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A Persian zither-type stringed instrument played with two delicate wooden mallets. There are 72 strings over two sets of 9 bridges on each side producing 27 diatonic tones, a little over 3 octaves. For further description, see  The use of the Western staff notation should not mislead the reader into the impression that the tuning of Persian music will be the same as in Western music. However, the tuning is very close, and those cases in which a pitch deviates very much from Occidental norms are indicated by the use of special symbols.3 It is customary in the Persian practice to place a "key" signature only on the first staff of a transcribed piece, because the same mode is followed throughout the composition. Further, it must be stressed that the use of such "key" signatures does not imply a Western scale or key concept but indicated certain modal tunings only. Some of the special symbols used in this study are as follows:  There are several peculiarities of the Persian language which may be explained here:
ORGANIZATION OF THE PROJECT Definitions of Terms Used In Persian music there are a number of specialized terms which are necessary to the understanding of the art of improvisation. They are explained as needed in the following chapters, and an index referring to them is given at the end of the work. Organization of the Remainder of the Thesis A review of the literature pertaining to the report can cultural background is found in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 consists of the tonal structural aspects of the preexisting repertoire. Definitions, structural elements, and techniques of improvisation appear in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 is devoted to comparison of two different radif-ha, those of Saba and Ma’aruffi, and Chapter 6 presents a summary and conclusion. Literature on the subject of Persian music is quite limited. It consists mainly of unpublished dissertations in English completed in the United States and a few other sources. None of these, with the exception of Zonis’ dissertation (63), contribute to the subject of improvisation other than incidentally. CULTURAL BACKGROUND Recent History Results of a survey of the recent history of Iranian music can be expressed briefly.4 Information of the practice of traditional Persian music is limited because it was not recorded by any means, and the art was handed down from one generation to another by rote and oral teaching (in Persian it is described as "chest to chest"). Zonis says: Tracing Persian history through so many tortured centuries is indeed a formidable task, For the music historian it is even more problematical. Unlike the visual and literary arts, which can be studied from surviving works and fragments, there are virtually no examples of the art of music until the modern period. That the music was almost never written down is understandable in light of the way it is composed and performed. Since Persian music has been traditionally based on improvisation, exact transmission of the repertory was far less important than in Western music. And because most teaching was done by rote, no one needed a score. Thus, although alphabetic systems for the notation of music existed in Islamic countries at least as early as the ninth century, they were used only occasionally. In Persia, notation did not become common until the second quarter of the twentieth century, and there are still many Persian musicians who cannot read music. (63: 34-35) The traditional music of today can be traced back to the middle of the nineteenth century owing to the contributions of the head of a family of musicians whose grandsons are still performing today. This master, who lived during the time of the Qajur Monarch Naser Addin Shah (who ruled 1847 to 1896) was Aga Ali Akbar Farahani, the master of the tar (see Figure 2). This family is very important in handing down the traditional music and transmitting it to living musicians today. There are many other masters, of course, who were equally important in preserving this art, instrumentalists, and vocalists who studied with the above family. The Persian long-neck lute instrument is plucked And has 6 strings. The double-bellied resonator is carved inside and covered with sheepskin connected to the fingerboard which has movable frets. It has a range of 2 octaves and a fifth 
A similar instrument to the tar with single resonator and 4 strings. It produces the same range but much smaller sound and is strummed by the right index finger   Up until fifty years ago, the new student customarily studied with a master of an instrument. Instruction was given orally and learning was by rote. At first the student was required to play the dombak (tombak) (see Figure 5) with the ostad (master) for many years. During these years the novice could get a good ear training and sense of memory by hearing the ostad’s performances and also by practicing his own favorite instrument with occasional instruction. In the long process, he became aware of all the techniques and refinements of performing the classical art. Owing to religious restrictions, the number of professional musicians was very limited and passing the knowledge of selections from one to another was difficult. Since 1860, Iran has maintained one school of musicians responsible for the preservation of the traditional art music. Other important musicians who contributed to the preservation of this music were persons studying with the school. Around the turn of the century, many musicians began to use the Western staff notation and system of music embracing the symbols for rhythm, melody, and harmony. Vaziri opened the first school of music in Persia in the 1920’s and other Persian musicians started to practice music with modern notation and new techniques. More ensemble music was established, and the soloistic nature of