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- See also Kanun (disambiguation)
The qanún, kanun or kanon is a traditional zither-like instrument used throughout the Middle East. It has the shape of a flat trapezoidal wooden box with 25 to 30 triple courses of gut, nylon or silk strings fastened to the far right side, stretched over a single bridge poised perpendicularly on patches of animal (fish or cow) skin, and tuned diatonically by slanted pegs on the far left.
It is played on the lap by plucking the strings with horn or tortoise-shell plectra, one on each index finger, and usually has a range of three and a half octaves.
Slight changes in pitch are achieved via the manipulation of small metallic levers lying below each course of string called mandals. These small levers can be raised or lowered quickly on the fly to alter the vibrating lengths of the courses.
While Armenian kanuns employ half-tone mandals and Arabic qanuns quarter-tone mandals, typical Turkish kanuns divide the equal-tempered semitone of 100 cents into 6 equal parts, yielding 72 equal divisions of the octave. Some Turkish kanun makers may even choose to divide the semitone of the lower registers into 7 parts for microtonal subtlety at the expense of octave equivalances. Not all pitches of 72-tone equal temperament are available on the Turkish kanun, however, since kanun makers only affix mandals for intervals that are demanded in popular performance. Nevertheless, hundreds of mandal configurations are at the player's disposal when performing on an ordinary Turkish kanun.
Kanuns used in Turkey have 26 courses of strings and have a range of three and a half octaves, from A2 to E6. The dimensions of Turkish kanuns are typically 95 to 100 cm (37-39") long, 38 to 40 cm (15-16") wide and 4 to 6 cm (1.5-2.3") high.
The kanun is a descendant of the old Egyptian harp, and is related to the psaltery, dulcimer and zither and its invention is attributed to Al-Farabi.
Parts
| Gol |
Strings |
Damaqe |
Xarak |
Pust |
Gushi |
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