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Bouzouki

Bouzouki

Alternate name:Long-neck lute
Maker: Anastasios Stathopoulo
Date: 1911
Place Made:New York, New York, United States, North America
Serial No: none
SignedPrinted label:
A. STATHOPOULO
MANUFACTURER & REPAIRER
OF ALL KINDS
OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
PATENTEE OF ORPHUM LYRE (Liouto)
NEW YORK 1911 U. S. A.
the last “1” in 1911 is handwritten in ink
bottom of label incorporates a wide variety of Western musical instruments
Stamped above string guard at lower end of belly: STATHOPOULO
DescriptionThis bouzouki is a rare example of Anastasios Stathopoulo's own early American production, a folk instrument from the maker's native Greece. The instrument is related to the modern Turkish bozuk, with a bowl-shaped body, long neck, and frets. Its repertoire included both improvised solos and songs. At the time this instrument was made, the bouzouki's reputation had suffered from an association with criminal activities, hashish smokers, and rebetika songs celebrating rough and ready street life. In the 1930s, the instrument attained a wider popularity through commercial recordings and gained a nationalistic flavor that overshadowed, to a certain extent, its past in the shadier elements of Greek society. NMM 4613 is a finely decorated instrument, with a gilded rose and a nineteen-stave bowl. Although it was once widely thought that the modern, 4-course, double-stringed bouzouki came about in the 1950s and 60s, current research has discovered that Stathopoulo and other vintage makers of the same time made 8-string bouzoukis much earlier than originally thought. The modern day tuning is CFAD; six-stringed instruments were tuned DAD. The older, 8-stringed bouzoukis, such as this one, used a different tuning than is used today. The Stathopoulo family would later found Epiphone.
Dimensionsoverall length: 91.5 cm
width: 23.1 cm
Credit Line: Gift of Charles S. Sisk, 1989
Not on view
Object number: 04613