Focusing on Azerbaijan A musical instrument of global sounding Saadat ABDULLAYEVA Doctor of Arts, Professor THE TAR IS PRObabLY THE MOST POPULAR MUSICAL INSTRUMENT AMONG “The trio”, 2005, Zakir Ahmadov, AZERbaIJANIS. ITS SHAPE, WHICH IS DIFFERENT FROM OTHER STRINGED INSTRU- bronze, 40x25x15 cm MENTS, IMMEDIATELY ATTRACTS ATTENTION. The juicy and colorful sounds to the lineup of mughams, and of a coming from the strings of the tar bass string that is used only for per- please the ear and captivate people. forming them. The wide range, lively It is certainly explained by the perfec- sounds, melodiousness, special reg- tion of the construction, specifically isters, the possibility of performing the presence of twisted steel and polyphonic chords, virtuoso passag- copper strings that convey all nuanc- es, lengthy dynamic sound rises and es of popular tunes and especially, attenuations, colorful decorations mughams. This is graphically proved and gradations of shades all allow by the presence on the instrument’s the tar to be used as a solo, accom- neck of five frets that correspondent panying, ensemble and orchestra 46 www.irs-az.com instrument. But nonetheless, the tar sounding board instead of a leather is a recognized instrument of solo sounding board contradict this con- mughams when the performer’s clusion. The double body and the mastery and the technical capa- leather sounding board are typical of bilities of the instrument manifest the geychek which, unlike the tar, has themselves in full. The tar conveys a short neck and a head folded back- the feelings, mood and dreams of a wards. Moreover, a bow is used play person especially vividly and fully dis- this instrument. Given all this, it is pos- closes his soul. sible that the tar migrated from the The tar became most famous Caucasus i.e. from Azerbaijan [1, 6, 7]. in Azerbaijan in the 18th century. At Historically, the tar was wide- the same time, its presence in the spread in a relatively small area 10th, 11th, 14th, 16th and 17th centuries confined to Azerbaijan and Iran. It is proved by the words of the poets had five strings (two white, two yel- Baba Tahir Uryan, Farrukh Sistani, Qa- low and one bass string), a big and tran Tabrizi, Assar Tabrizi, Muhammad deep body, while 27-28 frets were Fizuli, Hovsi Tabrizi, as well as minia- tied on its long neck. Since the in- tures [1, 2, 3]. At the same time, what strument is heavy, performers held it we said shows that this instrument on their knees – under their breast - was unpopular in separate periods. when they played it. Tar means a “string” or “thread” in In the 1870s, the tar was recon- Persian. This word was usually used structed by the outstanding per- to describe instruments of the same former and native of Karabakh, Mirza type that differ from each other only Sadig Asad oglu (1846-1902), who by the number of strings, for example, was popularly known as Sadigjan yektar, dutar, setar, chartar, panjtar, because listeners who admired his sheshtar, in which the changing first performance could not help exclaim- syllable means numbers (from one to ing “jan!” or “Sadig jan!”. Initially, he six). It is difficult to explain why the increased the number of strings to root of this word was chosen to name 18 and then confined himself to 13 a many-stringed instrument, which is strings – two three-chord strings at the tar. Most likely, the name of the tar the bottom, double and single bass was derived from the simplification of strings in the middle and two double Woman playing the tar, the word “gimtar” (gim – sound, tar/ ringing ones in the upper part of the Abu Gasim Tabrizi, 1816 dar – tree), which means a “sound- fingerboard, leaving 22 frets on the ing tree” [4]. It is interesting that the neck. To avoid the neck bending, it name of the many-stringed (up to is fastened on a special protuber- exist in Central and Southern Iran. At 16 strings) instrument - the tanbur, ance on the body, and from within, the turn of the 20th century, the Ira- which is popular in Central Asia, is a wooden strut is installed inside the nian musician Gholam Hoseyn Dar- based not on the number of strings, protuberance. Moreover, Sadigjan re- vish (1873-1926) added a sixth string but on sounds (tan means a heart duced the thickness of the body and to it [7], while the reconstructed tar, and bur means to pull). straightened its sides, thus expand- which was called the “Azerbaijani tar”, Structurally, only the Pamir rubab ing the upper part of the body and became more