# Tambouras

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{{short description|Greek traditional string instrument}}
{{Infobox instrument
| name                  = Tambouras
| names                 =
| image                 = Vrakoforos Tabouras.jpg
| image_capt            = Greek playing ''tambouras'', 18th-century painting
| background            = String
| classification        = Plucked
| hornbostel_sachs      = 
| hornbostel_sachs_desc =
| inventors             =
| developed             = 
| range                 =
| related               = 
* [Bağlama](/source/Ba%C4%9Flama) ([Turkey](/source/Turkey))
* [Baglamas](/source/Baglamas) ([Greece](/source/Greece))
* [Bouzouki](/source/Bouzouki) ([Greece](/source/Greece))
* [Buzuq](/source/Buzuq) ([Lebanon](/source/Lebanon))
* [Chonguri](/source/Chonguri)
* [Dangubica](/source/Dangubica)
* [Pandura](/source/Pandura)
* [Panduri](/source/Panduri)
* [Samica](/source/Samica_(musical_instrument))
* [Šargija](/source/%C5%A0argija)
* [Setar](/source/Setar)
* [Tambura](/source/Balkan_tambura)
* [Tamburica](/source/Tamburica)
* [Tar (lute)](/source/Tar_(lute)) 
| musicians             =
| builders              =
| articles              =
}}

The '''tambouras''' ({{langx|el|ταμπουράς}} {{IPA|el|tabuˈras|}}) is a Greek traditional [string instrument](/source/string_instrument) of [Byzantine](/source/Byzantine_Empire) origin.<ref name=Para>{{citation|title=Paradosiaká: Music, Meaning and Identity in Modern Greece|series=SOAS musicology series|author=Eleni Kallimopoulou|publisher=Ashgate Publishing|year=2009|isbn=978-0-7546-6630-1|pages=50 & 53}}</ref> It has existed since at least the 10th century, when it was known in [Assyria](/source/Assyria) and [Egypt](/source/Egypt). At that time, it might have had between two and six strings. The characteristic long neck bears two strings, tuned five notes apart.<ref name=trad>{{Cite web|title=Traditional Stringed Instruments of Greece|access-date=2010-03-28|url=http://www.helleniccomserve.com/stringintruments.html}}</ref>

It is also similar to the [Turkish ''tambur''](/source/Turkish_tambur) and Indian [tanpura](/source/tanpura).<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Stringed Instrument Database: Index|url=https://stringedinstrumentdatabase.aornis.com/|access-date=2023-03-29|website=stringedinstrumentdatabase.aornis.com}}</ref>

Tanbur, a Persian word, is according to some scholars derived from the [Sumerian](/source/Sumerian_language) ''pan tur'', meaning "little bow".

==History==

===Origins===
{{see also|Lute#History and evolution of the lute}}
It is considered that the ''tambouras''' ancestor is the ancient Greek ''pandouris'', also known as ''[pandoura](/source/pandoura)'', ''pandouros'' or ''pandourida'' (πανδουρίς, πανδούρα, πάνδουρος), from which the word is derived. The ''tambouras'' is mentioned in the Byzantine epic of [Digenis Akritas](/source/Digenis_Akritas), when the hero plays his θαμπούριν, ''thambourin'' (medieval form of ''tambouras''):

{{cquote|Και αφότου αποδείπνησεν, εμπαίνει εις το κουβούκλιν<br/>
και επήρεν το θαμπούριν του και αποκατάστησέν το.

When he had finished his meal, he entered his chamber<br/>
and picked up his ''tamboura'' [''thambourin''] and tuned it.|||''Digenis Akritis'', Escorial version, vv. 826–827, ed. and transl. Elizabeth Jeffreys}}

===Name===
The name resembles that of the Indian ''[tanpura](/source/tanpura)'', but the Greek ''tambouras'' is a completely different instrument. Since [modern Greek](/source/modern_Greek) words do not have a standard transliteration into the [Latin alphabet](/source/Latin_alphabet), the word may be found written in many ways: ''tampouras'', ''tambouras'', ''tabouras'', ''taburas'' etc. Even the final -s may be dropped at the transliteration, since it marks the masculine nominative in Greek. Variations of the word are to be found in Greece: ''tsambouras'', ''tambouri''. 

The word ταμπουράς comes from Turkish ''[tambur](/source/tambur)'' from Arabic ''ṭanbūr'' or Persian ''tunbūra''.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Combined Search|url=https://www.greek-language.gr/greekLang/modern_greek/tools/lexica/search.html?lq=%25CF%2584%25CE%25B1%25CE%25BC%25CF%2580%25CE%25BF%25CF%2585%25CF%2581%25CE%25AC%25CF%2582&sin=all|access-date=2023-03-29|website=greek-language.gr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2013-12-16|title=tamboura: definition of tamboura in Oxford dictionary (American English)|url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/tamboura|access-date=2023-03-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131216103339/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/tamboura |archive-date=2013-12-16 }}</ref>

===Type===
The ''tambouras'' is a long-neck fretted instrument of the lute family,<ref name=Para/> close to Turkish ''[saz](/source/Saz_(musical_instrument))'' and the Persian ''[tanbur](/source/tanbur)''. It has movable frets that permit playing tunes in the Greek traditional modes (equivalent of the ''makams'' of [Arabic music](/source/Arabic_music) and the ''ichoi'' of [Byzantine music](/source/Byzantine_music)). It was also known as Pandouris, Pandoura and Fandouros in the [Byzantine Empire](/source/Byzantine_Empire).<ref name=trad/> When the ''tambouras'' was tempered, it gave rise to the ''[bouzouki](/source/bouzouki)'', which is, in fact, a recent development of the ''tambouras''.<ref>{{citation
|title=Performance and Production|volume=11|series=Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World: Volume II: Performance and Production|author=John Shepherd|work=Continuum|year=2003|isbn=978-0-8264-6322-7|page=68|access-date=2010-03-16|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pJvzEzjahkQC&q=Tambouras+movable+frets&pg=PA411
}}</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery class="center">
File:Tambouras and fingerhole trumpet, Byzantine Empire, 11th century AD.jpg|11th century A.D., Byzantium. Tambouras and fingerhole trumpet.
Image:Greek musical instruments.jpg|Display of Greek tamboura{{citation needed|date=August 2010}} at the right (the inst. left is a [tambur](/source/tambur)).
Image:Makriyannis tambouras.JPG
</gallery>

==See also==
* [Tambura](/source/Balkan_tambura)
* [Tamburica](/source/Tamburica)

==References==

===Notes===
{{Reflist}}

===Sources===
*Anogeianakis, Foivos. ''Ellinika Laika Mousika Organa''. Athens: Melissa, 1991 (2nd Edition).
*Grapsas, Nikos. ''Tambouras. Methodos Didaskalias''. Athens: Nikolaidis, 2007.
*Jeffreys, Elizabeth. ''Digenis Akritis. The Grottaferrata and Escorial Versions''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

{{Greek musical instruments}}

Category:Greek musical instruments
Category:String instruments

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Tambouras](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tambouras) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tambouras?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.