Oud
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates{{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Infobox instrument Template:Infobox intangible heritage
The oud (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell; Template:Langx Template:Transliteration, {{#invoke:IPA|main}})<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> is a Middle Eastern short-neck lute-type, pear-shaped, fretless stringed instrument<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> (a chordophone in the Hornbostel–Sachs classification of instruments), usually with 11 strings grouped in six courses, but some models have five or seven courses, with 10 or 13 strings respectively.
The oud is similar to other types of lute, and to Western lutes which developed out of the Medieval Islamic oud.<ref name="mottola-kyvelos">Template:Cite journal</ref> Similar instruments have been used in the Middle East, some predating Islam, such as the barbat from Persia. Different versions of the oud are used in Arabia, Turkey, and other Middle Eastern and Balkan regions.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The oud, as a fundamental difference with the western lute, has no frets and a smaller neck. It is the direct successor of the Persian barbat lute.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite grove</ref> The oldest surviving oud is thought to be in Brussels, at the Museum of Musical Instruments.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
An early description of the "modern" oud was given by 11th-century musician, singer and author Al-Hasan Ibn al-Haytham (Template:Circa) in his compendium on music Ḥāwī al-Funūn wa Salwat al-Maḥzūn. The first known complete description of the ‛ūd and its construction is found in the epistle Risāla fī-l-Luḥūn wa-n-Nagham by 9th-century philosopher of the Arabs Yaʻqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> Kindī's description stands thus:
[and the] length [of the ‛ūd] will be: thirty-six joint fingers—with good thick fingers—and the total will amount to three ashbār.<ref group=Notes>The shibr (singular of ashbār) is a measurement unit which equals roughly 18-24 cm, depending on the hand. It equates to the measured length between the tip of the thumb and the tip of the auricular finger when stretched flat and in opposite directions. The shibr otherwise measures 12 fingers (36:3): a "full" finger should be about 2 cm in width.</ref> And its width: fifteen fingers. And its depth seven and a half fingers. And the measurement of the width of the bridge with the remainder behind: six fingers. Remains the length of the strings: thirty fingers and on these strings take place the division and the partition, because it is the sounding [or "the speaking"] length. This is why the width must be [of] fifteen fingers as it is the half of this length. Similarly for the depth, seven fingers and a half and this is the half of the width and the quarter of the length [of the strings]. And the neck must be one third of the length [of the speaking strings] and it is: ten fingers. Remains the vibrating body: twenty fingers. And that the back (soundbox) be well rounded and its "thinning" (kharţ) [must be done] towards the neck, as if it had been a round body drawn with a compass which was cut in two in order to extract two ‛ūds.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
In Pre-Islamic Persia, Arabia and Mesopotamia, the stringed instruments had only three strings, with a small musical box and a long neck without any tuning pegs. But during the Islamic era the musical box was enlarged, a fourth string was added, and the base for the tuning pegs (Bunjuk) or pegbox was added. In the first centuries of (pre-Islamic) Arabian civilisation, the stringed instruments had four courses (one string per course—double-strings came later), tuned in successive fourths. Curt Sachs said they were called (from lowest to highest pitch) bamm, maṭlaṭ, maṭnā and zīr.<ref name=sachs>Template:Cite book</ref> "As early as the ninth century" a fifth string ḥād ("sharp") was sometimes added "to make the range of two octaves complete".<ref name=sachs/> It was highest in pitch, placed lowest in its positioning in relation to other strings. Modern tuning preserves the ancient succession of fourths, with adjunctions (lowest or highest courses), which may be tuned differently following regional or personal preferences. Sachs gives one tuning for this arrangement of five pairs of strings, d, e, a, d', g'.<ref name=sachs/>
Historical sources indicate that Ziryab (789–857) added a fifth string to his oud.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was well known for founding a school of music in Andalusia, one of the places where the oud or lute entered Europe. Another mention of the fifth string was made by Al-Hasan Ibn al-Haytham in Ḥāwī al-Funūn wa Salwat al-Maḥzūn.
