Dala fandir

The dala-fandyr tool is up to 750 mm long, two or three-stringed. The head, neck and body are made from a single piece of wood. The body (i.e. box) is hollowed out. From above it is covered with a thin plate (upper deck). The material for production is any hardwood (maple, pear), but the upper deck is always made of softwood (coniferous), as “it is more sonorous and helps to form a good sound” and is easier to process. The upper deck is attached to the body, but first not far from the proposed location of the “filly” - on both sides of the center of the deck - two small resonant holes are cut. Their shape can be different (two "crescents" facing each other, etc.). But there are tools with one resonant hole located in the center of the deck and facing the "filly".

The tool body (sometimes called the "body") is a somewhat unusual oblong narrow box. On the back side, where the playing part of the neck ends, the body deepens, and then gradually narrows down. In the recessed part of the body there is a small resonant hole, called "ulæf хn huynk" (lit. "hole for breathing").

Compared with hysyn-fyndyr, the walls of dal-fyndyr are much thicker and this, given the fact that the head, neck and body of a single piece of wood, gives the tool design special strength.

The lower part of the casing ends with a small protrusion - a button tightly inserted into the lower end part of the casing, onto which the holder is “fastened”, that is, a sub-section. There are instances of traditional instruments that do not have this button in the lower end of the instrument. Such instruments do not have a sub-section, and the strings are attached directly to the specified button.

The neck or neck of the instrument is “hætsæn” (the handle that is held by the handle) on the playing side is flat and slightly rounded on the back. On the playing side, there are several (4-5) wooden frets on the fretboard (amonæntæ, amonæn færszhytæ), there were also instruments without frets.

At the top, the neck ends with a head, into which two or three pegs are inserted from bottom to top, sometimes without openings for strings. In this case, the tips of the pegs are slightly split, strings are inserted there. In relation to the width of the neck, the head is somewhat wider, being at the same time its continuation. There are tools with complicated head shapes, more often in the form of a hollow curved hollowed out inside.

Strings are pulled from the head to the bottom button through the neck and the filly. Traditionally, the strings were made of horsehair (like hysyn-fændyr ). The appearance of vein strings is a phenomenon of a later period. Each string of the instrument, depending on its purpose, consists of a different amount of hair in it. This amount of hair in each of the three strings (for a three-stringed instrument) varies between 7-8 in the thickest string, 5-7 in the middle and 4-5 in the thinnest string, that is, with a difference of several hairs between the strings.

The strings are tuned differently, but the structure of a two-stringed dal-fandyr is always quart (up to 1 - fa1). A three-stringed dala-fændyr is constructed: either a quint + quart, or a quart + quint (mi1 - la1 - mi2).

There are other systems, but it is extremely rare, for example: second + square, etc., but they are not characteristic of folk practice, since, firstly, they are rare and random, and therefore unstable, and secondly, okay the tonal basis of Ossetian music, its architectonics are alien to combinations like second-quarter-chords. It is no accident that reconstructed species of dal-fandyr are also built in quarts.

In the early 30s, folk enthusiasts A.Gazzaev, A.Magkoyev and others, with the direct participation of M.Shavlokhov and T.Kokoit , partially reconstructed hysyn- fændyr , dyuuuadæstænon- fændyr and dala-fændyr. In 1936, on the basis of reconstructed instruments, an orchestra of folk instruments was created in Tskhinval, which included several duuuadæstænon-fandyrov .

The initiators were the expert and connoisseur of folk antiquity P. G. Tedeev and composer T. Ya. Kokoit. Despite the fact that the instruments of this orchestra had a rather strong sound and this compares favorably with the traditional ones, the reconstructed dala-fændyr and hysyn-fændyr did not find recognition. Soon after the collapse of the orchestra, they were forgotten. This was also facilitated by the lack of serial production of tools - about ten to fifteen copies were made.

The first serious beginning of the reconstruction of Ossetian traditional instruments should be considered the joint great work of B. A. Galaev and P. A. Shoshin, as a result of which Dala Fandyr was reconstructed in 1938. P. Shoshin, a specialist in the technology of reconstruction and production of folk musical instruments, on the basis of technical measurements taken by composer and folklorist B. A. Galaev, created all the technical documentation for the reconstruction and creation of orchestral types of Dala Fandyrov.

Already in the years 1939-1940, under the direct supervision of P. A. Shoshin, in the experimental music workshop of the Moscow Military Chemical Training Center, six orchestra types of dal-fandyr were created - pikalo, prima, viola, tenor, bass and double bass - a set of 27 instruments. The technical performance (the traditional form is externally preserved) of the reconstructed model is very high - successfully established for each orchestral kind of scale and breakdown by frets; taking into account the ultimate possibilities, the acoustic side of the instrument was solved (the strings were replaced with metal), and the general musical possibilities became wider. In orchestral usage, it has become a more “flexible” and “moving” instrument. The reconstructed Dala-Fondyr model meets the highest technical requirements. But with all the positive properties and quality of the technical performance, nothing was left of the sound nature of the traditional dala-fandyr.

Traditional dala-fondir are well represented at the expositions of museums of regional studies of North and South Ossetia,

State Museum of Ethnography of the Peoples of the USSR;

Leningrad State Museum of Musical Instruments Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography; State Museum of Georgia named after S.A. Janashia, etc.

• F. Sh. Alborov “Musical Culture of Ossetians”, edition = 2nd, Vladikavkaz, publishing house “Ir”, 2015. Pages-163-171. Number of Pages −192.