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Tar (lute)
Encyclopedia
The tār is a long-necked, waisted Iranian instrument. It has been adopted by other cultures and Azerbaijan
. The word tar ( تار') itself means "string" in Persian, though it might have the same meaning in languages influenced by Persian or any other branches of Iranian languages
like Kurdish
. Therefore, Tar is common amongst all the Iranian people as well as the territories that are named as Iranian Cultural Continent by the Encyclopædia Iranica
.
This is claimed to be the root of the names of the Iranian setar
and the guitar
as well as less widespread instruments such as the dutar
and the Indian sitar
. The exact place of origin of the tar cannot be confirmed. However, the tar was invented in the territories of, or influenced by, the Iranian Empire: Media/Persia (Iran), Afghanistan, and parts of the former Soviet republics, such as Armenia and Georgia.
Tar is one of the most important Persian musical instruments. The formation, compilation, edition, and inheritance of the most authentic and most comprehensive versions of radif
are all worked on tar. The general trends of Persian classical music have been deeply influenced by tar players.
The tar appeared in its present form in the middle of the eighteenth century in Persia. The body is a double-bowl shape carved from mulberry
wood, with a thin membrane of stretched lamb
-skin covering the top.
The fingerboard
has twenty-five to twenty-eight adjustable gut fret
s, and there are three double courses of string
s. Its range is about two and one-half octave
s, and it is played with a small brass
plectrum
.
The long and narrow neck has a flat fingerboard running level to the membrane and ends in an elaborate pegbox
with six wooden tuning pegs of different dimensions, adding to the decorative effect. It has three courses of double "singing" strings (each pair tuned in unison: the first two courses in plain steel, the third in wound copper), that are tuned in fourths (C, G, C) plus one "flying" bass string (wound in copper and tuned in G, an octave lower than the singing middle course) that runs outside the fingerboard and passes over an extension of the nut. There are also two pairs of shorter sympathetic strings that run under the bass and over two small copper bridges about midway on the upper side of the fingerboard: their tuning is variable according to the piece to be played and with the performer's tastes: Every String has its own tuning peg and are tuned independently
The Persian tar used to have five strings. The sixth string was added to the tar by Darvish Khan. This string is today's fifth string of the Iranian tar.
The melodies performed on tar were considered useful for headache, insomnia and melancholy, as well as for eliminating nervous and muscle spasms. Listening to this instrument was believed to induce a quiet and philosophical mood, compelling the listener to reflect upon life. Its solemn melodies were thought to cause a person to relax and fall asleep.
The author of Qabusnameh (11th century) recommends that when selecting musical tones (pardeh), to take into account the temperament of the listener (see Four temperaments). He suggested that lower pitched tones (bam) were effective for persons of sanguine and phlegmatic temperaments, while higher pitched tones (zeer) were helpful for those who were identified with a choleric temperament or melancholic temperament.
, in the section "Horsell Common and the Heat Ray". George Fenton
played it on the original album, and Gaetan Schurrer can be seen playing one on the DVD of the 2006 production.
. It has a slightly different build and has more strings. The Azeri tar has further one extra bass-string on the side, on a raised nut, and usually 2 double resonance strings via small metal nuts halfway the neck. All these strings are running next to the main strings over the bridge and are fixed to a string-holder and the edge of the body. Overall the Azeri tar has 11 strings and 17 tones.
A tar is depicted on the reverse
of the Azerbaijani 1 qəpik
coin minted since 2006 and on the obverse
of the Azerbaijani 1 manat
banknote issued since 2006.
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
. The word tar ( تار') itself means "string" in Persian, though it might have the same meaning in languages influenced by Persian or any other branches of Iranian languages
Iranian languages
The Iranian languages form a subfamily of the Indo-Iranian languages which in turn is a subgroup of Indo-European language family. They have been and are spoken by Iranian peoples....
like Kurdish
Kurdish language
Kurdish is a dialect continuum spoken by the Kurds in western Asia. It is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages....
. Therefore, Tar is common amongst all the Iranian people as well as the territories that are named as Iranian Cultural Continent by the Encyclopædia Iranica
Encyclopædia Iranica
Encyclopædia Iranica is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times...
.
This is claimed to be the root of the names of the Iranian setar
Setar (lute)
Setar is a Persian musical instrument. It is a member of the lute family. Two and a half centuries ago, a fourth string was added to the setar, which has 25 - 27 moveable frets...
and the guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
as well as less widespread instruments such as the dutar
Dutar
The dutar is a traditional long-necked two-stringed lute found in Iran, Central Asia and South Asia...
and the Indian sitar
Sitar
The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...
