Tambura
Alternate name(s)
- 5-string lyre
- Bowl lyre
Date1950-1965 ca.
Place MadeDoishat district, Sudan, Africa
Modelnone
Serial No.none
SignednoneMarkingsnone
DescriptionFive string lyre with bent ford hub-cap resonating body and animal skin, most likely camel, directly laced on as sound table. Wooden rectangular arms snuggly inserted into sound table in spoon-in-cup fashion. Metal strings attached to wooden cylindrical yoke by braided cloth tuning knots.
Resonating Body/Sound table:
Resonator constructed of a bent ford hub-cap. Animal skin sound table directly attached to body by wire lacing. Metal lacing is in ‘Y’ style, connected to extra wire circling the hubcap resonator body. Extra wire strung around arms and converging at center of resonator body in a ‘T’. Sound table is most likely made of Camel skin, based on thickness of hide and construction techniques among the Nubians of Sudan (Wachsmann, 5). Five sets of small holes cut out of sound table in three groups of four; and two groups of three (18 holes in all). Holes are both circular and rectangular. Broken plywood bridge inserted under strings, held by tension. Strings attached to base of instrument by wire circle tied to resonating body.
Arms/Yoke:
Two, rectangular, wooden arms snuggly inserted into large holes cut in sound table. One arm painted olive green. Arms inserted into bored holes of cylindrical wooden yoke. Five wire strings attached to yoke by braided cloth tuning knots.
While this instrument has originally been categorized as the tambura from Sudan, bowl lyres of this construction technique are seen throughout North/Northeast Africa. Furthermore, when considering the style of tuning, the ‘bulge wrappings,’ or tuning knot attachment, found on this lyre is particular to the kisir in Nubia, the tumbura in Egypt, Sudan and Somalia, and the endongo/entongoli of the Ganda and Sogo in Uganda” (Wachsmann, 4). This instrument was most likely played with a plectrum, because of the presence of the bridge. As written in the New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments:
The strings are usually made of gut, but other materials have been used…they converge towards the lower part of the body and are held in place by a metal ring which also serves as a bridge, although most models have a separate bridge which improves the quality of the sound (519).
In Artur Simon’s article “Sudan,” he describes the use of a five-string lyre throughout many different ethnic groups in the country; the kisir in Nubian, tanbur or tanbura in Sudan-Arabic, basan-kob among the Hadendowa of eastern Sudan, and the tom of the Nilotic people in the White Nile area.
DimensionsHeight: 28 ½ inches; 724 mm
Bowl width: 9 ½ inches; 241 mm
Resonating length (bridge to yoke): 23 ¾ inches; 602 mm
Yoke length: 14 ½ inches; 368 mm
ProvenanceGift of John S. Sigstad, Vermillion, South Dakota, 1973.
Credit LineGift of John S. Sigstad, 1973
Object number00287
On View
Not on view
1973 ca.
1973 ca.
1940 ca.
1750 ca.
1973 ca.