Hassan Tabar - Dastgâh-e Segâh (1996)

In Iranian classical music, the terms dastgâh and âvâz replace the word maqâm, an arab word normally used to signify a modal system in the musical traditions of the Mediterranean and Caspian regions. The word dastgâh seems to have been employed for the first time in the book of Forsat Shirâzi (1852-1920) ‘’Bohûr ol-Alhân’’. Hûmân Assadi, in his ‘’Aspect of musical life in 19th century Persia’’ opines that the word dastgâh appeared in the middle Séfévides' era (1502-1722) and that it was used with the same sense as maqâm. Farhat states that no document attests the existance of a dastgâh system before Qâjârs' era (1786). We can therefore infer that the idea of a system of dastgâh-s started to take shape at the time of the Séfévides, slowly ripening till it fully emerged during the reign of Nâssereddin Shâh (1848-1896).

The gûsheh (literally angle, corner) is a short melodic sequence of less than three minutes that constitutes an element of the dastgâh and it must always be in the same modal structure of the dastgâh to which it belongs. A dastgâh is thus an ensemble of gûsheh-s that have a modal realtionship between them modal and that are organized according to their degrees of the chosen range; a dastgâh always includes one opening gûsheh (darâmad) based on the first degree, one gûsheh on the highest degree (owj) and one concluding gûsheh (forud).

Hassan Tabar



1. Pish Darâmad (Darvish Khan)
2. Darâmad
3. Chahâr-Mezrâb (F. Payvar)
4. Kereshmeh
5. Pish Darâmad-e Janj (Shanazy)
Chahâr-Mezrâb (Hossein Sabâ)
Pish Daramâd
Chahâr-Mezrâb (Hassan Tabar, extract)
6. Zâbol Jomleh-e Rabti (Zâbol-Bé Mokhâlef)
7. Mokhâlef
Chahâr-Mezrâb (H. Sabâ)
Masnavi-e Mokhâlef
8. Eshefan (Âvaz-Owshâq-Chahâr-Mezrâb)
Maglub
Forub-e Zarbi
9. Zang-e Shotor (H. Sabâ)
10. Hodi
11. Do-Zarbi-e Segâh

Hassan Tabar - Santoor
Sâber Kâkâvand - Tombâk

Recorded in Tehran, 1994, at Studio Belle
Released by Al-Sur in 1996

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