The Bass Gheychak (or Gheychak Bass) is an Iranian bowed string instrument that’s roughly the same size as the modern violoncello with a similar pitch range. Like other members of the Gheychak string family, the soundbox is open at the top with a skin covered soundboard at the bottom which is where the bridge for the strings is placed. The opening at the top acts as an amplifying “horn”1 for the enclosed bottom.

I remember first seeing the Bass Gheychak2 after watching a video of Chârgân ensemble performing Sharif Lotfi’s NAVA in 2018.3 The instrumentation of that ensemble, self described as a “Persian String Quartet,” is two Kamenchehs, Alto Gheychak, and Bass Gheychak and mirrors the instrumentation of a standard European String Quartet (two violins, viola, cello).4

 Chârgân ensemble performing Sharif Lotfi’s NAVA

The modern Gheychak instrument family was designed and created by luthier Ebrahim Ghanbari-Mehr in the 1960s5 as a way to create small and large ensembles modeled after the the bowed string family in European Classical Music ensembles. A more recent version of the Bass Gheychak was designed by Siamak Qalami and Samira Azizi Mutlaq, at the direction and supervision of a department6 in Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO). This updated Bass Gheychak is reported to be developed as an alternative to the cello in music institutions like Iran’s National Orchestra.7 This parallels the history of anti-colonial initiatives by many groups and nation states globally in the formation of, especially, large performing arts organizations in the post WWII era.8

The Gheychak itself is a modification of the Baluchi Sorud9 which has been stripped of its sympathetic strings.10 There are still organizations and luthiers working on modifications of Gheychaks11 in addition to work being done in developing other Iranian instruments12 which would expand the role of native instruments for ensembles and orchestras in lieu of European instruments.

Jawad Sharif’s film short Suroz: Balochi Folk Instrument

The Sorud is found in communities across the Sistan and Baluchestan13 province in Iran and the Balochistan Region that overlaps Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. There are several similarly shaped instruments in folk, religious, and art traditions spanning from Northeastern Europe, through Central Asia, and into east South Asia. For example, the Kylkobyz and variants are found in Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan. The Sarinda is found in Pakistan, North and East India, and there’s a version in Bangladesh. In Nepal there’s the Nepalese Sarangi14 and in West Bengal the Santal have the Dhodro Banam, some versions of which are structurally similarly if more angular and elongated than most of these instruments.

Negin Zadeh Vakili performing her “No War” قیچک باس برای دنیای بدون جنگ

One of the things I’m finding interesting as I research global histories of music is how often teleologies of music ecosystems outside the Western world or the Global North often follow Social Darwinistic and Race Science views that have long been embedded in a number of fields, including musicology and ethnomusicology, which inform how specific types of exclusions work. For example, if the Orchestra stopped evolving in the early 20th Century, then there’s little need to have discussions of, or include into histories of the ensemble type, the many dozens (if not hundreds) of Orchestra types15 that have emerged and developed since the mid 1900s. With these orchestras have come a number of cello-like instruments such as the Bass Gheychak.

The story of the Bass Gheychak is just one in a number of variations of instrument development as different cultures, nations, and organizations attempt to modernize their musical practices or create national instruments ensembles, often modelled on European ensembles and the instruments in them. As I revive my old “Sunday Spotlight on the Non-Western Cello“16 series with this Sunday Spotlight on the Global Cello series, I’ll be exploring these instruments, their pedagogies, and their ties to the history of the native and indigenous string playing traditions that in some cases may have supplanted by the newer instruments.

