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The SETAR

The origins of the setar go back to a pre-Islamic lute called the tanbourKhorassan, from the family of long neck and small resonating chamberplucked instruments. In the evolution of Persian music, this instrument

underwent many transformations, especially with regard to the shape ofthe resonating chamber, the number and placement of the frets, and thenumber of strings. This last transformation took place at the beginning ofthe twentieth century. A fourth string was added to the setar (the literalmeaning of which is three strings) by Moshtaq Ali Shah, who positionedit between the second and the third. Today the setar has 4 strings, twosingles and one doubled.

The setar is tuned in different ways depending on the mode in which themusician plays. A wide variety of tuning can be adapted to the setarregarding the desired effect by the instrument, modal or non-modal.

The instrument has between 25 and 29 moveable gut frets (depending toplayers) organized in microtones according to the Persian musical scales.The setar has a range of two and a half octaves. Depending on the tuningof the lowest string, it can go from B to A2b.

The strings are plucked with the help of the nail of the index finger on the right hand(nakhon) in a back-land-forth movement (rst va tchap) that allows the musician a varietyof combinations ranging from the most simple to the most complex (mezrabs).

As the setar is primarily a monodic instrument, the musician usually plays on one string ata time while creating resonance and ambient (sympatic) sounds with the other strings. Butthere are also new techniques of playing consisting by using two, three and sometimes allfour of the setars strings.

As the ornamentation has a great importance in Persian music, there is a variety ofmezrabs with the right hand and also lot of left hand movements, which have the role ofcreating the ornamentation on the notes.

Tunings :

In the frame of traditional music, the tuning of the setar have never been adjusted to thediapason. The first string is called DO or C but, it could be somewhere between A andC (usually B or Bb). When the instrumentalist plays in an ensemble tuned to diapason, thesetar will be also tuned to the diapason. The first string is always tuned C. The secondcould be tuned to G or to F. The third and fourth strings are tuned in order to have thesympathetic sound of principal notes of the mode.

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These are some of the conventional tunings used by setar players to play in the frame ofthe modal system of Persian music, radif and its dastghs and avazs :** p= koron between natural and flat

(double) string #4 and #3 : C/C1(single) string #2: G(single) string #1: C1

(double) string #4 and #3 : D/D1(single) string #2: G(single) string #1: C1

(double) string #4 and #3 : D/A(single) string #2: G(single) string #1: C1

(double) string #4 and #3 : Ep/Bp(single) string #2: G(single) string #1: C1

(double) string #4 and #3 : Ap/Dp(single) string #2: G(single) string #1: C1

(double) string #4 and #3 : C/C1(single) string #2: F(single) string #1: C1

Alternative tunings can also be used to play pieces that are not necessarily in the frame ofradif and its modal system:

(double) string #4 and #3 : Ab/Db(single) string #2: F(single) string #1: C1

(double) string #4 and #3 : C/B(single) string #2: F#(single) string #1: C1

(double) string #4 and #3 : B/B1(single) string #2: G(single) string #1: C1

Kiya Tabassian

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