FORMS OF INSTRUMENTS IN COLLECTIVE MEMORY: THE EXAMPLE OF KEMENÇE

Abstract

Instruments play a significant role in establishing peoples’ music at cultural memory and shapes of these instruments hold an important place in cultural memory. For instance, Eastern Black Sea Region is associated with kemence and Aegean region with sipsi . The immediate vision that comes to memory is that of a tar when Azerbaijan is mentioned, or it is bagpipes for Scotland. When we discuss armudi kemence (pear shaped kemence), one of our instruments, which make good examples for our subject, we see that the same form and structure is found in the musical memories of neighbouring geographical regions, under various different names. Instruments, which are referred to as lyra in Greece and Aegean Islands, as lyrica in Croatia, as gadulka in Bulgaria, in Turkey, as kemence in art music circles, and as tirnak kemane in Kastamonu and its environs, and which have established themselves under these names at memories in their respective territories, have similar traits in terms of performance and morphological features, and are evidential examples of collective music memory. But individuals living in these societies use the name of instrument, what they call in their region while talking about the music instrument. In this paper, forms of instruments, which have established themselves at collective memory, is analyzed through the example of kemence, the variations of the instrument found in the Balkans and in Anatolia, and their place in collective memories will be discussed in comparison. Keywords : Musical Instruments, Kemence, Collective Memory.