The Chifte Kaval tradition in the Balkans: A comparative organological study of Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Kosovo

Yazarlar

  • Anthony Tammer Yazar

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Balkan musical instruments- Chifte kaval- Kosovo- North Macedonia- Bulgaria- Organology

Öz

This study aims to comparatively examine the structural characteristics of chifte kaval examples from Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Kosovo and to reveal the regional diversity of this musical instrument tradition. The research draws upon instruments documented during fieldwork, specimens preserved in museum collections, and relevant literature. Measurements from chifte kavals held in museum collections across Europe and the United States were compiled and compared, including overall length, bore diameter, external diameter, fingerhole arrangement, resonance holes, thumb-hole placement, and construction techniques. The findings indicate that the examined instruments range in length from 515 mm to 812 mm, while bore diameters vary between approximately 11.5 mm and 17 mm. North Macedonian examples made by the Ferati family exhibit a distinctive bore constriction of 14.75 mm near the blowing end, whereas a Kosovo specimen displays a pronounced distal-end restriction of 11.5 mm. Bulgarian examples from the Rhodope region are characterized by narrower bores, different fingerhole spacing patterns, and, in the Beslen specimen, an unusually wide interval between the third and fourth fingerholes. While the Kosovo and North Macedonian instruments share close similarities in morphology and decorative features, the Bulgarian examples demonstrate a distinct regional organological profile. The study further suggests that the construction of chifte kavals is shaped more by inherited craft knowledge and master-apprentice transmission than by standardized measurement systems. By documenting the structural diversity and regional characteristics of chifte kavals, this research contributes new data to the fields of organology and ethnomusicology.

Yazar Biyografisi

  • Anthony Tammer

    Dr. Anthony Tammer is a retired educator, researcher, craftsman, and ethnomusicologist whose professional and scholarly work spans industrial education, occupational safety, precision metalworking, and the traditional musical cultures of the Balkans and Türkiye.

    His interest in Balkan folk music and Turkish classical music began during an academic exchange year in Yugoslav Macedonia in 1976, where he learned to play the Macedonian kaval. Upon returning to the United States, he performed Macedonian folk music with a Bay Area ensemble and was subsequently introduced to the Turkish ney by a student of the renowned ney master Aka Gündüz Kutbay. Dr. Tammer pursued ney studies for seven years before traveling to Istanbul to continue his training under Fuat Türkelman. This experience led to the publication of his article, Constructing the Turkish Ney (1992), published in Turkish Music Quarterly.

    In 1996, twenty years after his initial stay in Macedonia, Dr. Tammer returned to revisit the family of a respected kaval maker. Spending a day documenting the instrument-making process through photographs and observation, he gathered material that formed the basis of his publication Kavals and Zamares: End-blown Flutes of Greece and Macedonia (1998), published through the University of Maryland’s Ethnomusicology Online. His fieldwork also included research in Greece, where he studied the floghera (short end-blown flute) with musician Aristides Vasillaris. In addition to documenting traditional instruments, he has spent many years constructing kavals and flogheras and continues to pursue research on Balkan wind instruments, including his current work on çift kavals.

    In 1994, Dr. Tammer spent seven months in Ankara working with the Turkish Ministry of Vocational Education (Mesleki Eğitim Bakanlığı). During this appointment, he conducted research on Turkish vocational education practices, resulting in the conference paper Evaluation of Curriculum Development Research (1994), presented at a conference organized by the Center for Occupational Research and Development. While in Ankara, he also studied Turkish Classical Music with the ensemble led by Polat Kale, son of Emin Kılıç Kale. Through this experience, he became acquainted with the musical philosophy of Emin Kılıç Kale and developed a lasting appreciation for the traditions of Turkish classical music and the hospitality of the Kale family and their associates.

    Professionally, Dr. Tammer’s career has focused on precision metalworking, industrial education, and occupational safety. He was awarded a Regents Fellowship to pursue doctoral studies in Industrial Education at Texas A&M University, where he completed his PhD in 1994. His research contributed to the publication of Teaching Welding Safety in Texas Community Colleges (1997) in New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy, published by the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Industrial Union.

    For more than twenty-five years, Dr. Tammer taught precision metalworking at several California Community Colleges and at a four-year high school. In recognition of his excellence in teaching and grant-writing activities, he received a $10,000 Eukel Trust Award. Now retired, Dr. Tammer continues his scholarly and practical engagement with traditional musical instruments and instrument-making, dedicating his time to completing his research and writing on çift kavals.

    At the age of eighty-one, he remains active in the preservation, study, and documentation of traditional musical craftsmanship and performance practices in the Balkans and Türkiye.

     

İndir

Yayınlanmış

2026-06-20

Sayı

Cilt 3 No 2 Eylül 2026 (Sonbahar)

Bölüm

Araştırma Makalesi

Lisans

Telif Hakkı (c) 2026 Türk Organoloji Dergisi

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Bu çalışma Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License ile lisanslanmıştır.