Iovan Tsaous - Instruments

Instruments

Yovan Tsaous is particularly noted for the unique instruments he played. They were custom-built for him in Piraeus by the luthier Kyriakos Peismatoglou, and differed in one important respect from other plucked long-necked lutes in use in Greece at this time, in that they were not fretted according to the equal temperament division of the octave into twelve identical semitones. Instead they had sixteen frets to the octave, which permitted, among other things, the playing of microtonally different intervals such as the so-called three-quarter tone, and the neutral third, at certain positions on the fretboard. We know of at least three instruments, of which two have survived to the present day. The smallest was called baglamas although it did not resemble the instrument known by that name in the rebetiko context, being considerably larger, and in fact rather corresponding to what Greeks call tzourás. The next in size was called sázi, which had approximately the same vibrating string length as a bouzouki. Finally there was an instrument whose identity is still obscure. It is to be heard very clearly playing an introductory taxim to the song Diamánto alaniára (Διαμάντω αλανιάρα), during which is to be heard the exclamation Γιά σου Γιοβάν Τσαούς με το ταμπούρη σού (approx: Hi there Yovan Tsaous with your tambouri). What this tambouri actually was we may never know. It sounds as though it is a fretless instrument, with perhaps a parchment head rather than a soundboard of wood. It appears that Tsaous was almost alone in playing these particular instruments; the fact that they did not produce equally tempered intervals made them problematic in ensemble work, and this is readily audible in his recordings, which have a unique sound. He appears to have had at least one co-musician who played similarly tuned instruments, namely one G. Kikídis (gr. Γ. Κικίδης) who is given as playing bouzouki on a record label, but whose instrument pitches exactly in parallel with Tsaous' baglamas and does not sound like a bouzouki.