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The standard Persian Santoor has a total amount of 18 courses and
will be called G-tune santoor (Santoor-e Sol Kuk) with
90 cm wide at the broad end, 36 cm wide at the narrow end and 6 cm
deep.
The right 9 courses (bridges) can be strung with either phosphor
bronze musical wires or brass ones. In order to prevent some
mistakable terms we call all courses, which care about the bass
position and are strung with brass or phosphor bronze strings, brass
courses and the courses strung with steel strings as steel courses.
The right side of this brass courses will not have a sound
application. The left side of brass courses can only be sounded. The
correct location of the brass courses should be adjusted in the way,
so that the sound combination of two notes at the left side and
right side of any brass course
builds a perfect fifth or fourth.
The left 9 courses must be strung with steel musical wires. The
steel courses should be positioned in a way, that the sound
combination
of two notes at the right and left side of any course
builds an octave.
While the right side of the steel courses care about the midrange
position, the left side cares about the treble position. Depending
on the mode the 1st, 4th and 7th course can be slightly moved for
some millimeters to the right side, so that the both sides of the
course causes two different sounds.
Tuning Chart for Dastgah-e Shur
|
bridge |
First Position brass strings |
Second Position steel strings |
Third Position steel strings |
|
1 |
E3-Koron | E4-Koron | E5-Koron |
|
2 |
F3 | F4 | F5 |
|
3 |
G3 | G4 | G5 |
|
4 |
A3-Koron | A4-Koron | A5b |
|
5 |
B3b | B4b | B5b |
|
6 |
C4 | C5 | C6 |
|
7 |
D4 | D5-Koron | D6-Koron |
|
8 |
E4b | E5b | E6b |
|
9 |
F4 | F5 | F6 |
Iranian
santoor
with different transcription forms like
santour
or
santur
is the hammered dulcimer of Iran (Persia).
The archetype of the instrument may be seen in a harp, carried
horizontally and struck with two sticks, found in iconographical
documents of the ancient Babylonian (1600-911 BCE) and neo-Assyrian
(911-612 BCE) eras.
Iranian santoor
consists of a trapeziform case made of walnut wood, approximately 90 cm
wide at the broad end, 36 cm wide at the narrow end and 6 cm deep. The
strings are fixed to hitch-pins along the left-hand side and wound round
metal wrest-pins
on the right by means of which they are tuned with a tuning-key (Tuning
Wrench).
Each quadruple set of strings rests on a movable bridge of hardwood (kharak).
The bridges are placed so that the strings are divided into three
sections, giving the fundamental note and two higher octaves.
There are nine (or sometimes 10, 11 and 12) quadruple strings an either
side so that, with 18 groups of strings, 27 different notes can be
played. The bass strings are of brass or copper and the trebles of
steel.
Iranian santoor
is played by striking the strings with two light hammers (mezrab)
held in three fingers of each hand. The ends of the sticks are usually
covered with cloth to soften their impact on the strings.
Persian
Santoor Tuning Charts
Persian
Santour tuning charts
Persian Santur tuning charts