zurlahttp://www.oed.com/dictionary/zurla_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_usezurla, n.
First published 1986; not fully revised

zurlanoun

Music.
  1. 1940–
    A kind of shawm similar to the Turkish zurna, introduced into Macedonia and neighbouring Balkan states by Romani peoples.
    1. 1940
      When the drums join in, the two larger oboes accompany the sibs in the lower octave. This must be an old custom, for the same is true for the Turkish oboes surle played by Croatian gypsies.
      C. Sachs, History of Musical Instruments (1942) xiii. 249
    2. 1953
      We may assume that the Persian word zurnâ is the root from which zurna, zurne, zurla and surla were derived.
      Y. Arbatsky, Beating Tupan in Central Balkans 4
    3. 1957
      We have only the notion, based on general historical grounds, that the parent instrument of the staple-bearing kind is the Middle Eastern shawm surna, a variety of which, frequently heard at our folk~dance festival, is the Macedonian zurla.
      A. C. Baines, Woodwind Instruments & their History ix. 229
    4. 1962
      The Gypsies in Balkan countries used, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the following musical instruments: tambourine, cymbalum, drum and zurla (a wind-instrument of Oriental origin).
      Journal Gypsy Lore Society vol. 41 43
    5. 1975
      The facts suggest that the modern Turkish shawm represents a development independent of the shawms of Western Europe. The two types co-exist today in Yugoslavia, where the zurla has a ‘head’ comparable with that of Anatolian and Thracian zurna.
      L. Picken, Folk Musical Instruments of Turkey iv. 499
    6. 1975
      To group (b) belong the shawms-with-finger-holes of Macedonia, both those of Yugoslavia—zurla..and those of Greece—zourná.
      L. Picken, Folk Musical Instruments of Turkey iv. 500

zurla, n. was first published in 1986; not fully revised.

zurla, n. was last modified in December 2024.