From Ottoman war tool to pulse of global music
A handful of brands still produce hand-hammered bronze cymbals using techniques from 400 years ago.
The rhythmic clanging of hammers on bronze echoes through the Istanbul workshop where three craftsmen are landing blows with astonishing precision to transform featureless metal discs into highly prized handcrafted cymbals.
First used by Ottoman military “mehter” bands to frighten and demoralize the enemy, cymbals were a useful tool for an empire on the warpath.
But it would take the skill of a 17th-century Armenian alchemist called Avedis Zildjian to transform them into a percussion instrument whose exotic sound would first captivate Europe’s classical composers and then shape the world of jazz.
