Foundations
Instruments
Cümbüş, oud, setar, tanbur, tar, saz, kemençe, ney, and santur — construction, history, and playing technique.
- 01The Oud: History, Construction, and Playing TraditionsA guide to the oud — its deep history, bowl-back construction, fretless technique, and the distinct Turkish and Arabic traditions it anchors.
- 02The Cümbüş: Turkey's Metal-Bodied OudHow a 1930s Istanbul workshop turned the oud into a louder, cheaper instrument with a spun-aluminum body — its invention, construction, variants, and contested place in Turkish music.
- 03The Setar: Construction, Tuning, and the Persian Classical TraditionThe Persian long-necked lute of the dastgah tradition — its three-to-four-string history, mulberry-wood construction, four standard tunings, and quiet, fingernail-plucked technique.