The series is part of a project I’m calling The Global Cello.17

NOTES

  1. Komeylizadeh (n.d. and 2002) states, about the Qeychak: “The produced tune is first transferred from the lower box to the upper one, from where it is broadcast through two wide openings. This part of the instrument is very interesting from the scientific point of view, since a second box has been added on its surface in order to amplify the tune.” ↩︎
  2. There are several different transliterations of “Gheychak” including, but not limited to: Ghaychak, Qaychak, Qeychak, Qayjak, Qeyjak, Qeytjak, Qichak, and etc. See Nasehpour (2022) and Javad (2007) for discussion of etymology and transliteration from primary sources. Interestingly, the Boston based cellist and composer, Eden Rayz, humorously listed the Cello parenthetically as an “Italian Gheychak Bas” in an improv recorded and posted to Soundcloud with Santur “Iranian Hammered Dulcimer” player, Bahar Royai. See Rayz (2017). The Bass Gheychak seems to increasingly referred to as a “Tenore Gheychak.” See, for example, the Chârgân (n.d.) page for the Tenore Qejak. ↩︎
  3. See Arezoo.A (2014) for the video. I was able to recall the exact date, June 11, 2018, given automatic posts of my YouTube video likes to social media (see Silpayamanant 2018a and 2018b). ↩︎
  4. The usage of indigenous or native stringed instruments, both bowed and plucked, adapted to the Western string quartet or string ensemble has become relatively common and dates back to at least the mid 19th century when Croatian Tamburitza orchestras first started forming. ↩︎
  5. Saidi (1399/2020) states these instruments were created in the 1950s while Pourghanad (2018) states he created them in the 1960s. ↩︎
  6. Iran Daily (2020) and Saidi (1399/2020) of Mehr News report this organization is the Traditional Arts Group of the Research Institute of Cultural Heritage & Tourism. ↩︎
  7. See Iran Daily (2020), Saidi (1399/2020), and Shahrvand Citizen Newspaper (2020). ↩︎
  8. See my Anti-Colonial Orchestras: A Cultural Response to Classical Music Imperialism (Silpayamanant, 2021) for an overview of this history as it applies to large orchestral institution formation. Also translated into French by Liko Imalet (Silpayamanant, 2022) and posted to the Amicale des Etudiants Caribéens Africains et Sympathisants (AMECAS) of the Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University. ↩︎
  9. Also called a Soruz or Suroz. See During (1990: 213). See Jawad Sharif’s film short Suroz: Balochi Folk Instrument (Jawad Sharif Films, 2022) to hear the instrument played by Ustaad Sachu Khan. This is a short extracted from the 2019 feature length documentary Indus Blues: The Forgotten Music of Pakistan (Jawad Sharif Films, 2021), which is also available online. ↩︎
  10. See During (1992: 152; 2005: 149 & Note [14]) ↩︎
  11. See Pourghanad & Ziaei 2020a and 2020b ↩︎
  12. Such as Habil Aliyev and Peter Biffen’s Kamencheh Tarhu (Biffen, 2018), amongst many other spike fiddles designed by Biffen, or Mohammad-Reza Shajarian’s (2013) Sorahi bowed string family (Hamshahri Newspapar, 2017); ShahrAashoob (Sharjarian, 2020) bowed string family; and his Saboo (Sharjarian, 2013) violin in addition to the many others he’s invented. ↩︎
  13. It’s unclear to me if the Sistan instruments are called Sorud as I’ve only seen them referred to as Qichak. See Sepahan Betenagar Art Cultural Institute (2018), for example. ↩︎
  14. The Nepalese Sarangi should not be confused with the Sarangi from the Punjab and Rajasthan with the more familiar shape with resonating strings that’s also used in the classical South Asian musics. ↩︎
  15. See Silpayamanant (2015) and a very long thread (Silpayamanant, 2020) with dozens of examples of orchestra types globally. ↩︎
  16. That series was initially started in 2011 with an attempt to revive it in 2013. See Silpayamanant, 2011. ↩︎
  17. The Global Cello began as a recital series I’ve been doing as well as a diverse cello method series I’ve been working publicly since 2020. See Silpayamanant (2024a and 2024b). ↩︎

REFERENCES

Arezoo.A. (2014, September 7). Persian String Quartet – NAVA – Sharif Lotfi – CHARGAN [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/XBgiLBEpgEw.

Biffen, Peter. (2018, January 26). Kamancheh Tarhu [Online]. Spikefiddle. https://www.spikefiddle.com/kamanchehtarhu

Chârgân. (n.d.). Tenore Qejak [Online]. https://charganensemble.com/instrument/tenore-qejak.

During, Jean. (2005). Power, Authority and Music in the Cultures of Inner Asia. Ethnomusicology Forum, 14(2): 143-164. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20184516.

During, Jean. (1992). l’Oreille Islamique Dix Années Capitales de la Vie Musicale en Iran: 1980-1990. Asian Music, 23(2): 135-164. DOI: 10.2307/834177.

During, Jean. (1990). L’organisation du rythme dans la musique de transe baloutche. Revue de Musicologie, 76(2): 213-225. DOI: 10.2307/947264.

Eden Rayz. (2017, June 12). Bahar And Eden Do A Wee Improv [Audio]. Soundcloud. https://soundcloud.com/eden-rayz/bahar-and-eden-do-a-wee-improv.

