Zurna
Zurna
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Zurna

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Zurna

The zurna is a double reed wind instrument played in Central Asia, West Asia, the Caucasus, Southeast Europe and parts of North Africa. It is also used in Sri Lanka. It is usually accompanied by a davul (bass drum) in Armenian, Anatolian and Assyrian folk music. The zurna is largely played in Turkey.

A folk etymology explains that the name is derived from Persian "سرنای" (surnāy), composed of "سور" (sūr) meaning "banquet, feast", and نای (nāy) meaning "reed, pipe". The term is attested in the oldest Turkic records, as "suruna" in the 12th and 13th century Codex Cumanicus (CCM fol. 45a). Zurna has also been suggested as a possible borrowing from Hittite or Luwian into the Armenian language, where Arm. զուռնա zuṙna is compared to Luwian zurni "horn".

The zurna was said to originate from Central Asia and ancient Asia Minor (Anatolia). Images of the zurna are visible in stone reliefs and artwork by the Hittites, who were an ancient empire from Asia Minor about 2000 to 1200 B.C. It was known in Persia from 6th century A.D., and later introduced in several countries following the spread of Islam (A.D. 650-1500). The zurna played an important role in Ottoman mehter music.

As zurna became popular and intriguing, it spread further to the east and west. In the 16th century, the Central Asian shawms got to China under the name 'sona'. The Kirghiz peoples, from ancient Persia and Afghanistan, had used the zurna, as well as Syrian people, who called it 'zamr'. As the Ottoman Empire sprawled into Europe, the zurna was introduced to the Balkans, Hungary, and even Western Europe. There were alteration of name and its structure, but the similarities to the original zurna was very apparent, as seen in the zurna of Macedonia, the shepherd flute of the Basque and the mountain territories of Italy, and the zurna in North Africa, called 'zmar', of Tunis and Tangier.

In Turkish folk music, the zurna joined with the davul to appoint a melodic concomitant to tribal and village folk dance. Today, the zurna is an essential part of Turkish folk music and dance, as well as in Armenian dance, Assyrian folk dance and Kurdish dance.

Turkish lore[citation needed] says that Adam, who was moulded from clay, had no soul. It is said only the melodious tuiduk-playing of Archangel Gabriel could breathe life into Adam. According to a Turkmen legend,[citation needed] the devil played the main role in tuiduk invention (note the term "devil openings", şeytan delikleri, in Turkish for the small apertures on the bell).

The zurna, like the duduk and kaval, is a woodwind instrument used to play folk music.

The zurna is made from the slow-growing and hardwood of fruit trees such as plum or apricot (Prunus armeniaca). There are several different types of zurnas. The most typical is the Armenian zurna. The longest (and lowest-pitched) is the kaba zurna, used in Bulgaria, the shortest (and highest-pitched), which can be made of bone, is the zurna played in Messolonghi and other villages of Aetolia-Acarnania region in Greece. The zurna, a relative of the oboe, is found almost everywhere where the common reed grows because it uses a short cylindrical reed that is tied to a conical brass tube on one end, flattened to a narrow slit on the other end as a source of the sound.

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