composition had developed into a more orchestral type of composition. A single-head wooden drum covered with a tightly stretched sheepskin or goatskin and open on the narrow end  The improviser should know the traditional music and its interpretation and application by memory in order to be able to improvise properly. A self-taught Persian musician who can perform accurately in the traditional intent is seldom found. Traditionally, learning and playing the Persian classical music without an excellent musical memory was impossible. The student had to memorize enormous amounts of music before he could indicate promise. The process was slow and took years of practice. The musicians had to memorize large numbers of well-known traditional melodies. Absolute or good relative pitch was also essential to the learner in order to study orally. With some of the instruments such as the santur, tuning is of prime importance, therefore, the musician must be able to tune the instruments perfectly. Persian instruments are sensitive and in many ways rather hard to keep in shape and good tuning. These instruments possess very thin strings, and some are covered with extremely soft, thin sheepskin or goatskin. They are usually affected by a change in climate. A performer should be capable of tuning his instrument and keeping it in good condition. It is as important to keep the santur in perfect tuning as it is to play it. A performer must be aware of all the possible tunings for the twelve dastgah-ha such as the main tunings for the dastgah-ha, tuning for men’s or women’s voiced, favored tunings for important gushe-ha, and the use of scordatura tunings. The first two higher strings on the tar, setar, and kamanche (see Figure 6) are tuned for playing the melody, and the other lower strings are tuned for bourdon effect, usually to the prominent notes and the tonic of the pieces. The Persian bowed instrument has the range and tuning similar to a violin. It has 4 strings, is played in the fashion of the cello, and the resonator is covered with sheepskin.  Rast-kuk and chap-kuk were the traditional terms used by performers to identify their speical tuning for either men’s or women’s voices. Rast (right) and chap (left) kuks were pointed out to the investigator by his ostad, A. Saba, who said: "These terms refer to turning the pegs of the tar of kamanche in a right or left direction in order to raise or lower the tension of the strings to match women’s and men’s voices." On the tar and setar, they call them chap and rast kuks, bala dasteh and miyan dasteh, which means playing on the upper and middle parts of the fingerboard. Instruments were commonly tuned to G (solkuk) and respectively called rast-kuk-e sol and chap-kuk-e sol. This is close to comfortable tuning of the tar, setar, and kamanche:    The following explanations of Figure 8 should be made:
Figure 9: Nay A bamboo flute without a mouthpiece which produces a breathy sound crisscross one another causing one group to remain below while the others are raised and vice versa.   Transpositions are used whenever the sol-kuk is needed although the music is still written on the La-kuk, but the tuning of the instrument is a whole tone lower to sol. Trained vocalists singing rast or chap-kuk have found it satisfactory to work with traditional instruments. New signers are employing more freedom by singing in many different tunings with the result that traditional instruments are unable to compete with them and are gradually being replaced by Western instruments. Intervals and Modes Persian music in monophonic with heptatonic modes. It should be mentioned that there is a difference between mode in Persia music and scale in Western classical music. Scales are stepwise successions of tones which divide the octave as a result of mathematical computation. Modes are a number of already existing motifs and cadential formulas which cannot be bound or fully presented by scale; therefore, the concept of scales in Persian music is ambiguous. The concept of modes was not known to Persian musicians until recently. In response to questions regarding the mode of the dastgah-ha, they would play a short segment showing their dastgah. The segment is usually in daramad which is the most representative part of the dastgah, having its own melodic pattern, beginning tone (.Agaz), Shahed (witness), and finalis. The performers customarily have played the music without paying much attention to the theory of the art. In medieval times there were many theorists such as Farabi (d. 950); Avecina (d. 1037); Razi (d. 1209); and Maraqi (d. 1435), who worked on theory with particular emphasis on the size of the intervals. In this century there are two theories on the division of the octave into series of chosen intervals. Vaziri established the division of the octave into twenty-four equal quarter-tones by the modern system of acoustical cents.6 Barkeshli (his theories are based on ancient and medieval conceptions) divided the octave according to the Greek system of Pythagorean and acoustical values of limma (90 cents) and comma (24 cents). The equal system of Vaziri is widely known. These quarter tones are approximate and musicologists prefer to call them microtones. Vaziri invented two signs for different quarter tones   1. Shur is on G (having prominent notes lst, finalis, Shahed, and tonic on G). 2. The Shur mode is similar to Phrygian mode on G except that the second degree is raised by a quarter tone. 3. The upper tetra chord of Bayat-e Tork (F to B b) is similar to major Mixolydian. 4. Chahargah is similar to the Hungarian gypsy the exception of the tonic. 5. Upper tetra chord of Esfahan is similar to minor scale with. or Aeolian. 6. Mahur is like major or Ionian. 7. With the increase of Western musical terminology, Persian musicians call some of their modes with the corresponding terms:
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