Books by Mohsen Mohammadi
Mahoor, Nov 2015
Historical information on music in Persia dates back to thousands of years ago and musical texts ... more Historical information on music in Persia dates back to thousands of years ago and musical texts date back to the tenth century. The music itself has not yet been available, the earliest available pieces were recorded by the Gramophone Company in 1906. This volume presents the earliest transcriptions of Persian music which were published by European travelers, diplomats, and musicians. It includes Persian songs from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, pieces of Persian classical music published in 1900, and pieces from the repertory of the European-style military bands. Transcriptions of Persian songs and Persian classical music are arranged for the piano, hence, they have lost most of their Persian characteristics. Yet they remain the invaluable examples of music in Persia prior to the first recordings. اطلاعات تاریخی درباره ی موسیقی در ایران چند هزار سال سابقه دارد. هم چنین از هزار سال پیش تا کنون مباحث نظری مفصل و کتاب های متعدد در زمینه موسیقی تولید شده که بخش زیادی از آن بر جای مانده و در دسترس است. دریغ که خود موسیقی از بین رفته و هیچ در دست نیست، مگر معدودی قطعات که پس از ورود صنعت ضبط ماندگار شده و قدیم ترین نمونه های موسیقی ایران هستند. اروپاییانی که به ایران سفر کردند یا مدتی در ایران زیستند نغمه نگاری های متعددی از موسیقی ایران در اروپا منتشر کردند. کتاب حاضر حاصل جستجوی چند ساله ی مؤلف برای یافتن نخستین نغمه نگاری های اروپاییان است و نغمه نگاری هایی از دوره ی صفویه تا دوره ی مشروطه را در بر دارد. با این که بخشی از شخصیت قطعات حین تنظیم برای پیانو از بین رفته، اما این قطعات ارزشمند تنها نمونه های بر جا مانده از موسیقی در ایران پیش از ورود صنعت ضبط هستند. علاوه بر آن چندین قطعه موسیقی نظامی هم در این کتاب گنجانده شده که برای بازسازی فضای رسمی در آن دوره و یا حتی برای استفاده در کارگان موسیقی نظامی امروز بسیار با ارزش هستند
English Writings by Mohsen Mohammadi
Proceedings of the Second international Conference on the Theoretical and Practical Fundamentals of Maqom Art, 2024
This paper explores the historical use of the term āvāz in Iranian music during the 19th century ... more This paper explores the historical use of the term āvāz in Iranian music during the 19th century and early 20th century. It examines various sources including musical treatises, diaries, early musical scores, record labels, and published books by both traditional and European-influenced Iranian musicians. The research reveals that āvāz was the dominant term used to refer to modes in Iranian music throughout the 19th century and the early 20th century. This usage is evident in both musical and non-musical writings. The paper explores how āvāz was used in 19th-century musical texts. It highlights that āvāz was even used to refer to the ancient modes attributed to the legendary pre-Islamic musician Bārbad. The study also examines the use of āvāz in non-musical texts, such as diaries of Iranian royalty. Furthermore, the paper investigates the use of āvāz in the first published scores of Iranian music and the labels of early commercial recordings of Iranian music by the Gramophone Company. Both sources extensively use āvāz to designate the modes. The analysis of theoretical works by Iranian musicians in the early 20th century reveals that āvāz remained the preferred term for modes even when the authors employed European musical theory. In conclusion, the paper demonstrates that āvāz was the ubiquitous term for modes in Iranian music throughout the 19th century and the early 20th century. This usage was employed by both traditional musicians and the new generation influenced by European music theory.
Proceedings of scientific Symposium held in the framework of “Space of Mugam” 6th International Music Festival Baku. Edited by Sanubar Bagirova and Lala Guseynova, Jun 2023
What is a dastgāh and how did it emerge? This paper attempts to address that question briefly. Th... more What is a dastgāh and how did it emerge? This paper attempts to address that question briefly. The development of Iranian music theory can be traced back to the 7th century, when the legendary musician Bārbad is said to have created a set of seven modes called Rāh. In the 13th century, two authors, Safi-od-Din Ormavi and Mohammad Nishāburi, wrote two accounts of a music system, each based on one bigger set of twelve modes and one smaller set of six modes. By the 14th century, Ormavi’s book on music had become the dominant source of information on music theory in a wide region from North Africa to Central Asia. While Ormavi’s music system was being established by his followers, a concept of modulation emerged and evolved into a concept of multimodal performance instructions. Although Ormavi illustrated shared notes among twelve modes on a graph of twelve concentric circles, Qotb-od-Shirazi was the first to write about the structural connections between the modes in a way that could be used in modulations. Abd-ol-Qāder Marāghi applied Shirazi’s concept of proximity of the modes to Ormavi’s approach of using the set of twelve modes as the basis of the discussion. Hence, he provided a list of proximate modes for each of the twelve maqām, a concept similar to a preliminary version of multimodal performance centered around a certain mode. Eventually, the first version of modulation instructions appeared in seventeenth-century musical texts, and they included four major groups of proximate modes centered around the four modes of Rāst, Dogāh, Segāh, and Chahārgāh. The four groups were established in the eighteenth century as the four shad, each of which was comparable with its previous counterparts, and all four were named after their central mode, although the modulation instruction around Segāh was named Mokhālef. The substantial development was to incorporate an advised order for performing the modes sequentially. For the modulation instructions, the conjunction (and) that connected various modes in each group might be interpreted as an implied advised order for performing the modes, whereas the shad included clear advice for performing the modes in a multimodal performance. The term dastgāh appeared in a few musical texts in the eighteenth century to indicate whether a mode contained sufficient dastgāh to compose songs. Dastgāh was subsequently established as the new title for the groups of multimodal performances in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Unlike shad and its predecessor, no substantial difference existed between dastgāh and its predecessor, the shad. A dastgāh was generally a developed and established version of a shad.
