| Kamancheh | |
| Names: | Kamancha, Kamanche, Kemancheh, Kamanjah, Kabak kemane |
| Image Capt: | Persian Kamānches, ca. 1880 |
| Background: | string |
| Classification: | Bowed strings |
| Developed: | Iran |
| Range: | g3-e7 |
| Related: | |
| Musicians: | |
| Builders: |
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| Ich: | Art of crafting and playing with Kamantcheh/Kamancha, a bowed string musical instrument |
| Countries: | Azerbaijan and Iran |
| Id: | 01286 |
| Year: | 2017 |
| Session: | 13th |
| List: | Representative |
The kamancheh is an Iranian bowed string instrument used in Persian,[1] Azerbaijani,[2] Armenian,[3] Kurdish,[4] Georgian, Turkmen, and Uzbek music with slight variations in the structure of the instrument.[5]
The kamancheh is related to the rebab which is the historical ancestor of the kamancheh and the bowed Byzantine lyra.[6] The strings are played with a variable-tension bow.
In 2017, the art of crafting and playing with Kamantcheh/Kamancha was included into the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists of Iran and Azerbaijan.[7]
The word "kamancheh" means "little bow" in Persian (kæman, bow, and -cheh, diminutive).[8] The Turkish word kemençe is borrowed from Persian, with the pronunciation adapted to Turkish phonology.
It also denotes a bowed string instrument, but the Turkish version differs significantly in structure and sound from the Persian kamancheh.
There is also an instrument called kabak kemane literally "pumpkin-shaped bow instrument" used in Turkish music which is only slightly different from the Iranian kamancheh.[9]
The kamancheh has a long neck including the fingerboard, which the kamancheh maker shapes as a truncated inverse cone for easy bow movement in the down section, pegbox in both sides of which four pegs are placed, and finial[10] .
Traditionally kamanchehs had three silk strings, but modern instruments have four metal strings.
Kamanchehs may have highly ornate inlays and elaborately carved ivory tuning pegs.
The body has a long upper neck and a lower bowl-shaped resonating chamber made from a gourd or wood, usually covered with a membrane made from the skin of a lamb, goat or sometimes a fish, on which the bridge is set.
From the bottom protrudes a spike to support the kamancheh while it is being played, hence in English, the instrument is sometimes called the spiked fiddle.
It is played sitting down held like a cello though it is about the length of a viola. The end-pin can rest on the knee or thigh while the player is seated in a chair.[11]
Kamancheh is usually tuned like an ordinary violin (G, D, A, E).
. Sayatʻ-Nova: an 18th-century troubadour: a biographical and literary study. 1997. Peeters Publishers. Leuven. 90-6831-795-4. Charles Dowsett. 4.
