TURKISH SUFI MUSIC Folk Lute of Anatolia Ali Ekber Cicek, voice and baglama
THE INSTRUMENT
The folk lute called saz or baglama can be considered Turkey’s national instrument. Saz literally means, “instrument,” while the term baglama derives from the Turkish baglemak, “to tie” referring to the instrument’s tied frets. In Alev-Baktasi culture, the instrument has assumed an especially powerful significance as a material representation of the Imam Ali: the resonator represents his body, the neck his sword Zülfikar, and the frets the twelve Alid imams of Shi’a Islam. Today, Alevi minstrels continued to draw poetic inspiration from the baglama that is indispensable to their compositional process.
Its pear shape, long neck, and six to twenty-six frets characterize the baglama. Built in a variety of sizes, with strings generally arranged in three sets of double courses, it can be tuned in many different ways depending on regional preference. The inst...
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