Posts by Farshad Tavakkoli
Radio Radif Thursdays: Ali Akbar Khan Shahnazi’s Recordings
In the 1920s, when the wave of social transformations and the spirit of modernism had swept across various pillars of society, including its musical life, Shahnazi, like other artists such as Alinaghi Vaziri and Morteza Neydavoud, took steps to establish a music school by developing an educational program. This desire to align with the modern aspects of Iranian society is also reflected in his works and style of performance.
A Glance at the Musicological Perspectives of an Important Manuscript
The answers to some of the most famous mysteries in the history of the “Radif of Iranian Music” are directly or indirectly tied to the “Musa Maroufi Radif.” Not only do they clarify uncertainties such as the source of each gusheh in Ma’roufi’s current radif—thus significantly increasing the value of this document—but they also address questions like the precise content of Darvish Khan’s radif, the fate of Ali-Naqi Vaziri’s manuscripts of Mirza Abdollah’s and Mirza Hossein-Gholi’s radifs, and even the understanding of the sequence of gushehs before and after the standardization brought about by Nour-Ali Borumand’s version. These questions, once resolved, would also influence how the modal structures of this music are understood.
