From: smortaz@handel.Eng.Sun.COM (Shahrokh Mortazavi)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.iranian
Subject: Re: The Dastgah Concept in Persian Music - the book
Date: 9 Nov 92 22:16:01 GMT
Article-I.D.: exodus.lftop1INNid2
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View, CA  USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: handel

In article <1992Nov5.223544.10771@mdd.comm.mot.com> kamyar@mdd.comm.mot.com (Kamyar Moinzadeh) writes:
>
>Not every part of Persian Music is improvised.  ChaharMezrabs and Taknavazy with Avaz 
>is improvised.  But Tasnifs(Taranehs), PishDaramds and Reng's can be written down, composed and arranged. So I think it is worthwhile to document those parts of Persian Music.

oh absolutely.  my original gripe was that *everything* is worth
writing down.  not only from a musical heritage point of view, but from
a historic point of view as well.  there is a lot that can be
determined about how a people lived from their music, painting, etc.
imagine having a true-to-life painting of khayyAm, sining one of his
robA'iyyAt.  imagine having the music, which he could have composed
himself, available today.  imagine having blue-prints of the musical
instruments of the era, so that we could reconstruct them.  unfortunately, all 
that we have left, are the lyrics (arguably the most important part!).

it makes me jealous that the west, for example knows exactly what
bach looked like, how the instruments in his period sounded, have his
music available, have the words to his cantatas, etc...

>One Persian Music weaknesses was Hamnavazi in an orchestra.
>Colonel Vaziri and Mr. Khaleghi really revolutionized the Perisan music by introducing
>notes and harmony to Persian Music.  I have to disagree with the comment you made regarding                                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

>the orchestra of Radio Iran. The Golha Orchestra was very successful in playing Persian~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

apologies, i probably overstated it to make a point (that many a times i 
turned on the radio/tv and heard 35 violin, cello, santoor, flute, etc players
all play the same note in six different octaves!).  

>tunes with a big orchestra. Just to name a few:
>
>	Rangarang:	Arranged and composed by Mr. Khalegi, singer Ostad Banan
>	Meye Nab:	    "	  "      "     "    "       , "       "     "
>	Naghmehaye Mahur    "     "      "     "    "         "       "     "   and Ghavami	
>	Ahange Bakhtiari:   "     "      "     "    "         singer Ghavami and Elaheh 
>	Sargashteh:	Arranged by Mr. Maroofi, Composed by Mr. Khoram, singer Ghavami

sure, i definately remember exceptions to my hasty generalization.  

>
>But the thing that one has to keep in mind, and it was pointed out by Mr. Khaleghi, is
>that there is a fine line in arranging Persian Music for the orchestra.  If that 
>line is crossed, then the tunes will sound more weternized.

i can believe that.  the overriding assumption here is that the music
should not lose its original character and charter.  my indirect claim,
i suppose, was that there seems to be quite a bit of uncharted ground
between the mono-tone orchestration that was prevalent back then and 
for example a purely fugual style of writing at the other extreme.

btw  i was at the daanesh bookstore in san jose last night, and was pleased
to see a whole lot of music score on display!