Turkish music tuning

OK, I would appreciate it if someone explained this to me. And I realize the question might be... Dumb.

I was just looking for some info on a Turkish instrument called tambur (not the same as tanbur). And someone on Wikipedia uploaded this photo:

If 220 Hz in Wester music represents the tone A and in Turkish tone D, is this the same as saying "Turkish music is conventionally written a fourth higher than Western music"? :iffy: I kind of don't think so: transposition is one thing, but when the same frequency means a different tone... That's another?

And while we're talking about the Turks... If you take a look here, what exactly does the second column represent (Freq. (low))?

I don't know but I think the wikipedia article may not be clear enough, in that picture I only see a "transposition" instrument, like a "Tambur in G"

Frequencies are wrong in that pic, actually everthing looks wrong, .... just see:

First they're telling you that western is A and turkish is D, that would be a 5th lower, like something in F.

Then in the staves, the first note in the upper staff is D and in the lower is G, that's a 4th, ..... so ? is 5th or 4th ?

If the sound in 220hz are not called A but D or whatever, that's their problem but the question is if you write that first D (in upper staff) what note will sound ?, 220Hz, ? so is in F, beacuse you play D and sounds A.

I think (in this case) you better find something more than wikipedia.

(and what's that "tambur", at least sounds good ? where can I hear it ? )

Yes! Either everything is bloody wrong or I just can't understand it! :blink:

Perhaps someone else has an idea? :cool:

Well... Does it sound good? Depends on your tastes.

There are two kinds mızraplı tambur (plucked) and yaylı tambur (bowed).

You can here the plucked one here:

YouTube - Bora UYMAZ - H

it does sound good :D

the 2nd one has too much Reverb that I couldn't catch the true sound.

I'd say that write only within the range marked as "Sonorite Range" using the proper scales and you'll get a nice result, write in C, because a string instrument is likely not a transposition instrument.

In the pic (wathing again) maybe the only thing wrong is that D letter after de "= 220Hz" because there is no way that a D may be in that frequency, the note name may be "neva" or whatever but not D (Re).

This may have nothing to do with anything, but it might be connected to their notation.

From what I've heard, traditional Turkish music uses a 53 equal division of the octave. Interestingly, their use of this tuning seems to be one of the only tunings used traditionally that fits outside of the syntonic temperament, which contains every other tuning that has existed in human history(1). (Though 53-edo does exist in the syntonic temperament, its use in Turkish music fits under the Schismatic Temperament(2) which is defined differently.)

This could lead to their using a completely different version of notation, which could be the cause of our confusion.

Then again maybe not?

(1) Syntonic temperament - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(2) Schismatic temperament - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia