This next instrument has been gaining some popularity in the United States and is being used in several folk bands for its unique tone. Called the bouzouki, it is a relatively new name with an older ancestor.
A traditional bouzouki
The first time I heard a bouzouki was at a Sidewalk Prophets concert at the Dayton Fair. The guitarist of Sidewalks Prophets, Daniel Macal, played it as an accompanying instrument and it sounded quite good although it was not being played in its original style. The bouzouki hails from Greece where it is very popular although it was only named in the early 1900’s. The bouzouki was originally named the pandoura and existed as far back as ancient Greece. The bouzouki has little changes to the pandoura besides its aesthetics, but its tuning and strings remained the same. Modern tunings continue to change but it was traditionally tuned to D-A-D, which is the same as the mountain dulcimer, which is very common to the Appalachian region of the United States. In the Byzantine empire days, it was still called a pandoura and during the large exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey during 1919-1921, many native ethnic Greeks fled back into Greece. This was due to a war in Asia Minor, but this also caused many Greeks to be reacquainted with the pandoura, and soon changed it into a 3 doubled stringed instrument called the bouzouki. It does have a very interesting tone and hearing it in any Greek music is iconic, and skilled players such as Manolis Karantinis in the attached video, move their fingers as fast as any modern electric guitar player.
The bouzouki was later adopted by the Irish in the mid 1950’s and incorporated into their music style quite nicely. During this time more 4 string versions were introduced for added flexibility of the instrument. In this attached video we can see a 4 double stringed Irish bouzouki playing the all-to-familiar Irish song, MacArthur Road. It almost sounds like it was designed to play Irish music to begin with, so many people are surprised to know that it was originally a Greek instrument. Its draw to the Irish with its very mandolin sounding tone is understandable. The versatility of this instrument is incredible and I think that the United States will be seeing more of a rise in the popularity of this instrument.
I would be lying if I said the Bb Tubax wasn’t one of my all time favorite instruments. As any saxophone player will tell you, their bucket lists usually have “play a tubax” on it. This subcontrabass saxophone is yet another brain child of Benedikt Eppelsheim, the same man to create the soprillo, described in one of my previous posts. Unlike the soprillo, which is the smallest of all the saxophones, the tubax has the lowest range of any saxophone. In fact, the tubax is a full octave below the bass saxophone (also rarely played by anyone).
A Bb Tubax in different perspectives
Although some people say it is described as sounding like a “really low fart noise” I would have to disagree and say that it is one of the coolest sounding instruments ever. Its shear power is unmatched by any other acoustic instrument, except for maybe a tuba. A version of a subcontrabass saxophone was designed by saxophone creator Adolphe Sax, but he was never able to build it himself. I can’t imagine what it would feel like to hit an Ab0, or the amount of air it would to take to make one note. To put that in perspective that is lower than a piano. Let me say that again. This saxophone plays a half tone below the lowest possible note on the piano just by the power of your own air. Not just a little bit of air, but a lot of air. I have played a baritone saxophone in the marching band and even that was a struggle to get enough air through the horn. This instrument only recently started production in 1999 in Munich, Germany. With incredible ingenuity, Eppelsheim was able to have the Tubax have the same saxophone fingerings as all of the other saxophones, so theoretically I could play it. In the attached video there is a compilation of the Bb Tubax and the higher Eb Tubax. The last song in the video really shows how low this instrument can go and it sounds really cool. I have played some of these songs in my jazz combo, but it didn’t quite sound like this.
This next video shows how versatile even this Bb Tubax can be. Also I noticed in this video that there is no microphone close to the tubax like there is with the cello. Maybe for a good reason. This is an incredible amount of control and extreme talent. Also unlike other saxophones, this is so big it has to be rested on the ground at all times. Very cool.
Works Cited
“The Bouzouki and Its History.” The Bouzouki Shop. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2016. <http://www.thebouzoukishop.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=109&Itemid=279&lang=en>.
“Origin.” Play Bouzouki. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2016. <http://www.playbouzouki.be/index.php?page=origin>.
“Bb Tubax.” Benedikt Eppelsheim Blasinstrumente. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2016. <http://www.eppelsheim.com/en/instruments/tubax-bb/>.
Dan,
Yet again you have featured two amazing instruments that I have never heard of before. I still think that it is crazy how limited our culture’s use of instruments is and what potential these pieces of music-making art have to broadening and deepening our nation’s music. Out of this week’s two instruments, I must say that I enjoyed the sound of the bouzouki best, but I hold deep respect for the Tubax players because it seems like such difficult work! The features of the bouzouki that made me like it so much were the speed and almost hypnotic sound of the instrument that sounded similar to other things I have heard before yet still having a unique tone all on its own.
Daniel, what I really liked about this post is how you profiled an instrument that many of us have probably heard but never identified ourselves. Personally, as a big fan of folk music I was very interested in learning about the Bouzouki. I found it interesting how you profiled the many different ways the instrument has been utilized throughout many different styles. As far as the Bb tubax, I think you did a great job conveying the difficulty of using enough lung power to play this instrument. As someone who has never played the saxophone I still felt like I understood the effort and skill it takes to play the Bb tubax.
Thank you for another informative post!
Caroline