. The exact place of origin of the tar cannot be confirmed. However, the tar was invented in the territories of, or influenced by, the Iranian Empire: Media/Persia (Iran), Afghanistan, and parts of the former Soviet republics, such as Armenia and Georgia.
Tar is one of the most important Persian musical instruments. The formation, compilation, edition, and inheritance of the most authentic and most comprehensive versions of radif
Musical radif
Radif is a collection of many old melodic figures preserved through many generations by oral tradition. It organizes the melodies in a number of different tonal spaces called Dastgah...
are all worked on tar. The general trends of Persian classical music have been deeply influenced by tar players.
Physical characteristics
Mulberry
Morus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae. The 10–16 species of deciduous trees it contains are commonly known as Mulberries....
wood, with a thin membrane of stretched lamb
Domestic sheep
Sheep are quadrupedal, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Although the name "sheep" applies to many species in the genus Ovis, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries...
-skin covering the top.
The fingerboard
Fingerboard
The fingerboard is a part of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of material, usually wood, that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument and above which the strings run...
has twenty-five to twenty-eight adjustable gut fret
Fret
A fret is a raised portion on the neck of a stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck. On most modern western instruments, frets are metal strips inserted into the fingerboard...
s, and there are three double courses of string
Strings (music)
A string is the vibrating element that produces sound in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family. Strings are lengths of a flexible material kept under tension so that they may vibrate freely, but controllably. Strings may be "plain"...
s. Its range is about two and one-half octave
Octave
In music, an octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the use of which is "common in most musical systems"...
s, and it is played with a small brass
Brass
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...
plectrum
Plectrum
A plectrum is a small flat tool used to pluck or strum a stringed instrument. For hand-held instruments such as guitars and mandolins, the plectrum is often called a pick, and is a separate tool held in the player's hand...
.
The long and narrow neck has a flat fingerboard running level to the membrane and ends in an elaborate pegbox
Pegbox
A pegbox is the part of certain stringed musical instruments that houses the tuning pegs....
with six wooden tuning pegs of different dimensions, adding to the decorative effect. It has three courses of double "singing" strings (each pair tuned in unison: the first two courses in plain steel, the third in wound copper), that are tuned in fourths (C, G, C) plus one "flying" bass string (wound in copper and tuned in G, an octave lower than the singing middle course) that runs outside the fingerboard and passes over an extension of the nut. There are also two pairs of shorter sympathetic strings that run under the bass and over two small copper bridges about midway on the upper side of the fingerboard: their tuning is variable according to the piece to be played and with the performer's tastes: Every String has its own tuning peg and are tuned independently
The Persian tar used to have five strings. The sixth string was added to the tar by Darvish Khan. This string is today's fifth string of the Iranian tar.
Music therapy
The author of Qabusnameh (11th century) recommends that when selecting musical tones (pardeh), to take into account the temperament of the listener (see Four temperaments). He suggested that lower pitched tones (bam) were effective for persons of sanguine and phlegmatic temperaments, while higher pitched tones (zeer) were helpful for those who were identified with a choleric temperament or melancholic temperament.
Use in contemporary music
The tar features prominently in Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the WorldsJeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds
Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds is a 1978 concept album by Jeff Wayne, retelling the story of The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. Its format is progressive rock and string orchestra, using narration and leitmotifs to carry the story via rhyming melodic lyrics that express...
, in the section "Horsell Common and the Heat Ray". George Fenton
George Fenton
George Fenton is a British composer best known for his work writing film scores and music for television, although he also writes music for the theatre. His real name is George Howe but he is better known by his pseudonym of George Fenton.-Selected film and television credits:Fenton has composed...
played it on the original album, and Gaetan Schurrer can be seen playing one on the DVD of the 2006 production.
Caucasus tar
The "Azeri tar" or "Caucasus tar" or "11 string tar" is an instrument in a slightly different shape from the Iranian Tar and was developed from the Iranian tar around 1870 by SadigjanSadigjan
Sadigjan , also spelled Sadikhjan or Sadiqjan, born Sadig Asadoglu , was an Azerbaijani tar-player known for developing the Azeri tar from the Iranian tar.-Life and Fame:...
. It has a slightly different build and has more strings. The Azeri tar has further one extra bass-string on the side, on a raised nut, and usually 2 double resonance strings via small metal nuts halfway the neck. All these strings are running next to the main strings over the bridge and are fixed to a string-holder and the edge of the body. Overall the Azeri tar has 11 strings and 17 tones.
