Ali Naqi Vaziri: Translator and Author

The impact of education, sustained by continuous learning through appropriate educational resources, is not confined to the walls of a home, a school, or even a specific historical period. Knowledge generated through proper education is essential for taking responsibility for building a better life and advancing civilization. The name Bibi Khanum Astarabadi evokes the struggle to establish the first modern female school. The continuation of education for girls nowadays in Iran is a legacy of the school Bibi Khanum founded, which was later carried on by her daughters Khadijeh-Afzal and Moloud Vaziri, along with other like-minded women. Bibi Khanum, a writer during the Constitutional Revolution, sought equal education for her sons and daughters. However, reading and writing were not her only legacy; her genuine bequest to her children was the importance of education, awareness, and the perseverance needed to build a better future. These manners were perhaps her greatest gift to her son, Ali Naqi Vaziri.

Ali Naqi Vaziri: A Product of the Scientific and Literary Renaissance of the Constitutional Era

The Constitutional Era had impacts on the lifestyle of Vaziri; it was marked by his mother teaching him to read and write, witnessing her steadfast belief in education, and receiving support from Mustafa Qoli Khan Samsam-al-Mulk, “Bayaat” to continue his music studies in European universities. He also saw gatherings of artists and writers in the house, witnessing a collective thirst and effort to rebuild Iran. It is no wonder that from such a background, Vaziri emerged as a prolific and multi-talented figure in Iranian music. In the second volume of “A Look at Music,” Ruhollah Khaleghi, in the 19th chapter, describes human nature as inquisitive and progressive. He argues that despite any resistance rooted in the ideas and works of the past, the renewal of human thought and the transformation of lifestyle are inevitable. He writes about Iranian music:

In our country, as we said, no innovation in science and industry had emerged for centuries until the scientific and literary renaissance began with the advent of national governance at the start of the Constitutional Era, and the path to progress opened.[…]

Choosing Persian Alternatives for Music Terms

This period, marked by the efforts to reform Iranian music, is associated with numerous figures, one of the most renowned being Vaziri. Vaziri’s idea has been recognized, practiced, and critiqued in various sources over and over. However, in an interview with Faramarz Payvar, another aspect of Vaziri’s approach to theorizing music is underlined, beyond merely grasping the technical foundations of music. Payvar states:

I believe Mr. Vaziri was truly a great gift to music. He had extensive literary education, being a professor of literature at the university. One of his other merits, realized today, is how many Persian terms Vaziri used. For example, he has coined well-sounded Persian terms for a set of notes known as tonic, subtonic, mediant, and dominant. A well-educated person must have come up with such terms: pardeh, ro-pardeh, miaanin, namaayaan, ronamaayaan, hengaam. Just see how these names are both Persian and elegant. Choosing these words was no simple task; it shows the depth of his talent. […]

The terms coined by Ali Naqi Vaziri, such as “Shaahed,” “Eest,” “Koron,” or “Sori,” are so familiar to us today that reading a text from before their establishment sounds so complicated.
In his book, “Majma al-Adwar,” Mahdiqoli Hedayat offers early examples of these translations, where terms like “Ma yeh,” “Barma yeh,” “Vasati,” “Faaeqe-e Soflaa,” “Faaiqe,” “Faaiqe-e Olyaa,” “Hassaas (Raabet),” and “Zolkol” are used for musical scale degrees.

And consider this sentence, where the word “Foroud” is replaced with “Mahatt” and “Be-taraf-e Athqal” is replaced with “Be-taraf-e Bam”[1]: Before this book, Hedayat had transcribed the radif of Mirza Abdullah as narrated by Solhi. In order to note the quarter-tones, he annotates them in Persian alongside the notes.
Vaziri’s accurate coining of terms helped these concepts to be more quickly accepted by the musical community during what Khaleghi calls “the scientific and literary renaissance prompted by the emergence of national governance at the beginning of the Constitutional Era.” These terms, in turn, facilitated the writing, translation, and consequently, the provision of more educational resources and written records.

Literary Proficiency Alongside Musical Performance Ability

Faramarz Payvar elaborates on the importance of this literary proficiency combined with musical performance skills:

[Vaziri] was a music master whom everyone revered. He had memorized all of Mirza Abdullah’s radif. He played Mirza Hossein-Qoli’s radif and knew the radif very well. Thirdly, he had studied Western music. Other great masters neither had an adequate education nor studied Western music. Those who studied Western music didn’t know Iranian music well, and those who were literarily skilled didn’t know music well. But all three qualities came together in this man.
With these resources at his reach, Vaziri systematized and organized our music on paper in a standard style that became useful for future generations. People may not know or want to acknowledge it, but what we possess today originated from the efforts and labors of this man who worked tirelessly to bring these ideas to paper.
Vaziri made enormous contributions to our music, and his other books, such as his work on aesthetics and others, have all contributed to the culture of Iranian music. I hope others will compile and preserve this effort.

Perhaps Vaziri’s effort to establish a music school can be seen as part of this same mindset — organizing efforts and gathering like-minded artists to create a constructive and dynamic movement in Iranian music.

References

• Interview with Faramarz Payvar, Ahmadreza Ahmadi, Mehdi Delnavazi’s Archive, Tehran.
• “A Look at Music,” second part, by Ruhollah Khaleghi, Safi Ali Shah Publications, Tehran.
• The third edition of “Majma al-Adwar,” by Mahdiqoli Hedayat, lithograph, Library of the Islamic Consultative Assembly of Iran, 1938.

Footnotes

[1] Excerpt from the text: The rule is that the ‘Mahatt’ of the song is its ‘Maayeh,’ and sometimes this Mahatt is also the foundation of the circle as in Maahour, but often the foundation falls a note or two towards the heavier side, and the Maayeh of each song is known by its conclusion.

[2] The terms “Kron” and “Sori” are numerically equivalent to Vaziri’s name, Ali-Naqi, according to Abjad numerals, serving as his creative signature in designing and establishing these signs.