Names and etymologyEdit
Template:See also Template:Multiple imageThe Template:Langx (Template:Transliteration) literally denotes a thin piece of wood similar to the shape of a straw. It may refer to the wooden plectrum traditionally used for playing the oud, to the thin strips of wood used for the back, or to the wooden soundboard that distinguishes it from similar instruments with skin-faced bodies.<ref name="Iranica">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Henry George Farmer considers the similitude between Template:Transliteration and al-ʿawda ("the return" – of bliss).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Multiple theories have been proposed for the origin of the Arabic name oud. The word oud (عود) means "from wood" and "stick" in Arabic.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1940 Curt Sachs contradicted or refined that idea, saying oud meant flexible stick, not wood.<ref name=sachs1>Template:Cite book</ref> A western scholar of Islamic musical subjects, Eckhard Neubauer, suggested that oud may be an Arabic borrowing from the Persian word rōd or rūd, which meant string.<ref>Template:Cite book.</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Another researcher, archaeomusicologist Richard J. Dumbrill, suggests that rud came from the Sanskrit rudrī (रुद्री, meaning "string instrument") and transferred to Arabic (a Semitic language) through a Semitic language.<ref name=dumbrill>Template:Cite book</ref> While the authors of these statements about the meanings or origins of the word may have accessed linguistic sources, they were not linguists.
However, another theory according to Semitic language scholars, is that the Arabic ʿoud is derived from Syriac ʿoud-a, meaning "wooden stick" and "burning wood"—cognate to Biblical Hebrew ’ūḏ, referring to a stick used to stir logs in a fire.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Names for the instrument in different languages include Template:Langx Template:Transliteration ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}, plural: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration), Template:Langx, Syriac: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration, Template:Langx Template:Transliteration, Template:Langx Template:Transliteration, Template:Langx Template:Transliteration (although the barbat is a different lute instrument), Template:Langx or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}},<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Azeri: ud, and Template:Langx 𐒋𐒓𐒆 or kaban 𐒏𐒖𐒁𐒖𐒒.
HistoryEdit
Musical instruments from pre-historyEdit
The complete history of the development of the lute family is not fully compiled at this date, only some of it. The highly influential organologist Curt Sachs distinguished between the "long-necked lute" and the short-necked variety.<ref name=sachsshortlong>Template:Cite book</ref> Douglas Alton Smith argues the long-necked variety should not be called lute at all because it existed for at least a millennium before the appearance of the short-necked instrument that eventually evolved into what is now known as the lute.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Musicologist Richard Dumbrill today uses the word more categorically to discuss instruments that existed millennia before the term "lute" was coined.<ref name=dumbrill1>Template:Cite book</ref> Dumbrill documented more than 3000 years of iconographic evidence for the lutes in Mesopotamia, in his book The Archaeomusicology of the Ancient Near East. According to Dumbrill, the lute family included instruments in Mesopotamia prior to 3000 BC.<ref name=Dumbrillp321>Template:Harvnb</ref> He points to a cylinder seal as evidence; dating from Template:Circa 3100 BC or earlier (now in the possession of the British Museum); the seal depicts on one side what is thought to be a woman playing a stick "lute".<ref name="Dumbrillp321"/><ref name=Britishmuseum>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Like Sachs, Dumbrill saw length as distinguishing lutes, dividing the Mesopotamian lutes into a long-necked variety and a short.<ref name=Dumbrillp310>Template:Harvnb</ref> He focuses on the longer lutes of Mesopotamia, and similar types of related necked chordophones that developed throughout the ancient world: Greek, Egyptian (in the Middle Kingdom), Elamites, Hittite, Roman, Bulgar, Turkic, Indian, Chinese, Armenian/Cilician, Canaanite/Phoenician, Israelite/Judean, and various other cultures. He names among the long lutes, the pandura, the panduri, tambur and tanbur.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The line of short-necked lutes was further developed to the east of Mesopotamia, in Bactria and Gandhara, into a short, almond-shaped lute.<ref name=Iranica/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Curt Sachs talked about the depictions of Gandharan lutes in art, where they are presented in a mix of "Northwest Indian art" under "strong Greek influences".<ref name=sachs2>Template:Cite book</ref> The short-necked lutes in these Gandhara artworks were "the venerable ancestor of the Islamic, the Sino-Japanese and the European lute families."<ref name=sachs2/> He described the Gandhara lutes as having a "pear-shaped body tapering towards the short neck, a frontal stringholder, lateral pegs, and either four or five strings."<ref name=sachs2/> The oldest images of short-necked lutes from the area that Sachs knew of were "Persian figurines of the 8th century B.C.," found in excavations at Suza, but he knew of nothing connecting these to the Oud-related Gandharan art 8 centuries later.<ref name=sachs2/>
Spread of oud to EuropeEdit
When the Umayyads conquered Hispania in 711, they brought their ud along. An oud is depicted as being played by a seated musician<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> in Qasr Amra of the Umayyad dynasty, one of the earliest depictions of the instrument as played in early Islamic history.
