Prominent Iranian Musicologist Passes Away in Vienna

Translated by Mahboube Khalvati
Khosrow Djafarzadeh, musicologist and architect, who was also one of the main authors of HarmonyTalk journal passed away on 15 July 2019.
Born in 1941 in Hamedan, Iran, Djafarzadeh finished his secondary studies in Iran and moved to Vienna, Austria to study architecture. Even though he learnt to play violin at the age of 12, in Europe he devoted himself to architecture and the study of Europe’s history, culture and civilization.
One of his early writings entitled “experimental theatre in Vienna’s house of artists” which concentrated on the European culture and civilization was published in 1975. In the same year, the Iranian musician, Houshang Zarif visited Vienna to introduce the Iranian music to Europeans when Djafarzadeh obtain the opportunity to meet Zarif. Seizing this opportunity, Djafarzadeh managed to learn to play Tar under the supervision of one of the most virtuoso Iranian Tar players. Meanwhile he felt the urge to study about Iran’s history and culture concentrating on music history.
Amidst these developments one cannot ignore the role his wife, Professor Forough Karimi from Vienna Academy of Fine Arts played.
At the same time, Djafarzadeh established the Society of Iranian Artists in Vienna and published a quarterly entitled “Vienna’s souvenir” (Rahavard Vien) and staged musical performances with different ensembles including Shiraz Ensemble. Society of Iranian Artists in Vienna organized a variety of cultural and artistic programs for Iranian artists, and these activities led Jafarzadeh became familiar with musicians including Mohammad Reza Shajarian, Hossein Alizadeh, Mohammad Reza Lotfi, Shahram Nazeri, Parviz Meshkatian, Dariush Talaie, Aliakbar Shekarchi, Kayhan Kalhor and Arshad Tahmasebi.
Djafarzadeh’s main academic and educational background was in architecture, and music had always been his second favorite field, though today the value of his work in music is no less than the value of his architectural pursuits. For the past several years, Djafarzadeh had been working on “vulgarity” in the scientific discourse of Iranian music. He argues that the lack of a scientific language in the discourse of the Iranian music has been the main reason behind lack of consensus among theorists of the field and the inefficiency of conventional theories of the Iranian music.
In 2019, the second edition of Djafarzadeh’s first book “Iranian-music”-ology was published by Art of Music publication. The research consists of three chapters namely “systems of sounds in music”, “metre and rhythm in the Iranian music” and “performance of the Iranian music” which feature interesting and original research on the Iranian music. In “systems of sounds in music”, Djafarzadeh proposes a new approach for theorizing Iranian music by analyzing modal “gousheh”s in Radif instead of introducing all the goushehs in the Iranian Radif.

Djafarzadeh goes even further than the current established Iranian modes available in the radif and introduces “combined mughams” (modes) introduces new modes by bringing various examples of combination of different modes of folk music, Iranian music and even Turkish and Arabic music.

Post a Comment

Required fields are marked *
*
*
Your email is never shared.

Transition to Enlightenment: Six Lectures on Mozart’s String Quartets (4)

Mozart’s compositions bear the imprint of Enlightenment ideals in various ways. His music exhibits a balance between reason and emotion, mirroring the Enlightenment’s call for a harmonious integration of these elements in human life. The clarity of Mozart’s formal structures in his symphonies and operas reflects Enlightenment principles of order and rational organization.

Fereydoun Shahbazian, An Iranian Musical Icon Passed Away

Fereydoun Shahbazian, the renowned Iranian composer, passed away at the age of 82 due to respiratory illness in Tehran. His last significant activity was leading the National Orchestra before the appointment of Homayoun Rahimian

From Past Days…

Iranian Fallacies – School of Vaziri

Iranian Fallacies – School of Vaziri

The term “School of Vaziri” is often used in writings on Iranian music, but the exact meaning of the term is not clear; some of the authors have used the term to only refer to the group of Vaziri’s students, including a large group of his conservatory students and his Tar students such as Abolhassan Saba, Rouhollah Khaleghi, Ahmad Foroutan Rad, Hossein Sanjari, Heshmat Sanjari and others. But can we consider all Vaziri’s students as followers of his school of thought? This is definitely a mistake, because we know that some of Vaziri’s students have chosen a completely different path than that of Vaziri.

