Kamancheh [kamanche, kamancha, kemancha, kemenche, kemence or kemanja]

The term Kamancheh applied to various types of fiddle mainly found in Iran, the Caucasus and Turkey. The word Kamancheh is documented from the 10th century and the instrument probably reached Byzantium in the 11th or 12th century via Anatolia.

Kamancheh, the Persian spike fiddle, has a spherical body built of tapering wooden sections or carved in one piece.

Pooyan Nassehpoor, as a instrument maker and musician, translated and patterned the term striped bowl from Persian language instead of the term tapering wooden sections. And also solid bowl instead of body carved in one piece. So we can use 2 different terms regarding the Kamanche types

                    1. Solid bowl Kamancheh      2. Striped bowl Kamancheh
 

The bridge rests on a circular sound-table which is made of very thin lamb or fish skin. The rounded neck is fixed to a spike which passes through the body and acts as a support for the instrument. During performance the player rests the instrument vertically on the knee, and turn the instrument to meet the bow rather than guiding the bow across the strings. The bow hair is tightened by inserting the fingers between the horsehair and the wood.
 
Because of its soft, beautiful timbre and technical possibilities the kamanche is used equally as a solo or ensemble instrument.
 

     Kamancheh can be tuned in 4th or in 5th. For more information about Kamancheh tuning please kindly refer to:

      http://www.parhamnassehpoor.com/kamanche.htm

     Lori Kamancheh