Dariush Tala'i - Radif Volume I (1994)

"The Radif is a serious and introverted music with extreme refinement and richness in ornaments. The repertory of Persian Art Music together with its traditional order of classification is called the Radif. A repertory of melodies that have been collected by different people and added to the repertory at different times. This repertory is not like Western Art Music, which is composed and intended to be played exactly as written. It is made up of traditional melodies, many of which are derived from popular and folk sources ; their origins have been obscured with the passage of time.
This repertory was organized by musicians to be used both for performance and instruction. More specifically it provides a multitude of model melodies (about 250) which is used like prototypes as a point of departure for improvised performance and composition of set pieces. The oldest Radif that we know about comes from two masters of the Radif, Mirza Abdullah (1843-1918) and Aqa Hosein Qoli (died 1913). These two brothers spent their whole lives teaching their radif with an incredible conviction and rigor and educated the test musicians of the following generation. The students were supposed to memorize the entire repertory; therefore, it was important that the Radif be both complete and brief ; and hence, as concise as possible. Moreover, since the intention was to make the radif concise, and since different people played the same melody in different ways, the masters selected from among the versions of a melody to create their Radif.
To understand the concept of the Radif, we must first understand that the Radif and the modal system are not the same thing.The characteristic of melodies (which are called gusheh-s) are as important as their relationship. The position of each melody in the Radif is determined by its modals characteristics.The performance of Persian Music is made by the multi-modal structures which in each system (dastgâh or âvâz) a number of gusheh-s demonstrate the different part of the system.
Since the idea of a Radif originated with a family of musicians who played the Tar and the Setar, the earliest Radif-s are intimately linked to these instruments. Moreover, because the precise use of the mezrab (plectrum or nail) was very important for performance on the Tarr and Setar, the melodies, often derived from vocal sources and added to the repertory of these instruments, necessarily became more regularized and structured. They also took on the style of performance of those musicians, who, since the y were scholars of the musical tradition and fine artists, transformed the melodies int0 a very elaborate and cerebral form of Art Music".
Dariush Tala'i

1-30. Dastgâh-e Shur (28.21)

31-35. Pièces Rythmiques de Shur (30.03)
36-42. Âvaz-e Bayât-e Kord (8.08)

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