Kupăs
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Many researchers name kupăs (variant names — kopăs, sĕrme kupăs, sĕrmelli kupăs, hăma kupăs) as one of the most widespread musical instruments among the Chuvash. An unknown author of the mid-19th century wrote: “Among the Chuvash, even among the poor, there is not a single home celebration, nor any funeral or memorial, where a pine three-string fiddle would not rasp…”
Kĕsle
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The etymology of the word qesle goes back to an ancient Indo-European onomatopoetic root. In written sources it first appears in the second half of the 9th century in the Old Church Slavonic translation of the Holy Scripture of the Eastern Slavic church, where it stands in place of the Latin cuthara or Greek kithara (gusti, gudu). Semantically it has always remained rather unclear and polysemous.
Palalay
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A three-string plucked musical instrument with a triangular soundboard. Imitation of a quiet bell or string sound — jingle, ding.
Tăvatkal kĕsle
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A type of four-sided gusli with a trapezoidal body. Such instruments existed alongside the usual helmet-shaped ones; most likely the small kĕsle had this exact form.
Tămra
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In 1994 the deputy director of the Chuvash National Museum, E.P. Mikhailov, showed the author of this publication the museum accession book, which contained a 1921 entry: “Tomra — tamra, 1 item. Date received: Aug. 30, 1921. Accession no. 120, ethnography department […]. Removed from inventory March 15, 1935. Tămra ‘with two strings, antique, length 67 cm.’” Most likely, the instrument was destroyed when it was written off.
Trenchĕl (tĕrenchĕl)
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The reconstruction of the trenchĕl is based on a description by Doctor of Philology N.I. Egorov, who reported the existence of a similar instrument in the village of Staroye Yansitovo, Urmary District. According to his recollection, the body was hollowed out, and the soundboard may have been made of leather.
The sounding element of string instruments is stretched strings fixed to a resonator. They are set in motion either by a bow or by fingers and are therefore divided into bowed (sĕrkĕchlisem) and plucked (turtaslisem) instruments.
Linguistic research shows that the ancestors of the Chuvash possessed such instruments already during their time in Central Asia, several thousand years ago.
Most likely, until the middle of the first millennium CE, violin- and domra-type string instruments were unknown in Europe. These instruments were brought to Europe by Bulgar Hunnic tribes. The modern Bulgarian historian S.G. Donchev writes: “Numerous studies by foreign and Bulgarian scholars have established that the string instrument was known to most Mediterranean peoples under names derived from the ethnonym Bulgar: tambur bulghary in Turkey, France, and Algeria; bulgarina in Spain; bugarija in Serbia and Croatia; bulgari in Albania. The research results support the assumption that as early as the 5th century Asian migrants brought to Europe not only bowed string instruments but also plucked string instruments, the latter known in some regions as bulgara.”
The bowed category includes two main varieties: kupăs andama kupăs. The plucked category includes gusli types: kĕsle, tăvatkal kĕsle, acha-păcha kĕsli, trenchĕl, and the domra variety tămra.
