樂器不僅是製造聲音的器具，同時也是文化的積極推手。對於樂器歷史發展的評判性分析有助於我們研究在其發展背後的社會文化背景。此種研究途徑將焦點集中於某些概念，例如該民族的聲音理念、樂器的演奏實際，以及其所屬的社會地位。 本文探討bağlama晚近的歷史，它是土耳其最常見的民間樂器，同時也在巴爾幹半島和中亞地區以不同的名字廣為人知。近六十年以來，這項樂器在種種關於民間音樂、民族性，和涉及國家主義和都市化運動的地方文化等爭論中享有核心的地位，這些論述對於如何藉由bağlama來欣賞民間音樂各有不同的方式。 筆者在本文中的分析集中在樂器及其演奏實際所經歷的形體上和環境上的變遷，以及它們和同一時期內所發生的「鄉村到都市」運動的關聯。都市化運動對這項樂器所造成的結果將是本文特別著重之處，因為事實上，移民音樂家已企圖重新定義bağlama在土耳其聲音景色中的位置，而這些音樂家當中的一些人已在音樂圈中取得了主導的地位。

Musical instruments are as much active agents of culture as sound producing devices. Critical analysis of the historical development of an instrument may help one study the socio-cultural background that underlies its development. This approach focuses on such concepts as the sound ideal of the people concerned, performance practice on the instrument, and the social status ascribed to it. This paper studies the recent history of the bağlama, the most popular folk instrument in Turkey, widely known also in the Balkans and Central Asia under different names. For the last six decades, the instrument has enjoyed a central place in debates on and around folk music, ethnicity, and local cultures in reference to nationalism and urbanization movements, each having different ways in how to appreciate folk music through the bağlama. My analysis in this paper focuses on the. physical and contextual changes the instrument and its performance practice have undergone, and their relation to rural-to-urban movements that happened in the same period of time. A special emphasis is placed on the consequences of urbanization movements on the instrument because of the fact that the attempts to redefine the bağlama in the Turkish soundscape have been made by migrant musicians, some of whom have achieved leading positions in the music milieu.