Hamshahri Newspaper [روزنامه همشهری]. (2017, October 14). صراحی؛ سازی که شجریان طراحی کرد و ساخت [Sorahi; An Instrument Designed and Built Shajarian][Online]. https://www.hamshahrionline.ir/news/64968/صراحی-سازی-که-شجریان-طراحی-کرد-و-ساخت

Iran Daily. (2020, May 10). Iran’s Bass Ghaychak Will Replace Iran National Orchestra’s Cello [Online]. https://www.pressreader.com/iran/iran-daily/20200510/page/12/textview.

Iran Press. (2023, January 26). Ghaychak Instrument; What Iran is Known For [Online]. https://iranpress.com/ghaychak-instrument-what-iran-is-known-for.

Javad, Mohammad. (2007, July 3). معرفی ساز – قیچک [Introduction of the Instrument – Gheychak][Online]. گریزی بر موسیقی اصیل. http://www.mjsahafi.blogfa.com/post/174.

Jawad Sharif Films. (2022, March 25). Balochi Folk instrumental | Suroz | Ustaad Sachu Khan, Baluchistan [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/5smtkQVA6nc.

Jawad Sharif Films. (2021, June 5). Indus Blues | Award-Winning Musical Feature Documentary | Pakistan | Director’s Cut [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/DbnfUycYhwk.

Komeylizadeh, Kamram. (n.d.). Introduction to Iranian Indigenous and Local Musical Instruments [Online]. Parsi Times. https://www.parstimes.com/music/local_instruments.html. (Originally published in Komeylizadeh, 2002).

Komeylizadeh, Kamram. (2002, August). Introduction to Iranian Indigenous and Local Musical Instruments. Posht-e Sahneh, Monthly Magazine, –(4). (Published online in Komeylizadeh, n.d.)

Nasehpour, Peyman. (2022, December 3). Gheychak the Persian Bowed Musical Instrument [Online]. https://www.nasehpour.com/gheychak-bowed-instrument.

Pourghanad, Sadjad [Mahboube Khalvati, trans]. (2018, August 1). Developments in Iranian Music Since Qajar Era (II) [Online]. Harmony Talk. http://en.harmonytalk.com/id/495/developments-in-iranian-music-since-qajar-era-ii.

Pourghanad, Sadjad & Reza Ziaei (interviewee) [Mahboube Khalvati, trans]. (2020a, November 1). Interview with the Makers of the New Qeychak (I) [Online]. Harmony Talk. http://en.harmonytalk.com/id/669/interview-with-the-makers-of-the-new-qeychak.

Pourghanad, Sadjad & Reza Ziaei (interviewee) [Mahboube Khalvati, trans]. (2020b, December 1). Interview with the Makers of the New Qeychak (II) [Online]. Harmony Talk. http://en.harmonytalk.com/id/705/705.

Saidi, Alireza. (1399; 2020, May 20). ساز «قیچک باس» جایگزین «ویولنسل» در ارکستر ملی ایران می‌شود؟ [Will the “Bass Gheychak” Replace the “Violoncello” in the National Orchestra of Iran][Online]. خبرگزاری مهر [Mehr News]. https://www.mehrnews.com/news/4920792/ساز-قیچک-باس-جایگزین-ویولنسل-در-ارکستر-ملی-ایران-می-شود.

Sepahan Betenagar Art Cultural Institute [موسسه فرهنگی هنری بسته نگار سپاهان]. (2018, September 7). معرفی ساز قیچک [Introduction to the Gheychak][Online]. https://bastenegar.com/معرفی-ساز-قیچک/

Shahrvand Citizen Newspaper. (1399; 2020, May 12). قیچک باس به جای ویولنسل [A Bass Gheychak Instead of a Cello][Online]. 1969(-). https://shahrvand-newspaper.ir/news%3Anomobile/main/184292.

Sharjarian, Mohammad Reza. (2020, December 27). سازهای ابداعی [Innovative Instruments][Online]. https://mohammadrezashajarian.com/سازهای-ابداعی/

Sharjarian, Mohammad Reza. (2013, September 13). Musical Instruments & Inventions [Online]. https://mohammadrezashajarian.com/instruments.

Silpayamanant, Jon. (2024a, March 27). Global Cello Resources [Online]. Mae Mai. https://silpayamanant.wordpress.com/cello/global-cello-resources/.

Silpayamanant, Jon. (2024b, January 28). The Global Cello [Online]. https://www.silpayamanant.com/projects/global-cello/.