Iranian Studies, 2022
This article introduces Julius Heise’s Marche Triomphale which reveals a history that was elimina... more This article introduces Julius Heise’s Marche Triomphale which reveals a history that was eliminated during the nineteenth century race theory publications. Beginning with an account of Iranians’ encounters with European military music, this article provides a brief history of Iranian military bands in European style, or the bands of muzikānchiān. It then addresses racial motivations behind a short account on Iranian music in 1885 by Victor Advielle, a French administrator. Arthur de Gobineau’s race theories were fashionable in nineteenth century Europe, and Victor Advielle used his fellow Artesian, Alfred Lemaire, to prove their racial superiority. Through Advielle’s account, Lemaire became the main figure of European music in Iran in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The article proceeds with biographical information on two European musicians, Marco Brambilla (d.1867 in Tehran) and Julius Heise (d.1870 in Tehran), and uncovers the earliest known piece published for the bands of muzikānchiān: Marche Triomphale, À Sa Majesté Impériale Nassir-Ed-Din Shah Kadjar de Perse.
Sonic Tehran Project, 2021
Two hours to dawn, in a dark night with a new moon, millions of stars are shining in the silent s... more Two hours to dawn, in a dark night with a new moon, millions of stars are shining in the silent sky of Tehran. Suddenly, from the top of the highest gate at the main square of the town, kettle drums and wind instruments break the silence with a looping roar, and the players keep beating the drums and blowing the horns for half an hour until the whole town is up. This sound was common during the month of Ramezan when Muslims fast. The drum band was called naqqareh-khaneh, meaning 'house of drums'. In the time when there were no clocks in private houses, people needed to know the exact moment of dawn when they would retreat from partaking food. As such, the sound of the naqqarehkhaneh regulated daily activities. During Ramezan, Muslims refrain from consuming any food or beverages from dawn to sunset; if they failed one day, they would have to fast for 60 days, or feed 60 meals to the poor, or free a slave, to compensate for their one-day failure. It was their responsibility to recognize the dawn, unless a trustworthy government announced it. The naqqareh-khaneh made those official announcements and regulations. Naqqareh was a general name for all kettle drums, small and large, single and double-sided. The function of the naqqareh-khaneh required a loud and piercing sound. Wind instruments of the band included the sorna, a small double-reed wind instrument, and karna, a long brass trumpet. The photo above, taken by Antoin Sevruguin (d. 1933) in Tehran in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century, shows a small band of naqqareh-khaneh including one single large naqqareh, one double small naqqareh, two sorna, and three karna, of which one is hidden behind the sorna player on the left.
https://schoolofmusic.ucla.edu/indo-persian-musical-confluence, 2020
The sitar and setar are the foremost classical instruments of India and Iran. They are seen by mo... more The sitar and setar are the foremost classical instruments of India and Iran. They are seen by most people as being distinct instruments from different countries and traditions. However, they share a common ancestry, and their name is in fact the same word (Persian, ﺳﮫ ﺗﺎر). It was transliterated into English in slightly different ways during colonial times. As we scratch just beneath the deceptive surface of Indian and Iranian music, we find the rich confluence that is the Indo-Persian world, a realm of connected histories and creativity, and a space to imagine new ones.
100 Years of Sephardic Los Angeles, 2020
Rivista Italiana di Musicologia, 2016
The Lindström Project, Contributions to the history of the record industry, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Schallplattenindustrie, 2011
The earliest engagement of German gramophone companies in recording Persian music dates back to 1... more The earliest engagement of German gramophone companies in recording Persian music dates back to 1906-7, when three tracks were recorded for the Beka Company and a dozen recordings were issued on the Globophon label. About twenty years later the Lindström company was engaged in the process of recording music in Persia through a subsidiary company, Baidaphone. Recording activities of Persian music by German companies reached their peak during the 1930's. This can be explained as a result of intensified political relations between (Nazi) Germany and Persia, which eventually caused changing the international name of Persia to the local name of Iran. During this period, local agents and traders had a determinant role in connecting native musicians with German recording companies. Finally, the Lindström company's multinational nature and policy ensured penetration of the Lindström labels far into the East including Persia.
