Tar (lute)

For other uses of this term, including another kind of musical instrument, see tar (disambiguation).

Woman playing the tar in a painting from the Hasht Behesht Palace in Isfahan, Iran, 1669.
String instrument
Classification	Plucked
Developed	??-Darvish Khan
Related instruments
Tanbur, Setar

The tār (Persian: تار) is a long-necked, waisted Iranian instrument. It has been adopted by other cultures and countries like Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and other areas near the Caucasus region. 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.

Physical characteristics

Tar.

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 frets, and there are three double courses of strings. Its range is about two and one-half octaves, 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.

Music therapy

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.

Use in contemporary music

The tar features prominently in Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, 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.

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 Sadigjan. 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.

Some old masters and contemporary tar players

• Hossein Alizadeh
• Qolam Hossein Bigjeh-Khani
• Majid Derakhshani
• Aqa Hossein-Qoli
• Mohammad Reza Lotfi
• Ilyas Malayev
• Hamid Motebassem
• Morteza Neydavoud
• Jalil Shahnaz
• Ali-Akbar Shahnazi
• Farhang Sharif
• Dariush Talai
• Ali-Naqi Vaziri
• Hooshang Zarif

See also

• Music of Azerbaijan
• Music of Iran
• Music of Central Asia
• Sahba Motallebi

External links

• About Persian Tar
• Nay-Nava the Encyclopedia of Persian Music Instruments
• Dariush Talai
• Persian Tar Audio Samples
• Medieval music therapy
• dejkam.com (mp3's)