Tar (lute)
Encyclopedia : T : TA : TAR : Tar (lute)
- For other uses of this term, including another kind of musical instrument, see tar (disambiguation).
The tar is a long-necked, waisted lute found in Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia and other areas near the Caucasus region. The word تار tar itself means "string" in Persian. This is claimed to be the root of the name "guitar" as well as less widespread instruments such as the sitar and dutar. The exact place of origin of the tar cannot be confirmed. However Tar was invented in the territories of, or influenced by, the Persian Empire: Persia (Iran), Afghanistan, parts of the former soviet republics, such as Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan.
The tar appeared in its present form in the middle of the eighteenth century. The body is a double-bowl shape carved from mulberry wood, with a thin membrane of stretched lamb-skin covering the top. The long fingerboard has twenty-six to twenty-eight adjustable gut frets, and there are three double courses of strings. Its range is about two and one-half octaves, and is played with a small brass plectrum.
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 Azerbaijani tar has a slightly different build and has more strings.
Tar is one of the most important classical Persian and Azerbaijani 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 influnced by tar players.
See also
External links
Iranian Tar music samples
- [Nay-Nava the Encyclopedia of Persian Music Instruments]
- [dejkam.com] (mp3's)
- [tebyan.net] (wma)
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