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

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.

Post a Comment

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

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.

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.

Polyphony in Iranian Music (I)

Despite the fact that Iranian folk music (regional music of Iran), like the Radif of Iranian traditional music, is monophonic and follows heterophony in principal, we experience polyphonic forms, albeit, majorly unconscious.

Shaahin Mohajeri Wins UnTwelve Composition Competition

UnTwelve Non-profit Organization announced the results of its 2014/2015 composition competition on January 28, 2015. Shaahin Mohajeri, an Iranian Tonbak player, microtonalist, acoustician and composer, was awarded the second prize for his piece “Castle of Babak.”

Transition to Enlightenment: Six Lectures on Mozart’s String Quartets (3)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a musical prodigy of the Classical era, was deeply influenced by the intellectual currents of the Enlightenment. His exposure to Enlightenment ideas was multifaceted, shaped not only by the cultural milieu of his time but also by the relationships within his family and his own interactions with prominent figures of the Enlightenment. This exploration will delve into Mozart’s acquaintance with Enlightenment ideas through his father’s relationships and his own encounters with influential personalities of the era, including Christian Fürchtegott Gellert, Baron Melchior Grimm, Madame d’Epinay, and Joseph von Sonnenfels. Additionally, the essay will examine the impact of Joseph II’s reforms on Mozart’s life and artistic endeavors.

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

Ali Tajvidi (1920 – 2004), one of the most prominent Iranian musicians, passed away sixteen years ago. He was one of the most distinguished Iranian artists. To specify one of the fields in which he was unique, one can refer to Tasnif composition. A brief review of his manifold musical activities is presented below.

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.

Ennio Morricone’s music for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight

After watching Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie, The Hateful Eight, everyone was excited by its novel music besides the beautiful scenes of blood and guts.
The Hateful Eight is the first collaboration between the world-famous film music composer, Ennio Morricone, and Quentin Tarantino as a famous director.

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.

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.

Iranian Fallacies – Global Performance

One of the most important criteria for measuring the quality of a piece of classical music is number of times the piece has been performance by different ensembles and orchestras in different eras. This belief has become so pervasive in some societies, such as Iranian society, that it is considered the only criterion for measuring the quality of a piece of classical music.