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Tar

Musical Instrument
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A long-necked lute from Azerbaijan and Iran, with a double-bowl body and sympathetic strings

Detailed Definition
The tar’s expressive, nuanced tone appears in Persian and Azerbaijani poetry to symbolize romantic longing, courtly refinement, and musical dialogue; its role in mugham makes it a vessel for emotional depth and lyrical improvisation in mystical and secular verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Azerbaijani ashik poetry, the tar’s eleven strings pluck tales of star-crossed lovers and wandering bards; A modern verse compares the tar’s double-bowl body to a heart split by exile; In a poem by Nizami, the tar’s melody “weaves silk from sorrow”; Contemporary Iranian poets use the tar to evoke nostalgia for Shiraz gardens; A feminist poem reimagines the tar as a woman’s voice breaking centuries of silence; In diasporic verse, the tar’s resonance bridges Baku and Brooklyn.
Additional Notes
The tar is a long-necked lute from Azerbaijan and Iran, with a double-bowl body covered in lamb skin and 11 strings; central to mugham music, its microtonal expressiveness conveys deep emotion—ideal for poems about cultural identity in the Caucasus, the tar as national symbol, or the instrument’s role in UNESCO-recognized intangible heritage of Azerbaijani music.
Other Meanings of “Tar”
Also Known As
Persian tar Azerbaijani tar Pitch
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