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Have you ever seen an instrument like this before?? Our very own musical marvel, Miss Loma, is seen here playing a rather uncommon instrument, the kanoun. The children were entranced by the soft music that filled our Reading Majlis, and thoroughly enjoyed experimenting on it themselves, too. These days, fewer and fewer people are learning to play this very complex, ancient instrument, although it has been around for hundreds of years. The kanoun is thought to have been developed in the Middle East by one of the greatest scientists and philosophers of his time in the Arab world, Abu Nasr Al Farabi, known in the West as Alpharabius (c. 872 – 951). No one is sure who gave this instrument its name but, eventually, it was called "Kanoun" meaning “law”. |
| Legend has it that Al Farabi was working on the invention of a musical instrument but there was no sound coming from it. In his frustration, he threw it into his basement, where the mice and rats had a field day chewing through its wood. Eventually, when Al Farabi went downstairs and saw the holes in his instrument, he picked it up and moved his fingers around on the strings. He started playing and very soon entertained everyone in the city. Apparently, he could make all of them fall asleep, laugh or cry simply with the expression he was able to generate by playing it. |  |
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The kanoun belongs to the Zither family, a group of instruments which have strings stretched across a box. It is made of wood, fish skin, nylon chords and metal keys. It has 72 strings and its shape, form and sound are similar to the Harp. The instrument rests on the knees while the fingers, clad in picks, pluck the strings individually. |
In the twentieth century, the Turks improved the design by adding tuning keys to alter the pitch of individual strings by eighth or quarter-tones, thus facilitating transposition.
