This important instrumnet belong to the category of zithers. string instrumnet which have no neck or yoke,whose strings are usually open,not stopped and whose resonating body can be a board box,stick or tube. In the class of board are both psalteries and dulcimers as well as the western keyboard instruments. The psaltery usually has strings of gut,silk,or nylon and the strings are plucked. The dulcimer on the other hand has metal strings that are struck with plectra. Both kinds of zither,psalteries and dulcimers,are found . The other psaltery or plucked zither is the qanun ,an instrument now rarely used. but still extremely important . The dulcimer or santur on the ,on the other hand ,is extremely popular . The instrument itself,however was not depicted until the 13 century .The struck zither ,the santur is a shallow box in the from of a regular trapezoid. Inside the box are wooden props and the top surface is pierced with two small rosettes. There are note there are foure string of identical pitch and thus eighteen right ,are tightened by means of metal pegs inserted directly supported by a small wooden bridige. The bridges of the santur are cleverly arranged to produce the rather sizeable rang of three octaves on the a fairly small playing surface. There are two sets of nine strings- one set of brass,the other of steel-strung alterately from top to bottom. The notes of the lowest octave,E to F, are played on the brass strings whosebridges are set along pitch. The notes of the two higher octaves E to F and,,are played on the steel strings whose bridges along the left side are placed so as to divide the string into two sections,or short and medium lengths for the high and the middle ranges respecttively. Thus ,each group of the steel strings and the adjacent brass strings give three notes from left to right e and e. The note E can be played on the extreme right of the brass strings,but this is not usual. There is only one group of strings for each of the seven notes of the octave with the exepton of E and F . A single note in any given register, there fore,can have only one value ,that is ,the note G can be tuned to G-natural,G-flat,G-sharp or either of the microintervals ,G-koron or G-sori,but not to more than one of these at same time. If the player reguires both a G-natural and a G-kroron in the same piece,he must sound one of them in a different register.
The famous player
1- Abol hassan saba
2-faramarz payvar
3- Hossien saba
4- hossein malek
5- parviz mashkatian
6- Jalil andalibi
