By: Daminidi Sofia, Koutra Maria
The bouzouki is a musical instrument that is loved by the Greek nation. Many songs and musical pieces created by Greek artists involve this instrument. So what is it like and why is it so popular in Greece?
Firstly let’s analyse it’s structure. Bouzouki is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat and long neck with a fretted fingerboard. It also has steel strings and is played with a plectrum producing a sharp metallic sound. It is similar to the mandolin but it produces lower pitched sounds. In Greece, there can be found two different types of bouzouki in Greece. The first one has three pairs of strings, also known as courses and is called trichordo, which in Greek translates as ‘’three strings’’. The other one has four pairs and is called tetrachordo, which in Greek means ‘’four strings’’.
But where does the name bouzouki come from? If someone tries to track the etymology of this musical instrument they will find out that the name bouzouki comes from the Turkish language. In Turkish ‘’bozuk’’ means broken or modified. The bouzouki belongs in the same instrumental family as the lute and the mandolin. It originally used to be made out of carved wood but was modified when it first arrived in Greece.
The history of bouzouki is really interesting. First of all, in ancient Greece, an instrument related to bouzouki, “tambouras” existed. Tambouras can be found in a variety of shapes and sizes. In the war of south Asia, bouzouki arrived in Greece. It was brought in the country in the early 1900 by the refugees that the war caused. The refugees were Greeks that lived in the Asian city of Anatolia. Firstly, the bouzouki had three courses, but after some years the four-coursed bouzouki started to gain popularity. This specific type of this instrument was made by a popular man, Manolis Chiotis, who also made the bouzouki a well known instrument in Greece. There is also the Irish bouzouki, which has different structure and produces different sound than the Greek. It was recently adapted by some Irish musicians.
When it firstly arrived in Greece, this instrument became important to a music genre called rebetiko. Today, it is still used in modern Greek music genres known in Greece as ‘’laika’’ and other pop Greek songs
There are many instruments that are related to the bouzouki. Some of them are the following: The tzouras, the Irish bouzouki, the Balkan tambura, the lute, the mandolin, the pandura and the baglama.