Silpayamanant, Jon. (2022, Décembre 14). Orchestres anti-coloniaux : une réponse culturelle à l’impérialisme de la musique classique occidentale (Liko Imalet, trans.)[Online]. AMECAS. https://amecas.wordpress.com/2022/12/14/orchestres-anti-coloniaux-une-reponse-culturelle-a-limperialisme-de-la-musique-classique-occidentale. (Original work published 2021)

Silpayamanant, Jon. (2021, February 19). Anti-Colonial Orchestras: A Cultural Response to Classical Music Imperialism [Online]. Mae Mai. https://silpayamanant.wordpress.com/2021/02/19/anti-colonial-orchestras-a-cultural-response-to-classical-music-imperialism.

Silpayamanant, Jon [@Silpayamanant]. (2020, November 12). The National Orchestra of Folk Instruments of the Republic of Bashkortostan. Established in 2001. Национальный оркестр народных инструментов Республики Башкортостан (НОНИ РБ) [Video attached][Link attached][Image attached][Thread]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/Silpayamanant/status/1327007676925169664

Silpayamanant, Jon. (2018a, June 11). I liked a @YouTube video https://t.co/7Njt9Ik6gG Persian String Quartet – NAVA – Sharif Lotfi – CHARGAN [Online]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/silpayamanant/posts/pfbid02z5i73e9tnMdGZFebr1cVTNckRKmVw5fGkM5SNhSiVKdafm3yRiZ1SmGTJM5ghW1fl.

Silpayamanant, Jon. (2018b, June 11). I liked a @YouTube video https://t.co/7Njt9Ik6gG Persian String Quartet – NAVA – Sharif Lotfi – CHARGAN [Online]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/Silpayamanant/status/1006069106746028032.

Silpayamanant, Jon. (2015, February 1). The Many Types of Orchestras…and How They Have Evolved [Online]. Mae Mai. https://silpayamanant.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/the-many-types-of-orchestras/.

Silpayamanant, Jon. (2011, March 12). Sunday Spotlight on the Non-Western Cello [Online]. Mae Mai. https://silpayamanant.wordpress.com/alt-strings/resources/non-western-string-traditions/sunday-spotlight-on-the-non-western-cello/.

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY/FURTHER READING

Jawad Sharif Films. (n.d.). Indus Blues [Online]. https://jawadshariffilms.com/our-projects/indus-blues.

Setayeshgar, Mehdi. (1995) Vazhe-Name-ye-Musighi-ye-Iran Zamin. Tehran, Volume I, Tehran.

Setayeshgar, Mehdi. (1996) Vazhe-Name-ye-Musighi-ye-Iran Zamin. Tehran, Volume II, Tehran.

Silpayamanant, Jon. (2024, April 8). The Cello and String Traditions in Iran [Online]. Mae Mai. https://silpayamanant.wordpress.com/cello/wa-vlc/ir-vlc.

Tsuge, Gen’ichi. (2013). Musical Instruments Described in a Fourteenth-Century Persian Treatise “Kanz al-tuḥaf.” The Galpin Society Journal, 66(-): 165-259. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44083116.

RESOURCES

Bass Gheychak Performers

  • Alireza Ghorbani [URL][VID]
  • Bita Ghasemi [URL][YT]
  • Hamed Afshari [URL][YT][SC]
  • Hamed Zandi [URL][YT]
  • Kimia Moradian [URL][YT]
  • Mehdi Basirat-Manesh [URL][YT]
  • Mitra Zolfi [URL][YT]
  • Mohammad Mehdi Basiratmanesh [URL[YT]
  • Negin Zadeh Vakili [URL][YT][SC]
  • Rasa Khodawardilo [URL][YT]
  • Yamen Al Yamani [URL][YT]

Chamber Ensembles with Bass Gheychak

Large Ensembles with Bass Gheychak

  • Aref Ensemble (founded 1977) [URL][VID]
  • Khonyagaran-e Mehr (founded 2016) [URL][VID][SC]
  • Mah Banoo Ensemble (founded) [URL][VID]
  • Parand Group [URL][VID]
  • Shahnaz Ensemble (founded 2008?) [URL][VID]

Composers of Bass Gheychak Music

  • Azad Mirzapour [URL][YT]
  • Karen Keyhani [URL][YT][SC]
  • Negin Zadeh Vakili [URL][SC]
  • Saeed Mirzazadeh [URL][YT]
  • Sharif Lotfi [URL]

Bass Gheychak Luthiers

  • Ebrahim Ghanbari-Mehr
  • Hossein Karimian [FB][IG]
  • Reza Ziaie
  • Samira Azizi Mutlaq
  • Siamak Qalami

THE GLOBAL CELLO

Global Cello Resources

Published by Jon Silpayamanant - โจนาทาน ศิลปยามานันท์

https://www.silpayamanant.com