Impact of Iranian Music on other Cultures and Vice Versa

Part 2

Ighuri music is based on modal style and is comprised of 12 modes, which should be rooted in the well-known Iranian 12-modal.

Given that we already surveyed the common music of eastern Iran, let's tackle that of western Iran. According to the surveys conducted so far by unknown researchers, it has been revealed that the Greek music is originally rooted in the Orient. Likewise, the Turkish music has so much in common with Iranian music that they might hardly be considered independent from one another. Therefore, the Iranian music should be taken as one of the basics of the Turkish music. For instance, the Greek percussion instrument known as "tebeleki" - made from animal hide - which is from the same family as the Turkish instrument called "dombalak", should have been rooted in the Iranian percussion instrument known as "dombak" tambourine. "Dombalak" is a Pahlavi (middle Persian language) word which is a converted form of "dombak". It should be noted, however, that once the Islamic Civilization prevailed, the use of Greek texts in theoretical music became common, which might be taken as the theoretical impression of the Greek music on the theoretical music of the world of Islam.

But what is more important is to discuss the music of Arabic-speaking countries. Everything that is related to the Islamic civilization has been attributed by some biased historians to the Arabs on the mere ground that they have been written in Arabic, while the share of Iranians have either been ignored or rendered quite pale. The Islamic civilization is known to have been quite common in the world of Islam over 9th-11th centuries owing mostly to the committed attempts of the Iranian scholars. It should be mentioned that what is known today as the Arab music is rooted in the music of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Iran.

Once the governments ruling Assyria and Babylonia collapsed in the 6th century BC, the Mesopotamian and Iranian civilizations were combined to form a single much richer civilization. The Egyptian music is also impressed by Iranian music. The presence of Iranian instruments such as kamancheh and dulcimer as well as various Iranian musical modes including chahargah, sehgah, Isfahan, Nahavand, souznak, rast, basteh-negar, souz-e del in the Egyptian music is the best evidence to this end. Besides the instrument known as dulcimer is also commonly played in China, India, Iraq, Hungary, Romania and Germany.

The western musical instruments are mostly rooted in or taken after the oriental ones. Almost all European instruments were taken to Europe by Muslims from Asia through the southeast of Byzantine and northern Africa in the Middle Ages. The Iranian "barbat" known as "oud" (lute) among the Arab states was called lute once it arrived in Europe. Later on, it underwent changes and was converted into guitar and mandolin. It should be clarified, however, that guitar is not quite unlike the Iranian string instrument known as Tar and that the occurrence of the word "tar" in guitar is not accidental.

 It should be noted that even the percussion instruments have mostly been taken to the West from the Orient. The French word "tabor" is proved to have been derived from the Persian word "tabireh". "Tabor" was an instrument which was played in Europe in the Middle Ages. Besides the history of the western music shows that the percussion instrument made of hide and known as "naker" is the father of its present version known as timpani. Naker is derived from the word "naghareh" which was taken to Europe through the Ottoman martial music. All types of frame and goblet drums are rooted in the Middle East. For instance, the north African instrument called "bendayer" also referred to as "bendir" is of the same root as the Iranian instrument known as "dayereh" (tambourine), which was taken to Spain and Portugal by Muslims, whence it was taken to Brazil and became known as "pandeiro".

Let's now survey the impression left on the Iranian music by the western music over the recent two centuries. It can be definitely said that such an impression dates back to the Qajar era. Under the rule of Fathali Shah Qajar, once Iran's ruling system and army was introduced to the new European system and the army was equipped with cannons and guns, the martial musical instruments - mainly played in naghareh-khanehs (special centers where timbals were played) - were also replaced. Since then the naghareh-khanehs were replaced by new martial musical arrangements. In-between the two world wars, when Iran and the Tsarian Russia were apparently in good terms, the ambassador plenipotentiary representing the Russian government heading a delegation arrived in Tehran via Tabriz. A 30-member orchestra accompanying the visiting delegation performed tunes in Tabriz for the crown prince Abbas Mirza and for Fathali Shah who resided in Soltaniyeh, Zanjan for an indefinite period of time. Once Abbas Mirza heard the played tunes, he became inquisitive about their instruments and after getting enough information about them, he decided to form an orchestra of martial music according to the new style. This was the very time when the Iranian music got impressed by the western music. Then a new department was added to Darol-Fonoun School, where modern martial music was to be taught in order to train experts of martial music. A music master called Loumer was employed. In 1918, a music school was established at the proposal of General Gholam-Reza Minbashiyan.

The book called "Western Theoretical Music" was translated into Persian for the first time ever by Mirza Ali Khan-e Naqqash-Bashi, known as Mozayanoddoleh, who used to teach French and painting at Darol-Fonoun. It was published at the school's printing house. Piano was brought into Iran under the rule of Fathali Shah. Mohammad Sadeq Khan Sorour ol-Molk, the well-known dulcimer player, tuned it in accordance with Iranian intervals for the very first time.

Violin is also one of the European instruments, which became common in Iran under the reign of Nassereddin Shah after the establishment of Darol-Fonoun. Then it was adopted by Iranian orchestras and taking it as a model, a fourth cord was added to the Iranian string instrument known as Kamancheh.

It should be noted, however, that Iran's music gradually became more and more impressed by the western music, so that its traces are evident even in the most traditional type of Iranian music. The most significant cases of such impression might be summarized as follows:

Devised forms of the late Qajar era such as "pish-daramad" (overture), etc.

Singing and playing styles

Various styles of performing in ensemble

Imitation of western styles including martial music, waltz, polka, etc.

Chamber and Symphonic orchestras

Opera and ballet groups

Music schools and western teaching methods

Writing music and notes

Survey and research on music

Since elaborating on all the above is out of question, some of the cases will just be briefly pointed out. At the music courses proposed by Salar Moazzez besides martial music, other branches of western music were also taught. Thus civil trainees were also attracted to the said music school.

In 1923 the Higher Music School was established under the supervision of Ali-Naqi Vaziri, who was trained on Iranian traditional music by Iranian masters. He also studied western music in Germany. Under the impression of western educational music books, Vaziri complied and published in Berlin his book on playing both European and Iranian music with `tar'. He compiled a musical theory on the Iranian music with a western outlook on the basis of which, for instance, the 24-part scale might be redesigned. Such a theory was earlier brought up and proposed for the oriental music by Michael Moshaqeh, the Arab mathematician. He meant to moderate the intervals of Iranian music similar to the 12-part western scale so that they would correspond to rules of harmony.

The orchestra included such western instruments as violin and piano, which eventually led to the establishment of the orchestra of Vaziri's music school.

The idea of initiating opera in Iran might have occurred to the mind of some Iranian artists around 70-80 years ago. In the outset of the constitution era, when stage performances became common, the idea of musical dramas also popped into the minds of the artists. As a matter of fact, the idea of operas and operettas was introduced by the Caucasian musicians residing in Iran. One may actually talk about writing harmonized melodies on the basis of Iranian music.

The brief reference made above calls for multilateral survey in order to further introduce the connection of Iranian music with the cultures of other states. Fortunately, dialogue among civilizations can assist researchers across the world, once the principles and the nations' votes are respected.

Ali Reza Eftekhari

Muhammad Reza Shajarians Biogaphy

Alireza Ghorbani