Iran on Music Theory Print

Bijan Mofid

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Bijan Mofid (; May 31, 1935 – November 12, 1984) was an influential Iranian playwright and stage director. His most famous work, Shahr-e Ghesseh, is an allegorical satire written in the form of a musical play using elements of Iranian folklore, for which he also composed the music. Bijan Mofid (playwright/director) was one of very few serious modern Iranian artists whose writing has reached beyond the intelligentsia to a broad general audience. Life He was born in Tehran in 1935. After teaching for several years at the University of Tehran, he founded a theater workshop, where many of Iran’s finest actors received their training. The workshop’s major production was Bijan’s own City Of Tales (Shahr-e-Ghesseh), a profound satire that weaves social comment through adaptations of traditional music and folk tales. It toured for 3 years, was made into an award-winning film and is recognized as a classic of Iranian literature. Bijan’s work as playwright and director has had a continuous and controversial presence in Iranian theater, both on the popular stage and in experimental productions. Nine of his plays have been produced and published and their songs recorded. He directed over fifty

Christophe Rezai

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Christophe Rezai (; born 1966 in Toulouse) is a French-Iranian composer living in Tehran since 1994. Career He was born from an Iranian Father and a French mother in 1966 in the city of Toulouse in France. He has studied music (piano, vocal and theory) along with engineering and marketing. Since 1987 he has recorded around 300 tracks for Iranian television advertisement. He has composed soundtracks for long film, short films as well as documentaries and has worked with director like Dariush Mehrjui, Mani Haghighi, Shahram Mokri, Safi Yazdanian, Rassoul Sadr Ameli and many others. He initiated a baroque music ensemble (Aria Music) in 1996, giving concerts in Iran & India. The group’s first album, ALBA was recorded in Firouzabad Palace. The group performance in Vahdat Hall (2007) has been considered as one of the best Iranian-Western fusion music works ever. References External links * Nour ensemble’s Official Website

Emanuel Melik-Aslanian

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Emanuel Melik-Aslanian (, ; 1915 – 14 July 2003) was an Armenian-Iranian composer, classical music theorist and pianist. Biography Emanuel Melik-Aslanian was born in 1915 to an Armenian family in Rostov, Russia. Although he was born in Tabriz in most of the mentioned sources. In an interview, he says: “My birthplace is written in my birth certificate, Tabriz, but in fact I was born in 1915 in Rostov. My parents were from Tabriz, but they lived in Rostov at that time.” His father Stepan was interested in music and after returning from a trip, he brought a piano with him. When Emanuel was not more than 4 years old, he would sit at the piano with his feet off the ground, playing the piano with one hand. He started playing the piano at the age of 9 with Sophia Amadoni, who was educated in Switzerland, in Tabriz. When he was 12, he played the piano in the Leon Gregorian Orchestra. When his father saw Emanuel’s talent, he decided to study in Europe. For this reason, he traveled to Germany and made travel arrangements for his son and his wife. He then sent a message to them to join him. Emanuel and his mother left for Germany in 1928, when he was 13 years old. He went to Hamburg, Germany

Esfandiar Monfaredzadeh

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Esfandiar Monfaredzadeh (; born 15 March 1941 in Tehran) is an Iranian pioneer film composer, songwriter, and filmmaker. He is recognized for his contribution to film and pop music in Iran. His major works include Qeysar, Toughi, Dash Akol, Tangna, The Deers (Gavaznhā). Career Early years He started his career early in his teens as percussionist and accordionist in the National Iranian Radio Children’s Program. In 1958, he joined the Youth Orchestra of National Iranian Radio as contrabassist where shortly after he would be trusted with all the music arrangement and the conductor duties. Cinema From his early ages, he was fascinated by cinema and filmmaking. This was the dream which he and his lifelong friend Masoud Kimiai (Iranian film director, screenwriter, and producer) shared. Finally, in 1967, when Masoud Kimiai got a chance to direct his first film (Come Stranger, 196, Monfaredzadeh composed the score. However, it was their second collaboration (Qeysar, 1969) that made history. Months before Qeysar was released, he had left Iran to continue his studies in Germany where he had the opportunity to be acquainted with the Confederation of Iranian Students which helped him to resha

