Persian Iranian Music Instruments

Persian Iranian Music Instruments

DAF

DAF Persian Music InstrumentThe 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.

KAMANCHE

Derived from the Persian words kaman, ‘bow’ or ‘arc’, and cheh, ‘little’ is an ancient spiked fiddle which is ancestor to most modern European and Asian bowed instruments. It can now be found throughout the area stretching from North Africa to China. The instrument’s name varies from region to region (e.g. kamange, saz-e Keshmiri, joze, ghiczak), as does its shape (it can be spherical or cylindrical and have an open or closed back).

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.

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.

SANTOOR

The Santoor is a trapezoid-shaped hammered zither, which is struck with light wooden hammers. Originating in Persia, it has traveled the world from North Africa to Spain, throughout Eastern Europe, and to China, Korea and Japan.  The santur has seventy-two strings which are arranged on adjustable tuning pegs in eighteen sets of four. The strings are made of bronze (9 in the low register) and steel (9 in the middle register). Each set of four strings creates one single tone. There are a total of 27 tones available covering approximately three octaves. The body of the santur is usually made of walnut but can be made of various types of wood depending on the desired sound.

The santur is played with two very fine wooden hammers, sometimes covered with felt, and held with 3-4 fingers. In contrast to the playing technique of the similar Turkish or Indian instruments, where heavy hammers create tremolo by “falling” on the strings, with the Persian santur, tremolo is created and directed by the musicians wrist.

The Santoor 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 santoor 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

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.

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.

TONBAK

The Tombak is a goblet-shaped drum carved from solid mulberry wood and covered at the wide end with lamb or goat skin. It is held horizontally and played with both hands. The finger technique is extremely elaborate and consists of rolling and snapping the fingers in various ways which allow for a great variety of sounds.

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. Tom and bak are onomatopoeias for two basic strokes, one low (tom) in the center, and one high (bak) on the side of the membrane.