Naregatsi Folk Ensemble

Armenian Folk Instruments

Musical instruments are essential part of Armenian traditional music. They have thousand years history in Armenian culture and are known in Armenian highland from ancient times. Still in ancient Armenia ritual cults, war actions, palace ceremonies and social parties were almost always accompanied by music. From those ancient times different musical instruments: znzgha, eghjerapox, sring that have been founded from archeological works in ancient places having thousand year history. Many of those are dated to 2nd-1st eras B. Ch.
The information about Armenian ancient musical instruments we received from historians’ evidences.
Armenian historians Agathangeghos, M.Khorenatsi, P.Byuzand, and Eghishe mention ancient Armenian musical instruments like trumpet, drum and pandr.
“Naregatsi” Folk Instruments Ensemble objective is to maximum possible extent revive interest towards the national art and save ancient Armenian musical instruments Tavigh, Knar, Kamani, Santur, Pandir, Pku, Bagpipe, Bambir, Lute, Jnar, Blul and others from the oblivion.
Our goal is to do it together with new generation and based on the knowledge and experience of previous generation inspire love and interest of young musicians.
It will not only breathe in new life to ancient Armenian musical instruments but also contribute to the maintenance and development of the national culture.

	Kamancha The kamancha, a three-string vertical fiddle with a gourd base resting on a metal tip and played with a horizontal bow made of horse hair, is found in various forms in the urban classical musics of the Middle East and is a direct antecedent of the Western violin. In Armenia it is strongly associated with the urban, refined 18th-century ashugh (troubadour) music of Sayat Nova, and in the 20th century it has become a principal instrument along with the duduk in the interpretation of Armenia’s folk music.
	DUDUK The duduk, a double-reed pipe made of apricot wood, is native to Armenia and symbolically considered its national instrument.The Armenian duduk is especially known for its velvety, lyrical and melancholy timbre, close to the human voice. With 9 finger holes and one lower thumb hole, the instrument’s sound would seem to be limited, but the best musicians use subtle lip and finger techniques to extend its range. The duduk is always accompanied by a second duduk that emits a drone (dham), around which the principal player weaves complex melodies and improvisations. The musician achieves this unbroken drone note (dhamkash) by using circular breathing, which the main duduk player also uses occasionally for sustained musical phrases.
	ZURNA The zurna, a double-reed oboe, can be found throughout the Middle East, where its shrill, piercing call outdoors provides an insistent invitation to ritual celebrations and a driving accompaniment to dance. In Armenia, the zurna was traditionally considered phallic, forbidden to women, and the zurna player (“zurnachi”), occasionally itinerant, had a major social role in village communities. Beyond performing at weddings, feasts and funerals, he was called upon for advice, to mediate family disputes, and even to cure a deranged person by making him or her dance to the wail of the zurna for hours.
	PKU Pku is an old Armenian national instrument. During the early ages the instrument was used to play to accompany traditional rituals. Pku is made of cane wood and young bull horn, the "sound" is made of cane wood as well.
	OUD The oud, a short-necked fretless lute widespread throughout the Middle East, is generally associated with the instrumentation of Western Armenia, in the regions of Anatolia that are now part of modern Turkey. Only since the mid-20th century has it been common in eastern Armenia, where it has typically been used to play the bass line within the ensemble against the melodic woodwinds, rather than as the dominant melody instrument more typical to the west.
	KANON The kanon, a trapezoidal lap zither commonly played in Arabic and classical music, has been in use in some form since at least the 4th century. The Armenian version has 24 triple courses of gut or plastic strings stretched over a set of metal levers that modify the pitch of the strings. The bridge rests on a narrow strip of skin that creates a resonant and percussive sound. The strings are plucked with tortoise-shell or horn plectrums. Prior to the late 19th century the instrument had been played without metal levers, the player modifying the pitches by applying pressure with the left thumb.
	DHOL The dhol is a large cylindrical drum with skin on both sides, usually played with the hands, though for loud, traditional outdoor celebrations and more ritualistic dances like the shoror and tamzara, the drummer (“dholchi”) beats the drum with a pair of wooden sticks (the stick is called a “gopal”), creating an intense, gut-piercing dance beat.
	TAR Tar is a stringed musical instrument. It has become a popular instrument in 13th-14th centuries. Tar-saz is painted in the miniatures of that century and it was used mostly for bard music. Armenian Tar has appearance like 8 and 80-85 sm. length. Tar has an ability to echo, also has a long small neck, quadrangular head. The echo area is made from the mulberry tree, apricot tree, to the mode of digging the whole wood piece, which is upholstered by holster of heart of large horned cattle. There are 22-23 connections on the small neck.
	Shepherd's flutes /Blul Shepherd’s flutes /blul were an important part of Armenian pastoral culture for millennia, the earliest prototypes having been found in Garni and Dvin in Eastern Armenia at archaeological sites dating back to the 5th or 6th century BCE. The blul, or dziranapogh (literally “pipe made of apricot wood” in Armenian), is an end-blown, with 8 finger holes and a deep, haunting sound. It is used like the shvi (a small fipple flute) to signal both sheep and other shepherds while working in the hills, as well as to play folk songs and dances, the latter often accompanied by the dhol. Made from cane, wood or bone, the shvi has a mouthpiece with an adjacent metal ring for adjusting pitch, and produces a velvety, subdued sound. It has 6 to 7 finger holes and one lower thumb hole, and a range of an octave and a half. There are different types and sizes of shvi, with different pitches, especially since the beginning of the 20th century when additional sizes were created in order to play different scales. The smoking pipe-shaped pku consists of a small, wooden stick with 7 holes, a reed fitted at one end and the open cone of a bull’s horn at the other forming the bell. Its size can also vary, producing higher or lower pitches.
	Dap The dap is a single-headed Armenian frame drum, equivalent to the Arab duff. The wooden frame is 35 to 50 cm in diameter, with jingles (metal rings, rattles, silver coins, etc.) attached inside the frame that sound when the drum is played or shaken.