Hormoz Farhat

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Hormoz Farhat (; 9 August 1928 – 16 August 2021) was an Iranian-American composer and ethnomusicologist who spent much of his career in Dublin, Ireland. An emeritus professor of music, he was a fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. Described by the Irish Times as a “gifted and distinctive composer of contemporary classical music,” his compositions include orchestral, concertante, piano and choral music, as well string quartets and chamber works. He also wrote numerous film scores, including that of Dariush Mehrjui’s 1969 film The Cow. His father Ebrahim Farat was a senior official at the Persian Ministry of Finance married to his mother Sedique. According to Farhat himself, his early exposure to Iranian music was limited to his father occasionally playing the tar. Instead, he recalls that his ““early musical outlook was mainly western”, later filtered through the country’s radio station that was established in 1939. Farhat later moved to the United States and received a BA in music from the University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA (1953), an MA in composition from Mills College, California (1955), and a PhD in composition and ethnomusicology from UCLA (1965). He studied composition

Idin Samimi Mofakham

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Idin Samimi Mofakham (b. 1982; Persian: آیدین صمیمی مفخم) is an Iranian composer, born in 1982 to Hengameh Mofid and Kambiz Samimi Mofakham. He is married to Polish composer, Martyna Kosecka. Biography He studied contemporary composition at the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan with Ashot Zohrabian as his professor. In 2009, his piece “Pastorale” for flute trio won the first prize at the Areon Flutes International Composition Competition. Samimi Mofakham’s compositions have been commissioned or selected and performed in different festivals by ensembles such as Klangforum Wien, S.E.M Ensemble, Hermes Ensemble, Omnibus Ensemble, AuditivVokal Dresden, Momenta Quartet, IAMA Trio, National Symphonic Orchestra of Uzbekistan, Ostravská Banda, Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, Nivak Ensemble and Nilper Orchestra, and has been a participant of many interviews and lectures in his home country, covered by one of the most important Iranian music journals, Musice Ma, Music Report Monthly and Musice Iranian. Published by Tehran Records in 2017 album “Concertos” has been nominated in 2017 for the Musicema Awards in the category of the best album of the year. His chamber opera At the Waters of Leth

Keivan Saket

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Keivan Saket () (born 1961 in Mashhad) is an Iranian composer and university professor and Tar and Setar Player, and author of 12 books for Tar and Setar. Early life Keivan Saket was born in 1961 to a family in Mashhad. He began music and painting from childhood with the support of his parents. He was a pupil of painting masters such as Sadegh Pour in drawing, Master Pirasteh in coloration and Master Davvalo in watercolor. His first music lessons came from his uncle, Manochehr Zamanian, in Children and Teenagers’ Music Workshop founded in Mashhad by National Broadcasting Organization under the management of Morteza Delshab. After a short time Manochehr Zamanian left Mashhad in order to pursue his education. Some time later, his townsman and his uncle’s friend Hamid Motabassem, came to Mashhad and started teaching in the same workshop. He had taught music in Arts Academy of Tehran, and for two successive summers before the Islamic Revolution he continued teaching there. After the Islamic Revolution Motabassem moved to Mashhad and became friends with Saket. After some time he returned to Tehran and then went overseas. Career Keivan Saket founded the Vaziri Band in 1996 and performed

Loris Tjeknavorian

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Loris Haykasi Tjeknavorian (; ; born 13 October 1937) is an Iranian Armenian composer and conductor. He has appeared internationally as a conductor, serving as the principal conductor of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra from 1989 to 1998 and later from 1999 to 2000. As a composer Tjeknavorian has written 6 operas, 5 symphonies, choral works, chamber music, ballet music, piano and vocal works, concerti for piano, violin, guitar, cello and pipa, as well as music for documentary and feature films. Among his best known works are the opera Rostam and Sohrab, based on the story of Rostam and Sohrab from Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, and the ballet Simorgh. After study at the Vienna Music Academy, with Carl Orff at the Salzburg Mozarteum and the University of Michigan, he taught at the Tehran Conservatory. While based in the United Kingdom 1975 to 1985, he was a frequent conductor with various London orchestras and appeared internationally with orchestras in Iran, Israel, Japan, the Soviet Union and the United States. His early compositions evoke the work of Aram Khachaturian, while his oeuvre as a whole is heavily influenced by Armenian folk and sacred music. Tjeknavorian’s early life was suc

