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Kobza

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cossack with a Kobza

Kobza (Ukrainian: кобза) The term Kobza has a number of various meanings, however they all deal with musical instruments in eastern Europe.

• 1 - The Kobza is a traditional Ukrainian stringed musical instrument, of the lute family, and more specifically a relative of the Central European mandora.

• 2 - The cobza or cobsa is also a type of four-course (triple-strung courses) folk lute found primarilly in Romania and Moldova and was in the 1920-30's also played in Bukovyna, Ukraine. The instrument is approximately the size of a mandolin. Some courses had 3 strings. The cobza was tuned in 5ths similar to the mandolin. In Hungary the same instrument is known as the koboz. Both are now increasingly rare.

• 3 - The kobza was also a term for any regional lute-like instrument used by court musicians in Central-Eastern Europe, which might not have been a kobza proper. (This may be the Hungarian koboz)

• 4 - A term used for bagpipes and occasionally for the hurdy-gurdy in Eastern Poland, Belarus and Volyn in Ukraine.

• 5 - The term kobza was also used as a synonym for bandura in the 19th and early 20th century in Ukraine.

[edit] Etymology

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kozak Mamai playing a kobza

The term kobza is first mentioned in Polish chronicles dating back to 1331, but lute-like instruments are known to have existed in the territories now known as Ukraine even earlier, either from the sixth century, brought there by Bulgars, or possibly somewhat later by Polovetsians and Khazars. The term has a Turkic origin: "kobyz" or "khomus". The stinged folk instrument acquired widespread popularity in the 16th century, with the advent of the Hetmanate (Cossack state).

The kobza was usually played by a bard or minstrel called kobzar (occasionally in earlier times a kobeznik), to accompany the recitation of a Ukrainian epics called duma.

The kobza became extinct early in the 20th century. Currently there is a revival of kobza playing in Ukraine, due to the efforts of the "Kobzar Guild" in Kiev and Kharkiv.

The kobza was often referred to in historical sources as bandura (from Latin Pandura, via medieval Polish Barduny, i.e. a lute). The terms were interchangeable until about 1900. Eventually the unfretted "starosvitska" bandura (developed ca. 1800) appropriated the bandura name, but still was often referred to as kobza among the common folk, because of the name's historical cachet.

[edit] Types of Ukrainian Kobzas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Orchestral Kobzy made by Mykola Prokopenko

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Accompaniment kobza played by P. Konoplenko-Zaporozhetz

• 1 - Veresai kobza - (often referred to as authentic traditional kobza) with six treble strings strung along the treble side of the instrument. The instrument is played with the left hand pressing doen on the strings strung along the neck, however there are no frets.
• 2 - Orchestral kobza - with 4 strings tuned in fifths using tunings that parallel the violin family. The instruments are made in Prima, alto and tenor and contrabass sizes.
• 3 - Accompaniment kobza - usually having 6 or 7 strings and a fretted neck. The six string version uses a classical guitar tuning. The 7 string version uses a Russian guitar (open g chord) tuning.

The kobza revival is impeded by the complete absence of the museum specimens. All evidence is entirely iconographic.

[edit] See also

• Lute
• Torban
• Theorbo
• Mandora
• Bandura
• Kobyz, a Kazakh bowed string instrument

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Kobza

[edit] External links

• In-depth discussion of kobza and related instruments' organology