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Tarambouke
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Petritch
Area
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Circa
1900
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Body: copper
Head: kid skin
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Length (body): 47 cm
Diam. (head): 23 cm
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The "Alexandre Dumas" School of Foreign Languages, Bulgaria
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My first encounter with the tarambuke took place in the theatre. A band was playing an energetic dance and suddenly I heard rhythmic beats that awakened forgotten memories. Vivid colours, strange voices and sweet perfumes came surging back to take the shape of an exotic fairytale festival.
It was in India. We had been invited to a wedding. A very young musician played a strange instrument that looked a little like the one producing the rhythmic sounds in the Bulgarian theatre. The young man wore a long white tunic. His skilful hands beat the drum rapidly and lightly.
It is this memory that inspired me to find out more about the Bulgarian instrument called the tarambuke. I learned that it is an instrument of the membranophone family and is always played together with other folk instruments. Its sound is soft and low. The tarambuke provides a background rhythm for songs. It fills your heart with joy and makes you want to dance. It creates a party atmosphere.
This is an instrument you can hear being played at parties and gatherings.
I was very interested to learn that the tarambuke is of Eastern origin. That made me think that there must be a relationship between the Indian and Bulgarian instruments and that there may perhaps be a link between these two very different cultures.
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