Alireza Mortazavi

Traditional music is an umbrella term used in the mid–20th century by folklorists and ethnomusicologists to denote community-rooted, orally transmitted repertoires tied to social ritual, work, celebration, and storytelling. Unlike commercial pop or art-music traditions, traditional music is typically learned by ear, varies regionally, and evolves slowly through communal participation. It often features modal melodies, cyclic rhythms, heterophony or unison singing, and indigenous instruments whose timbres are integral to local identity. Lyrics tend to preserve language, history, and collective memory. While the musical practices themselves can be ancient, the phrase “traditional music” emerged to replace earlier, narrower or colonial framings like “folk” or “ethnic” music, foregrounding continuity, locality, and living practice rather than exoticism.

Santur refers to music centered on the santur (or santoor), a trapezoidal hammered dulcimer whose strings are struck with light wooden mallets. Originating in Persia (modern Iran), the instrument spread through Mesopotamia and the wider Middle East, later inspiring related dulcimers across Europe and Asia. In Iranian classical music, the santur is tuned to the modal dastgāh system and features shimmering tremolos (riz), delicate grace notes, and agile, dance-like passages (especially in chahārmezrāb and reng). In Iraq and the Levant it participates in maqām traditions, while in the Indian subcontinent—especially through the Kashmiri santoor—it was adapted to the Hindustani raga system and re-engineered with more strings and different bridges for sustained melodic development. The timbre is glassy and bell-like but warm, capable of luminous arpeggios, rippling rolls, sharply articulated rhythms, and intricate ornamentation. Modern performers also bring the santur into jazz, film music, pop, and electronic fusion.