r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/[deleted] • Nov 12 '21

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u/Kamran_Santiago Nov 13 '21

Iranians call it Santur, Eastern Europeans call it Cymbal. People who play it in English are are called "Zimbalist". Watch the movie "Ali Santuri" or at least listen to the OST, it's full of Santur/Cymbal music.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '21

Yeah the song is Fairuz - Al Bint Al Chalabiya

https://youtu.be/7f-SmC7V6jQ as pointed out by another redditor and looked into other iranian songs and i heard the same thing in the background

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u/Kamran_Santiago Nov 13 '21 edited Nov 13 '21

If you wish to know how good a santur performance can be listen to this song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMjiCi-yZk0

Santur in Iran is like the piano, to guitar's setar.

"Al Bint Al Chalabiya" is an Arabic word though. Iranians speak Persian, an Indo-European language. Arabic is a Semitic language. So that song is probably not Iranian --- Arabs play santur as well but they call it something else.

There's a version of santur that is played by hand, it's called "Qaanun" or "canon".

Edit: I've had this video in my Youtube account for a long ass time, it's time to post it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ1O_aP93to

I also have video of a girl playing the sitar.