A tar is depicted on the reverse
Obverse and reverse
Obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags , seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, obverse means the front face of the object and reverse...
of the Azerbaijani 1 qəpik
Azerbaijani manat
The Manat is the currency of Azerbaijan. It is subdivided into 100 qəpik. The word manat is borrowed from "moneta" which is pronounced as "maneta"...
coin minted since 2006 and on the obverse
Obverse and reverse
Obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags , seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, obverse means the front face of the object and reverse...
of the Azerbaijani 1 manat
Azerbaijani manat
The Manat is the currency of Azerbaijan. It is subdivided into 100 qəpik. The word manat is borrowed from "moneta" which is pronounced as "maneta"...
banknote issued since 2006.
Some old masters and contemporary tar players
- Aqa Hossein-Qoli
- Ali-Naqi VaziriAli-Naqi VaziriAli-Naqi Vaziri was a musicologist, composer, a celebrated player of the tar, and the founder of the Academy of Music of Iran as well of Iran's National Orchestra....
- Ali-Akbar Shahnazi
- Jalil ShahnazJalil ShahnazJalil Shahnaz is an Iranian tar player born in 1921 in Isfahan.- Biography :Shahnaz studied under the supervision of Abdolhossein Shahnazi and Hossein Shahnaz and befriended ney player Hassan Kassai....
- Hossein AlizadehHossein AlizadehHossein Alizadeh , is an Iranian composer, radif-preserver, researcher, teacher, and tar and setar instrumentalist and improviser, described by Allmusic as a leading Iranian classical composer and musician....
- Qolam Hossein Bigjeh-Khani
- Farhang SharifFarhang SharifFarhang Sharif born 1931 in Amol is a well-known Iranian musician and renowned tar player.- Biography :Learnt music under the mentorship of his father. played his first solo song in Radio when he was 12...
- Hooshang Zarif
- Mohammad Reza Lotfi
- Majid DerakhshaniMajid DerakhshaniMajid Derakhshani is an acclaimed Iranian musician.He was born into a family of artists from the Iranian province Semnan. During his studies of string instruments and composition at the University of Tehran, the legendary Mohammad Reza Lotfi became his teacher.Subsequent to his emigration to...
- Dariush TalaiDariush TalaiDariush Talai plays both the Tar and Setar.Born in 1953 in Iran, he studied Persian music with masters of the Radif. His teachers include Tar player Ali Akbar Shahnazi, Nur Ali Borumand with whom he studied Musical radif and old compositions, as well as youssef Forutan and Abdollah Davami, with...
- Hamid MotebassemHamid MotebassemHamid Motebassem is a renowned Iranian musician and tar and setar player.His first teacher was his father. Later he started to study with musicians like Mohammad Reza Lotfi, Hossein Alizadeh and Hushang Zarif. In 1991 Motebassem founded Dastan ensemble which is one of the outstanding ensembles...
- Keivan Saket
- darvish khan
- Nojan Kamoosi
- Gholam-Hossein Darvish
- Musa Ma'rufi
- Yahya Zarpanjeh
- Morteza NeydavoudMorteza Neydavoud-life:He was born to a Persian Jewish family in Isfahan during the Qajar times. His family was satiated with music and he began to love music at an early age. His father Bala Khan played the tonbak, and the sound of instruments played by the musicians of the time echoed in their music-loving...
- Nasrollah Zarrinpanjeh
- Hossein AlizadehHossein AlizadehHossein Alizadeh , is an Iranian composer, radif-preserver, researcher, teacher, and tar and setar instrumentalist and improviser, described by Allmusic as a leading Iranian classical composer and musician....
- Lotfollah Majd
- Fereydoun Hafezi
- Ramiz Quliyev
- Amir Koushkani
- Dariush Pirniyakan
- Iosif Abramov
- Ilyas MalayevIlyas MalayevIlyas Malayev was an Uzbekistani musician and poet.Malayev was born in Mary to Efraim and Yelizaveta Malayev, a Bukharian Jewish family and raised in the Uzbek town of Katta-Kurgan near Bukhara...
- Armin Kabiri
See also
- Music of AzerbaijanMusic of AzerbaijanMusic of Azerbaijan builds on folk traditions that reach back nearly 1,000 years. For centuries Azerbaijani music has evolved under the badge of monody, producing rhythmically diverse melodies. Azerbaijani music has a branchy mode system, where chromatisation of major and minor scales is of great...
- Music of IranMusic of IranThe music of Iran has thousands of years of history, as seen in the archeological documents of Elam, one of the earliest world cultures,which was located in southwestern Iran...
- Music of Central AsiaMusic of Central AsiaCentral Asian music encompasses numerous different musical styles originating from a large number of Asian cultures. Central Asian music most often uses the pentatonic scale....
- Sahba MotallebiSahba MotallebiSahba Motallebi is an Iranian, musician, songwriter and a tar player and also the author of two books on Persian classical music, namely "Tolou" and "Nyaiesh".- Biography :...