The bouzouki is a lute-shaped stringed (chordophone) musical instrument, with a pear-shaped resonator (body) made of elongated wooden strips and a long neck with tuners at the end for tuning. Along the neck there are frets, which are thin metal plates, perpendicular to the neck, wedged into a thin slit. The intervals between the frets marks semitone distance. The bouzouki has three or four pairs (and in some cases single) strings. Musicians use a pick. A three-course bouzouki has three pairs of metal strings, with each per pair tuned in D-A-D, while a four-course bouzouki has four pairs tuned in C-F-A-D. In the past, in Anatolia (Asia Minor and the general territory of the Ottoman Empire), the tuning (<em>douzenia</em>) changed according to the type (<em>makam</em>) of the melody being performed. This particular style persisted until the Interwar period and waned over time before being completely done away with when the bouzouki was converted into four-course (eight-string) instrument. Some scholars believe that the bouzouki hails from the Ottoman musical tradition. However, others contend that only the name is of Ottoman origin and consider the instrument to be an evolution of the Ancient Greek instrument called <em>pandura</em>. According to this view, the instrument survived from the Ancient Greeks to the Byzantines and was preserved during the Ottoman period, before becoming systematically associated with the Greek musical tradition. There are references to several variations: Pandura or Pandurida, Trichordon, Sazi, Tabouras, Thaboura, Taburin and Bouzouki. In actual fact, they are variants of similar musical instruments belonging to the <em>Tambouras (Pandurida) </em>family. Use of the bouzouki in Greece was first recorded in the early 19th century. Nikolaos Kasomoulis, a Macedonian general in the 1821 war of independence, notes the following in his Military Memoirs, as compiled by Ilias Volotis - Kapetanakis: “…I played what was called the bouzouki, Christos played the two-course <em>tambouras</em>, Spyros Milou played the flute, others played other easy-to-carry instruments, the <em>bulgari </em>and <em>rebapi</em>”<em>.</em> Elsewhere he refers to “…a feast on Easter Sunday in 1822: Georgoulas Paleogiannis (the centurion of the chiliarchy) played the <em>baglamas </em>very sweetly, Paleokostas the bouzouki and other (junior officers of the chiliarchy) played the <em>liogari and iketeli</em>, following other others and greatly pleasing their Greek brothers-in-arms”. According to another report, “the ‘Acropolis’ (15 July 1888) speaks of an Oriental man with a red fez playing in a courtyard on Tritis Septemvriou Street, near the Attica railway: ‘With his bouzouki in hand, he sings, with a reedy but melancholic voice, Oriental songs with such longing and such melancholy that each sound from his voice and <em>tambouras </em>deeply penetrated the heart of each listener’...During the same time, an amazing Athens character, the barber of Omonia Square, Panagios Melisiotis (1854-1904), known as ‘<em>apse-svise’ (‘in a flash’)</em>, a nickname taken from the sign on his store, a singer, writer of dramatic idylls and, above all else, a renowned bon viveur, would go around <em>tavernas </em>and theatres staging scenes from <em>klephts</em>’ hideouts:‘Playing a few sounds from his bouzouki, suddenly an amateur actor appeared on stage, looking fierce, wearing a <em>fermeli</em> (vest), a <em>tzaprazi</em> (chest ornament), <em>vlachokaltses</em> (long socks), sweetly playing his bouzouki and passionately singing songs of the mountain <em>klephts</em> and dancing like a brave lad’...<em>”</em> Another reference can be found in“…a short article, wonderfully illuminating the atmosphere of the time, published in the Trifylliakon Journal (1980), titled ‘The Bouzouki’ and signed by Ch. F. It notes the “virtuoso skills” and “uniqueness” of the so-called <em>bouzouksis </em>(bouzouki player) Lycurgus Tzaneas, whom the residents of Trifyllia and primarily Gargarliani praise on every occassion. “ …What is his bouzouki? ...it’s not that runt of a musical instrument, following the sounds of <em>aman-aman </em>and proclaiming the glory of Dionysus, always sounding congested... the night-long <em>batinades</em>. This bouzouki became refined and evolved in the hands of Mr Tzaneas, to the point that it was scarcely recognisable ... with all the graceless name of the tribe... of its forbears, the fierce Zig-Zags, keeping their primeval armaments and strings of its barbarous brothers”. In Tzaneas’ hands, the bouzouki “emits exquisitely harmonious sounds; in fact, I would say that it sights, it sings, it grows furious and speaks as if it had a soul”. In the 1920s, the bouzouki started took on a prominent role. In 1935, the first <em>rembetiko</em> ensemble was formed, featuring three bouzoukis and one <em>baglamas</em>. The ensemble consisted of Markos Vamvakaris, Stratos Pagioumtzis and Anestis Delias on the bouzouki, as well as Giorgos Batis on the <em>baglamas</em>. <em>Rembetiko</em> became identified with the bouzouki and this instrument was perfected and utilized in the hands of great performers, including Vamvakaris, Tsitsanis, Papaioannou, Chiotis, Mitsakis and many others. The great changes in the form and technique of the bouzouki were due to Manolis Chiotis, who introduced the four-course bouzouki in the 1950s.