalaika or homes. Also, these instruments are united by the style of the game - using a special mediator, which touches the strings. This style of play is called plucking.
Domra is an instrument used for solo performance of any lyrics to the accompaniment, less often - as part of the ensemble or orchestra of folk instruments.
As a representative of the string family, domra is an instrument that requires a special approach in development and use. Thanks to the acoustic features of the structure, in the capable hands of the domra is able to make enchanting, unusual sounds for the human ear.
Tool name
The word "domra" itself was obtained by processing several words from the Turkic languages that designate stringed musical instruments, for example, in the Tatar language there is the word dumbra, translated as "balalaika". The Crimean Tatar dialect has the word dambura - “guitar”. The Turkish language contains the word tambura, which also means the guitar, and the Kazakh language calls the balalaika - dombıra. The Kalmyk version is very close to the Kazakh language - dombr̥, which also means balalaika.
History of occurrence
What is domra? A musical instrument that may interest anyone who is fond of the history and theory of folk music.
The first mention of a musical instrument similar to it can be found in palace records of the XVI-XVII centuries, which tells about domraches - musicians playing domra.
She was popular with buffoons, strolling artists and jesters. Since with its simplicity and ease of use, it had a good sound and quite rich timbral capabilities, which allowed the artist to easily accompany himself during the performance of a song or legend.
For a long time, playing domra was considered a humiliating, unworthy occupation of a person of the upper and middle classes. That is why there was not a single type of domr - each instance was made in a home-made way. Often, the artists themselves made domra or performed such work on order.
Soon, the domra disappeared from historical documents, and until the 19th century, no one knew about its existence. This was due to the introduction of censorship and an active hunt for buffoons, except for which no one else used this tool. With the disappearance of funny songs, like a genre, the instrument was forgotten for a while. What is domra - did not even know the descendants of the once famous storytellers.
"Second birth"
Only at the beginning of the 20th century, the head of the first in the USSR “Orchestra of Folk Instruments” Vasily Andreev was able to restore the original form of domra, as well as hypothetically restore its sound, based on a poorly preserved instance of a musical instrument found by him in the Oryol region.
Despite the fact that many musicologists still do not consider Andreev’s find a real domra, this word now refers to the entire family of musical instruments created on the basis of his drawings.
Currently, this folk instrument is popular in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, and also enjoys success abroad, due to its exotic sound.
For domra, as well as for many other folk instruments, concert and chamber works are created.
Design
The highest quality traditional domra is made from a variety of expensive wood species. Moreover, there are strict traditions of tool manufacturing. As well as the rules for combining wood in strictly prescribed proportions.
The body of the instrument is made of white maple and acanthus birch, the stand is made of rare maple species, the deck is made of spruce or fir, the neck is made of larch, the fingerboard is made of ebony.
Russian domra is an instrument made according to the model of Semen Ivanovich Sotsky, the famous master craftsman, keeper of Russian musical culture. The models of folk instruments created by him have been used in elite world orchestras since 1936.
The structure of the domra is similar to the structure of almost any string instrument.
It consists of two parts - a resonating body and neck. The case, in turn, is divided into a sound-saving body and deck.
Different sound
Since ancient times, two styles of playing domra have been known: with and without a mediator.
When struck with a hard plate, the instrument strings have a slightly rattling sound, characteristic of Ukrainian folk melodics of the late 17th century.
Belarusians, who did not know until the end of the 16th century what domra was and were inspired by Western analogues of stringed instruments to create it, were not inclined to play as a mediator. They preferred to play with tweaks, getting a completely different sound.
If the mediator is not used when playing domra, the sound becomes soft, smooth and voluminous. Extremely similar in tone to the sound of an acoustic guitar. This method of playing domra is considered more academic and is used in folk instrument orchestras.
Varieties
Domra is a musical instrument with a small number of varieties. There are two types of it: three-stringed and four-stringed domra.
Their only difference is manifested in their musical perception. The four-stringed domra has a greater number of tones, and also the sound is one octave lower than the three-stringed version of this instrument.
There are no differences in the manufacturing process, there are simply no materials in the composition. This can be explained by the mental characteristics of the peoples who created this or that version of domra.
The three-stringed instrument was widely used in Ukraine, and the four-stringed instrument in western Belarus. There, its construction was significantly influenced by Polish string instruments.
The four-stringed domra, which has great potential for sound extraction, is traditionally used in folk instrument orchestras, as well as in chamber orchestras. Many leading domraches prefer it to an older three-string prototype precisely for its similarity to a bass guitar, which provides a more comfortable playing during a performance.
Production
The first mention of the manufacture of domra we can find in the annals of the Savino-Storozhevsky monastery in the Kuban. The monastery scribal book keeps a record dated 1558 and tells how a certain master began to make special balalaikas with strange sound production.
At the end of the XVIII century it was here that the first mass production of folk musical instruments. In the Kuban, the “First Guselnaya workshop” opens, producing domra, harp, balalaika, guitars and other stringed instruments on an industrial scale. The factory was headed, according to legend, by a local peasant Emelyanov, who managed not only to set up the domra production, but also to manufacture stringed instruments of the highest quality, which was even noted by a letter from the Imperial Court.