Double-chested plucked lute of the Rabāb family, with a membrane as a soundtable, found in Iran and the Caucasus. It is used in popular urban entertainments (motrebi) but is associated more with art music, owing its popularity in classical Iranian music to such 19th-century performers as Ali Akbar and Hoseyn Qoli. It exists now in two forms, the Iranian and the Azerbaijani or Caucasian.
The Iranian tār, which is the older of the two, is carved from a block of mulberry wood and has a deep, curved body with two bulges shaped like a figure 8. The upper surface is shaped like two hearts of different sizes, joined at the points (illustration). The long neck has a fingerboard covered with bone. On the lower skin a horn bridge supports six metal strings in three courses, tuned c/c' (or d/d') – g/g – c'/c' (in 19th-century examples the bottom string is not doubled at the octave). Twenty-five movable gut frets divide the octave into 15 microtonal intervals. The timbre of the Iranian tār is clear and resonant because of the delicate skin of lamb’s foetus used for the soundtable. The strings are plucked with a brass plectrum coated in wax, making possible both subtlety and virtuosity in the playing technique. Attempts to construct a bass version of the instrument have not succeeded.
The Caucasian tār (tār-e qafqāzi) is differentiated from the Iranian by its shallower, less curved body; in Azerbaijan, the two bulging sections are glued together in large instruments. As well as the three main double courses, tuned variously according to the mode to be played (e.g. f – g – c', d – g – c' or c – g – c'), it has five or six sympathetic strings (zang), sometimes played as open strings without a plectrum. These are tuned an octave and a 5th higher. Modern instruments may have five or six melody strings, tuned g' – c'' – c – g – c'. The Caucasian instrument has a wider neck and bridge than the Iranian, and usually has 22 gut frets. These can be adjusted to produce microtonal intervals for traditional mugam performance or to the 12-note tempered scale. The membrane, usually made of the pericardium of a bullock, is thicker than the Iranian type. The strings are plucked with a plectrum usually made of bakelite or similar hard, synthetic material, or in rare cases of bone. The timbre is harder and drier, and its playing style is closer to that of the Central Asian kashgar rubāb: it is held almost horizontally against the upper chest, and the performer shakes the tār slightly to produce a vibrating sound. The Caucasian tār is highly esteemed in Azerbaijan and Armenia. It is sometimes found among the Turks of Khorāsān and in Uzbek and Tajikistan, where it is played in ensemble and, in the Shirvani style of epic performance, by bakhshis, and has also been introduced in Turkey.
and other resources
K. Vertkov, G. Blagodatov and E. Yazovitskaya, eds.: Atlas muzďkal'nďkh instrumentov narodov SSSR (Moscow, 1963, 2/1975 with 4 discs)
N. Caron and D. Safvate: Iran: les traditions musicales (Paris, 1966)
C.F.A. Farr: The Music of Professional Musicians of North-West Iran (Azerbaijan) (diss., U. of Washington, 1976)
J. During: La musique iranienne: tradition et évolution (Paris, 1984)
JEAN DURING (with ROBERT AT’AYAN and JOHANNA SPECTOR)