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.
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.
