What is domra? History and photo of a musical instrument

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

What is domra? The legendary "balalaika" and "harp" of Ukrainian kobzars, Belarusian songwriters and Russian storytellers have not lost their popularity for many years. Domra is a musical instrument that has managed to become a national symbol of the south of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus over the years. Actively used by thousands of artists in recordings of both instrumental melodies and song compositions.

What is domra

Domra is a stringed plucked musical instrument belonging to a subgroup of folk instruments and characteristic of the South Slavic peoples. In its structure, domra is similar to a balalaika or homes. Also, these instruments are united by the style of playing - using a special pick, which touches the strings. This style of play is called pinching.

Domra is an instrument used for solo performance of any texts to accompaniment, less often as part of an ensemble or orchestra of folk instruments.

As a representativestring families, domra is an instrument that requires a special approach in mastering and using. Due to the acoustic features of the structure, in skillful hands, domra is able to make charming, unusual sounds for the human ear.

Instrument name

The word "domra" itself was obtained by processing several words from the Turkic languages denoting stringed musical instruments, for example, in the Tatar language there is the word dumbra, translated as "balalaika". The Crimean Tatar dialect has the word dambura - "guitar". The Turkish language contains the word tambura, which also means guitar, and the Kazakh language calls the balalaika - dombıra. The Kalmyk variant is very close to the Kazakh language - dombr̥, which also means balalaika.

History of occurrence

What is domra? A musical instrument that may be of interest to anyone who is interested in the history and theory of folk music.

The first mention of a musical instrument similar to it can be found in the palace records of the 16th-17th centuries, which tells about domrachi - musicians playing the domra.

She was popular with buffoons, itinerant artists and jesters. Since, with its simplicity and ease of use, it had a good sound and rather rich timbre possibilities, which allowed the artist to easily accompany himself while performing a song or a legend.

For a long time, playing the domra was considered a humiliating occupation, unworthy of a person of the upper and middle classes. That is why there was noa single type of domra - each copy was made in a handicraft home way. Often the artists themselves made domra for themselves or performed such works to order.

Soon, domra disappeared from historical documents, and until the 19th century, no one knew about its existence. This was due to the introduction of censorship and the active hunt for buffoons, except for which no one else used this tool. With the disappearance of funny songs as a genre, the instrument was also forgotten for a while. Even the descendants of the once famous storytellers did not know what domra was.

Rebirth

Only at the beginning of the 20th century, Vasily Andreev, the head of the USSR's first Folk Instruments Orchestra, was able to restore the original form of the domra, as well as hypothetically restore its sound, based on a poorly preserved copy of a musical instrument he found in the Oryol region.

Despite the fact that many musicologists still do not consider Andreev's find a real domra, this word is now called the entire family of musical instruments created based on his drawings.

Currently, this folk instrument is popular in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, and also enjoys success abroad due to its exotic sound.

For domra, as well as for many other folk instruments, concert and chamber works are created.

Design

Traditional domra of the highest quality is made from various expensive woods. Moreover, there are strict traditions in the manufacture of tools. BUTalso the rules for combining wood in strictly prescribed proportions.

The body of the instrument is made of white maple and holly birch, the bridge is made of rare maple, the body is made of spruce or fir, the neck is made of larch, the fretboard is made of ebony.

Russian domra is an instrument made according to the model of Semyon Ivanovich Sotsky, the famous craftsman, custodian of Russian musical culture. Models of folk instruments created by him have been used in the world's elite orchestras since 1936.

The structure of the domra is similar to the structure of almost any stringed instrument.

It consists of two parts - a resonating body and neck. The body, in turn, is divided into a sound-saving body and a deck.

Various sounds

From ancient times, two styles of playing the domra have been known: with and without a mediator.

When struck with a hard plate, the strings of the instrument have a slightly rattling sound, typical for Ukrainian folk melodic music of the late 17th century.

Belarusians, who did not know what domra was until the end of the 16th century and were inspired to create it by Western analogues of stringed instruments, were not inclined to play with a mediator. They preferred to play with plucks, getting a completely different sound.

If the mediator is not used when playing the domra, then the sound becomes soft, smooth and voluminous. Extremely similar in tone to the sound of an acoustic guitar. This method of playing the domra is considered more academic and is used in folk orchestras.tools.

Varieties

Domra is a musical instrument that has a small number of varieties. In total, there are two types of it: three-string and four-string domra.

The only difference between them is manifested in their musical perception. The four-stringed domra has more tones and also sounds one octave lower than the three-stringed version of this instrument.

There are simply no differences in the manufacturing process, in the composition of materials. This can be explained by the mental characteristics of the peoples who created this or that version of domra.

The three-stringed instrument is widely used in Ukraine, and the four-stringed one - in western Belarus. There, its design was significantly influenced by Polish stringed instruments.

The four-string domra, which has great possibilities for extracting sound, is traditionally used in folk instrument orchestras, as well as in chamber orchestras. Many leading domra players prefer it to the older three-string prototype precisely because of its similarity to the bass guitar, which provides a more comfortable playing during performance.

Production

The first mention of the manufacture of domra can be found in the annals of the Savino-Storozhevsky monastery in the Kuban. The monastery's scribe book keeps a record dated 1558 and tells how a certain master began to make special balalaikas with a strange sound production.

At the end of the 18th century, this is where thethe first serial production of folk musical instruments. The "First Goose Workshop" opens in the Kuban, producing domras, gusli, balalaikas, guitars and other stringed instruments on an industrial scale. According to legend, this plant was managed by a local peasant Yemelyanov, who managed not only to start the production of domras, but also to make stringed instruments of the highest quality, which was even noted by a diploma from the Imperial Court.