Dutar

Dotar (Persian دوتار ) Dotar or Dutar, is a long-necked lute that is played in Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Related two-stringed plucked instrument in this most central Asia hot dombra.

Design and dissemination

The Dotar occurs mainly in the eastern Iranian provinces, with a focus in Khorasan. Famous are the Dotar from Torbat -e Jam. As the name do- Tar says it has two strings that are tuned in the QT interval. A typical mood would be e - a The instrument but can also be tuned higher, such as g - c. The game is played mainly on the higher string ( in example a ), the fourth ( here d) or the fifth ( here e) is taken as the root. The deeper string can accordingly be retuned to produce a drone. Especially on the Turkmen Dotar in northern Iran is the deeper string often mitgegriffen so that chords arise often quart parallels. This gives the Turkmen music its own sound character. In Afghanistan, ie the high string zil and the deep bam.

A Dotar is about a meter long, the Kopus about 15-20 cm wide and 13-17 cm deep. Again, there are regional differences. The neck is fitted with frets made ​​of gut, nylon or wire rare, most of which are arranged chromatically. Dotar On some missing nuances, especially between d 'and e' and a 'and h'. Some Iranian Dotar mind even quarter-tones. The frets are partially displaced, so that even on Dotar that not all sounds as frets, quarter tones can be played, for example: a - h - c - c ♯ - d - e - f ▹ - g - a - h - c - ♯ c - d - e, f ▹ indicates the Coron - tone between f and f ♯. The range includes up to two octaves.

The Dotar is struck with the fingers of the right hand, not with a plectrum. The finger technique can be very virtuosic, as blows with the index finger, thumb, a downward or upward roles of all fingers, or combinations thereof.

The Afghan Dutar has a narrower body and has experienced a profound change in the design and use of the game at the same gebliebenem name in the middle of the 20th century. Around 1950 the two strings were extended to three, of which a melody and two drone strings (mood a - a - e). Gut strings were replaced with steel strings. The number of the collars has been increased in order to obtain a chromatic scale of half-tones. Developed around 1965, according to the general assessment Karim Dutari, a musician from Herat, a larger Dutar with 14 strings. The additionally mounted sympathetic strings should amplify the sound. The change in taste shows the influence of broadcast by Radio Afghanistan popular music. In addition, it was Karim about being able to run the played by him on the Rubab solo songs on the Dutar.

The Dutar has since played with a Metalldrahtplektrum on the index finger, which makes the sound stronger. Relatives of Iranian Dotar in Uzbekistan and Xinjiang in China are much larger and have silk strings.

Same name Dotar, also dotara or dotora wear long- necked lutes used in the folk music of Bengal and of the Bauls. These instruments have two strings and correspond to the one-stringed long Ektar. Rather, a mandolin -like stringed instruments in the North Indian folk music with four strings also hot Dotar.