Hossein 'Oumomi - Persian Classical Music (1993)

Hossein Omoumi was born in Isfahãn, Iran, and began his musical education singing with his father. At age 14 he began to study the Ney, the traditional reed flute of Iran. In 1962, Omoumi entered the National University of Iran to study architecture, but also played the ney in musical competitions, later entering the National Conservatory of Music in Tehran.
His performance career has included appearances at many of the major festivals and concert halls in Europe and the United States, including San Francisco’s World Music Festival, UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall and Wadsworth Theater the Getty Center, in Los Angeles, the World Music Institute and Asia Society in New York, and Theatre de la Ville in Paris.
Omoumi is a noted scholar and teacher of Persian music, having served on the National Conservatory and Tehran University in Tehran, Center for Oriental Music Studies of Sorbonne University in Paris, UCLA in Los Angeles and the Ethnomusicology department of the University of Washington in Seattle. He is now Maseeh Professor in Persian Performing Arts of music at the University of California, Irvine, UCI. He is also an architect, having received his Doctorate from the University of Florence, Italy.
His research on the making of the Ney and percussion opened new possibilities and introduced significant innovations to the Ney, Tombak and Daf.

01-07. Dastgâh-e Homâyun
08-12. Avâz-e Dashti
13-21. Dastgâh-e Châhârgâh

Hossein 'Omoumi - ney
Madjid Khaladj - tombak, daf

Recorded in 24-25 June 1992
Released by Nimbus Records in 1993

Humbly dedicated to Chris Kenmo.

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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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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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