Quanun

The qanún or kanun is a musical string instrument used in Middle Eastern music. It consists of a trapezoidal sounding board, the right side of which is parallel to the bottom. The strings are stretched over a single bridge on the right of the instrument, with tuning pegs on the left. It is played by plucking the strings with two tortoise-shell picks, one in each hand, and usually has a range of three octaves.

The kanun used in Turkey has between 24 and 26 courses of strings, with three strings per course. The instrument also has special tuning devices for each string, called mandal. These small levers, which can be turned by the player while the instrument is being played, raise the pitch of the course up to one half-step. Typically, they are used to raise the pitch by a quarter tone.

Well known Quanun Players Quanun became known in Turkey with two very important artists Kanuni Ömer Efendi and Kanuni Hacı Arif Bey and by order of Nazım the Blind Ferid Alnar (the composer of first Quanun Concerto and virtuoso) Artaki Candan Şeref Hanım Vecihe Daryal Naime Sipahi Fikret Kutluğ Ahmet Yatman (virtuoso of popular ecole) İsmail Şençalar Mehmet Kutlugün Nuri Şenneyli Nevzat Sümer Cüneyd Kosal Hüsnü Anıl Hilmi Rit Dr. Zekai Süer Erol Deran Gültekin Aydoğdu Ruhi Ayangil (the first player of the Concerto after its composer) Tahir Aydoğdu (second player of the Concerto) B. Reha Sağbaş İhsan Özer Taner Sayacıoğlu Halil Karaduman Ahmet Meter Göksel Baktagir and the other male and female artists The ones who have a characteristic style and have improved the art at 20th century are: Ferit Alnar Vecihe Daryal A. Yatman Erol Deran Halil Karaduman Master Quanun maker artists After the old master Uzunyan to recent days Ejder M. Yücel Erkin Gündoğdu Ataç Sevil Binay Günay are best known quanun makers