Circular frame drum (see Drum, §I, 2(vi)), found throughout the Arab world except in Lebanon (Daff, Riqq) and Syria (daff, Mazhar, riqq). It varies in diameter from 12 cm (Morocco) to 70 cm (Bahrain). Successive migrations have brought the instrument to the borders of the Indian Ocean, to Kenya (matari), Uganda (matali), Zanzibar (tari, the name of both a dance and the instrument), to the Comoros (tari), to the Maldives (thaara, name of the instrument and a semi-religious festival) and to Malaysia (tar).
The term derives from the Soqotri (southern Arabic), meaning ‘frame drum’ and ‘round object’. The roundness applies to all the models described in the field except for the Maldivian thaara (circular or octagonal); so this, unlike the duff (where anarchy reigns over the shape), shows the likelihood of a pre-Islamic split: angular shape in north Arabia, circular in the south, linking up with the round daff of Phoenician, Syrian and Mesopotamian antiquity. While with the angular duff the supporting frame is concealed by two sewn membranes, in the circular tār with one membrane the frame is exposed; this would explain the current expression reconciling tār and duff, ‘itār al-duff’ (‘the roundness of the frame drum’). Duff, however, is a generic term while tār, though more widely used in the Arab world, can only aspire to it. The conflict between the oral tradition (tār) and the written (duff) is often resolved by local definitions. In the Comoro islands, the distinction between the tār and duff (both circular frame drums) is that the second has jingles but the first has not; in Morocco the tār is round, the duff angular; in Sudan, both instruments are round and without jingles, but the term tār is found in the north, duff in the east.
The small tār is an instrument of the connoisseur, while the large is generally associated with worship. Between the two, a tār with a diameter of about 30 cm would represent explicitly the semi-profane and semi-sacred repertory (marriage, circumcision). The smallest model is confined to Morocco and has a goatskin 12 to 21 cm wide and a frame of nearly 7 cm in depth. With four or five pairs of small cymbals (shanshanāt), this instrument lends a glitter to the orchestration of music of the Andalusian nawbāt. Though very supple, it is a less virtuosic instrument than the riqq. In the context of rural Moroccan music, the instrument is often larger (up to 40 cm in width) and has jingles. Another difference is in the way it is held: perpendicular to the body in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, parallel to the body in Egypt and other parts of the Middle East (like the duff and riqq). A slightly larger version than the Moroccan, with inlay, is fully described by Lane (An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, London, 1836/R p.362); this model has five double pairs of little cymbals and is slightly smaller in Tunisia (20 cm) than in Algeria where it is handed down to women at the time of marriage. Lane also described another kind of tār ‘which is without the tinkling plates of metal which are attached to the hoop of the common tar’ (ibid., p.505). This type is nowadays found in upper Egypt, used during funeral rites. It is about 40 cm wide. The Malaysian instrument is about 30 cm in diameter, with a cowhide head attached by a metal ring and studs; its body is about 7·5 cm deep, with sloping sides into which are let three pairs of small brass cymbals.
The north Yemeni tār closely resembles the religious daff from Syria (30 cm): lambskin stuck roughly on a frame nearly 6 cm deep. The instrument has no metallic ornament. This example, for the semi-secular, semi-sacred repertory, remains unexpectedly the property of women while the larger model (60 cm) from this region is confined to the men. There is similar variety in the Maldives where the thaara exists in three formats: octagonal (40 cm) with a very deep frame (nearly 15 cm), supporting three pairs of cymbals each side; a smaller example, circular, nearly 23 cm in diameter and without cymbals; and a 25 cm model with cymbals and covered with the skin of a ray. These last two, played together in a ceremony named after the instrument, use the small cymbals choreographically but not musically. Also in Yemen, a tār about 40 to 50 cm in diameter, without jingles, sustains the heroic and religious ballads of wandering minstrels. In Sudan, the Nubian taar, from 30 to 50 cm wide and 5 to 7 cm deep, is used for secular music and music for worship.
The large diameters (50, 60, even 70 cm), covered in sheepskin, are more often linked to religious or socio-religious activities (Qatar, Bahrain). They are played together or separately and the membrane (as with the mazhar) serves as a mute. They sometimes have a few jingles. The tār can be played alone, in pairs (Sudan), in larger groups (up to 10 tār together) or in ensembles with other instruments, by men or women. If the frame is not deep and the material is not resistant to weather, the tightening of the skin in the heat may cause the frame to buckle, which makes the instrument unusable. Present-day mass production has not eliminated these faults. For all this vast family of Arab frame drums, the ideal is a dry skin, well stretched and high pitched, in direct contrast to the homonyms of southern India where dampness of the skin predominates (as in the kañjīrā).
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CHRISTIAN POCHÉ