The Viola d'Amore: An Instrument Between Worlds

PART four

The Sînekemân

Twelve-stringed sînekemân in the Mevlâna Mausoleum; Konya, Turkey (Inv. No. 1405.19.YY.).

The instrument is displayed in the semahane, alongside two kemençe, tambourines, tambur, oud, and a number of flutes. 

The oud, dating to 1917, belonged to Şerif Muhiddin Targan, and was donated to the mausoleum in 1983 by his widow.Its lavish decoration of ivory and mother-of-pearl on the medallion, pegs, and fingerboard finds an echo in the sînekemân, which sports a similarly ornate ensemble: ivory tailpiece, fingerboard, and pegs. This particular kemani reached the mausoleum courtesy of Laika Karabakh.

The Breast Fiddle
Arrives at Court

Around the mid-eighteenthth century, the Ottoman Greek composer Corci (Yorgi, Şivelioğlu) turned up at the court of Mahmud I (r.1730–1754) flaunting a funky thingamajig that made everyone go, 'Wait… what is that?'

The sultan (or more likely the palace musicians) took one look at it and said, 'That'll do nicely,' and before you could say 'sympathetic strings' the sînekemân had slid in smooth and elbowed the poor old kemânçe (rebâb) outta the spotlight, becoming the instrument of choice for discerning Ottoman courtiers.

Palace records casually mention chaps such as Kemânî Miron, Kemânî İbrâhim Ağa, and Kemânî Ali Ağa as proud bearers of the sînekemân. One gleans that Kemânî seems to have been the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century equivalent of naming every violinist 'Viola' or every piper 'Pipe'... a handy label for anyone who played an instrument beginning with kem.

As for the name 'breast fiddle': the kemânçe was known as ayaklı keman ('footed keman') due to its spike that rested on the ground, while the viola d'amore was called sine keman ('breast keman') because it was held against the chest.

c.1818. Catalog des Costumes Turcs. Ankara Ethnography Museum, 8283, y. 195.

Rise and Fall

The sînekemân arrived at a moment of genuine upheaval in Ottoman musical life, when older instruments were being phased out of court repertoire and styles were in flux (see Writing the History of “Ottoman Music”, ed. Martin Greve).

Records show that Kemânî Ali Ağa kept one foot in both camps: playing both the ayaklı keman and the sînekemân. Both instruments held courtly sway until around 1800, when the sînekemân won the argument and the ayaklı keman was quietly shown the door.

By the latter half of the nineteenth century, the sînekemân too fell out of favour faster than a courtier who dissed the sultan's 'stache.

Signed by Abdullah Bukhari. 1744. UK T9364, y. 10 

Muzika-i Hümayun (Imperial Music), two parallel fasıl ensembles neatly embodied the tensions of the era.

The Fasl-ı Atik (traditional fasıl) clung to the old repertoire, led by stalwarts like Hamamizade İsmail Dede and Hacı Arif Bey, preserving the soundscape of centuries past.

But it was the Fasl-ı Cedit (new fasıl) that captured the experimental spirit of the sînekemân's heyday. This crew blended Ottoman and Western instruments: ut, keman, lavta, flüt, trombon, kitara, mandolin, ney, viyolonsel, dümbelek, kastanyet, zil... playing Turkish jams and spinnin' Western pieces under the baton of Santuri Hilmi Bey, who conducted like his European counterparts (Gazimihal, 1955; Ergin, 1999).

The ensemble performed at court weddings and circumcision gigs, bringing this musical hybridity into the most formal palace occasions.

The Great Cultural Exchange 

The Ottoman court had a long history of musical hanky-panky with Europe. The first documented encounter came in 1553, when French King François I sent an orchestra to Istanbul to thank Kanuni Sultan Süleyman for his assistance. The ensemble performed for three days, then bounced home with gifts. Later, Queen Elizabeth I dispatched an organ and a bunch of instruments to Murad III.

European rulers often tucked musical instruments into their diplomatic gift packages, and by the eighteenth century Istanbul had been snatchin' up, remixing, or sometimes just shrugging off Western musical moves for a solid two hundred years.

The sînekemân's influence extended beyond the Ottoman court into the broader Eastern European cultural sphere. Romanian church frescoes from the eighteenth century provide some of the clearest visual evidence of the instrument's use outside Constantinople. At Sucevița, painted in 1584 with later additions, an angel is depicted playing 'a violin, or probably a sine-keman, holding it against his chest and touching the strings with the bow' (Florea, 1994).

