View source for Cümbüş

{{Short description|Turkish stringed instrument}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Infobox Instrument
|name=''Cümbüş''
|names=
|image=cumbus.jpg
| caption =The standard ''cümbüş'' with 12 strings and no fretboard, configured as an oud
|classification=* [[Plucked string instrument]]<br />
* [[Folk instrument]]
|range=
|related= 
* [[Banjo]]
* [[Bağlama]]
* [[Guitar]]
* [[Komuz]]
* [[Mandolin]]
* [[Oud]]
* [[Turkish tambur]]
* [[Ukulele]]
* [[Yaylı tambur]]
}}

The '''''cümbüş''''' ({{IPAc-en|dʒ|uː|m|ˈ|b|uː|ʃ}}; {{IPA|tr|dʒymˈbyʃ}}) is a Turkish stringed instrument of relatively modern origin. It was developed in [[1930]] by [[Zeynel Abidin Cümbüş]] as an [[oud]]-like instrument that could be heard as part of a larger ensemble.<ref name=masters>[http://ericederer.com/ethno/Thesis_on_Cumbus_EEderer.pdf Eric Ederer, ''The Cümbüş as Instrument of “the Other” in Modern Turkey'']</ref>

The cümbüş is shaped like an American [[banjo]], with a spun-aluminum resonator bowl and skin soundboard. Although originally configured as an oud, the instrument has been converted to other instruments by attaching a different set of neck and strings.<ref name=origins>{{cite web|url=http://stringedinstrumentdatabase.110mb.com/c.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111218212611/http://stringedinstrumentdatabase.110mb.com/c.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 December 2011|title=The Stringed Instrument Database|access-date=20 February 2018}}</ref> The standard cümbüş is [[fret]]less, but guitar, mandolin and ukulele versions have [[Fingerboard|fretboards]]. The neck is adjustable, allowing the musician to change the angle of the neck to its strings by turning a screw.<ref name=waits>{{cite web|url=http://www.tomwaitsfan.com/tom%20waits%20library/www.tomwaitslibrary.com/stringinstruments.html|title=Tom Waits Fan Club Library|access-date=20 February 2018}}</ref> One model is made with a wooden resonator bowl, with the effect of a less tinny, softer sound.<ref name=cumbusmaker>[http://cümbüş.com/c_extra.html Zeynel Abidin Cümbüş manufacturers, ''Cumbus Extra'']  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130812155911/http://c |date=August 12, 2013 }}</ref>

==Origin of the maker and the name==
[[File:Zeynel Abidin Cümbüş.png|thumb|left|Zeynel Abidin Cümbüş holding one of the instruments he invented, from a newspaper clipping]]

The word ''cümbüş'' is derived from the Turkish for "revelry" or "fun", as the instrument was marketed as a popular alternative to the more costly classical oud.<ref name=masters/> Unlike inventors who name their inventions after themselves, Zeynel Abidin Cümbüş took his last name from his instrument.  He was born Zeynel Abidin in [[Skopje, Macedonia]] and immigrated to Beyazit, [[Istanbul, Turkey]].<ref name=masters/> His name is often written "Zeynel Abidin Bey" online in Turkey, where ''[[Bey]]'' is an honorific, such as ''mister''.<ref name=brit>{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/63740/bey|title=Bey - Turkish title|access-date=20 February 2018}}</ref> Early instruments show his name as he wrote it "Zeynelabidin" (a single name, not two). When [[Kemal Atatürk|Mustafa Kemal Atatürk]] decreed that families take surnames in 1934, Zeynel Abidin adopted the name of his famous instrument.<ref name=masters/>

==Rising and falling with social tides==
After the [[Turkish War of Independence]] Zeynel Abidin Cümbüş [[Experimental luthier|wanted to create a new instrument]] to embody the ideals of peace, an instrument for the masses. He switched his company from dealing with [[Weapon|arms]] to manufacturing musical instruments for "the support of peace through music." In a meeting with [[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk]], the founder of the Republic of Turkey, he showed one of his new inventions. It was "an inexpensive instrument easy to transport and hard to break, capable of playing both Eastern [[Alafranga and alaturca|alaturka]] music and, with a quick change of removable necks, Western alafranga music as well." It was a modern instrument for a modern country.<ref name=masters/>

