A Comparative Study of Tar Making Templates in Iran

The process of making musical instruments is important to all communities. Although it helps us to understand different parts of the musical instrument that how it could affect the sound they finally produce, it could also affect the improvement of musical instruments and musicianship. This paper tries to find out the styles of making Tars in order to classify them according to their similarities and differences. The main objective of this study is to find the special styles that each instrument-maker has employed. This will help to realize the strings that each particular creator has used. The main hypothesis is that although the Tars are overtly the same, there are some differences which could help us to recognize different Tars from one another. Finding the differences comes from the physic of the Tar rather than the sound produced by it. Therefore, this study raised few general questions to all the creators of Tars in Tehran. After studying the surveys, it was decided to choose a statistical society which is smaller and precise in order to enhance the accuracy. By consulting the professors, two generations of Tar-makers were selected. One belongs to the previous generation who passed away but their musical instruments exists and are kept by the musicians, and the other belongs to the present generation, among whom only four were chosen. By finding the Tars of previous generation, we got more specific to the musical instruments which had signs and seals on it, and are kept by the professional musicians; therefor, they are least probable to be fake. Several photos were taken from the musical instruments from different angels in same conditions. A form was created including the information about the exact size of different parts of the musical instrument and a complete feature of each musical instrument. More detailed questions were also asked from the four producers of the Tar, including the main points in producing a Tar in each level of production. They were also asked to illustrate their exact styles according to their stencil (all the styles includes size, thickness and the way to achieve the thickness of the instruments’ handle and the space division of fret). Besides, for comparing the information and size of the instruments, some pictures were taken. Eventually, the research came to the conclusion that there are some significant differences in Tars. The differences are in the measure of the knobs in two sides of the body, the figure and the distance measure connecting the body and Nagaareh (the twin body) from back side, the pins on the peg box, the pins on the saddle, the distance measure of bowl and Nagaareh connection, the outside figure of the bowl and Nagaareh, the balance of the musical instrument as laid on the floor are the most important differences of the Tars. These differences could show the signs of recognizing the creator’s product. Although finding out the differences needs years of experience.