Such Romanian depictions reveal that the 'breast fiddle' concept wasn't unique to the Ottoman sînekemân but part of a broader family of chest-held bowed instruments across the Ottoman cultural sphere. The Romanian principalities, positioned between Byzantine Orthodox tradition and Ottoman influence, became a meeting point where musical instruments and styles from multiple traditions converged. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Byzantine spirituality (and its artistic traditions) took refuge in Orthodox countries outside Ottoman control, with the Romanian lands serving as what historian Nicolae Iorga called 'Byzantium after Byzantium' (Florea, 1994). This cultural continuity helps explain how instruments like the sînekemân found their way into Romanian court and religious life, appearing in church iconography alongside cobzas, lutes, guslas, and other instruments of mixed Eastern and Western heritage.

The Kemânçe's Sad Tale

The kemânçe had been the top dog until the eighteenth century, holdin' down the palace soundtrack all the way back to the Uighur days.

As I said, the kemânçe's use gradually declined in the second half of the eighteenth century, and it eventually fell out of favour in the Enderun (Palace School). However (there's always a 'however'), evidence suggests it continued jammin' in the harem until the nineteenth century, where it presumably sat around with the sînekemân.

Modern Times
and Museum Pieces

The Metropolitan Museum has a late nineteenth-century Turkish Kemangeh with sympathetic strings in their collection, which demonstrates that people were still making these things even as their court use declined.

Modern Turkish musicians like Hasan Esen have worked to preserve the tradition of the sînekemân. His 2010 album Sine Kemani Taksimleri features traditional Turkish maqam structures and virtuosic taksim performances.

String Instruments in the Ottoman Palace

String instruments held a crucial role in shaping the musical traditions of the Ottoman palace. Over the centuries, these instruments evolved in both design and function, contributing significantly to the court's musical life.

Kemânçe (Rebâb)

The instrument has a long history, known, as I already mentioned, to the Turks since the Uighur period and called by various names, such as ıklığ and rebâb. It had been a mainstay in Central Asian and Middle Eastern music long before its integration into the Ottoman tradition (Sertkaya, 1982; Ögel, 2000).

Traditionally, the kemânçe featured a soundbox made from materials like coconut, wood, or pumpkin, covered with leather, and was played with a bow made from horsehair. Initially strung with two strings, it eventually evolved to have three, tuned to Yegâh, Dügâh, and Neva (Bardakçı, 1986; Farmer, 1997).

Erol (2015) highlights the diversity in the Ottoman music scene, noting how practitioners hailed from various ethnic, confessional, and social backgrounds, with some like the Greek Orthodox musicians making contributions to the Ottoman musical landscape. This reflects a broader pattern of intercultural exchange, which undoubtedly influenced instruments like the kemânçe.

Kemân (violin)

The Kemân started making moves in Turkish music and entered the palace court in the eighteenth century, gradually to become the top bowed instrument by the next century. By the nineteenth century, the viola, violoncello, and contrabass had sauntered into the court alongside the Western orchestra, but they mostly stuck to playin' Western jams, politely stepping aside for the homegrown Turkish tunes.

Kemençe (Armudî Kemençe)

The armudî kemençe, or fasil kemençe, emerged in the eighteenth century under Greek influence and gradually became a staple of Ottoman music, particularly in the fasil genre. The instrument evolved from the medieval Greek lira and is similar to the kemânçe but with a more refined construction. It has a pear-shaped soundbox carved from a single piece of wood, and typically features three strings. The instrument is usually tuned to Yegâh, Rast, and Neva (Yekta, 1986; Aksoy, 2003).

By the early nineteenth century, the armudî kemençe became firmly established as an essential instrument for fasil music. Records from the time show that notable musicians, such as Kemençeci Tahir Ağa, performed with the instrument in the court, while miniatures depict performances in the presence of Sultan Mahmud II (Saz, 1974; Sevengil, 1959–68). The instrument's prominence continued until the late Ottoman period, and it remained an integral part of Ottoman musical culture, as reflected in preserved examples in the Topkapı Palace Museum (T.S.M. Inventory, no. 8/858).

Catalog des Costumes Turcs, c.1818. Ankara Ethnography Museum, 8283, y. 95