The cümbüş was inexpensive and was bought by people who couldn't afford a more expensive instrument; as a result, his dream of the masses accepting it was marginalized. The instrument became a folk instrument of the poor and of ethnic minorities in Turkey, including [[Rûm]], [[Armenians]], [[Jews]], [[Kurds]], and [[Romani people|Romani]], "playing indigenous [[folk music]] or repertoires shared with ethnic Turks." It was excluded specifically by classical musicians of the era, being seen as lower-class or ethnic. A perception grew of it being "other" or ethnic or different or lower-class, and Turkish society did not adopt the instrument widely. By the 1960s, use of the cümbüş declined among these minorities, except for Román professional musicians. They adopted the instrument because of its ability to be heard alongside the other instruments they played at weddings and parties.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}

===Turnaround===
Beginning in the mid-1990s, more people started to take up the instrument again at Armenian and Jewish [[Roots revival|folk music revivals]] and in Kurdish and Romani folk music recordings. It has been since taken up by modern [[Anatolian rock|Turkish-rock]] and [[techno]] musicians, some making statements with the way the music sounds, and others [[apolitical]] or [[humanistic]] or spiritual.<ref name=masters/><ref name=family>[http://www.rootsworld.com/turkey/cumbus.html Rootsworld artilcle: ''Cümbüş means fun, Birger Gesthuisen investigates the short history of a 20th century folk instrument''.]</ref>

==Present-day==
Cümbüş Music is still an active company in Istanbul and manufactures a wide range of traditional Turkish instruments.<ref name=bio>{{cite web|url=http://ericederer.com/cumbus/cumbus.html|title=Eric Ederer: Cümbüs|website=ericederer.com|access-date=20 February 2018}}</ref> The instruments are hand made in the family's workshop in Istanbul, by three members of the Cümbüş family, Naci Abidin Cümbüş and his two sons Fethi and Alizeynel. They still make approximately 3000 cümbüşes a year (as of 2002). They also manufacture about 5000 [[darbuka]]s per year (middle-eastern drums), and sell guitars as well.  They export approximately half the cümbüşes to the United States, France and Greece.<ref name=family/>

==Models==
[[File:TurkishMandolinBanjo.jpg|thumb|150px|Mando-cümbüş, a Turkish banjo in the style of a mandolin. On this instrument the name is spelled ''Cünbüş'' instead of ''Cümbüş''.]]
[[File:CumbusTanbur of DrOzanYarman.jpg|thumb|right|Tanbur Cümbüş of Dr. Ozan Yarman photographed in his residence at Istanbul in January 2013.]]

The Cümbüş Company in [[Istanbul]], Turkey manufactures several different models. They include:
* '''Cümbüş''': tuned like an [[oud]], short neck, fretless, six [[course_(music)|courses]] of strings, 34 inches long overall
* '''Cümbüş Extra''': like the standard cümbüş but has wooden resonator instead of metal
* '''Cümbüş Saz''': tuned like the a [[bağlama]], long neck, tie-on frets, three courses of strings, 40 inches long overall
* '''Cümbüş Cura''': tuned like the bağlama, but higher pitched as a cura saz; three courses of strings, 29 inches long overall
* '''Cümbüş Tambur''': tuned like the [[Turkish tambur]], also spelled tanbur; super long neck, three courses of strings, 51 inches long overall
* '''Cümbüş Bowed-Tambur''': tuned like a '''[[Yaylı tambur]]''', played with a [[bow (music)|bow]] 
* '''Cümbüş Guitar''': fretted, tuned like a [[guitar]], six strings, 34 inches long overall
* '''Cümbüş Banco''': fretted, small, tuned like a [[mandolin]] four courses of strings 23 inches long overall
* '''Cümbüş Ukulele''': fretted, small, tuned like a [[ukulele]], four strings, 21 inches long overall

==Tuning==
===Standard cümbüş===
The cümbüş has its own tuning, but can be tuned the same as an oud.<ref name=masters/>

