Persian traditional music
The history of Persian classical music or Persian traditional music can be divided into pre-Islamic and Islamic periods. Unfortunately, before the Islamic period (including the Median, Achaemenes, Ashkanian, and Sasanian dynasties), due to the scarcity of documents, just a vague picture of the history of Persian classical music remained. Some remnant evidence of the Sassanid period (AD 224-642) shows that music was appreciated at the court of kings. The first musical mode of the Middle East was composed by Barbad in this era and named Khosrovani (Khosrovani means royal). The most common musical instruments during the pre-Islamic period were Chang, Ney, Tanbour, Barbat, Sorna, Daf, and Dohol.
Party House, by Ibrahim Jabbar Beyg
In the Islamic period, Persian music was affected by Arabic and Turkish music. Like the prior era of its history, Persian music played a dramatic role in religious traditions (such as the Darvish chant and Taazie). From the emergence of Islam till the AD 14-15th century, music was only taught and transferred to the next generation of musicians by memorizing Maqams through oral history without any organization and categorizing of modes. In the Teymourian era (AD 1370-1507), musicians tried to classify Maqams to simplify learning and memorizing. During the Safavid (AD 1501-1736) and Qajar (AD 1789-1925) dynasties, Persian classical music was prized at the court of the kings, which was an opportunity for musicians to classify and collect every remaining Maqam from the different parts of the country to a homogenous system as Radif (although the term of Radif has not been mentioned till last years of Qajar dynasty). One of the greatest names in the history of Radif is Aliakbar Farahani, a musician in the court of Naser al-Din Shah. He and his sons, Mirza Abdollah and Mirza Hossein-Qoli, contributed significantly to the arrangement and distribution of Persian classic music (Radif). It is worth mentioning that the theorization and notation of Rdif were started by Ali-Naqi Vaziri and continued by other musicians. Notation of classical music among Persian musicians is standard nowadays, although it needs to learn from a master of Persian music to study detailed techniques.
.jpg)
A painting in Chehel Sotoun, Isfahan, named Shah Abbas II party
Radif is the well-organized composition of Gushehs (Maqams in the old style of learning classical music) which is divided into seven Dastgahs (as main musical systems) and five Avazes. Here is a brief description of Dastgah, Avaz, and Gusheh.
Dastgah:
A system with defined sections, in which every section has a distinct melodic pattern called Gusheh. Seven Dastgahs of Radif include Shur (mother of all Dastgahs), Homayoun, Segah, Chāhārgāh, Rāstpanjgāh, Māhur, and Navā. Each Dastgah has its own atmosphere and special characters (as notes and gushehs), which always there are intersections between two or more of them.
Avaz:
It can be called as mini-Dastgah. The characteristic of Avaz is to start on a high tone and end on a low tone, which is that of Dastgah it belongs. Generally, Dastgah-e Shour has four Avazes as Āvāz-e Dashti, Abou'atā, Bayāt-e Tork, and Afshāri. Also, Dastgah-e Homayoun has Bayāt-e Esfahān as Avaz.
Gusheh:
The short melodic pattern with the chemistry of its Dastgah or Avaz. Some Gushehs play in two or more Dastgahs without or with minimal changes.
Suppose we consider Persian classical music as a tree. Its root is Persian culture, history, and musicians' genius minds (including those who created music by instinct, maestros of musical instruments, great singers, and musicians) for thousands of years. Radif would be the trunk; Dastgahs are the main branches, and Avazes and gushehs are the small branches. This tree could have new branches, but it cannot live without a trunk or roots.
It is worth mentioning that Radif is organized by many musicians, and it has been adapted for all Persian (and some Western) musical instruments. A performance of Persian classical music mainly includes five main parts, which are Pishdaramad, Avaz (in performance, Avaz means singing or playing non-rhythmic of a specific part of the Radif), Chaharmezrab, Reng, and Tasnif. Here are short definitions and examples of these five parts.
I would highly recommend this youtube channel to learn more about Radif :
Pishdaramad:
A rhythmic musical piece that plays at first of performance, which generally has a slow to moderate tempo. Pishdaramd is the overview of the most important part of a performance.
Pishdaramad of Abouata by Mohammad-Reza Lotfi
Pishdaramad of Mahur by Mousa Maroufi. Qanun by Yasaman Najmeddin
Avaz:
The non-rhythmic part of the classic Persian music performance consists of the Gushehs of one or more Dastgahs. It is the most important and specific part of Persian traditional music, and it needs many years of learning to perform correctly as a vocalist or instrumentalist.
Avaz by Shahram Nazeri
Avaz by Mohammad-Reza shajarian
Chaharmezrab:
Instrumental rhythmic music with a fast tempo and repetitive patterns. During the last century, more complex plucking patterns made this part of classical music more complicated than in the past. For listeners, it has a joyful atmosphere based on its complexity of plucking and fast tempo. This part of Persian classical music is considered an index for evaluating the skill of an instrumentalist.
Chaharmezrab by Parviz Meshkatian
Chaharmezrab by Farhang Sharif (Tar) and Reza Tarshizi (Tonbak)
Tasnif:
It is a piece of rhythmic music and is almost equivalent to a ballad. Tasnif can point to any subject based on the composer's goal but many of the remaining Tasnifs from the past are created based on love poets. Because of the richness of poetry in Persia, Tasnifs mostly have been accompanied by high-quality poems.
Tasnif of Karevan composed by Morteza Mahjubi
singer : Gholam-Hossein Banan
Tasnif of Bi Man Maro composed by Saeed Farajpouri
singer: Homayoun Shajarian
An instrumental rhythmic 6/8 pieces of music as a goodbye that play at the end of a performance. It has been played for dancing and happy ending in the past.