Tar Book: Persian Plucked String Instrument

In recent years, people have become more
interested in the diverse
musical cultures that
have come to exist in
our world. World music
festivals and concerts
have provided excellent opportunities for those
who are eager to discover and enjoy music different from that found in their native culture.
Academically, ethnomusicology has served
as one of the main tools for deeper discovery.
Ethnomusicologists investigate the different
aspects of a musical culture, and since the 20th
century, they have explored and introduced many
different musical cultures to the global community.
However, due to a variety of reasons, some countr
ies and cultures have received more attention than
others.
Some Western ethnomusicologists have
studied Persian music and have attempted
to introduce the Persian musical culture to
non-Iranians by publishing books and articles.
Although their efforts are admirable, there is still
a long way to go to present all the different aspects
of Persian music. This is especially true when it
comes to Persian musical instruments, and we
realize that there is not nearly enough information about them. There are few comprehensive
materials, such as books or academic articles,
about many Iranian instruments, even in Persian.
We will come back to this later in the book. In
Preface
fact, the need for having a more reliable, comprehensive, and authentic source about one of the
primary Persian instruments, the tar, was one of
the main reasons for writing this book.
As a friend and co-worker of the author, I
have been involved in the process of writing,
publishing, and translating this book .The idea of
writing a book about the tar was in the mind of the
author for a long time. As a tar player and instructor, Ashkan Ghafouri saw the need for a book that
contains basic and necessary information about
the instrument and prominent players through its
history that can be useful for tar players, tar instructors, and Persian music lovers in general. For
such a goal, a serious, determined, and disciplined
endeavor was required. Fortunately, the author
had the drive and motivation to follow his interests and accomplish his goal.
In writing this book, Ashkan Ghafouri decided to invite some dedicated and well-known
experts to participate and contribute. Various parts
of the book were written with their supervision
and consultation. In some cases, a whole section
was written by one of these experts. Furthermore,
many documents, including pictures, letters, audio
record-ings, etc. had to be collected. As a result, it
took several years to finish and publish the book.
It should be mentioned that the advice and supervision of the two undisputed masters of Persian
music, Hossein Alizadeh and Houshang Zarif,
in all areas of this project were very helpful and
essential.