1
Originally spelled "cümbüş ". In English and American writing it turns to "cümbüsh".2
The tuning is "C – g’ – d’ – A – e – d ". Compared with the Oud the first string is C instead of A. The four strings in the middle are tuned like a violin or a mandolin. "Oud" is the Turkish expression for the Arabian "Ud".3
In the Turkish language "Cümbüş " has a huge spectrum/field of meanings: fun, entertainment, to be funny, but it also means the intensity of sounds/timbre (in german: Klangfarben). Wolf Dietrich remarks in the booklet of the record "Orient / Okzident - Music from Southeastern Europe" (Music Collection Berlin MC 3), that it stands for a musical circle, in which rich urban classes had their entertainment. Maximilian Hendler opens in his book "Banjo" even a relation to revelry and orgy, arising from the Persian "Djombesh", which means ambigously "to swing, to rock, to move".4
This took place after the surname-act of 1934, after which all Turks had to give their family a name.5
David Lindley used it mostly in the studio recordings of Kaleidoscope, because it was difficult to amplify on stage.
