Kamancheh

The Iranian classical kamancheh has a spherical shape, its bridge resting on the surface of a soundbox covered by a membrane of animal skin. The soundbox has no standard size and can be made entirely from one piece of wood or from many ribs. Its rounded body, made from different kinds of wood (e.g. mulberry, walnut, oak, or maple), has a spike on bottom to support the instrument.

The kamancheh's four metal strings are generally tuned in fourths or fifths. The instrument is held vertically and the bow, made of horsehair, moves horizontally, with the performer rotating the instrument when he or she moves from one string to another.

Rebab

The word rebab [robAb] is an Arabic term that can be translated as bowed string instrument. Dating back at least to the 8th century, the Rebab has been closely associated with Islamic culture and is thought to be the earliest ancestor of the contemporary violin.

While its roots are in Persia, the rebab's influence has reached as far east as Indonesia and west to regions of Europe and Africa. Its diffusion is closely tied to the growth of the Islamic world and the development of extensive trade routes after the 10th century.

As part of the generic 'lute' family, there are two basic types of rebab: wooden fiddles with pear-shaped or elongated bodies, and spiked fiddles, named for the extension or spike on the bottom of the instrument on which it stands when played. Generally, both styles have 2 or 3 gut or other strings.

Spike-fiddle rebabs used in the Javanese gamelan are made from wood, or sometimes from a hollowed, half coconut shell covered with hide. This body is attached to a long, narrow wooden neck which has no frets; instead, the fingers of your left hand become moveable bridges. These instruments ornament the melodic line, creating a dialogue with the singers.

Ney

The ney, which is probably the oldest pitched instrument known to man, is an oblique rim blown reed flute with five finger holes in front and one thumb hole in the back. One of the principle instruments of Traditional Persian Music, the ney has a range of two and a half octaves. The upper end is covered by a short brass cylinder which is anchored in the tiny space between the upper incisives of the player. Sound is produced when a stream of air is directed by the tongue toward the opening of the instrument. In this way, sound is produced behind the upper teeth, inside the mouth, which gives the ney a distinct timbre than that of the sound produced by the lips on the outside of the mouth.

Balaban (Narmeh-ney)

Also called duduk by the Armenians. It is one of the tongues wind instruments marked by its high potential of producing exciting melodies. Today, it is commonly played by the Kurds in western Iran and the Turks in northwestern Iran, which is usually accompanied by tambourine. The instrument is made either from wood or bone and its body is covered by a total of seven holes.

Surna / Zurna

It is commonly played almost across the country in accompaniment to kettledrum and timbale in special traditional occasions. For instance, in Kurdestan, western Iran, the demise of people is announced by playing sorna along with kettledrum. Once the public is gathered around the grave of the deceased person, some verses pointing to the unstable material life are sung in accompaniment to the exciting tunes played by sorna and tambourine. Then to rise the spirit of the participants and to divert their attention from the sad event the musicians switch to fast tempos. In northern Iran the instrument is played in accompaniment to some special sports events including tightrope walking. Also a special tune is commonly played by sorna during a wrestling game.

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.

Barbat

One of the branches of guitar is called Barbados or harper. With the advent and growth of Islam this genuine Iranian musical instrument traveled around the world and is being now used from China up to Italy. Statues unearthed from Shush and dating back to 1500 years ago as well as those excavated in Haft Tappeh are proof of the genuine Iranian origin of this ancient instrument.

Daf

Daf is the large Persian frame drum, is used in Khangah (temple of dervishes) during the zekr (spiritual chanting) ritual. Its Pahlavi (pre-Islamic Persian language) name is Dap and Daf is the arabicized version of Dap. Many Persian poets have alluded to the Daf in their works; perhaps the most famous one is Molana Jalal-al-Din Rumi. It has become very popular these days and is now integrated into other styles of Persian music. Indeed, the Daf is becoming more popular around the world.

***************

The antiquity of daf, with the Pahlavi name dap, goes to pre-Islamic ages. Persian literature shows us the importance of this Persian frame drum in Persian Sufi music. Daf was considered a spiritual drum played in khanghahs of Iran, particularly Kurdistan. It should be mentioned that similar frame drums with similar names are played in some other countries such as daf in India, tef in Turkey, duf in Arabic countries and dap in Uyghuristan of China. Thanks to some famous daf players, daf integrated into Persian art music and it became the second national drum of Iran. The chief national drum of Iran is tonbak (the Persian goblet drum). Today daf is used in all genres of music in Iran.

Tombak / Zarb

It is the chief percussion instrument of Persian classical music. It is a one-headed drum carved from a single piece of wood. It is placed under the player's arm and held in-between the fingers of his two hands. Its body is made from wood, ceramic or light metals. But wood is the most convenient material. Tombak is comprised of various sections including the hide, a big mouth and a small one. It is the only percussion instrument in the world that might be played by making full use of all the fingers of both hands. It became known as Tombak during the reign of the Sassanids. It is placed horizontally on the player's leg and is played by two hands in a special way. The tune played by Tombak has no definite pitch, but as far as its playing technique is concerned, it is one of the most advanced instruments which its structure contains hide.

