Term applied to various types of long-necked fretted lute in Central Asia and Iran (in Iran it is usually rendered as ‘dotār’). The name derives from Persian, meaning ‘two strings’, but some kinds of dutār have more than two.
The various types of dutār are thought to derive from the ancient tunbūr of Khorāssān (Khorāssān being a historical region now divided between Iran, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, and also the name of a large province of north-eastern Iran; see Tanbūr). In their various forms, dutārs are known by the ethnic group with which they are associated (Uzbek, Tajik, Turkmen or Uighur) or the region where they are found (Khorāssān or Herat). Common features of the dutār are its long, slightly tapering neck; a soundtable (belly) made of mulberry wood; the use of frets; and (originally) two strings which used to be of silk or gut (see fig.1). Silk strings are still used on the Uzbek amd Uighur dutār, but from the mid-20th century steel strings were adopted. On some kinds of dutār only the first string is stopped with the fingers, the second acting as a drone; on others, the second string is also stopped, usually with the thumb.
The Uzbek dutār (fig.2a) is distinguished by the construction of its pear-shaped resonator, which is carvel-built from a number of shaped wooden strips. Its wooden belly is pierced with small soundholes. The gut or nylon frets are tied round the neck; they are positioned to give a gapped chromatic scale, generally with the omission (relative to the note of the open string) of frets for the flattened 5th and flattened 9th. The strings are vibrated with a highly sophisticated variety of right-hand strokes, and double stopping with the thumb is common. In Chinese Turkestan the Uighur dutār is very like the Uzbek model, with a carvel-built resonator, and an exceptionally long neck and large soundbox.
The Turkmen dutār, found in Turkmenistan and among Turkmen peoples of Afghanistan and Iran, is a much smaller instrument. Its resonator is carved from a single block of mulberry wood. The two strings, the frets and the pegs are of steel and the fretting is chromatic.
The term Khorāssāni dotār is applied to two distinct types of dotār found in the Iranian province of Khorāssān. The dotār of northern Khorasan (especially around the cities of Bojnurd and Quchān) is related to the Turkmen instrument, with the pear-shaped resonator carved from a single block of mulberry wood (fig.2e). It is played by Kurdish-, Turkic- and Persian-speakers (for illustration see Iran, §II, fig.7). The Khorāssāni dotār of eastern Iranian Khorāssān (especially around the town of Torbat-e Jām) is somewhat different (fig.2b). The resonator has a small ridge running along the back, and a characteristic form of decoration consists of bone strips inlaid round the back and sides of the resonator where it joins the neck. Tuning pegs are inserted medially and laterally. The fretting is unusual, giving the following intervals above the open first string: major 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, minor 7th, octave, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th; the 6th and 10th are flattened by 60 to 70 cents, producing neutral intervals typical of certain Persian modes. The 4th or 5th usually serves as a ‘final’, with the second (drone) string tuned an octave below it. The two strings are vibrated together with various hand strokes. This type of dotār used to have gut or silk strings, but since about 1950 steel has been used, with nylon frets. In recent times this type of Khorāssāni dotār has undergone some degree of change, with a much larger resonator, longer neck, sometimes three (metal) strings, and extra frets. These changes seem to be inspired by the dotār of northern Khorāssān, from which techniques such as double stopping have been borrowed.
Afghanistan and Iran used to share a similar type of dutār. The Torbat-e Jām type of Khorāssāni dotār described immediately above was formerly common in rural areas of Herat province (western Afghanistan). It had the same idiosyncratic system of fretting and was equipped with gut strings. From about 1950 this kind of dutār underwent various changes in the city of Herat, under the influence of Afghan popular music disseminated from Radio Afghanistan in Kabul. It was fitted with three metal strings and its total size increased (fig.2d). Extra frets were added to produce a gapped chromatic scale like that of the Uzbek dutār, and this eliminated the idiosyncratic ‘Persian’ neutral intervals. A metal plectrum, worn like a thimble on the first finger, was adopted from the Afghan tanbur; scraping this across the dutār belly became an important sonic aspect of the instrument. By 1965 a larger type of dutār was developed, with three drone strings and ten or (usually) 11 sympathetic strings running along the side of the neck. The length of the body was reduced in proportion to the total length of the instrument (allowing more frets to be tied round the neck in the higher pitch range). In some models the resonator was rounder and the ridge at the back was eliminated. The so-called 14-string dutār (dutār-e-chahārdah jelau, fig.2c) in fact usually has 15 strings in all; it was to some extent inspired by the example of the Afghan rubāb (see Rabāb, §5(i)). The shortest sympathetic string of the 14-string dutār is raised by a protuberance on the bridge (as on the rubāb) so that it can be struck separately, and the right-hand sīmkārī playing technique has also been transferred to the dutār. The three- and 14-string forms of the Khorasani instrument may be termed the Herati dutār.
Taken as a group, dutārs have various applications. The Uzbek dutār has been used in Uzbekistan for about a century for the genre of art music known as shash makom. Prior to the Afghan civil war, some Uzbeks of northern Afghanistan also used the Uzbek dutār for art music, especially around the town of Andkhui. In Uzbekistan the dutār is also used for popular and regional music, as an accompaniment for songs. In the Fergana valley, Khorezm and Chinese Turkestan it was especially associated with women, and was common in most households; the women's instrument is said to be smaller and softer in tone. Among the Uighur people of Chinese Turkestan, the dutār is (or was) also common in many homes, and is used to accompany singing and dancing. In Turkmenistan the dutār is used singly, with other dutārs, or with the spike fiddle (gyjak) as an accompaniment to epics and as an instrument with its own repertory.
In Iran the dotār has an extensive repertory as a solo instrument, used for instrumental pieces and to accompany songs or dances. It is sometimes used to accompany Sufi rituals at the shrine of Torbat-e Jām. In western Afghanistan, the various changes to the instrument are reflected in different uses. The three-string Herati dutār was associated with radio music and dance music. The 14-string Herati dutār was played by a new kind of urban professional musician in Herat, used within a band including a vocalist/harmonium-player, other melodic instruments (e.g. rubāb) and tablā drums.
J. Baily: ‘Recent Changes in the dutār of Herat’, AsM, viii/1 (1976), 29–64; repr. in Musical Processes, Resources and Technologies, ed. K.K. Shelemay (New York, 1990), 223–57
M. Slobin: Music in the Culture of Northern Afghanistan (Tucson, AZ, 1976)
J. Baily: ‘Movement Patterns in Playing the Herati dutār’, The Anthropology of the Body, ed. J. Blacking (London, 1977), 275–330
L. Sakata: ‘Afgan Musical Instruments dutār and tambura’, Afghanistan Journal, v/4 (1980), 150–52
J. During: ‘Dotar’, Encyclopaedia Iranica, ed. E. Yarshater (London and Costa Mesa, CA, 1982–)
J. During: disc notes, Asie Centrale: les maîtres du dotâr: Ouzbekistan – Tadjikistan – Iran (Khorâsân) – Turkmenistan, AIMP XXVI VDE CD 735 (1993), 16–35
J. During: disc notes, Ouzbékistan: l’art du dotâr, OCORA, C 560111 (1997), 13–21
JEAN DURING/JOHN BAILY