Are you looking for the North Indian Tambura
, the Turkish Tambur or the Iranian Tanbur
Tamburica ( or ) or
Tamboura ( and , meaning Little Tamboura,
, , sometimes written tamburrizza) refers to any member of
a family of long-necked lutes popular in
Eastern and Southern Europe, particularly Croatia (especially
Serbia (Vojvodina) and Hungary.
It is also
known in parts of southern Slovenia and eastern
Austria. All took their name and some characteristics
from the Persian tanbur but also resemble the mandolin, in that its strings are plucked and often paired.
Bisernica or Prim
The frets may be
moveable to allow the playing of various modes
The body of the instrument is made of a hollow gourd.
The area where tamburica is
There is little reliable data showing how the tamboura entered
. It already existed
during Byzantine Empire, and the Greeks and Slaves used to call
"tambouras" the ancestor of modern bouzouki. It was probably
brought by the Turks to Bosnia, from where
the instrument spread further with migrations of Šokci and Bunjevci above
the Sava River to all parts of Croatia, Serbia and
further. The modern tamburica shape was developed in
Hungary (Budapest) in the 20. century.
Until the Great Migration of the
at the end of the 17th century, the type of tamboura most
frequently used in Croatia and Serbia had a long neck and two or
three strings (sometimes doubled). Similar string instruments are
the Czech bratsche
, Turkish saz
and the sargija
Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia (especially the Pannonian plain: Slavonia, Vojvodina and
Hungary) the tamboura (often referred to by the diminutive tamburica) is the basic
instrument of traditional folk music,
usually performed by small orchestras of
three to ten members, though large orchestras capable of playing
even classical pieces
arranged for tamboura also exist.
Types of tamburica
The number of strings on a tamburica varies and it may have single
or double-coursed strings or a mixture of both. Double-coursed
strings are tuned in unison
. The basic forms
of tamburica are
There is a
view that the first tambura orchestra was formed in Hungary in the 19th
- The samica (three double
- The prim (one double string, G, and three
single stringsE, A, D). This is the
smallest tamburica (about 50 cm long) but it is very loud. It
is mostly used as a lead instrument
or harmonising instrument. The bisernica (from "biser"
meaning "pearl") is almost identical but may have two double
strings and two single strings.
- The bas-prim or brač (two double strings and
two single strings), a slightly bigger, lower instrument than the
bisernica but played in a similar fashion.
- The čelović (two double strings and two single
- The bugarija or kontra (one double string
D and three single strings), similar to a guitar, mostly used for. A bugarija has five strings,
the bottom pair are D, the middle string is A and
the top two are tuned F# and F#.
- The čelo (four strings), similar in size to the
bugarija and used for dynamics.
- The bas or berda (four strings), can only be
played standing and is used for playing bass lines.
The instruments' names came from the Hungarian
names of the musical instruments of the symphony orchestra -
originally from the Hungarian Gipsy bands (bőgős
). These orchestras soon spread to what is
now Bosnia, Austria, Slovenia, the
Republic and Slovakia.
Parts of tamburica
The tamburica is made in three parts; body, neck and head. The body
) was pear-shaped until the
middle of the nineteenth century CE, and was built by scooping out
the log. Today they are mostly are built in the way of the guitar
and even the smallest, the Bisernica, has a constructed box. The
fingerboard has frets(prečnice, krsnice, pragovi). The head
(čivijište) usually had a sharpened form, which can be found still
on some bisernicas, but the "snail" design later got the
Composers and ensembles
can have various
formats from a trio to a large orchestra. A basic trio consists of
, a kontra
and a čelo
orchestras also have bas-prims
major composer for the tamburica was Pajo Kolarić, who formed the first amateur
tamburica orchestra in Osijek in
. Kolarić's student Mijo Majer formed the first
tamburica choir led by a conductor
", in 1882.
Croatian composers for the tamburica include Franjo Ksaver Kuhač,
Siniša Leopold and Julije Njikoš. The instrument is associated with
, an associate of Béla
, collected more than 19,000 Croatian folk songs.
Tamburica Orchestra of Radio Novi Sad
was founded in 1951 under the leadership of Sava Vukosavljev, who
composed and arranged many pieces for tamburica orchestra and
published a comprehensive book; “Vojvođanska tambura” ("The
Tambura of Vojvodina"). There are also orchestras of Radio Belgrade and Radio Podgorica, Radio Kikinda etc. Janika
Balázs, a member of the Radio Novi Sad orchestra who also had
his own octet, was a popular performer whose name became synonymous
with the tamburica.
Famous Tamburica orchestras of Serbia
include those of Maksa Popov and Aleksandar Aranicki.
village of Schandorf in Austria, whose Croatian-speaking inhabitants are descended from
16th Century Croatian immigrantss, is the home of a tamburrizza
orchestra, a reflection of its ethnic heritage.
orchestra performs frequently, often outside the village..
In popular culture
Films about tamburicas
- The Popovich Brothers of South Chicago (1978)
- :Directed by Jill Godmilow, Martin Koenig and Ethel Raim.
Produced by Mary Koenig, Ethel Raim and Jill Godmilow.
- Ziveli! Medicine for the Heart (1987)
- :Filmed and directed by Les Blank.
by Flower Films in association with the
Center for Visual Anthropology, University
of Southern California. Based on ethnography by Andre Simic.
El Cerrito, California:
Flower Films & Video. ISBN 0933621388.
Songs about tamburicas
- O tampouras tou Stavrou (Stavros' tamburica, Greek: Ο
ταμπουράς του Σταύρου) by Chainides
File:Bisernica, instrument (size).jpg|Bisernica (prim)Image:Brac,
instrument (size).jpg|Bas-prim (Brač)Image:Celo, instrument
(size).jpg|ČelovićImage:Bugarija, instrument (size).jpg|Kontra
(Bugarija)Image:Berda, instrument (size).jpg|Bas
- Elizabeth Jeffreys,John Haldon,Robin Cormack, The Oxford
Handbook of Byzantine Studies, Oxford University Press, 2008, p928.
Nikos Maliaras, Byzantina mousika organa, EPN 1023, ISΒN
- Over tamburica - short history
- Volly István: Bajai tamburások - A bajai tamburazenekar
- Magyar Néprajzi Lexikon, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest
- Over the Tamburica – in general