common in Azerbaijan is regarded as being close to the tar; increasing the strength of the sound. from the last quarter of the 19th centu- according to another version, the The lighter instrument could now be ry. In 1929, the number of strings was tar is regarded as some sort of a hy- held on the breast. This suddenly reduced to 11 in order to secure more brid of the tanbur and ud [5]. Earlier boosted the performance of the stable tuning for the instrument. sources put forward the version that tar. Gaining popularity, such a tar After the heated debates of the tar formed from the setar [6] or quickly spread to the whole of the the 1920s and 1930s on the issue geychek [7], which are widespread in Caucasus, Turkey’s Kars Province of preserving or refusing the tar, Iran. But the pear-shaped body of the and Central Asia. the genius Azerbaijani composer, setar and the presence of a wooden The five-stringed tar continued to Uzeyir Hajibayov, managed to www.irs-az.com 47 Focusing on Azerbaijan from a mulberry, apricot or nut tree. The head is shaped as a narrow, deep box open from the front, up- per and lower sides and has round and figured (often star-shaped) cuts on the sides. Three big chips (with a round head) and three small chips (with a flat head) are attached to it from the top, while three big ones are attached from the opposite side. They are made mainly from pear. Such chips “sit” very well on the head. The protuberance from pine wood has a square shape. One of them rests on the lower part of the body from in- side, while the other end rests on the end of the neck. It does not allow the neck to bend downwards, upwards or sideways. The heart membrane of cattle (except for the buffalo) or sheatfish breast skin is pulled on the open side of the body – the sounding board (uz), which acts as a sound resonator. Twenty-two frets are tied across the neck at certain distances from each other. This number of frets cor- responds to the sound pitch char- acteristic of Azerbaijani music. They are made from a sheep’s small bowel which gives the instrument gentle Shusha. Musical instruments factory sounding. In the recent period, the bowel has been replaced with catgut d efend it among instruments with small bowls. Masters figuratively say or capron thread. Because of this, the uniformly tempered 12-tone pitch that the big and small bowls play the tar has started to sound rougher, but and thus ensure that it is included role of the heart and the kidneys. The the frets have become stronger. in musical, opera and symphonic sound increases in the heart, and go- A big stand is placed in the center orchestras. Thanks to this, tar classes ing through the “navel” (the zone of of the sounding board of the big bowl, began to open in higher, special sec- transition from the big to the small while a smaller stand is placed on the ondary and music colleges. bowl), is filtered in the kidney. The lower part of the body. A threshold is The main components of the tar body resembles the number eight placed at the place where the head are the body (chanag), the protuber- from above. The body is made from and the neck are connected, while ance (uch gol), the butt (kup), the one piece of mulberry tree. small additional stands are placed neck (gol), the head (kalla), chips The neck is long. It is flat from on the upper edge of the neck in its (ashikh), thresholds (parda), stands the upper facial side and round from middle part. Their purpose (except for (kharak) and strings (sim). The total the bottom. In order to facilitate the the lower stand) is to keep the strings length of the instrument varies from movement of the left hand while over the body and the neck at a cer- 830 to 890 mm. playing, the neck gradually becomes tain height and at a distance from The body of the tar, which acts as narrow towards the top. The core of each other. a resonator, is elongated and convex a nut tree is used to make the neck. The tar has 11 metal strings (sim) with dents on the sides and consists The body and neck are attached of various degrees of thickness. The of two unequal halves – big and to the peg-shaped butt that is made lower thin double white, yellow and 48 www.irs-az.com bass (kok/dam) strings are regarded as the main ones and play the tune. The next bass (bam kok, pitch strings) red thick string is used for enriching the sound and chords. Above the bass strings, there are two pairs of white strings – zang, jingana and simlar (ringing strings), and they are almost twice as shorter.