Bill - the dulcimer is still hammered in the Bavarian Alps, where it is called Hackbrett = chopping board.

Greg - Oriental and Western tunings differ in one important aspect: Oriental music knows and uses additional quarter tones, Western not.

open mike - names of people and their languages seem to be only different when you consider the languages they use them. E. g. European Persian is Iranian Parsî and Arabic Farsî, since the Arabs don't know the sound P in their system.

Wilfried