Romania
Unknown

Wood, metal,
Late-20th century
Length: 27 in, Width: 10.7 in, Depth: 7.25 in
Strings – Lutes – Miscellaneous Lutes

The Romanian cobza is the national instrument of the Kyrgyz and most likely came from the Slavic kobza of the Turkish Central Asian kobuz or komu. The cobza is a short necked, unfretted lute and is generally used to accompany violins or pipes. Different in construction to the Romanian ‘cobza’ is the Ukrainian kobza, a favorite instrument of the Cossacks. The Hungarian medieval lute was also known as the koboz.

This cobza is made of rosewood with a solid back shaped into seven panels, an angular-bottomed body with an overall teardrop shape, and four sets of double metal strings. The eight tuning pegs are also carved of rosewood, and the head angles back to sit perpendicular to the rest of the instrument. There are four small x-shaped sound hole sections (each line being a separate hole for 16 total holes) above a darker wood guard. Along the side of the face there is a black striped trim, and along the side of the body there is a light wood trim with incised geometric designs.