INTRODUCTION

The kabazurna (tenor shawm), which is the largest in the zurna family reaching from the very early ages to the present, is a double-reed wind, wooden instrument. It has its origin in ancient Sumers and it was called Zurr in Kalmuks. Later, Azerbaijani called Sarna (Sorna) this instrument. The original name comes from Persian word Sernay.

The kabazurna is primarily the basic instrument of mehterhane (Ottoman military band), although it is used in many different domains. It with a colorful, brisk, pastoral, imposing and frisky sound can play a whole tune without any accompaniment. The kabazurna is the instrument among all Turkish music instruments most convenient for performing arts and also Turkish people like listening to its sound as a folk music instrument in Mehter music, court music, Karagöz (shadow theatre) and Ortaoyunu (folk improvisation theatre), folk music and folk dances for ages. Since it is used as an outdoor instrument due to its high volume, it is said to be an open space instrument.

The present usage of the kabazurna is rarer than the past times; however, the number of the listeners is quite high in the regions where it is used commonly. The usage of the kabazurna which has its place in folk dances of zeybek (a dance style from Aegean region) and karşılama (a dance style from Thracian region) reaches up to day through transmitting in a master-apprentice relationship except in the official organizations (e.g. Culture Ministry Historical Turkish Music Band-Mehter Division, Mehter Bands of Municipalities and Military Mehter Squadron).

The kabazurna performers haven’t improved the instrument technically although they play it excellently. Each zurna is produced according to the manufacturer’s measures in a primitive method since it has not a standard manufacturing technique. This type of manufacturing results in problems of intonation when more than one zurna try to perform together. Even two zurna-s produced by the same manufacturer have different measures. The reason is that the manufacturers shape the zurna by hand and with lathe. In addition to lack of standards, other problems based on the shortages of technical structure are swelling of reed during the performance due to the wetness; the better fitting the older it becomes; the better sound, the more greased; having defective flats and sharps.

There are also some inconveniences of its performance due to the technical deficiencies in the manufacturing of the kabazurna, Differing dimensions of each zurna causes also inconsistent tonalities. Any mistake made in the adjustment of the main fingerholes and sliding the frets even one millimeter means that this zurna becomes useless. Moreover, lack of standards of the reeds and pipe, the necessity that the performer have to know these details and to manage these parts by themselves are all the factors causing problems in learning and performing the kabazurna.  In short, the performer of the kabazurna must have information about the manufacturing steps of the kabazurna and its parts. Because of all these reasons, the kabazurna has arrived today as our ancestors performed, and there aren’t any modifications in its manufacturing and playing techniquesİ

The education of the kabazurna cannot be improved into a sufficient level in our conservatories because of standardization problems of the manufacturing and performing. It is seen that the kabazurna has a quite different technique compared to other zurna-s and there must be lots of scientific studies to build up an according education.

There aren’t any comprehensive studies of the kabazurna having an important place among other Turkish music instruments, so the necessity for a research is obvious.

This study covers the examining the kabazurna in various dimensions. Having the problems mentioned above still their importance as a deficiency in the folklore and the rapidly passing time increases the significance of this study