instruments

Tar:

Belonging to the lute family, 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.

Barbat / Oud / Ud / Lute:

In Persian the word "bat" means duck, while "bar" is the duck's breast. Lute is one of
the most ancient Iranian instruments. It is called "roud" by the Persians and Arabs
call it "oud". Some believe that lute has either come from Hairah to the west of the
Euphrates river near Mada'en, the education center of the Sassanid princes, or from a
city known as "Bab". It has also been referred to by many other names including
"oud", "mozhar", "motar" and "keran". Lute is considered to be of Persian origin and
playing it has been quite common in Iran since the ancient times. Once the Iranian
lute was taken to Saudi Arabia, the Arabs, likewise, started making it from wood and
called it "oud". Its bowel is very large and pear-shaped. It has an extremely short
handle, so that the cords mainly extend along its bowel. It has 10 cords or five pairs
of cord and is played by a plectrum. A chicken or peacock feather serves as
plectrum. Lute produces a dull, soft and melancholy tone.

Santour

The santur is a three-octave wooden-hammered dulcimer with seventy-two
strings which are arranged on adjustable tuning pegs in eighteen quadruple
sets, nine (bronze) in the low register, and nine (steel) in the middle register.
The Santur can be made from various kinds of wood (walnut, rosewood, betel
palm, etc.) depending on the desired sound quality. The front and the back of the
instrument are connected by soundposts whose positions play an important role
in the sound quality of the instrument. Although the santur is very old, it was
neither depicted in miniatures, nor presented in any other medium until the
nineteenth century. The secret of making the trapezoid-shape sound box lies in
the quality and age of the wood, as well as in the arrangement of the soundposts
which connect the table of the instrument to its back.

Tombak

The Tombak is a chalice-shaped drum carved from solid
mulberry wood. It is covered at the wide end by a membrane
of lamb or goat skin. The technique of this instrument uses both
hands and consists of rolling and snapping the fingers in various ways.
The rich variety of tones and textures on this instrument allows the player
to punctuate and ornament the melodic phrases as well as create
rhythmical patterns.

Kamancheh

The Kamancheh is the traditional classical bowed lute of Persian classical
music and dates back to antiquity. It has a small, hollowed hardwood body
with a thin stretched fish-skin membrane. Its neck is cylindrical, and it has
four strings. Often known as the "spiked fiddle", because of the spike
protruding from its lower end, it is played vertically in the manner of the
European viol. The bowstrings are pulled by the player which
accommodates subtle tone variations. It is suspected that the fourth string
was added in the early twentieth century as the result of the introduction of
western violin to Iran.

Setar

The ancestry of the Setar can be traced to the ancient Tanbur of pre-Islamic
Persia. It is made from thin mulberry wood and its fingerboard has
twenty-five or
twenty-six adjustable gut frets. Setar is literally translated as "three strings''.
however, in its present form, it has four strings and it is suspected that Setar
initially had only three strings. Because of its delicacy and intimate sonority,
the Setar is the preferred instrument of Sufi mystics

DAF
The daf is a type of frame drum that is depicted in many Persian miniatures and
has reliefs from centuries ago. Although it appears at first sight to be a relatively
simple instrument, the daf has the potential of producing intricate rhythmic
patterns and sounds. The daf is equipped with metal rings on the inside which add
a jingle effect to the sound. The frame is covered with goat-skin