Kanun or Qanun is a Middle Eastern Stringed Instrument. Choose your Kanun or Case here.
Kanun (Qanun) is the queen of Turkish art music. It is a unique instrument with a bright timbre and wide range of sound colors and pitches. Kanun is also found in Arab world and it has been mentioned in The Stories of One Thousand and One Nights. It is a plucked box zither and has a trapeze from. The strings are plucked by a ring-shaped plectrum on the index fingers. The kanuns in our catalogue are made of wenge or plane wood. The pegs are in ebony, pins are in alpaca, and strings are in PVF. Intervals of kanun can be adjusted with the levers that control the tension of the strings. The Kanuns in our store are all hand-made, constructed by a maker who only makes high-quality, professional kanuns. You can visit our store in Istanbul or check the variety of kanuns in our catalogue through our website. We believe you will find here the right kanun for you at the best value.
History of Qanun
Qanun; It is an instrument of the string family of instruments. It is suggested that its etymological origin comes from the Greek word "canon" meaning "rule". Until today, many different views have been put forward regarding the origin of the instrument of the qanun. Some of those:
It is thought that this musical instrument was invented by Ibn Hallegan, excluding some historical documents.
He played the qanun instrument, which was on the verge of being forgotten for a long time, due to his inability to easily reproduce the sounds of Turkish music. Omer Efendi, a musician from Damascus during the reign of Sultan Mahmud (1818-1839), brought the "Kanun" to Istanbul and since then this instrument has found many amateur performers, especially Turkish women. It is thought that the first performer to put the pegs on the qanun was Omer Efendi.
Wires called beams were used for the qanun from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century. These beams are used to make nylon strings more durable and sound stronger. These wires have nothing to do with the fish we know, and certain types made of pure nylon or 100% fluorocarbon are used.
The structure of the Kanun musical Instrument
The Kanun has a vocal range and breadth of 3.5 octaves. Kanun is a string musical instrument between 24-27 frets. 3 strings resonate the sound in each pitch. With this structure, it is similar to the sound system of the harpsichord. Its strings are made of nylon string specially produced for musical instruments. In its early stages, stringers made of guts were used instead of nylon wire.
The body board of the qanun, which has a steep and trapezoidal body, is mostly made of plane tree, the lower base is made of linden or compressed plywood, the auger board is made of linden, which is a soft wood, and the auger is made of hard woods such as rose, boxwood or ebony.
The professional kanun used in Turkish classical music has 26 frets and if it is calculated that three strings are attached to each fret, it has a total of 78 strings.
In the past years, the wire used in the kanun was produced in different thicknesses until the establishment of petrochemical plants. However, after the establishment of petrochemistry, it is obtained from the raw material of 'nylon-6', which is the production of this industry branch.