Journal of the Indian Musicological Society, 2006
Dissertations by Mohsen Mohammadi
This dissertation studies the modal system of Persian music. While modern Iranian musicians expla... more This dissertation studies the modal system of Persian music. While modern Iranian musicians explain their music as a of seven dastgah plus five sub-dastgah called avaz, the dominant interpretation in the ethnomusicology literature describes the Persian modal system as a set of twelve dastgah. Part I of this dissertation studies how the system of seven dastgah and five avaz was introduced to the ethnomusicology literature and how it was simplified as a set of twelve dastgah. Part I shows that the modal system of Persian music was introduced to the ethnomusicology literature by a generation of Persian musicians who were trained in European music and thus were a hybrid of insider and outsider. Part II studies the historical root of the concept of dastgah. Persian writings on modulation from one mode to another date back to the fourteenth century. This theme was developed into a few collections of modes which were meant to help musicians as modulation instruction. Those collections were developed further and found an order which advised musicians to perform modes in sequences. Modulation instructions were titled “shad” in the seventeenth century. During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the shad was developed further and was renamed dastgah. Part III shows that, while dastgah was an important concept of multi-modal performance, avaz was the general term for Persian modes. Various sources form the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, including musical texts, diaries and travel accounts, old newspapers, early European publications on Persian music, early Persian books on music, and the first catalog of Persian records show that avaz was the general term to refer to Persian modes. Part IV studies the impact of early commercial records on the formation of the Persian modal system. During the first recording session, most labels featured an avaz or a tasnif (song), while seven sets of records were allocated to record the seven dastgah briefly. During the subsequent recording sessions, not only the number of recorded modes decreased, but also more tracks were allocated to the few popular modes. The top ten recorded modes included five avaz that were the central modes of five of the seven dastgah, and five other avaz that became popular through the process of recording. When the seven dastgah were retrieved as an icon of national identity, the five popular avaz retained their modal status but the rest of the avaz were downgraded as pieces of a dastgah only. During the interwar recording sessions, the pattern for coupling tracks on double-sided Persian records was coupling two rhythmic performances in the same mode or two non-rhythmic performances in related modes. Those related modes (avaz) were usually included in a certain dastgah or followed another avaz that was more popular. Each double-sided record became a mode unit, thus, the five popular dastgah were squeezed into one mode while the five popular avaz were extended into smaller dastgah.
Audio Video by Mohsen Mohammadi
Link to the film: https://youtu.be/2qykdstaqSU
“Avanegar” is a documentary on the history of mu... more Link to the film: https://youtu.be/2qykdstaqSU
“Avanegar” is a documentary on the history of music transcription in Iran. In this film, Dr. Mohsen Mohammadi, Iranian scholar and the Director of Indo-Persian Music at UCLA, narrates the history of transcription of Iranian music, based on decades of research in various archives in Iran, Europe, and the United States. In addition, Dr. Reza Vali, professor of composition at Carnegie Mellon University, has arranged exclusively for this film one of his works inspired by Iranian music. This five-movement piece was performed by an ensemble of notable American musicians supervised by the composer. Moreover, several prominent Iranian musicians based in Iran and abroad have performed exclusively for this movie. Those include (in Persian alphabetical order) Navid Afghah, Ali Bahramifard, Kazem Davoudian, Siroos Jamali, Siamak Jahangiri, Layla Ramezan, and Behzad Ravaqi.
In addition to various rare historical documents and sources that are presented in this film, several historical notations of Iranian music have been performed and recorded exclusively for this film. Historical information in this movie is presented in such a way that musicians and the general audience are able to follow the story. This film is made in memory of Mohammad-Taghi Massoudieh (1927–1999) whose publications are invaluable and incomparable sources for researchers, musicians, composers, and all those who are interested in Iranian music. This documentary is the result of a long collaboration that took more than a year, and I hope it is useful for scholars and artists.
Behrouz Jamali.
