Greek baglamas played in Cypriot kiteli style - Bb ee tuning

The Cypriot kiteli has it's name from Turkish iki telli, meaning 'two strings'. People would either pronounce this kíteli or kitelí, I came to find. Like so often, they did not differentiate between two single strings or two double courses. The Turks also know a small saz of that name.

In the case of the kiteli that was demonstrated by one of my favorite bouzouki players, Hristos Konstantinou of Cyprus, (may he rest in peace), it consisted of one octave pair for the bass and one unison pair for the treble. It had a carved bowlback and pear shape. It was smaller than a bouzouki or saz and relatively close to a Greek tzouras. The instrument had tied nylon frets that were placed quarter tonally (not microtonally, though I am sure that also was found). His model had machine tuners.

I used his Bb ee tuning here on my Greek baglamas, which is notmally in Dd (aa) dd standard tuning. I tuned the bass down and used a capo to get to this pitch, as I kept snapping strings. The baglamas is the smallest instrument of the bouzouki family, itself a younger type of tambouras. I use a bouzouki plectrum to pick, like he did. I would say, from my research about the other instruments in the family, as well as the praxis of the Greek laouto, bouzouki, boulgari and Turkish saz, that they must have played the kiteli with a feather, tree bark or wood in the past.

An old photo of a Cypriot tambouras that I have seen had seven tuning pegs and an oblong body and seven tuning pegs. The photo quality was so bad that I could unfortunately not make out the strings at all, but the neck was slim, which makes me suspect double or triple courses. The frets where tied and in a chromatic order on that instrument and the headstock had friction tuners. It had a carved, trapezoid bowl.

Another one I have seen was really just a repurposed bağlama saz. Whether the locals always differentiated between a kiteli and a tambouras, I cannot say. Hristos played both bouzouki and saz and the playing style was absolutely on the bouzouki side of things. How it used to be strung, fretted and played some centuries ago can certainly be theorized, but not known for sure. Being a two course instrument also could perhaps place it’s traditional playing style close to a Syrian or Kurdish buzuq.

#tambouras