Theory and Organization of Traditional Persian Music
Written
by David Feldman
Source:
www.artsandlectures.ucsb.edu/
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Introduction The Repertoire Theory Links
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This page aims to give a broad view of the ideas associated with traditional Persian music with a focus on the organization of pieces, or guses, and the theory of the music. Persian music, in its theoretical and organizational aspects, has scarcely changed since its earliest recorded history. This slow development is in stark contrast with western music, which in the past centuries has constantly been explored, expanded and disintegrated in a volatile artistic climate. As suggested by Ella Zonis, this very small rate of change can be linked with the region’s Islamic influence. For instance, the religious authority condemned listening to music if its purpose was not rooted in the country’s religious tradition. For a long time the focus of the Persian composer was not to innovate but to provide a vehicle for prayers and ideas. It is easy to assume that the Persian composer was identical to his Western counterpart with respect to each one’s desire for freshness of sound. But sonic and theoretical change, though highly valued in the west, was most likely not a concern for the Persian composer.
The Persian musical repertoire, or the radif, is divided into twelve dastgahs, which are comparable to western modes. Furthermore, each dastgah consists of a vast number of guses, or individual pieces, and tekkes, which are less-important musical fragments.
Similarly, both the dastgah and the mode have a particular scale associated with each of them. But even though there are similarities such as this between the dastgah and western "mode," it is problematic to think of them synonymously, for the signature of a particular mode and that of a particular dastgah are based on different musical principles. For example, let's say that someone were told to improvise in C major and given the seven-note set of pitches. Even if the improvisation were done poorly, a listener would still recognize the major mode as long as the improviser only used the given pitches. On the contrary, someone not trained in the Persian radif can not recognizably improvise a particular dastgah with only a simple musical device such as a scale. The focus in a dastgah is not on the scale, but on a vast collection of guses related under a particular dastgah.
Bruno Nettl points out that Iranian social life
influences the organization and performance of a dastgah.
A general social concept for everyday
family/friend events is that what, or who, is most important comes first.
For example, a father walks through the door first, followed by his son.
Similarly, the most important dastgahs, guses, and motifs precede the less-important ones in the radif. However, in a more
formal event, there is a great deal of less-important substance leading up
to the main event. A formal performance of a dastgah
is organized in this way, with the prestigious improvised avaz
coming later in the performance.*
*Bruno Nettl, "Music of the
Figure 1.
|
Dastgah |
A Persian "mode," twelve total, with characteristic pieces, melodic patterns and rhythmic modes. (see Figure 1) The word, out of its musical context, means mechanism, apparatus, or scheme. |
|
Radif |
This word, meaning "row" or "series," is used to label the collection of daramads, guses and tekkes within the twelve dastgahs. This closely follows our western notion of "the repertoire" within a genre. |
|
Daramad |
One or a few pieces which are positioned at the beginning of a dastgah. The daramad is generally written in a lower sound register than the guses succeeding it, as they gradually ascend to the oj. One could imagine a single phrase in western music, which is generally written as an ascending figure. If we magnified the phrase to equal the length of a dastgah, the first few notes of the phrase, still in the low register, would be comparable to the daramad of the dastgah. (see Figure 1 above) |
|
Oj |
The height of the succession of guses in a dastgah. The oj can be likened to the climactic section of a longer work in the western tradition. (see Figure 1) |
|
Guse |
A general name for any individual piece. |
|
Tekke |
Small piece commonly omitted in a performance. |
PITCH AND INTERVALS:
When westerners tried to notate Persian music with conventional western
notation, they quickly realized that the Persian tonal system consists of
variable and invariable intervals. In western music, the Persian invariable
intervals are synonymous with our perfect intervals (fourth, fifth, octave.)
Others, such as the second and third, are variable. This variable/invariable
classification refers to pitch, so in other words, the pitch is flexible on
variable intervals and fixed on invariable ones. Two symbols have been devised
to help notate variable intervals more accurately: the koron, 
, which lowers a pitch by a
quarter-tone, and the sori, 
, which raises a pitch by a
quarter-tone. A neutral interval, which is in between a major and minor
interval in pitch, is represented by the symbol (N.) In practice, the
intonation between dangs, or modal tetrachords, is
never precise from one dastgah performance to the
next. The frets on stringed instruments remain moveable so that the performer
can adjust them to the optimum tuning for a particular performance.
Please Note: These terms are similar those used to classify scale degree
function in western music (leading tone, etc.,) but since the notion of
"scale" is foreign to Persian music, the term "scale
degree" was not used.
|
Aqaz (A) |
Tone on which an improvisation begins. |
|
Sahed (S) |
Tone which plays a very prominent role in an improvisation, similar to a dominant function in western music. This pitch, however, is not necessarily the fifth of the scale nor does it need to resemble the tonality of a western dominant harmony. |
|
Ist (I) |
Ending note, other than the finalis, used in cadences. This is the most similar to the new key following a secondary dominant in western music. |
|
Finalis (F) |
Note of resolution in the final cadence of an improvisation. |
|
Dang |
Tetrachord |