During the 8th and 9th centuries, many musicians and artists from across the Islamic world flocked to al-Andalus.<ref name=Menocal>Template:Citation</ref> Among them was Abu l-Hasan ‘Ali Ibn Nafi‘ (789–857),<ref name="Gill">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> a prominent musician who had trained under Ishaq al-Mawsili (Template:Died in) in Baghdad and was exiled to al-Andalus before 833 AD. He taught and has been credited with adding a fifth string to his oud<ref name=iranica>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and with establishing one of the first schools of music in Córdoba.<ref name="Davila?">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
By the 11th century, Muslim Iberia had become a center for the manufacture of instruments. These goods spread gradually to Provence, influencing French troubadours and trouvères and eventually reaching the rest of Europe. While Europe developed the lute, the oud remained a central part of Arab music, and broader Ottoman music as well, undergoing a range of transformations.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Although the major entry of the short lute was in western Europe, leading to a variety of lute styles, the short lute entered Europe in the East as well; as early as the sixth century, the Bulgars brought the short-necked variety of the instrument called Komuz to the Balkans.
Origins theory from religious and philosophical beliefsEdit
According to Abū Ṭālib al-Mufaḍḍal (a-n-Naḥawī al-Lughawī) ibn Salma (9th century), who himself refers to Hishām ibn al-Kullā, the oud was invented by Lamech, the descendant of Adam and Cain.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Another hypothetical attribution says that its inventor was Mani.<ref name=":0"/> Ibn a-ṭ-Ṭaḥḥān adds two possible mythical origins: the first involves the Devil, who would have lured the "People of David" into exchanging (at least part of) their instruments with the oud. He writes himself that this version is not credible. The second version attributes, as in many other cultures influenced by Greek philosophy, the invention of the oud to "Philosophers".<ref name=":1" />
Central AsiaEdit
One theory is that the oud originated from the Persian instrument called a barbat (Persian: بربت ) or barbud, a lute indicated by Marcel-Dubois to be of Central Asian origin. The earliest pictorial image of the barbat dates back to the 1st century BC from ancient northern Bactria and is the oldest evidence of the existence of the barbat.<ref name="BARBAT">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Evidence of a form of the barbaṭ is found in a Gandhara sculpture from the 2nd-4th centuries AD which may well have been introduced by the Kushan aristocracy, whose influence is attested in Gandharan art.<ref name="BARBAT"/> The name barbat itself meant short-necked lute in Pahlavi, the language of the Sasanian Empire, through which the instrument came west from Central Asia to the Middle East, adopted by the Persians.<ref name=Iranica/><ref name=centralasia>Template:Cite book</ref>
The barbat (possibly known as mizhar, kirān, or muwatter, all skin topped versions) was used by some Arabs in the sixth century.<ref name=EncyclopiaIslam>Template:Cite book</ref> At the end of the 6th century, a wood topped version of the Persian-styled instrument was constructed by al Nadr, called "ūd", and introduced from Iraq to Mecca.<ref name=EncyclopiaIslam/> This Persian-style instrument was being played there in the seventh century.<ref name=EncyclopiaIslam/> Sometime in the seventh century it was modified or "perfected" by Mansour Zalzal, and the two instruments (barbat and "ūd shabbūt") were used side by side into the 10th century, and possibly longer.<ref name=EncyclopiaIslam/> The two instruments have been confused by modern scholars looking for examples, and some of the ouds identified may possibly be barbats.<ref name=EncyclopiaIslam/> Examples of this cited in the Encyclopedia of Islam include a lute in the Cantigas de Santa Maria and the frontispiece from The Life and Times of Ali Ibn Isa by Harold Bowen.<ref name=EncyclopiaIslam/>
The oldest pictorial record of a short-necked lute-type vīnā dates from around the 1st to 3rd centuries AD.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The site of origin of the oud seems to be Central Asia.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The ancestor of the oud, the barbat was in use in pre-Islamic Persia. Since the Safavid period, and perhaps because of the name shift from barbat to oud, the instrument gradually lost favor with musicians.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite journal</ref>
The Turkic peoples had a similar instrument called the kopuz.<ref name=":3">Template:Cite journal</ref> This instrument was thought to have magical powers and was brought to wars and used in military bands. This is noted in the Göktürk monument inscriptionsTemplate:Citation needed. The military band was later used by other Turkic state's armies and later by Europeans.<ref name=":4">Fuad Köprülü, Türk Edebiyatında İlk Mutasavvıflar (First Sufis in Turkish Literature), Ankara University Press, Ankara 1966, pp. 207, 209.; Gazimihal; Mahmud Ragıb, Ülkelerde Kopuz ve Tezeneli Sazlarımız, Ankara University Press, Ankara 1975, p. 64.; Musiki Sözlüğü (Dictionary of Music), M.E.B. İstanbul 1961, pp. 138, 259, 260.; Curt Sachs, The History of Musical Instruments, New York 1940, p. 252.</ref>Template:Verify source
