The Dotar, Dutar or Dutor (literally meaning "two strings" in persian), comes from a family of long-necked lutes, closely related to Setar and Tanbur, and could be found throughout Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, the Middle East and as far as in Eastern Turkistan or Xinjiang, China. In the today Republic of Turkmenistan, the Dutar is considered as a national instrument and is the instrument par excellence of the Bakhshis.
If there are a few artists who have heavily influenced the twentieth century Persian classical music by their work and style, Abolhasan Saba is for sure one of them.
More than fifty years after his death this multi-instrumentalist, composer, researcher and master of Radif (the Persian Classical Repertoire) continues to pour vitality and freshness through his important contributions.
Saba was born in Tehran at the turn of the Century, in November 17th, 1902 into a family that had for long embraced music and literature by tradition. His familiarity with music began when learning the basics of Setar from his father Kamal ol Saltaneh and Tombak from his aunt's maid. He finished school at the American College of Tehran (later called Alborz) and let his ever growing desire of studying music to be fulfilled by attending, nothing less than the courses of the greatest masters of the Persian Classical Music of the moment: Mirza Abdollah Farahani for Setar, Darvish Khan for Tar, Hossein Esmail Zadeh for Kamancheh, Hossein Hang Afarin for Violin, Ali Akbar Shahi for Santoor and Haji Khan for Tombak.
Safī al-Dīn al-Urmawī and the Theory of Music: Al-Risāla al-sharafiyya fī al-nisab al-ta’līfiyya Content, Analysis, and Influences. (see source)
This article analyzes the thoughts on the theory of music of Safi al-Din Urmawi (born ca. 1216 A.D in Urmia died in 1294 A.D.), one of the greatest Persian musicians and scholars.
Artistic creations are the result of material and spiritual constructs that each nation creates in its lifetime. Many such creations, such as historical buildings, books, and works of art, weather the ravages of time and remain with us today. The rate of survival of older art is much higher in the west because of the propensity of the respective governments both to support and to preserve works of art.