Dohol /Davul

It is a big drum covered by a piece of goat hide. It is usually played in accompaniment to sorna in the villages, agricultural areas and plains and is made in various sizes. Its greater version is commonly played in Baluchestan. Dohol is played by a rather long wooden or osseous rod on one side, while on the other side tunes are produced by plucking the instrument with a few small bones tied to the fingers of the player's other hand. The dohols played in southern Iran are cylindrical in shape and their two bases are covered by goat hide. Dohols commonly played in Fars province (Fasa) are different in form and quite similar to the western instrument known as timpani. Its body is metallic and made from copper, while its goat hide is fastened by leather band.

***************

Dohol /Davul

A davul is a large double-skin drum. It varies in sizes. One side is made of goat skin, the other side is made of sheep skin. The thin skinned is hit with a light wooden stick or twig, and the thick side is hit with a tokmak(a heavy stick used to play bass sounds). The davul is generally played outdoors accompanied by a Zurna.

Tar

Iranians consider the tar the "sultan of instruments." Its present form was developed in 18th century and has been the choice of Persian classical masters since. It has a double-bowl body of mulberry wood with a lambskin face. The fingerboard has 28 frets and the three double strings are played with a plectrum.

***************

The long and narrow neck has a flat fingerboard running level to the membrane and ends in an elaborate box with nine wooden 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 the upper side of the fingerboard: their tuning is variable according to the piece to be played and with the performer's tastes: (the tuning is somewhat imprecise also because both strings of the same pair are tightened by the same peg).

Dotar

The dotar ( meaning ``two strings'' in Persian), is an excellent instrument coming from a family of long-necked lutes and can be found throughout Central Asia, the Middle East and North East of China. Its ancestor is probably the "tanbur of Khorasan" as depicted by Al Farabi (10th century) in his essay Kitab~Al-Musiqi Al-Kabir.

In Iran, the dotar is played mainly in the northern and eastern parts of Khorasan as well as among the Turkmen of Gorgan and Gonabad. The instrument is the same but its dimensions and the number of its ligatures differ slightly from region to region. Two types of wood are used in the production of the dotar. The pear-shaped body is carved out of a single block of mulberry wood. Apricot or walnut wood is used to make its neck. It has two steel strings, which in the past were made of silk or animal .

The dotar is tuned in fourth or fifth intervals. The frets, made from animal intestines in the past, are nowadays fabricated from nylon or steel which have the advantage of being more resilient and less expensive. They are placed in chromatic progression.

Setar

Setar is one of the Iranian plectrum-type string instruments, which is plucked by the player's forefinger's nail. Sehtar or Setouyeh is a three-cord instrument, which was converted into a four-cord instrument under the reign of the Qajars. It is, in general, an ancient and gnostic instrument usually played at the gathering of dervishes most often held at Khaneqahs (monasteries or houses of dervishes), which makes the listener feel high. In view of its special vocal features, Sehtar is known as the instrument appealing to the listener's heart and the Iranian musical instrument ranking second among Iranian musicians. It is simpler than other instruments both in appearance and the method of playing. Its low tune, compactness and tenderness are the main reason for its great appeal in the course of the past centuries. It is made in various types and sizes including large, small, flat and zir-abai. Tars are made in two methods: Turkish (in many pieces) and scraped kasdani (in one piece). Sehtar is generally made from berry wood, while at some occasions that of pear or walnut tree might be used as well. Its bowel is a pear-shaped semi-sphere, while its thin and delicate handle is tenderer than that of other instruments.

Tanbur / Tanbour

The tanbur is the ancestor to most long-necked, plucked stringed instruments. Its pear shaped belly is normally carved out of one piece of mulberry wood with a long neck and fourteen gut frets. Some modern tanburs are made of bent ribs of mulberry wood. The sound board, 3-4 millimeters thick, is also made of mulberry wood which has numerous small holes for better resonance.

The tanbur has a unique playing technique by which the strings are strummed with the fingers of the right hand to produce a very full and even tremolo called shorr (literally meaning the pouring of water). This technique along with various kinds of plucking, usually with the index and pinky fingers, enables the musicians to produce different effects and various rhythmic accentuations which imitate the natural sounds of their environment such as a running stream, a water fall, a bird chirping or a horses' gallop, all translated into musical rhythms and sounds.

