Gholam Reza Khan Minbashian: a pioneer in Iranian music (I)

1 October 2019 – 8:52 pm Posted in Articles' List, Contemporary Music, General Information, Interesting Facts, Iranian Classical Music

Translated by Mahboube Khalvati

Gholam Reza Khan Minbashian, a.k.a Salar-Mo’azez, was a pioneer in several domains in the history of the Iranian music. He is recognized as the first Iranian musician who was educated in classical music. He is also the first Iranian the score of whose works were published in Europe. He is the first Iranian to have launched courses on Western classical music and was also the first Iranian teacher of classical music. Moreover, he is the first founder of a string orchestra in Iran, the first author of the Iranian Radif which was available in oral form. Minbashian is also the first Iranian who studied music in Europe.
Minbashian is undoubtedly the father of classical music as well as military music in Iran. Gholamreza Minbashian, son of Nasrallah, was born in 1862 in Tehran. His mother, Qamar al-Zaman, was the first Iranian woman to play the piano. Minbashian studied at Dar al-Funun School. He had shown a talent for painting and language before starting to learn music and had even ranked second at school and had received a medal from Nasser al-Din Shah Qa’jar.
Because of Minbashian’s interest in music, his father, Nasrallah Khan, enrolled him at Dar al-Funun’s music branch where he spent eight years under the supervision of Alfred Jean-Baptiste Lemaire. He graduated as the first Dar al-Funun music student. It is worth mentioning that Lemaire’s system of teaching at Dar al-Funun was based on military music rather than classical music.
After graduation as a military officer, Gholamreza Minbashian started teaching music as an assistant to Lemaire in Dar al-Funun. In 1882, he was promoted to Sultanate rank in the Persian Cossack Brigade and became commander of music of the Cossack Cavalry. In four years’ time he was promoted to the rank of commander of musicians.
After eleven years of service, he reached the Mirpanj rank, and in the same year he went to the Soviet Union to study music at St. Petersburg Conservatory (Petrograd at the time) under the renowned musician of that time, Rimsky Korsakov. He took his eldest son, Nasrallah Minbashian (who was named after his grandfather and played piano and partly violin, cello and clarinet), with him. Gholamreza Minbashian’s education under the supervision of Korsakov was brief as he returned to Iran; however, Nasrallah studied there for seven years.
Upon his return to Iran, Gholamreza Minbashian re-assumed his former position. His return coincided with the Constitutional Revolution, so he resigned from his position because of his interest in the Constitutional fighters and left for France to study music. At the same time, he began composing the official Iranian anthem entitled “Hello Iran’s Majestic Government” the score for which he published, for the piano, in Europe.
Early in the reign of Ahmad Shah, he returned to Iran and was appointed director general of the music branch of the system.
In 1920, he was commissioned by the Ministry of Education (later renamed the Ministry of Culture and Art, today known as the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance) to form the Royal String Orchestra, the first string orchestra in Iran. It was at this time that he was promoted to the rank of Amir Touman, and was awarded the diamond-decorated badge.
In 1916, Alfred Jean-Baptiste Lemaire passed away and after a year, Gholamreza Khan was appointed as the Head of the music branch of Dar al-Funun. Two years later, Gholamreza Khan was honored with the title of Salar-Mo’azez.

This entry was written by Sadjad Pourghanad
Tagged: .

Farhad Poupel: The Voice of the Shahnameh in the Orchestras Around the World

In an era when almost no trace of contemporary Iranian music can be heard in international concert halls, except (so-called!) avant-garde works that owe their existence solely to the fashionable slogans of the “pseudo-intellectual” crowd who have seized the already meager resources for performing classical music from the true artists of the field, the numerous performances of Farhad Poupel’s works shine as a ray of hope for lovers of sincere musical art. Without resorting to trendy slogans, he has kept the flame of Iranian classical music alive purely through the power of his artistry.

Five Major Myths About Mozart’s Life

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the renowned Austrian composer, is undoubtedly one of the greatest geniuses in the history of classical music. However, his life is surrounded by numerous myths and legends, some of which are not based on facts. This article explores five of the most common misconceptions about Mozart’s life.

Latest posts

From Past Days…

Whose dream?! Whose reality?!

(A review of the “So Faraway” album; Tar and Tonbak duet; Siavash Imani, Pedram Khavarzmini)

Illusion or Ingenuity?

Mohsen Renani in the preface of his book entitled “The Political Economy of nuclear conflict; an introduction to traversing the civilizations” writes:

Timeless or Timely: The Role of Historical Context in Defining Artistic Value

Imagine that, in the course of historical research, we discover a musical piece whose compositional techniques (including form, melody, texture, and orchestration) resemble those of a second-rate 19th-century composition. But further investigation reveals that this work predates that period by 200 years. Can we still deem it insignificant? Certainly not. Here, the first major role of historical judgment becomes evident.

The Structure of Kurdistan Daf (IV)

Researcher: Mohammad Tarighat Translator: Fatemeh Alimohammadi Daf Structure The Structure of Daf in different cities of Iran has a great variety in terms of dimensions, components and even appearance; some of which are as follows: – Square Daf, on which the skin was stretched either on one or both sides, with strings installed inside it…
Read More »

Polyphony in Iranian Music (III)

In heterophonic variant, two performers perform a single melody simultaneously and change it. Performing and changing a single melody simultaneously by two performers leads to the coincidence of different voices.

Polyphony in Iranian Music (II)

With regard to each polyphonic form, only one specific and distinguished example is analyzed. These polyphonic forms are as follows:

From the Last Instrumentalist to the First Composer (I)

Music as an art has its own special history; emergence of a singer, of an instrumentalist and then the emergence of the strong character of a composer covers three significant phases of the art of music. With the emergence of composer which was simultaneous with the emergence of the language of music, this art managed to offer a domain for criticism for its composer; a procedure which led to a magnificent variety and evolution in musical production. Even though the conflicts between singers and instrumentalists have not met their end in the Iranian society and while singers can achieve high, instrumentalists have yet to play behind curtains . In a special era, with the efforts of musicians such as Ali Naghi Vaziri (1887-1979) and Rouhollah Khaleghi (1906-1965), glimmers of a composing era started to glow bearing fruit in Khaleghi’s achievement as Iran’s first professional composer. Khaleghi made his reputation as a composer while Vaziri deserved to pioneer this path. By then Vaziri was well-known as a Tar player.

“Guitar Memories” Released

The album “Guitar Memories” consists of the performance of baroque to recent era masterpieces, by Mehrdad Mahdavi, and is published by Tanin-e Honar Publication.

In this album there are pieces composed and arranged by artists such as: Sylvius Leopold Weiss, Johann Anton Logy, Fernando Sor, Yuquijiro Yocoh, Leo Brouwer.

Polyphony in Iranian Music (IV)

Two choirs alternatively perform Veŝ Tavaré Na avaz (Transcription 5). The second group starts the avaz before the first group finishes it; consequently, two different voices coincide (Transcription 5, staves 2 and 5).

Kayvan Mirhadi and O.R.P Qaurtet

Establishing O.R.P. Quartet is Kayvan Mirhadi’s latest activity as a guitarist, composer and conductor of Kamerata Orchestra. Besides working with this Quartet, Mirhadi is busy these days recording and mixing some of his own works as well as some pieces by 20th century composers. O.R.P Quartet performed a concert in Rasht, Gilan Province in late May 2016 and offered a master class.