Recent Changes in the Dutar of Herat

Abstract

The recent development of a new musical instrument, the 14 stringed Herati dut-r, was first described by Slobin (1969b), who included two examples of this instrument on his record The Music of Afghanistan, Vol. 2: Music of the Pashtoons, Heratis and Kazakhs (Anthology 4004). Slobin suggested that the instrument had developed through a series of intermediate stages from a dut5r having two strings. Further information was collected by Lorraine Sakata. She identified 3 and 5 stringed forms of the dutdr as important intermediate stages, and learned that the 14 stringed dutdr had been invented by Mohammad Karim Herawi, who worked as a musician at Radio Afghanistan. The present paper discusses some of the results of a 10 month study of the Herati dut?r in 1973 and '74. This work was carried out in the city of Herat and in nearby villages. Three important types of dutdr are described, the changes which music in Herat has undergone in the course of the present century are outlined, and the circumstances under which the modifications to the dutr were made are examined in detail. In conclusion, the significance of the changes in the dutr are discussed in terms of more general social trends in Afghanistan.

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