At the time of the dutar's humble origins in the 15th century as a shepherd's instrument its strings were made from gut. However, with the opening up of the Silk Road, catgut gave way to strings made from twisted silk imported from China. To this day some instruments still feature silk strings, although nylon or steel strings are also commonly used.[1][2][3][4]
The dutar has a warm, dulcet tone.[citation needed] Typical sizes for the pear-shaped instrument range from one to two meters.
Typically it is tuned La Re or A D, but it also depends on the region.
Turkmen dutar specifications
Musicologist Viktor Belyayev described the dutar in the 1920s thus:
The body of the dutar is made of a solid piece of mulberry wood, burnt and hollowed out. This body is pear-shaped. The fingerboard of the dutar is narrow and rounded, convenient for two fingers to grip and for quick movements of the hands. The dutar has two strings made of local Turkmen raw silk. The usual dimensions of the dutar: the length of the whole instrument is 87 cm, the length of the fingerboard is 37 cm, the length of the body (on its upper plane) is 48.5 cm. The strings of the dutar are tuned in quarta, and their construction is rather low-sometimes both strings are tuned in the small octave, sometimes the lower one goes even within the big octave. The dutar has thirteen frets, which are low metal lintels...
The dutar is a “plucked” instrument, although this expression does not quite fit here, because the strings on the dutar are not plucked with the fingers, as on the guitar, and are not brought into vibration with a plectrum, as on the mandolin, but are struck with quick strokes of the hand, just as it is done on the Russian balalaika, derived from the eastern dutar, and brought to Russia during the Tatar invasion. The technique of the right hand when playing the dutar requires great development, because, due to the softness of its sound, this instrument requires rapid repetition of beats. Turkmen music for dutar is entirely two-voiced, and fourths are taken with the thumb and middle finger, fifths are taken with the thumb and little finger, and major and minor tertias are taken with the thumb and index finger. The ring finger participates mainly only in melismas and is of secondary importance for basic fingering when playing the dutar.[5]
Ideally the dutar's neck is made of apricot wood, and in the modern era the strings are more likely to be steel than either silk or gut. Traditionally the dutar has thirteen frets corresponding to an octave plus an augmented second, and is tuned to fourths. In modern times it has transitioned from being a solo instrument used purely to accompany a singer to an ensemble instrument as well as for performing purely instrumental numbers.[6]
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists
Dutar (right) with tanbur in the Horniman museum, London, UK.
^Belyayev, Viktor; Uspenskiy, Viktor (1979), Туркменская музыка (in Russian), Ashkhabad: Izdatel'stvo Turkmenistan, pp. 112–120
^Gulyyew, Sh.; Rejepova, G. (2016), "Туркменская народная музыкальная культура", in Dubova, N.A. (ed.), Туркмены, Народы и культуры (in Russian), Moscow: Nauka, p. 462
