CARDIFF UNIVERSITY School of Music The Long Necked Lute’s Eternal Return: Mythology, Morphology, Iconography of the Tanb r Lute Family from Ancient Mesopotamia to Ottoman Albania A Thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnomusicology By Jeffrey P Charest © Jeffrey P Charest 2019 This Thesis is dedicated to my late father, Armand Gabriel Charest, who little knew that his random gift from Albania to me would become my life’s work, and to my late mother, Martha Hertha Charest, without whose loving support and generosity I could not h ave made it this far. i Table of Contents List of Figures v List of Tables vii List of Plates viii List of Conventions xi Abbreviations and Language Codes xiv Acknowledgments xv ii Abstract xx Introduction 1 The Çifteli Comes to America 1 Research Questions and Methodology 8 The Hypothesis 14 Chapter Overview 16 Chap. 1: Lute Organology and Phylogenetics 19 Introduction 19 Musical Instrument Classification Systems 20 Taxonomical and Biological Terms and Concepts 25 Genera of the Tanb r Family 29 Defining Çifteli -ness 42 A Pain in the Neck? 48 Morphology and Musical Style 52 The Vertical and Horizontal Scale 57 Phylogenetics 60 Shortcomings of Phylogenetics 67 Conclusions 73 Chap. 2 : Lute Organology Rhizome Theory 76 Introduction 76 The Musical Bow Hyp othesis 77 Challenging Evolutionary Models 83 Rhizome Theory 95 ii Rhizome Theory and Cultural Diffusion 101 Rhizome Theory i n Denise Gill 104 Application of Rhizome Theory 109 Iconographic Organology 112 The Faux -lutenist of Sumeria 116 Iconographic Genealogies 122 Conclusions 124 Chap. 3 : The Lute’s ‘Pater nal’ Genealogical History 126 Introduction 126 The First Lutes and Lutenists 2334 BCE 127 The Bard and Oral Narrative Poetry 136 A Feast of Music 140 Dumuzi the Shepherd King 145 Dumuzi and the igu -di 150 Iconography of the Shepherd Lutenist 155 The Shepherd King Motif 161 Iconographic Genealogy of the Shepherd King 166 Conclusions 171 Chap. 4: The Lutes ‘Mate rnal’ Rhizomatic History 175 Introduction 175 The Domain of Inanna 176 Lute Bifurcations in Egypt and Mari 184 The Warrior Lutenist Tradition 189 The Iconography of the Kudurru 193 The Warrior Lutenists as War Omens 196 The War Goddess 200 The Assyro -Hitti te LNL in Banquet Scene s 206 Neo -Assyrian Kingship Ideology 213 Conclusions 220 Chap. 5: Tanb r, Pandoura, Frontier Warrior Culture 223 Introduction 223 The P arthian and Middle Persian Tanb r 224 iii Tanb r in the Medieval Period 233 The Pandoura , the Byzantine Warrior Lutenist 238 The Frontier Warrior Culture of the Byzantine Empire 249 Albania —a Brief History 256 Mercenaries, Dev irme, and Albanians 265 Tambura, the Ottoman Soldier ’s Accoutreme nt 252 Conclusions 276 Chap. 6: Rhizomes and Genealogies in t he Return Song 280 Introduction 280 Genealogies and Rhizomes: Formula and Theme 281 Return S ong D efinition 284 Dumuzi’s Dream and Laments 290 Thematic Structure of the Odyssey 297 Background of Turkic Epics 302 Bamsi Beyrek Synopsis 305 Narrative Structure of Aga Imer 309 Besa and Pobratimi 315 Conclusions 321 Chap. 7: Meter, Melody, and Diction in Aga Imer 324 Introduction 324 Albanian Language, Dialects and Grammar 324 History of Albanian Language and Orthography 329 Dialect in Aga Imer, Karadyzen and Qeteli 333 Rhiz ome Theory and Origin Points 338 The Five Text Rhizomes 345 Textual Correspondences 348 The Seven Melodic Rhizomes 350 The Six Musical Motifs 360 Me lodic Types, Instrumentation, Genealogy 365 Conclusions 374 Chap. 8: Greater Cosmology of the Return Songs 376 Introduction 376 iv The Phorminx Lyre and Musical Genealogies 377 The A õk, His Sharki, and the Dog 379 Lalë Bajram and the ‘Black Two String’ 385 Harman Däli and the ‘Black Dut r’ 388 The Dream, the Shouting, and Silence 392 The Construction of the Tanb r 397 Conclusion: Çifteli Morphology as Mytho -cosmologic al Rhizome 402 Conclusions 406 Limits of My Theory/Methodology and Topics for Further Research 413 Appendix 1 : Species of Genera of Tanb r LNL Family 418 Appendix 2 : Terminology for Parts of the Lute 420 Appendix 3 : Table of Ratios of Neck Length/Soundboard Width (cm.) 425 Appendix 4 : Mesopotamian Lute Names 429 Appendix 5 : Pandoura (Pandoura) Sources & Citations 435 Appendix 6 : Pandoura , Tanb r and Metathesis Theory 440 Appendix 7 : List of Printed Texts of Aga Imer 444 Appendix 8 : List of Video Performances of Aga Imer 446 Appendix 9 : Age Imer Themes & Theme Correspondence Table 448 Appendix 10: Thematic Structure of Return Song Texts 453 Appendix 11 : Aga Imer Line C orrespondences T exts I -X, Ferata, M. Ukaj, A. Gashi 455 Appendix 12: Translations of Aga Imer Shouting Theme 459 Language Pronunciation Table 463 Glossary 466 Bibliography 475 Video -/Discography 499 v List of Figures Fig. 1.1: Coding of lut es in HS classification system. 