Listen to the bağlama
Tip: press play to see the sound's live frequency spectrum in blue over the waveform.
How the bağlama makes its sound
In the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which classifies instruments by how they produce sound, the bağlama belongs to the lutes: strings run parallel to a soundboard and along a neck – the family of the guitar, violin, sitar and oud.
More broadly it is one of the chordophones (string instruments), where sound comes from vibrating strings, amplified by a resonating body.
Press play above and watch the spectrum: the evenly spaced peaks are harmonics, and their relative strength is what gives the instrument its character.
From Wikipedia
The bağlama, saz, tambura or bozuk is a long-necked fretted lute used in the folk music of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia and neighbouring regions of the Balkans, and inWest Asia. It belongs to the wider family of long-necked lutes known as Tanburs, a group of instruments historically distributed from Iran and Mesopotamia across Central Asia and Anatolia.
Musicologists classify the saz as part of the tanbur family of long-necked lutes.
Other lutes
Frequently asked questions
What does a bağlama sound like?
Listen to 1 recording on this page. As one of the lutes, its sound comes from the way strings run parallel to a soundboard and along a neck.
What type of instrument is the bağlama?
It is classified as lutes (Hornbostel–Sachs 321.321).
Sources & credits
- Saz (sonido del instrumento) by Poniol – CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- Wikidata Q717773 – CC0
- Wikipedia: Bağlama – CC BY-SA 4.0
- Image by No machine-readable author provided. Arent assumed (based on copyright claims). – CC BY-SA 3.0