A Note on the Occasion of Houshang Zarif’s Demise

No introduction is needed when talking about the position of the late Houshang Zarif (1938-2020) in the Iranian music. His character and personality are so well-known among musicians that his name per se is a symbol and role model for the Iranian youth. “Becoming Houshang Zarif” is the dream of many young people who enter the world of music in Iran and many of whom retire regretting the realisation of this dream.

From the Last Instrumentalist to the First Composer (II)

Rouhollah Khaleghi was the master of composing beautiful melodies. He was the premier of the course of history which was first established by Ali Naghi Vaziri and which improved the Iranian music from simply a gathering music to the classical music of the country. First efforts to compose independent and instrumental music can be also traced in Khaleghi’s works.

HarmonyTalk Celebrates 11th Anniversary

April 6 marks the anniversary of launching HarmonyTalk.com. Back in 2004, HarmonyTalk was rather a blog dedicated to music. Gradually, however, it found its way to becoming a more sophisticated journal with an intensive but not exclusive concentration on classical music.

Layla Ramezan, Iranian Pianist

Iranian pianist Layla Ramezan has always sought to create a connection between her Persian origin and the contemporary music which she encounters daily. Sound, phrasing, a particular sense of rhythm and a refined understanding of the “time of musical development” are the foremost qualities of her interpretations. Her musical and pianistic education began in Tehran at the age of 8 with Mostafa-Kamal Poortorab. Having moved to Paris and received a scholarship from Albert Roussel Foundation, she integrated the classes of Jean Micault and Devi Erlih at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot, where she received a Diplôme de Virtuosité in piano performance and chamber music.

Transition to Enlightenment: Six Lectures on Mozart’s String Quartets (2)

The Enlightenment era championed innovation, creativity, and the relentless pursuit of knowledge, values that resonate prominently in Mozart’s string quartets. Mozart, a luminary of the Enlightenment, used the quartet form as a playground for his inventive spirit, pushing the boundaries of traditional structures and harmonic progressions.

Principles of Violin Playing (VII)

4.3.1.3 Regarding the great linear distance and the unusual distance between the first and forth fingers, the first finger while playing the doubles of ninth and tenth interval, can be twisted in the knuckle area and the point mentioned in 3.1.2.5 paragraph in relation to the way first finger is placed indicating that the first joint of this finger in back of hand must be in line with the direction of forearm and left hand is not true here.

Ali Rahbari & Recording Iranian Symphonic Compositions

In the few days prior to the New Iranian year (March 2015), the news of the revival of Tehran Symphony Orchestra under Ali (Alexander) Rahbari’s conductorship was announced. Ali Rahbari, who served as assistant to Herbert von Karajan in Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra at a very young age, was also invited to conduct Tehran Symphony Orchestra in 2005; however, the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government put an end to his collaboration with this Orchestra. Recently, it was announced that Rahbari is invited to conduct an orchestra in the U.S.

Principles of Violin Playing (II)

Since for playing violin, it’s necessary that the player’s palms and fingers be inclined toward the fingerboard, therefore, the player, while bringing up his hand, should turn it toward the fingerboard.

A Look at Ali Tajvidi’s Manifold Musical Activities (II)

Tajvidi thought of studying harmony and orchestration with Houshang Ostvar (who was eight years younger than him) at a time when he had gained a reputation among musicians. His humbleness, making him willing to kneel before the scholars at any age and position, became the key to his scientific success. After this period, Tajvidi made some of his works polyphonic, the most prominent of which is “Burn” set to a poem by Abdullah Ulfat. However, his ability to make his works polyphonic was not so great to make him self-sufficient; so he depended on musicians such as Farhad Fakhreddini, Fereydoun Naseri, Kambiz Roshanravan, Fereydoun Shahbazian and Morteza Hananeh for the arrangement of his compositions.