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The Ud
The single most important instrument of the middle eastern people is ,of course,the ud ,or lute.At the height of the brilliant civilization ,the lute was to middle east what the piano has been to Europeans since the nineteenthcentury-the chief unstrument not only for musical practic ,but for theory as well . The works of al-farabi,ibn sina,and safi al-din discuss in great detail the different systems of fretting the lute and intervals that could be obtained on the instrument. Although the lute retains its importance in the arb countries today and is still the most popular non-western instrument, it has virually disappeared from iran.
Its prsent existence in persia is due almost entirely to the efforts of the ministry of culture,which is trying to revive this instrument. To this end the ud is used in the orchestras of native instruments sponsored by the ministry, conservatory of national music. The ud played is like the instrument used in the arab countries except that iran with their usual flair for elegance,use an eagle's feather as a plectrum instead of the bone or plastic used by the arab.As early as the sassanain period,iran had an ud called the barbat. This was the instrument played by the famous musician barbat and that represented in sassanian art. The construction was different from that of the arab lute,since in the barbat,the body and neck were constructed of one graduated piece of wood, in contrast to the arab ud where the two were separate.
The lute was the chief instrument for art music until the safavid period. Frequently represnted in miniatures,it is also found among the wall paintings at chehel sotun. The long-necked tambur,second to the ud in popularity during this period,seems to have gradually gained in importance until during the eighteenth century, it superseded the lute. |
