Khanzara's Historic Music and Crafting

02/09/2026

My first kantele tablature - written for my upcoming class at Founding Revel

09/28/2025

Some recent award necklaces I’ve made for Stromgard over the past few months
Byzantine inspired, with some in baronial colors and some with a rainbow design

08/03/2022

TAN tanna TAN tanna TAN tanna TAN

This is a literal translation of late a 14th or early 15th century Persian rhythm from Abd al-Qadir Maraghi called
Khalif Saqil.

in modern drumming notation it's D-tkD-tkD-tkD- and in 8/4 time (or could potentially be treated as 4/4 depending on how much its stretched or compressed).

This is identical to the "gallop" rhythm played by bellydancers except that has an added "tanna" (or tk (tekka) in modern drumming notation) as a filler instead of a rest after the last TAN (or doum).

02/22/2022

A harper's eye view perspective of my double strung harp :)

02/11/2022

I've recently added a double strung harp to my instrument collection. The double strung harp got its start with the late 16th century Italian arpa doppia. It had two rows of strings, and seems to have had fairly low tension since it was played with more relaxed and looser hands than harps are usually played today. With two rows of strings, one side could be tuned to play the accidentals that often turn up in Renaissance music, and the other could play the main notes (kind of like the Spanish cross strung harp that turns up at about the same time in history). The double strung harp then spread to Wales in the early 1700s. From what I've found so far, the arpa doppia was often used to play the lower bass part when played in an ensemble, though there were some pieces written for it as a solo instrument.

02/10/2022

An ongoing project of mine has been writing out dulcimer tablature for Renaissance and Medieval music. Today's modern mountain dulcimers are tuned and fretted just like the fretted zithers from 16th and 17th century Europe, and are often played in a similar way with both melody strings and open drone strings. These instruments can usually be purchased pretty inexpensively on sites like ebay, for around 200 dollars or so for a decent used one or sometimes even less, so I feel like this project helps to make historic instrumental music more accessible for the average person. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.758581607825671&type=3

Mountain dulcimer (or hummel or scheitholt) tablature

02/07/2022

This is my favorite of the Ottoman style compositions I've created so far. I wrote this piece for An Tir's Kingdom Bardic competition a few years ago. The mode is the Ottoman makam Irak, and the rhythm is 14/8. Permission granted to use this piece for SCA performances.

Documentation and references in the comments

01/25/2022

Poet daffodils from my garden - per Old House Gardens, where I got the bulbs for these, it's been cultivated since the early 1600s.

01/24/2022

Byzantine style beaded chain necklaces

Top - Amethyst, beryl, quartz, gold filled wire

Bottom - Beryl, gold filled wire