Tanbūra Information & Tanbūra Links at HealthHaven.com

For other uses, see Tanbur (disambiguation).

The tanbūra is a bowl lyre of the Middle East and East Africa which takes its name from the Persian Tanbur via the Arabic tunbur (طنبور), though this term refers to long-necked lutes.^[1] The instrument plays an important role in Zār rituals^[1]. The instrument probably originated in Upper Egypt and the Sudan ^[1] and is used in the Fann At-Tanbura in the Persian Gulf Arab states.

Fann aṭ-Ṭanbūra (Arabic: فن الطنبوره‎) is a traditional music and dance genre in the Persian Gulf Arab states, especially Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman. Musically, the tanbura instrument plays a central role, along with several drums and the manjur -- an instrument made of several goat hooves wrapped around the waist of the performer.

Men and women both participate in the singing and dance. Fann At-Tanbura is closely associated with the Zār spiritual ritual, and it was originally used in healing practices. Participants would occasionally fall into a trance. In modern times though it is more often a musical performance.

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b ^c Poché, Christian. "Tanbūra", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell (London: Macmillan, 2001), xxv, pp. 62-63.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Video of Tanbura performance in Kuwait
The Tambura
Oman Centre for Traditional Music
Africans in the Arabian Gulf
The zar and the tumbura cults
Poul Rovsing Olsen, "La Musique Africaine dans le Golfe Persique", Journal of the International Folk Music Council, Vol. 19, (1967), pp. 28–36
Sudanese lyre audio samples
Liwa and Tanbura from Africa to Bahrain, Part 2, Al Waqt newspaper, 21 Feb 2009

This article relating to string instruments is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[grove-0] Poché, Christian. "Tanbūra", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell (London: Macmillan, 2001), xxv, pp. 62-63.

[1]