Masoud Sekhavatdoust

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Masoud Sakhvatdoust (مسعود سخاوت دوست) (born 21 September 1984) is an Iranian writer, composer and musician. He is the composer of more than 50 international films. He won the Best Composer award at the Fajr Film Festival for Breath and “The Situation of Mehdi” and “Fragrant”, “Number 10”. He won the Golden Butterfly and Diploma of Honor for Best Music for Lipar. he also won the Hafez Awards 2020 For movie “When the Moon Was Full” . Biography Masoud Sekhavatdoust was born in 1984 in Qazvin. He started learning the Santoor at the age of 10 and continued with his master Parviz Meshkatian up to the advanced level. At the age of 15, he started taking harmony and composition lessons from Alireza Mashayekhi. He has taken part in a few master classes of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt and Professor Roger Wallis from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and he has also taken an advanced stage course in Iran with Professor Kiawash Sahebnasagh. He has taken a few Conducting lessons with Taghi Zarabi. He is a nominee for the award Crystal Simorgh Best Music Shena-ye Parvaneh (2020), Crystal Simorgh Best Music Shabi Ke Mah Kamel Shod (2019), Golden Butterfly The Best Artistic & Technical

Mostafa Kamal Pourtorab

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Mostafa Kamal Pourtorab (Persian: مصطفی کمال پورتراب, born 14 September 1924 – 22 June 2016) was an Iranian musician, composer, music teacher, and music theorist. He was a member of the founding board and vice-president of the Supreme Council of the Iranian House of Music. Biography Mostafa Kamal Pourtrab was born on 14 September 1924 in Tehran. His father was a Soviet military officer who came to Iran after the October Revolution of 1917 and got married. He was the first child in the family. His father was familiar with playing Tar, and since his son was also interested in music, he bought him a Neylabak at an early age. A year later, Mostafa turned Neylabak into a flute, and at the age of nine, he played the flute at a ceremony in Hamedan. In 1940, after finishing primary school, he moved to Tehran with his family and enrolled in the Higher Conservatory of Music to study in high school. In the first test, Mostafa’s very sensitive ear caught the attention of the examiners, and they chose the difficult and little-known instrument of the Bassoon as his main instrument. He learned the bassoon from Czech masters who were employed by the conservatory in those years. In 1940, he worked

Nagisa (harpist)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Nagisa or Nakisa was a noted harpist and composer of Sasanian music in the royal court of Khosrow II (). She was singing in this court. Nizami mentioned her in his book Khosrow and Shirin. Amir Khosrow Dehlav i mentioned her in another story of Shirin and Khosrow. Historical context The music of Iran stretches to at least the prehistoric depictions of arched harps from 3300 to 3100 BCE, though not until the 224–651 CE Sasanian Empire is substantial information available. This influx of Sasanian records suggests a prominent musical culture in the Empire, especially in the areas dominated by Zoroastrianism. Many Sassanian Shahanshahs were ardent supporters of music, including the founder of the empire Ardashir I and Bahram V. Khosrow II () was the most outstanding patron, his reign being regarded as a golden age of Persian music. In addition to Nagisa, musicians in Khosrow’s service included Āzādvar-e Changi, Bāmshād, Rāmtin, Sarkash and Bārbad, who was the most famous. These musicians were usually active as minstrels, which were performers who worked as both court poets and musicians; in the Sassanian Empire there was little distinction between poetry and music. Court service and mu

Parvaz Homay

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Parvaz Homay (; born 9 February 1980) is an Iranian composer, lyricist, vocalist, and performer specializing in Persian classical-style music. Also known by his birth name Saeid Jafarzadeh Ahmadsargurabi (), he is the founder and leader of the Mastan Ensemble. Biography Homay was born in Gilan, a province located in the northwest portion of Iran, bordering the Caspian Sea. From an early age, Homay showed an interest in the arts. At the age of 15, he began singing and acting in theater. At 16, he entered art school, receiving his diploma in painting. At 19, he left theater school and decided to study musical harmonization and composition, focusing on piano and setar. He received his formal education in art studies and pursued his degree from The Conservatory of Music in Tehran, Iran. Albums by Homay and the Mastan Ensamble #Jedale Aghl va Eshgh (2005) (The Battle between Wisdom and Heart) #Molahgat ba Doozakhian (2006) (Meeting with the Infernals) #In Che Jahanist? (2007) (What Sort of World Is This?) #Sar Zamine Bi Karan (2008) (Endless Country) #Parvardgare Mast (2009) (Drunken Creator) #Ajab Abe Gelaloodi (2010) - unreleased (A Hidden Truth Within Muddy Waters) #Mussa va Shaban:

