sazanda

thumb|A sazandar orchestra, 1906 A sazanda or sazandar ( / سازنده; ; ; ; alternative spellings in English: sazende, sazandeh) is one of the three musicians in the traditional ensemble of instrumentalists performing along with a singer (khananda, in the case of an Azeri mugham performance) in the South Caucasus. The word means "builder" in Persian. The trio consists of a tarist, a kamanchist and a daf player. Historically the word sazanda(r) was applied to any instrumentalist from Anatolia, the Caucasus or Iran, who played a folk instrument.

==History and development== right|thumb|225px|Trio of sazandas The tradition of a musical trio of sazandas playing the aforementioned instruments did not originate until the beginning of the 20th century. According to Jabbar Garyagdioglu, the mugham ensembles of the early 19th century consisted of three musicians playing the tar, the kamancheh and the balaban. In the late 19th-century, the latter was replaced by gosha-naghara. Nowadays the traditional variety of tambourine called daf is used and is often played by the singers themselves.