Tamburica playing, defined as group music playing on plucked string instruments, is part of the tradition in more recent times (approximately the last two centuries). The most common forms are playing in ensembles (up to eight musicians) and small orchestras (eight to fifteen musicians), while large orchestras (sixteen or more players) are institutionalized formations of recent times. The instruments in tamburica bands include: prim (which mostly replaced earlier bisernica), a-basprim (a-brač), e-basprim (e-brač), tamburaško čelo, kontra (Bulgaria), tambura bass/begeš, standing tamburaško čelo (kiš-begeš). Most Serbian names of the instruments were adapted / transcribed from Hungarian language. Ensembles often include instruments that do not belong to the tanbur family – an accordion or a violin, while orchestras include only the plucked string instruments.
Tamburica ensembles predominantly perform archetypal vocal-instrumental pieces of traditional and old-town music, tunes specially composed for tamburica ensembles, as well as musical pieces of various popular genres. They perform either independently as a vocal-instrumental formation (the musicians themselves also sing), or as an instrumental accompaniment to the singer. Orchestras perform mainly instrumental repertoire, pieces of traditional and composed dance music, transcriptions of classical music and composed “tamburica music”, while exceptionally they may accompany vocal soloists at public, concert performances.
