I'm really enjoying the discussion here… thanks.

M.Ted, I haven't heard a saz played in years. Back in the pleistocene period, when I was in high school, one of our classmates was an exchange student from Turkey. He played the saz rather well and often could be coaxed into playing. I loved the sound of it, the idea of moveable frets, and the fact that it had no sound hole whatever. Here is an image of a saz together with an audio clip.

Many of the families in our parish are Lebanese so I'm often treated to the sound of Arabic music and the ancient Byzantine tones of the Liturgy. I have the impression that skilled Byzantine chanters take personal liberties with the fractional intervals used in this music.

      - Mark