Tamburica: Croatia musical instrument

Tamburica refers to any member of a family of long- necked lutes that are popular in the Eastern and Central Europe especially Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, and also in Burgenland. Each of these regions has a name they call this musical instrument such as Bosnian: Tamburica, Croatian: Tamburica, Serbian: Тамбурица, meaning "little Tamboura"; Hungarian: Tambura; Greek: Ταμπουράς, sometimes written tamburrizza. All took their name and some other characteristics from Persian tanbur even though they also resemble mandolin because the strings are plucked and often paired. The frets can be moved to allow the playing of many modes on the instrument.

source: tamburica.org

There has been a little dependable data showing hoe the tamburica entered the Central Europe. It existed already during the Byzantine Empire and the Greeks and Slavs used to call it “pandouras or tambouras” which were the ancestor of the modern bouzoki. The musical instrument was called thambourin in the Byzantine Empire. It is believed that it was probably brought by the Turks and Bosnia from this place the instrument spread further with migrations of Sokci and Bunjeyci above the Sava River and to all parts of Croatia, Serbia and further. The modern tamburica shape was carved and developed in Hungary in the end of the 19^th century. The type of tamboura that was more frequently used in Croatia and Serbia had a long neck and two or three strings until the Great Migration of the Serbs at the end of the 17^th century. Similar musical instrument are found such as the Czech Bratsche, Turkish saz and also the šargija, çifteli and bouzouki. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and Hungary, the tamburica is the most important musical instrument of traditional folk music that is usually played by small orchestras of three men or at most, ten men even though large orchestras that are able to play even classical pieces arranged for tamboura also are in existence.

The number of strings on a tamburica differs and it may have single or double-coursed strings or a mixture of the two. Double-coursed strings can be tuned in unison. There is a suggestion that the first tamburica orchestra was formed in Hungary in the 19^th century and the names of the instruments came from the Hungarian names of the musical instruments of the symphony orchestra and from the Hungarian gipsy bands such as the kontra and prim. These orchestras later spread to the Bosnia, Austria, Slovenia, Czech Republic and the Slovakia.

The tamburica consists of three main parts which are; the body, the neck and the head. The body is known as the sound box and it has pear-shape until the middle of the 19^th century CE when it was built by scooping out the log and today they are mostly built in a way of the guitar and even the tiniest which is the ‘bisernica’ has a construction box. The fingerboard possesses frets and the head normally had a sharpened form that can be found still on some bisernicas although the snail design later got into charge and dominated.