Reza Vali

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Reza Vali () is an Iranian musician and composer. Life and education Vali was born in Qazvin in 1952 and studied at the Tehran Conservatory. where he received his PhD in composition and music theory. the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Kronos Quartet, the Seattle Chamber Players, and the Da Capo Chamber Players. Works Folk Songs series *Folk Songs Set No. 1, for soprano and piano (1979) *Folk Songs Set No. 2, for soprano and piano (1981) *Folk Songs Set No. 5, for soprano, choir, harp, piano and percussion (1984) *Folk Songs Set No. 7, for voice and chamber orchestra (1986) *Folk Songs Set No. 8, for voice and ensemble (1989) *Folk Songs Set No. 9, for flute and cello (1991) *Folk Songs Set No. 10, for soprano and chamber orchestra (1993) *Folk Songs Set No. 11A, for four cellos (1995) *Folk Songs Set No. 11B, for string quartet (1995) *Folk Songs Set No. 12, for soprano, string quartet and piano (1996) *Folk Songs Set No. 13, for four cellos (1996) *Folk Songs Set No. 14, for soprano and chamber orchestra (1998) *Folk Songs Set No. 15, for flute, clarinet, percussion, violin and cello (1999) *Folk Songs Set No. 16 The Being of Love, for soprano and orchestra (2005) *Folk Songs

Sahba Aminikia

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Sahba Aminikia (born August 27, 1981) is an Iranian-born American contemporary music composer, artistic director, performer, educator and a TED Fellow. Aminikia is the founder and the artistic director of Flying Carpet Festival, the first performing arts festival for children living in war zones. His musical compositions have been widely performed around the world by contemporary classical ensembles orchestras, and bands, including the Kronos Quartet, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, San Francisco Girls Chorus, Mahsa Vahdat, Marjan Vahdat, Shahram Nazeri, International Contemporary Ensemble, Verdigris Ensemble, Carnegie Hall Ensemble Connect, Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra, Akron Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Parnassus, Ensemble Elefant, ZOFO Duet, San Francisco Conservatory of Music New Music Ensemble, Mobius Trio, Delphi Trio, Amaranth Quartet, The Living Earth Show, Verdigris Ensemble, Music of Remembrance, One Found Sound, and Afghanistan National Institute of Music. Early years Sahba Aminikia was born in 1981 in Tehran, Iran; during the Iran-Iraq War. Raised during a religious theocracy, in a poetic yet chaotic society, he had been exposed to the influences of poets such as Hafiz, Rumi

Saman Samadi

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Saman Samadi (born 1984) is a Persian-American composer, experimental performer, artistic researcher, and philosopher of music with a prolific body of work spanning nearly twenty years. He earned his PhD from the University of Cambridge. Biography Saman Samadi’s compositional repertoire includes orchestral, chamber, solo, and electroacoustic pieces, which have gained international exposure through performances across various regions, including the Middle East, the Far East, Europe, and the United States. His research is centered on contemporary Western art music and Persian classical music, with a particular emphasis on advancing novel compositional approaches and musical experimentalism. He integrates creative practices with scholarly pursuits in cultural studies, (ethno)musicology, theory, and philosophy. Samadi’s compositions, characterized by a melding of complexity and expressivity, incorporate influences from Persian Classical music, poetry, language, visual arts, and postmodern philosophy. His work employs microtonal modes derived from Persian classical music, creating a unique pitch space with heterophonic textures, polyrhythms, and polymeters. Samadi reimagines Persian cal

Shahab Paranj

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dr. Shahab Paranj (Persian شهاب پارنج) (born April 17, 1983, Tehran) is an Iranian-American composer and instrumentalist based in Los Angeles. He is considered one of the pioneers among his generation of composers whose composition style integrates Persian and Western composition techniques. Known as a tombak virtuoso, he has performed, recorded and collaborated with some of the most celebrated artists worldwid! Paranj is a founder and artistic director of “Du Vert à L’infini” a contemporary music festival in the Franche-Comte region of France. He currently serves as a faculty member at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Education Paranj received his first BM in cello performance from the Tehran School of Music and a second Bachelor’s degree in classical composition from San Francisco Conservatory of Music, a Master’s degree from Manhattan School of Music and his Ph.D. at the University of California, Los Angeles, under the tutelage of David Garner, Richard Danielpour, Ian Krouse and David Lefkowitz. Career Acclaimed by The San Francisco Examiner as “impressive”, and by John Adams as “unique”, Paranj blends Persian rhythmic and melodic influences with Western texture and form. R