* Cümbüş: AA2 BB2 EE3 AA3 DD4 GG4

== Use in Western popular music ==
* [[David Lindley (musician)|David Lindley]] played a cümbüş with [[Ry Cooder]] in the soundtrack of [[Paris, Texas (film)|''Paris, Texas'']].<ref name=family/>
* [[Pink Floyd]] guitarist [[David Gilmour]] played cümbüş on his solo album ''[[On An Island]]'' on the track "[[Then I Close My Eyes]]". It can also be heard on the album  opener "[[Castellorizon]]". He also used the instrument to play the same parts on the subsequent tour, performances of which can be seen and heard on the DVDs ''[[Remember That Night]]'' and ''[[Live in Gdańsk]]''. In 2024, he played it on the track ''Sings''.
* [[Stone Temple Pilots]] guitarist [[Dean DeLeo]] played a cümbüş on the album ''[[Shangri-La Dee Da]]'' on the track "Regeneration". It can be heard during the chorus.
* [[Smokey Hormel]] played a cümbüş on [[Tom Waits]]' ''[[Mule Variations]]''.<ref name=waits/>
* [[The Hollies]]' "Stop Stop Stop"
* Guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Eenor played a modified tambur-cümbüş (Jim Bush) for [[Les Claypool]]'s side project [[Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade]] on "Shattering Song" (''[[Live Frogs Set 1]]'') as well as on "The Buzzards of Green Hill" (''[[Purple Onion (album)|Purple Onion]]'').
* [[Lu Edmonds]] played one the 2012 North American Tour of [[PiL]] (Public Image Ltd.),{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}, continues to play it with [[The Mekons]] as of 2018{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}, and recorded it with Blabbermouth in 2019.<ref>{{cite web |date=2019 |title=Blabbermouth: Hörspiel |publisher=[[Dirter Promotions]] |url=http://www.dirterpromotions.com/releases/blabbermouth/horspiel-2/ |access-date=2019-12-03}}</ref>

==Turkish area musicians==
* [[:tr:Gevende|Gevende]] - cümbüş is played by band member Okan Kaya
* [[:tr:Mısırlı İbrahim Efendi|Udi Mısırlı Ibrahim Efendi]] - Jewish late/post-Ottoman ud-ist and composer
* [[:tr:Selahattin Pınar|Selahattin Pınar]] - early 20th-century tanbur player
* [[:tr:Ercüment Batanay|Ercüment Batanay]] - mid-20th-century yaylı tanbur player
* "Kazancı" [[:tr:Bedih Yoluk|Bedih Yoluk]] and son Naci Yoluk - 20th-century folk musicians from Urfa
* [[:tr:Cahit Berkay|Cahit Berkay]] - in the 1960s "Anatolian rock"; folk-rock hybrid band Moğollar (especially bowed tanbur)
* [[:tr:Yurdal Tokcan|Yurdal Tokcan]] - classically trained ud-ist
* [[Ara Dinkjian]] - Armenian-American fusion musician
* [[Harun Tekin (musician)|Harun Tekin]] in the Turkish rock band [[Mor ve Ötesi]]

==See also==
* [[Banjo guitar]]
* [[Banjo mandolin]]
* [[Banjolele|Banjo ukulele]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://zacumbus.com/ The cümbüş manufacturer's website (in Turkish)]
* [http://ericederer.com/cumbus/cumbusphotos.html Pictures of a 1934 cümbüş and a story about a trip Ederer took to the cümbüş factory]
* [http://www.rootsworld.com/turkey/cumbus.html History of the Cümbüş]
* [http://www.dromedarymusic.com Dromedary - American world music group that features the cümbüş]
* [http://www.campin.me.uk/Music/Cumbus/ Jack Campin's page with photos and technical description]
* [http://ericederer.com/cumbus/cumbus.html Eric Ederer's ethnomusicological site, with info on the cümbüş' history]

{{Turkish musical instruments}}
{{Banjo}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cumbus}}
[[Category:Banjo family instruments]]
[[Category:Drumhead lutes]]
[[Category:Mandolin family instruments]]
[[Category:Music of Turkey]]
[[Category:Turkish musical instruments]]
[[Category:Turkish words and phrases]]
[[Category:Turkish inventions]]
[[Category:Instruments of Ottoman classical music]]
[[Category:Instruments of Turkish makam music]]
[[Category:1930 in music]]
[[Category:1930 establishments in Turkey]]