Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Any one of several varieties of viol common in Mohammedan countries, from which it is supposed that the European rebec was derived. Normally the rebab has a narrow oval body, shaped some-what like a boat, slightly expanded at the lower and contracted at the upper end, which in some cases passes into a slightly definite neck with various devices for holding the tuning-pegs. The body is usually made of a solid piece of wood in which more or less of a resonance-cavity is scooped; its back is rounded. Sometimes slight indentations are made in the front edges of the body to facilitate reaching the strings with a bow. There are usually either two or three strings. In playing, the instrument is held vertically in front of the body by the left hand. The name rebab is loosely applied also to many instruments for which kamanja would be more suitable. The rebab-esh-sha'er, or poet's-viol, is a viol with one or two strings, a body shaped like a key-stone and flat in front and behind, a long neck of turned wood, and a long iron foot. It is rested on the ground in playing, while the player sits or squats behind it, as in the case of the kamanja, which it resembles.
Wiktionary
- n. music A stringed musical instrument, related to the lute, used especially in Islamic countries
Examples
“A patient takes her methadone dose at a Porto rebab center that is part of Portugal's decadelong experiment with drug decriminalization.”
The Wall Street Journal: At 10, Portugal's Drug Law Draws New Scrutiny
“Lead instruments like the psaltery (an early harp) and the vielle (a primitive violin with a characteristically scraping tone) are played over plucked-string rhythm instruments like the oud, rebab, and saz.”
The Dufay Collective, Music For Alfonso The Wise (harmonia mundi, 2005)
“I also told him that we all collectivley demand that he take advantage of any rebab, physical therapy, and nutritional help that the hospital can give him--we don't want to see him back in the cardio recovery ward--and that got a faint nod and another thumbs up.”
“I wish my freshman experience had been this normal well, minus the rebab.”
“The leader's instrument is the two-stringed fiddle (_rebab_), almost exactly the same as the Siamese”
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 22. October, 1878.
“There were but slight differences if any between the archetypes of the pear-shaped rebab and of the lute before the application of the bow to the former -- both had vaulted backs, body and neck in one, and gut strings plucked by the fingers.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3 "Banks" to "Bassoon"
“The barbiton, however, although it underwent many changes, retained until the end the characteristics of the instruments of the Greek lyre whose strings were plucked, whereas the rebab was sounded by means of the bow at the time of its introduction into Europe.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3 "Banks" to "Bassoon"
“The _barbat_ was a variety of _rebab_ (_q. v._), a bass instrument, differing only in size and number of strings.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3 "Banks" to "Bassoon"
“Possibly an impulse was given the fiddle by the Moorish rebab, brought into Spain in the eighth century, but ancient Celtic bards had long before this used a bow instrument -- the chrotta or crwth, derived from the lyre, which was introduced by the Romans in their colonizing expeditions.”
“While Savall rang the changes with three medieval bowed instruments - the rebab, rebec, and vielle - Psonis played the santur zither, the Moorish guitar, and a selection of Middle-Eastern drums: the human voice soared above a subtly-shifting kaleidoscope of instrumental colour.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘rebab’.
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Zing Went the Strings
lute, guitar, mandolin, violin, banjo, balalaika, sitar, pipa, autoharp, zither, kantele, guqin and 329 more...
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Australian
words not found in other
dictionaries,these are from Macquarie
Dictionary and not playable in
scrabbleabdul, abdulled, abdulling, abi, abiu, ablactate, absinthial, absinthian, absoluter, acalypha, acanthodian, acaroids and 5128 more...
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Names of musical instruments
ney, dulcimer, clavicembelo, charango, bandurria, rebab, recorder, flute, guitar, autoharp, accordion, euphonium and 11 more...
Tweets
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knitandpurl "The musicians, players of rebab, utar, and ney, endeavor to hammer out tunes in her praise."
Talismano by Abdelwahab Meddeb, translated by Jane Kuntz, p 82 of the Dalkey Archive Press paperback
Sep 22, 2011