Sharif lotfi

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sharif Lotfi (Persian: شریف لطفی, born 16 May 1950) is an Iranian musician, composer, conductor and music pedagogue. He is the founder of the Faculty of Music at Tehran University of Arts and has served as one of its professors and the dean until 2010. Biography Sharif Lotfi was born on 16 May 1950 in the city of Rasht. He left for Tehran at the age of ten due to a change in his father’s job. At the age of twelve, he entered the Tehran Conservatory of Music with the encouragement of his father, who was a student of Abolhassan Saba, and studied the horn as a specialized instrument under Morteza Hananeh. and after that, he founded and led the Tehran University Symphony Orchestra. He was the conductor of the Bahman Cultural Center Symphony Orchestra, the re-registration and re-establishment of the Iranian Philharmonic Association, the establishment of the Gilan University Music Ensemble, and the conductor of the Tehran Philharmonic Orchestra after the 1957 Revolution. Sharif Lotfi, the founder, a member of the faculty and one of the professors of the Faculty of Music of Tehran University of Arts, was the dean of the Faculty of Music of the University of Arts until the end of 2010. The

Sheida Gharachedaghi

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sheida Gharachedaghi () is a Persian-Canadian composer and music educator, based in Montreal. Life and career Born in Tehran in 1941, Sheida Gharachedaghi studied at the Vienna Music Academy in Austria and in 1971 established the Music Department at the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults in Tehran. Shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran Gharachedaghi moved to Germany and later settled in Canada. The Fairies In 1989 Sheida Gharachedaghi wrote an opera based on the English translation of Ahmad Shamlu’s The Fairies. The opera premiered at Metropolitan Convention Centre in Toronto in 1989. The CD of 1989 - live performance of this opera released in Europe in July 2020, on the 20th anniversary of Shamlu’s death. The opera had not been published in Iran due to the ban of solo-women singing. The Fairies is the first Persian (Iranian) opera with an English libretto. The British journal Opera cited it as a “distinctly pre-modernist piece…” which “has so little to do with the tradition of Persian music.” Selected compositions Instrumental * In Memory of Forough Farrokhzad (for piano solo) * Duo (for flute and piano) * Chahargah (for clarinet

Sima Bina

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Sima Bina (, Simā Binā, born 4 January 1945) is an Iranian traditional musician, composer, researcher, painter and teacher, described by Radio WDR Germany as the “grand lady of Iranian folk music”. Bina’s performing arts career has spanned more than five decades. Bina has gathered and revived a collection of nearly forgotten Iranian folk songs and melodies. She has done extensive research on their origin, which included collecting, recording, writing and re-interpreting popular regional music. Her works cover the entire spectrum of Iranian folk music, including Mazandarani music, Kurdish music, Turkmen music, Baloch music, Lur music, Shirazi music, Bakhtiari music, and the music of North and South Khorasan. Early life and career Born in Birjand, Khorasan, in the heart of the popular tradition, she started her career on Iranian radio at the age of nine, under the guidance of her father, Ahmad Bina – a master of Iranian classical music and poet who wrote many of her early songs. Bina studied the radif repertoire and avaz vocal technique with great masters such as Maaroufi and Zarrin Panjeh. She acquired her own solo program, Golhaye Sahraii (Flowers of the Desert), presenting a colle

Taghi Zarabi

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Taghi Zarabi (, born 1938) is a composer, conductor, university lecturer, and a member of the board of directors of the Iranian Music House. He is also the president of the Iranian Composers Association and the choir leaders of the Iranian Music House. Life and career Taghi Zarabi was born in 1938 to a religious family in Tehran. Encouraged by his older brother, he entered the Conservatory of Music at the age of 15. After entering the Conservatory of Music, he received a diploma in music with the rank of an excellent student. After 4 years as a first bassoonist, he began his collaboration with the Tehran Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Heshmat Sanjari. He also won first place in the entrance exam to the Higher Conservatory of Music and was admitted to the composition and conducting departments. He benefited from the training of artists such as: Yousef Yousefzadeh, Mostafa Kasravi, Houshang Ostavar, Hassan Radmard, Heshmat Sanjari, and Hossein Nasehi, as well as the “Cadets” from Germany. In 1964, for the orchestra conducting project, he performed the overture to Giuseppe Verdi’s opera The Force of Destiny with the Tehran Symphony Orchestra at the Farhang Hall, and during