The Dvotelnik, a Macedonian Folk Instrument

Extract

The dvotelnik is a widespread instrument in Macedonia (Yugoslavia), to be found in the west (Prilepsko, Gostivarsko, Kičevsko), in the east (Berovsko, Kratovsko, Kumanovsko), and in Tikveško and Skopsko. Dvotelnik is the Slav name; to the Turkish minority it is ikitetti, meaning ‘with two strings,’ and the Slav name is a part translation of the Turkish. The instrument is a hemi-pyriform long-lute with metal frets and two metal strings, played with a plectrum. Formerly strings were made of sheep gut, and frets of gut or string. Both carvel-built and carved monoxylic resonators are to be found, but the latter are commoner and preferred (as in Turkey) because of their superior resonance and resistance to damp. For monoxylic bodies a number of woods are in use: sycamore (Acer pseudo-platanus), pear, sweet-chestnut and, above all, mulberry. Figs. A, B, Plate II, show the roughly shaped belly (meše) and the subsequent hollowing with a hand-adze; the carver is Pesho Bakalov. This is also the method of making the monoxylic type of belly practised in Turkey today. In Macedonia (as in Turkey) half of a pear-shaped gourd may also be used as a resonator, with the Slav name of leika. In general, body and neck are made of different woods, so as to reduce the effects of warping.