The Prim, as called in
Macedonia, or Tamburica Prim as known in Vojvodina and Croatia is a
sweet sounding small instrument from the family of Tamburas. There
is a pretty nice explanation about the family of 5 Tambouras used in
those parts of the Balkans,
click here to read it.
Once one gets into Traditional
music, one keeps discovering a wealth of music and - instruments. I
stated as an
Acoustic Guitar player and then moved to
Electric Guitar. But with the "Discovery" of the
Bouzouki and later the
Macedonian Tambura, a whole new world of instruments started to
open in front of my eyes and ears.
For many years I didn't even
knew that this instrument exists, till I started visiting the
brothers Gievski in Skopje, makers of traditional instruments in
Macedonia.
They told me that the Prim used
to part of almost every urban family in pre-war Macedonian (2nd WW).
It's when the socialists came 1945, they decided that the Prim is
"imported", thus not authentic, and that now the authentic
instrument of Macedonia has to be the Tambura. But the truth is, the
Tambura has been usually played in the villages, and it's suitable
for those kind of wedding and patriotic songs. But the Prim was used
and suits most when one players the so called "Starogradski pesni" -
Old City songs.
On the music examples at the
right you'll find some demos of those songs with the Prim as a
leading instrument. Jovo Veljanovski is a composer from Macedonia.
He decided to write a song about every city in Macedonia. Many of
them are played in combination with the Tambura.
Prim
