Setar

The Persian word سه‌تار setâr is a combination of سه se—meaning "three"—and تار târ—meaning "string", therefore the word gives the meaning of "three-stringed" or "tri-stringed".

The Satar (Uighur: ساتار; Chinese: 萨塔尔, Sàtǎ'ěr)[lower-alpha 1] is an important instrument in 12 muqam. It is a bowed lute with 13 strings, one raised bowing string and 12 sympathetic strings, tuned to the mode of the muqam or piece being played.

Comparison of the bowl of the tanbur (top) and setar (bottom).

The setar belongs to the tanbur family, but today it is very close to the tar in terms of playing method, shape of the handle and techniques. In the past, the instrument had three strings. The modern setar has four strings, the third and fourth strings forming a course, played at the same time. The combination of the two is usually referred to as the "bam" (بم), the same name as one of the strings.

The need for the additional fourth string was recognized centuries ago, by intellectual thinkers such as Abu Nasr al-Farabi, Abu Ali Sina, Safi al-Din Ermavi, and (in the 20th century) the late Abul Hassan Khan Saba.

The new wire is the "fourth wire" because it is the last of the four strings to be added to the instrument. However, it was inserted between the second and third string, so that when looking at the modern instrument being played, it is the third string from the bottom.

The newest string is known as the Mushtaq (مشتاق) string and according to a narration of Abolhassan Saba, was first used by a dervish named Mushtaq Ali Shah.

The setar was first recorded for His Master's Voice in the winter of 1888-1889 (1306 AH) by Arthur James Twain. He recorded singer Batool Rezaei (stage name: Banoo Machol Parvaneh, mother of Khatereh Parvaneh) playing setar, accompanied by Habibollah Samaei on santur, Ghavam Al-Sultan on tar and Agha Mehdi Navai on ney.[2][3]

The open strings on the setar are tuned in scientific pitch notation to C₃ C₄ • G₃ • C₄. The lowest pitch strings played together as a course (C₃ C₄ are the bass string (made of bronze or phosphor-bronze) and the drone (made of steel). The highest pitch strings are the "yellow" G₃, made of bronze or phosphor-bronze and the "white" G₃ made of steel.

Players not only tune the strings of the setar, but also move the gut or nylon bridges that are tied around the neck, between the neck and the strings. Since these frets are moveable, players can move them to set notes closer or farther apart. The instrument is designed to play microtones, pitches between the standard western pitches on the piano keyboard. A Koron lowers and a Sori raises the pitches by quarter steps (flats and sharps are half-steps).

The table below contains the names and playable samples of notes, for a string set to C. It can be used to set the frets by players tuning their instruments.

Hossein Alizadeh playing Setar

• Hossein Alizadeh
• Mohammad-Reza Lotfi
• Atâ Jangouk
• Kayhan Kalhor
• Mirza Abdollah
• Sa'id Hormozi
• Yusef Forutan
• Ahmad Ebadi
• Abolhasan Saba
• Dariush Safvat
• Mojtaba Mirzadeh
• Jalal Zolfonun
• Dariush Talai
• Massoud Shaari
• Behdad Babaei
• Hafez Nazeri
• Abdollah Alijani Ardeshir
• Mehdi Aminian

Hafez Nazeri Playing the Setar, 2001

• Music of Iran
• Barbat (lute)
• Bağlama
• Sitar

• How to tune a setar