Persian Writings by Mohsen Mohammadi
نشریه علمی مطالعات پژوهشی در ادبیات، فرهنگ و هنر, 2023
نشریه علمی مطالعات پژوهشی در ادبیات، فرهنگ و هنر, 2020
اولین قراردادهای شرکتهای آلمانی در ضبط موسیقی ایرانی، به سالهای 1906 الی 1907 میلادی بازمیگردد؛ ز... more اولین قراردادهای شرکتهای آلمانی در ضبط موسیقی ایرانی، به سالهای 1906 الی 1907 میلادی بازمیگردد؛ زمانی که شرکت «بِکا» سه قطعه و دهها صفحه از ضبطهای انجام شده را بر روی برچسبهای «گلوبوفون» انتشار داد. حدود 20 سال بعد قراردادی با شرکت لیندشتروم و شرکت وابستهاش «بیضافون» برای ضبط موسیقی در ایران بسته شد. فعالیت شرکتهای آلمانیِ ضبطِ موسیقی در ایران، در سالهای دههی 1930 به اوج خود رسید که این خود پیامدی از تقویت روابط سیاسی آلمان نازی و ایران در این سالها بود. علاوه برآن تغییرات درونی کشور به سمت ملیگرایی ایرانی- آریایی بود که در نهایت منجر به تغییر نام «پِرشیا» به ایران گردید. در این هنگام نمایندگان محلی شرکتهای ضبط و تاجران، نقش تعیینکنندهای در ارتباط نوازندگان ایرانی و شرکتهای آلمانی داشتند. درنهایت اینکه طبیعت و سیاستهای چند ملیتی شرکت لیندشتروم ایجاب میکرد که صفحات و برچسبهای این شرکت به
کشورهای شرقی از جمله ایران ورود پیدا کنند.
کلمات کلیدی
صنعت ضبط، لیندشتروم، اُدئون، پارلوفون، آغاسی، بدیعزاده، گرامافون.
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Books by Mohsen Mohammadi
English Writings by Mohsen Mohammadi
Dissertations by Mohsen Mohammadi
Audio Video by Mohsen Mohammadi
“Avanegar” is a documentary on the history of music transcription in Iran. In this film, Dr. Mohsen Mohammadi, Iranian scholar and the Director of Indo-Persian Music at UCLA, narrates the history of transcription of Iranian music, based on decades of research in various archives in Iran, Europe, and the United States. In addition, Dr. Reza Vali, professor of composition at Carnegie Mellon University, has arranged exclusively for this film one of his works inspired by Iranian music. This five-movement piece was performed by an ensemble of notable American musicians supervised by the composer. Moreover, several prominent Iranian musicians based in Iran and abroad have performed exclusively for this movie. Those include (in Persian alphabetical order) Navid Afghah, Ali Bahramifard, Kazem Davoudian, Siroos Jamali, Siamak Jahangiri, Layla Ramezan, and Behzad Ravaqi.
In addition to various rare historical documents and sources that are presented in this film, several historical notations of Iranian music have been performed and recorded exclusively for this film. Historical information in this movie is presented in such a way that musicians and the general audience are able to follow the story. This film is made in memory of Mohammad-Taghi Massoudieh (1927–1999) whose publications are invaluable and incomparable sources for researchers, musicians, composers, and all those who are interested in Iranian music. This documentary is the result of a long collaboration that took more than a year, and I hope it is useful for scholars and artists.
Behrouz Jamali.
Persian Writings by Mohsen Mohammadi
کشورهای شرقی از جمله ایران ورود پیدا کنند.
کلمات کلیدی
صنعت ضبط، لیندشتروم، اُدئون، پارلوفون، آغاسی، بدیعزاده، گرامافون.
“Avanegar” is a documentary on the history of music transcription in Iran. In this film, Dr. Mohsen Mohammadi, Iranian scholar and the Director of Indo-Persian Music at UCLA, narrates the history of transcription of Iranian music, based on decades of research in various archives in Iran, Europe, and the United States. In addition, Dr. Reza Vali, professor of composition at Carnegie Mellon University, has arranged exclusively for this film one of his works inspired by Iranian music. This five-movement piece was performed by an ensemble of notable American musicians supervised by the composer. Moreover, several prominent Iranian musicians based in Iran and abroad have performed exclusively for this movie. Those include (in Persian alphabetical order) Navid Afghah, Ali Bahramifard, Kazem Davoudian, Siroos Jamali, Siamak Jahangiri, Layla Ramezan, and Behzad Ravaqi.
In addition to various rare historical documents and sources that are presented in this film, several historical notations of Iranian music have been performed and recorded exclusively for this film. Historical information in this movie is presented in such a way that musicians and the general audience are able to follow the story. This film is made in memory of Mohammad-Taghi Massoudieh (1927–1999) whose publications are invaluable and incomparable sources for researchers, musicians, composers, and all those who are interested in Iranian music. This documentary is the result of a long collaboration that took more than a year, and I hope it is useful for scholars and artists.
Behrouz Jamali.
کشورهای شرقی از جمله ایران ورود پیدا کنند.
کلمات کلیدی
صنعت ضبط، لیندشتروم، اُدئون، پارلوفون، آغاسی، بدیعزاده، گرامافون.