Irish bouzouki: Ireland musical instrument

The Irish bouzouki is a development of the Greek version of the musical instrument adapted for the traditional and folk music of Ireland from the 1960s onward.

source of picture: mandolincafe.com

The Greek bouzouki in the newer tetrachordo version fabricated in the mid-20^th century, was introduced in the traditional music of Ireland in the later part of the 1960s by Johnny Moynihan of the popular folk ensemble Sweeney’s men and made popular by Andy Irvine and Dónal Lunny in the ensemble Planxty. In a discrete but parallel development Alec Finn, later with the Galway-based traditional ensemble De Dannan, acquired a trichordo Greek version of the instrument on his own. With a few exclusions, the players of the instrument that are playing Irish music tend to use the musical instrument less for virtuoso melodic effort and more for the chordal and contrapuntal accompaniment for music played on some other musical instruments like the flute or the fiddle. For this reason, it is corporate to use matched strings on the two bass courses, tuning to unison pairs so as to enable the bass response of the musical instrument.

Almost immediately after the Greek version of the bouzouki was introduced to the Ireland, new design was constructed specially for Irish traditional music. The body of the instrument was widened and a flat back with straight sides replaced the round, stave-built back of the Greek version of the musical instrument. Peter Abnett, an English builder, who was the first musical instrument producer to build a distinct Irish bouzouki for Dónal Lunny in 1970, developed a version of the musical with a 3-piece dished back and straight sides. All the Initial Irish versions of the musical instrument had flat tops, though within some years after that, luthiers like Stefan Sobell started conducting test with carved, arched tops on the instrument, taking their cue from American arch top guitars and mandolins. Till today, the overwhelming majority of the producers of the musical instrument continue to opt for flat tops and backs on the instrument.

The Irish bouzouki has also become unified into some other Western European musical cultures over the past 40 years. The musical instrument is popularly used in the music of Spain, Brittany, Galicia, Asturias and even Scandinavian countries.  The function of the musical instrument is often a combination of interwoven accompaniment and the playing of melody.

By far, the most common tuning for this musical instrument is G₂ D₃ A₃ D_4. This was founded by Johnny Moynihan first on the mandolin and he transferred to the Greek bouzouki. The tuning was later picked by Andy Irvine and Dónal Lun and quickly became the next thing to a standard tuning for the four course musical instrument.

Some other tuning that were used by the minority of the instrument’s players are octave mandolin tuning; G₂ D₃ A₃ E₄ , and "Open D" tuning A₂ D₃ A₃ D₄ . "Open G" G₂ D₃ G₃ D₄ has been used by some players of the musical instrument has proven useful for bottleneck slide.

Among many luthiers and musicians, the musical instrument is considered to be part of family of mandolin, though for others, this new family of musical instrument is a separate development. In fact, the mandolin and lute families are interconnected and the bouzouki is a part of that relationship.at any rate, since the beginning of the Irish bouzouki in the later part of 1960s, luthiers have incorporated several aspects of mandolin building, especially when manufacturing arch top Irish bouzouki, that for most it is a moot point.

For many players and builder of musical instruments, the names "bouzouki", "cittern", and "octave mandolin" are almost the same. The term cittern is always applied to musical instrument of 5 courses, especially the instruments having a scale length between 20 inches to 22 inches. Occasionally, they are called 10 string bouzoukis when having a longer scale length. The 5^th course is normally either a lowest bass course tuned to C4 or A4 on a shorter scale. Stefan Sobell, who forged the name, ‘cittern’ for his contemporary mandolin-based musical instruments, formally used the name ‘cittern’ for short scale musical instrument not minding the number of strings on the instrument, but he now applies the name for all five course musical instrument no considering the scale length of the instrument, and octave mandolin to all the four course musical instruments, leaving the bouzouki totally.

Mandolin family luthiers manufacturing an octave mandolin are more likely to make use of the mandolin tuning machines and duplicate the details and fashioning of their American-pattern carved mandolins. Some luthiers choose to call their clearly bouzouki-pattern musical instruments octave mandolin or mandocellos, regardless of the tuning, which is GDAD. The octave mandolin is often seen as having a shorter scale length than the Irish version of bouzouki, in the vicinity of 20 inches to 23 inches, while the scale length of the Irish bouzouki ranges from about 24 inches to 25 inches. Some musical instruments have scales as long as 26 inches or 27 inches. These larger-scaled musical instrument are commonly acknowledged to have greater volume, sustain and tonal richness, though some players of the instrument find the stretches involved in the fingering of the instrument too hard and as such they prefer shorter scale lengths.

There could be drift towards calling all medium scale 4 course musical instruments octave mandolin not minding the tunings and specifically if they have carved tops, and applying Irish bouzouki to any medium to long scale musical instruments exclusively if they are tuned GDAD and have flat tops.