Zil (instrument)

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Zil is the Turkish word for cymbals that are played in the music of Turkey . Small circular finger cymbals provide the rhythm for folk dances, while larger pair cymbals in the Mehterhâne military bands from the Ottoman era provide the rhythm. Furthermore, with zil bell called.

etymology

The etymology of zil is not clearly established. It is possible to derive the Sanskrit jhilli from the meaning of "cymbal". The cymbals sil (or sil sngan ) of Tibetan music are related to this. The common origin could be the old Semitic root ṣ-ll , which is translated as "clink, buzz". The Hebrew ṣeṣ e līm is derived from this, a plural word translated as “cymbal”, the singular of which is unknown, in Aramaic it is ṣels e līn . Another derivation is from the Persian zīr , which developed over the intermediate stage zēr from the older spelling az-ēr ("from below") and received the meaning "high" based on the highest string of the lute barbat or a high voice. Zil teli is the “highest string” in Turkish; In the four-string West Georgian long-necked lute chonguri , zili denotes a short string that only reaches halfway up the neck. The exchange of letters from zīr to zil is a common phonetic shift. The English word zill is taken from Turkish and generally means cymbals, while English means cymbal in German cymbals .

Zil is not an old Turkish word. A Central Asian source from the 11th century calls cymbals çenğ , today cymbals in military bands are still called çeng-i harbî . The word comes from the Persian čang ("harp"), which with Persian زنگ, DMG zang , 'Glocke, Glöckchen' is associated, and thus also describes the historical Persian angle harp (Germanized transcription Tschang ). The same angle harp ( çeng ) was also common in Ottoman music. Early Islamic authors mention that the Arabic wordصنج, DMG ṣanǧ (Pl. Ṣunūǧ ) is derived from Persian and also means cymbal. In Egypt today dancers use the cymbals sāǧāt .

Form and style of play

Mehterhâne. Group of six with Zil follows group of eight with nakkare

Cymbals belong to the counter-strike idiophones , they consist of two metal plates of the same size that are beaten together with both hands, or in the case of finger cymbals, between the fingers of one hand. Bells have a deep round shape, they are hung or held at the apex and struck at the edge.

The Ottoman mehterhâne were musical bands that performed for representation purposes, for entertainment at the court of the sultan and to encourage the troops during the battle. Several musicians with loud, vertically held pair cymbals ( zil ) had to assert themselves as rhythm instruments against various drums (collectively tabl ), the large double-celled davul and the small, paired beaker drums nakkare (corresponds to kudüm in classical music ). Cymbals making music were first mentioned at the end of the 12th century; they can be seen in images from the 15th century. In the past, unison tones or a few intervals were blown zurna with twisted trumpets ( boru ), straight trumpets ( nafīr ) and the double reed instrument .

In Turkish dance music, finger cymbals ( parmak zili ) played by dancers are made of brass , while the dance boys ( köçek ) , who performed in women's clothes in male societies until the 19th century , held iron cymbals or the tambourines ( def ), which were otherwise only played by women . The female competition to the dance boys in erotic entertainment was the belly dancers çengi , whose name is derived from the harp çeng . Images from the 17th and 18th centuries usually show the dancers not with cymbals, but with the castanets çarpara (from Persian chahār pāra , "four parts").

Parmak zili made of iron have a diameter of 67 mm and a hump in the middle of 30 mm in diameter and 20 mm in height. The material thickness at the edge is 2.7 mm. The somewhat smaller brass cymbals have a diameter of 45 mm and a 10 mm high hump with a diameter of 20 mm. Only women or men disguised as women play finger cymbals, regardless of whether they dance or act as accompanying musicians. The accompanying orchestra belongs to the widespread davul-zurna type, in which the davul barrel drum and the zurna oboe instrument play together. The performances usually take place on the occasion of weddings, circumcisions or other family celebrations. Today cymbals are widespread in large areas of Turkey, where they are missing, they are likely to have a bad reputation because of their connection to the earlier indecent belly dancers and dance boys. Instead of the cymbals, spoons ( kaşık ) are occasionally used.

Special forms

Row of musicians play frame drums with a ring wreath zilli def , lower left a spiked fiddle rabāb . The dance boys dressed as women hold the castanets çarpara in their hands. Illustration from the surnâme-i vehbî of 1720

Zilli maşa are traditionally made by blacksmiths, especially Roma craftsmen, charcoal tongs ( maşa ), which are sawed open lengthways in the front third and bent outwards in a curve at the sides. Two small cymbals with a diameter of about 40 mm are attached to each of the two tips. The generic term for this instrument is fork cymbal . It is held with the left hand at the rear end at chest height and in the area of ​​the junction is hit on the right palm held in front of the body below. The musical instrument is used in small groups to accompany the dance. In contrast to the finger cymbals, the instrument is mostly used by men. A local orchestra in Zonguldak brought together a single-headed clay drum küp , a blown metal flute ( düdük , a shepherd's instrument), several long-necked lutes saz and zilli maşa .

Zil or çan are called large cowbells, where çan is derived from the Persian čang . Uzbek , Uighur and further on towards China this also means "bell".

The single-headed frame drum def with a clamp ring is more precisely called zilli def or zilli tef . Def stands for the 28 to 30 cm large drum, the 4 to 6 cm high rim of which is equipped with brass finger cymbals ( parmak zili ). At 55 mm, their diameter is slightly more than the usual 45 mm. The cymbals are evenly distributed over the edge in pairs or in threes on top of each other in two to seven places.

In Armenia , ziler refers to a hand cymbal that was used in ritual earlier times and consists of a wooden handle with five metal rods with small metal disks at the upper end.

literature

  • Laurence Picken : Folk Musical Instruments of Turkey. Oxford University Press, London 1975, pp. 16-24, ISBN 978-0193181021
  • Kelly Marie Foreman: Zills, the Idiophone of the Middle Eastern Belly Dancer: Their History, Pedagogy, Techniques of Playing, and Role in the Context of Bodily Expression. MA thesis. Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 1994

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The basic Persian meaning of this term is "the claw" or "the hand with curved fingers" with which the strings are plucked. See Junker / Alavi: Persian-German Dictionary , Leipzig / Teheran 1970, p. 234.
  2. ↑ The actual Persian term for "cymbal" is, howeverسنج, DMG senǧ , cf. Junker / Alavi: Persian-German Dictionary , Leipzig / Teheran 1970, p. 431.
  3. ↑ See H. Wehr: Arabic dictionary for the written language of the present , Wiesbaden 1968, p. 477.
  4. ↑ Picken, p. 16f
  5. ^ Edward Harrison Powley: Turkish music: An historical study of Turkish percussion instruments and their influence on European music. University of Rochester, Aug 1968, p. 41
  6. ↑ Köçek with a tambourine. gay-art-history.org (photo from the end of the 19th century)
  7. ^ Court Dance in the Ottoman Empire. Turkish Cultural Foundation
  8. ↑ Picken, p. 19
  9. ↑ Picken, p. 22
  10. ↑ Picken, p. 32
  11. ↑ Picken, pp. 133, 137f
  12. ↑ Hripsime Pikichian: The Call of zurna. In: Levon Abrahamian, Nancy Sweezy (Eds.): Armenian Folk Arts, Culture, and Identity. Indiana University Press, Bloomington 2001, p. 242, illus. P. 237