24 Fig. 1.2: Genealogy of chordophones to genera of tanb r family . 29 Fig. 1.3: Karadüzen tuning of argija genus. 37 Fig. 1 .4 : ‘Vertical’ fretboard of a four stringed lute. 58 Fig. 1.5 : ‘Horizontal’ fretboard of a two stringed lute. 58 Fig. 1.6: Similarity graph for Bal tic psalteries (key in note). 65 Fig. 2.1: Panofsky’s interpretive method. 123 Fig. 3.1: Mesopotamia, 3 rd millennium BCE. 127 Fig. 3.2: Timeline, Mesopotamia 5000 -1500 BCE. 128 Fig. 3.3 : Extent of Akkadian Empire. 130 Fig. 4.1: Timeli ne of Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Mediterranean, 1550 -150 BCE. 177 Fig. 4.2 : Ebla, Mari, Mesopotamia and western Iran, 2 nd millennium BCE. 186 Fig. 4.3 : Kassite kingdom, 15 th -11 th centuries BCE. 190 Fig. 4.4 : Hittite Empire, c. 1700 -1350 BCE. 206 Fig. 4.5 : Neo - or Syro -Hittite city states, c. 800 BCE. 207 Fig. 5.1: Parthian Empire c. 1 st century BCE. 228 Fig. 5.2: Khorasan, Afghanistan and Central Asia, 1856. 235 Fig. 5.3: Roman provinces of Illyricum, Pannonia, Dacia . 257 Fig. 5.4: Albania and surrounding regions, physiography. 261 Fig. 5.5 : Ottoman vilayets of Albania, 1878. 264 Fig. 6.1: Narrative flow of Return song. 289 Fig. 6.2: Albania, Kosovo, and western Macedonia. 312 Fig. 6.3 : Lineages of Return hero and woman of authority. 318 Fig. 7.1: Çiftetelli rhythm . 337 Fig. 7.2: Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia; Music and Text Rhizomes of Aga Imer. 344 Fig. 7.3: Closing passage of Mahmut Ferati’s Aga Imer. 359 Fig. 7.4: Aga Imer, Strophic Opening m otif. 361 Fig. 7.5: Aga Imer, Strophic Medial m otif B 0. 361 vi Fig. 7.6: Aga Imer, Strophic Medial m otif B I. 361 Fig. 7.7: Aga Imer, Strophic Medial m otif B II . 361 Fig. 7.8: Aga Imer, Strophic P enultimate m otif. 361 Fig. 7.9: Aga Imer, Strophic Closing m otif. 361 Fig. 7.10: Aga Imer, Interlude m otif. 362 Fig. 7.11: Schematic of modal structure of Aga Imer, Opening motif (1). 362 Fig. 7.12: Medial S trophic motif of Aga Imer (B0, BII) and song ‘çka ka thonë ai Mbriti i ri’ in 12/4. 363 Fig. 7.13: Aga Imer, Strophic Penultimate mo tif. 364 Fig. 7.14: Common figure of Opening (A), Penultimate (D) and Interlude motifs of Aga Imer. 364 Fig. 7. 15: Aga Imer, Strophic Closing m otif. 365 Fig. 7.16: Melodies of S trophic Opening motifs. (1) melodic rhizome M1; (2) melodic rhizome M2. 366 Fig. 7.17: Melodic rhizome M3, Stichic motif. 366 Fig. 7.18: Medial S trophic motifs. (1) melodic rhizome M1, Motif B 0; (2) melodic rhizome M2; (3) melodic rhizome M3. 368 Fig. 7.19: Melodic contour s and recombinations in Medial S trophic motifs. (1) me lodic rhizome M1; (2) melodic rhizome M2; (3) melodic rhizome M3. 369 Fig. 7.20: S chematic of modal structu re of S trophic or M edial motif (2). 369 Fig. 7.21: Closing motifs. (1) melodic rhizome M1; (2) melodic rhizome M2; (3) melodic rhizome M3. 371 Fig. 7.22 : Interlude motifs. (1) melodic rhizome M1; (2) melodic rhizome M2; (3) melodic rhizome M3. 372 vii List of Tables Table 1.1: Biological vs. cultural evolution. 67 Table 2.1: Four principles of rhizome t heory. 99 Table 3.1: Translation and gloss, l. 236 -237 of Debate text. 154 Tabl e 4.1: Images of LNL in banquet s cenes, 2 nd -1st Millennia BCE. 210 Table 6.1: Foley’s five -part Return song. 286 Table 6.2: Lord’s analysis of ‘auxiliary’ themes. 287 Table 6.3: Lord’s tripartite Return song. 287 Table 6.4: ‘Nested’ thematic structure of Return song. 288 Table 6.5: Dumuzi texts and theme Devastation . 296 Table 6.6: Themes Devastation and shouting of Odyssey. 301 Table 6.7: ‘Bamsi Beyrek’ themes Devastation and shouting . 309 Table 6.8: Themes Devas tation and shouting of Aga Imer. 314 Table 7.1: Albanian noun declensions . 328 Table 7.2: Aga Imer line agreement percentages. 340 Tab le 7.3 : Text correspondences, rhizomes . 343 Table 7.4 : Melodic correspondences, rhizomes . 343 Tab le 7.5 : Total of syllabic line lengths in Frroku/Llapi versions of Aga Imeri . 356 Table 7.6 : Melodic rhizome groups. 357 Table 7.7 : Distribution of motifs within each strophe . 363 Table 7.8 : Rhythm and stress patterns in melodic rhizomes M1 -3. 367 Table 7.9 : Prosodic and musical relationships in Medial S trophic motifs of melodic rhizomes M1 -3. 368 Table 7.10 : Melodic contour of M edial motifs, melodic rhizomes M1 -3. 369 Table 7.11 : Interlude form, melodic rhizomes M1 -2.