TypesEdit
Arabian oud, Turkish oud, and Persian barbatEdit
Modern-day ouds fall into three categories: Arabian, Turkish, and Persian, the last also being known as barbat.<ref name=majnunn>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
This distinction is not based solely on geography; the Arabic oud is found not only in the Arabian Peninsula but throughout the Arab world.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Turkish ouds have been played by Anatolian Greeks, where they are called outi, and in other locations in the Mediterranean.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Iraqi oud, Egyptian oud and Syrian oud, are normally grouped under the term 'Arabian oud' because of their similarities, although local differences may occur, notably with the Iraqi oud.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, all these categories are very recent, and do not do justice to the variety of ouds made in the 19th century, and also today.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Arabian ouds are normally larger than their Turkish and Persian counterparts, producing a fuller, deeper sound, whereas the sound of the Turkish oud is more taut and shrill, not least because the Turkish oud is usually (and partly) tuned one whole step higher than the Arabian.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Turkish ouds tend to be more lightly constructed than Arabian with an unfinished sound board, lower string action and with string courses placed closer together. Turkish ouds also tend to be higher pitched and have a "brighter timbre".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Arabian ouds have a scale length of between 61 cm and 62 cm in comparison to the 58.5 cm scale length for Turkish. There exists also a variety of electro-acoustic and electric ouds.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The modern Persian barbat resembles the oud, although differences include a smaller body, longer neck, a slightly raised fingerboard, and a sound that is distinct from that of the oud.<ref name=majnunn/> See more information at the page: Barbat (lute).
The cümbüş is a Turkish instrument that started as a hybrid of the oud and the banjo.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
TuningEdit
Different ways of tuning the oud exist within the different oud traditions. Among those playing the oud in the Arabic tradition, a common older pattern of tuning the strings is (low pitch to high): D2 G2 A2 D3 G3 C4 on single string courses or D2, G2 G2, A2 A2, D3 D3, G3 G3, C4 C4 for a course of two strings.<ref name=stringinsdb>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=parfitt>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the Turkish tradition, the "Bolahenk" tuning, is common, (low pitch to high): C#2 F#2 B2 E3 A3 D4 on instruments with single string courses or C#2, F#2 F#2, B2 B2, E3 E3, A3 A3, D4 D4 on instruments with courses of two strings.<ref name=stringinsdb/><ref name=parfitt/> The C2 and F2 are actually tuned 1/4 of a tone higher than a normal c or f in the Bolahenk system.<ref name=stringinsdb/><ref name=parfitt/>
Template:Multiple image Many current Arab players use this tuning: C2 F2 A2 D3 G3 C4 on the standard tuning instruments, and some use a higher pitch tuning, F2 A2 D3 G3 C4 F4
Zenne oudEdit
The Zenne oud, often translated as a women's oud or female oud is a smaller version of the oud designed for those with smaller hands and fingers.<ref name=stringinsdb2>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It usually has a scale length of 55–57 cm, instead of the 60–62 cm of the Arabic oud, and the 58.5 cm of the Turkish oud.<ref name=stringinsdb/>
Oud arbi and oud ramalEdit
The oud arbi is a North African variant of the oud with a longer neck and only four courses.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It is not to be confused with the differently shaped and tuned kwitra. The oud arbi is tuned in a re-entrant tuning of G3 G3, E4 E4, A3 A3, D4 D4.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Oud kumethraEdit
The oud kumethra, also known as pregnant oud or pear oud is an oud with the body in a pear-like shape. This type is relatively uncommon and mostly from Egypt.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Electric oudEdit
A more experimental version is the oud counterpart to the electric guitar, used by the Franco-Algerian Folktronica band Speed Caravan led by Mehdi Haddab .<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
See alsoEdit
- Arabic Oud House
- Arabic music
- Armenian music
- Byzantine music
- Farid al-Atrash – A Syrian-Egyptian (notable) oud player
- Kurdish music
- List of oud makers
- List of oud players
- Middle Eastern and North East African music traditions
- Music of Iraq
- Music of Palestine
- Somali music
- Turkish music
- Zaidoon Treeko
NotesEdit
<references group=Notes/>
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- Rebuffa, David. Il Liuto, L'Epos, (Palermo, 2012), pp. 22–34.
External linksEdit
Template:Arabic musical instruments Template:Armenian musical instruments Template:Azerbaijani musical instruments Template:Iranian musical instruments Template:Pontic Greek musical instruments Template:Turkish musical instruments Template:Lute Template:Authority control