The ancient tanbur used to have two silk or in some instances gut strings tuned in 4th or 5th, similar to the dotar (meaning two stringed), its close relative widely used in Eastern Iran. It has also been regarded as the tanbur of Khorasan in literary texts. Although these two instruments share a similar history and are basically the same, they have developed their own repertoires, playing techniques and functions. According to the master instrument maker Ustad Mehdi Kamalian the name tanbur is taken from the word tandur or tanur, meaning clay oven, as early instrument makers dried tree trunks chosen to carve the belly in tanours for several hours in order to perfect the sound. Gradually the instrument took on the name tanbur. The present tanbur has three strings and covers the range of one octave and two notes. The lower pair of strings, made of steel, are tuned in unison normally anywhere from a (flat) to (b) and are fingered together functioning as the melody strings. The top string made of copper or brass, slightly thicker, tuned in lower fourth or fifth, functions as a sympathetic string with occasional fingering by the thumb.

The tanbur has always been considered a sacred instrument associated with the Kurdish Sufi music of Western Iran and it is believed that its repertoire is based on ancient Persian music. Up until the last fifty years this instrument was used only during djamm gatherings (devotional or liturgic ceremonies) of the Ahle-Haqq (the people of truth), followers of a particular Sufi order.

By Keyhan Kalhor

Chogur

Eight-stringed Tanbur also known as Chogur, Saz or Baglama "Instrument Of Lovers"

Santur

The santur is a persian three-octave wooden-hammered dulcimer with seventy-two strings(standard santour) 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 santur is a struck zither in the form of a shallow, regular trapezoidal box. There are several sound posts inside the box, and two small rosettes on the top panel which help to amplify the sound. The santur has 72 strings, arranged in groups of four, i.e. each of four closely spaced strings are tuned to the same pitch. Each group of four strings is supported by a small,movable, wooden bridge; the bridges are positioned to give the instrument a range of three octaves.

***************

Santour or dulcimer is a string instrument and played by beating in the Iranian music with very ancient history. The first time that dulcimer made its appearance in the ancient times was in Assyrian and Babylonian inscriptions in the year 699 before Christ. In some ancient texts the invention of dulcimer is attributed to Farabi but considering the names of musical instruments being used during the Sassanian period as related by Masoodi in which dulcimer is also listed, this attribution does not appear to be logical.

Ghanoon

The ghanoon is the Persian zither. It is a flat trapezoidal wooden box, with twenty-four strings in triple fastened at its rectangular side on one end and to pegs on the oblique side on the other. The player to make slight changes in pitch manipulates small levels lying below each course of strings. The strings are plucked with two horn plectra, one on each index finger.

Dammam

The Damam [damAm] is one of the most famous percussion instruments in the south of Iran particularly in Booshehr [buSehr] used in most of the ceremonies of that region.

The bowl of the Damam has a cylindrical construction covered by skin on both sides and fastened by straps and ropes on the sides.

In general the Damam is held on the ground and played by both hands, but sometimes it is suspended from the neck with straps during performances.
Although this instrument is particular to the south of Iran, and one can find instances of it in India as well as certain Arabic and African countries.

******************

A large drum in one piece, this instrument is covered with goatskin, which is secured by a cord, made from the fibers of a date palm knotted seven times. Dammam is played with a wooden stick and/or with the hand. In the South of Iran it is played in religious ceremonies and stored in Mosques.

Ney-Anban

Ney-Anban is manufactured from goatskin, especially tanned, to which a double reed pipe and mouthpiece are attached with the other end being merely tied together. The performer blows into the mouthpiece, and plays the melody on the double reed pipe, which has six holes for finger placement. In the South of Iran the Ney–Anban is played not only at weddings, but also at funeral services. In earlier times, people were not allowed to play Ney-Anban with Dammam.

Naghara

The term “naghara” is the Sindhi form of the Arabic naqqarah. The rounded section of the naghara is made of baked clay, while the flat side consists of treated skin which is fastened around the rim with string which is tightened over the back of the bowl.This percussion instruments is often played in pairs, where one naghara will produce low pitch beats called nar (the male) and the other for the high pitch bcats (the female). The instruments are beaten with short wooden sticks bent outward at the upper ends, called damka.

Tas

The Tas [tAs] is another percussion instrument of Kurdistan's Dervishes played alongside the daf at the climax of the Sama.

The Tas is constructed from a metallic bowl and covered with skin, stretched tight by belts on the sides of the bowl. The Tas is placed on the ground and played by two wide leather straps.

This instrument is also played during eclipses and ritual ceremonies for rain on the rooftops in Kurdistan.

Dozaleh

Dozaleh [dozAle] is one of the old folk wind instruments of Iran which is used in mirth celebrations.

Abu Nasr Farabi had called it Mezmarol-Mosana or Mozdavadg [mozdavej] (married!).
Dozaleh has a sound like Neyanban [neianbAn] (bagpipe), but to some extend more clear and lower.

It is played in Khorasan [xorAsAn], Kermanshah [KermAnSAh], and mostly in Kurdistan. In some different dialects it is called Zanbooreh [zanbureh].