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

1 November 2019 – 10:33 pm Posted in Articles' List, Contemporary Music, Instrument & Playing, Interesting Facts, Iranian Classical Music

Translated by Mahboube Khalvati

Gholamreza Khan Minbashian taught courses such as organology, orchestration of military music and harmony based on the books which were translated from French into Persian with the help of Aliakbar Mozayyan-o-Dolleh (1846-1932). Some pamphlets were also prepared based on Minbashian’s teachings on solfège and on wind instruments which were never published.
In 1914 (or 1917 as mentioned in some references), Gholamreza Khan founded a school for military music entitled “Music Class” and started teaching there. The courses taught at this school were four years long and civilians along with military personnel could take part in the courses and be trained on classical (non-military) music.
Ranking Brigadier General, Gholamreza Khan established the Army’s Music Department and became its director in 1921. Seven years later, when it was banned to simultaneously work for and receive salaries from two public organizations, he resigned as the head of the music school and handed over the responsibility to Colonel Ali Naqi Vaziri. Vaziri immediately removed military music courses from the curriculum of the school as there was an independent school for teaching military music, that is, Army’ Music Department run by Gholamreza Khan and his son Nasrallah.
Gholam Reza Khan Minbashian retired in 1930 and his son Nasrallah replaced him. Gholam Reza Khan passed away in 1935 and was buried in Qom, Iran.
Gholamreza Khan’s sons, Nasrallah and Gholamhossein Min Bashian, both studied music in Europe and rendered a lot of services in the scene of the Iranian classical music (Nasrallah Min Bashian’s sons, Fathollah Min Bashian and Mehrdad Pahlbod, both of whom were musicians assumed high ranking positions in the second Pahlavi dynasty. Fathallah became the Commander of the Army’s Ground Force and Mehrdad became the Minister of Culture and Arts).
Gholamreza Khan also played the Iranian instrument Tar and had learned to play the instrument under the supervision of maestros at the time. Therefore, he was keenly interested in Iranian Dastgah music and, unlike his son Gholam Hossein, who strongly opposed Iranian music, considered teaching Persian music necessary. Gholamreza Khan had consequently made Hossein Hang Afrin responsible for teaching Iranian music. For the first time, Gholamreza Khan prepared and published the score relating to a part of Mahour Radif which was performed by Hossein Khan Hang Afrin, in Tehran and in Leipzig, Germany. In the Radif which was notated by Gholamreza Khan, Arabic notation symbols were used to indicate quarter tones.
Gholamreza Khan also mailed the afore-mentioned Radif for Alexandre Jean Albert Lavignac (21 January 1846 – 28 May 1916), the editor of the French Encyclopedia of Music, with whom he has been corresponding about the Iranian music.
Gholam Reza Khan also played Iranian music with the piano and changed the tunes to play quarter tones, but before him, Sarvar-ol Molk also used to play Iranian Dastgahs on the piano using a different hand position compared to the standard hand position which Gholamreza Khan used.
In addition to teaching piano, Gholamreza Khan also taught several wind and brass instruments and had founded some orchestras with his students, most notably among his students and except his children are, Zia Mokhtari, Hassan Radmard, Mohammad Najmi, Mosayeb Rezvani, and Hossein Ali Vaziri.
During the time of Qajar and Pahlavi, Gholamreza Khan’s pieces including hymns and marches were performed; however, their scores are hard to find. In his biography, pieces for piano entitled “Piano Fantasy”, Daramad-e Avaz-e Esfahan, Pish Daramad and Tasnif” and also the arrangement of pieces by Roknoddin Mokhtari for piano are mentioned which were published then.

This entry was written by Sadjad Pourghanad
Tagged: .

Nasser Masoudi: The Voice of Gilan and a Legacy of Iranian Music

In Iranian music, certain singers have become emblematic of their homelands through their distinctive voices. Historical figures such as Eghbal Sultan, who epitomized the grandeur of Azerbaijani music, and Taj Isfahani, who conveyed the authentic essence of Isfahan, serve as notable examples from the Qajar era. Nasser Masoudi occupies a similar position; his voice emerged as a symbol of Gilan while also achieving national acclaim. Before him, Master Ahmad Ashurpur represented Gilan’s musical landscape, but his extended residence outside Iran limited his continuous engagement in the music scene. In contrast, Masoudi’s consistent presence allowed him to introduce the voice of Gilan to audiences across Iran.

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.

Latest posts

From Past Days…

Negation of Changes in Iranian Music: Embracing Tradition

The perspective that denies any alteration or innovation beneath the realm of Iranian music, and more broadly, the performance and even the structure of Iranian music instruments, stems from the discourse of “tradition-oriented”* and the “return to self” movement in Iranian music. Given that some educators still adhere to this discourse and emphasize the necessity of preserving tradition, a perception is formed among art students that Iranian music, including Radif, lacks dynamism and is confined within a rigid framework.

Principles of Violin Playing (IX)

4.3.1. To practice playing of doubles of notes involving two different fingers, each note is played at separate bows with slow tempo, each note is played perfectly regarding its bass and tenor sounds and then the considered double is played at another bow while considering the resulted sound of the double.

A few steps on the “Road to Bach”

The world of music has unparalleled respect for Bach. Bach is considered the spiritual father of classical music; Bach’s great position is due not only to his great achievements in the fields of harmony, counterpoint, and compositional sciences but also to his respect for and adherence to the artistic principles of classical music. In the history of classical music, it is recorded that Bach walked about fifty kilometers to listen to the music played by the great German organist Dieterich Buxtehude, and this is the path that every idealistic classical music student should walk.

“Pledge of Love”

The “Pledge of Love” is the first album in a series composed based on the tasnifs by the renowned Iranian tasnif-maker Mohammad Ali Amir Jahed and recorded by Sahba Kohan Ensemble with Ramin Bahiraie as signer.

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.

The Structure of Kurdistan Daf (II)

With its simple physical structure and captivating sound, the Daf never belonged to a particular culture or location, and every nation had different usages for this instrument considering their dominant customs and traditions.

Women and the Music Environment in Iran

The life territory of the female-male relations in the Iranian cultural context is basically a domestic territory and not a social-living one in the labour and leisure domains. To prove this, it only suffices to consider the Iranian men’s viewpoints about women. For the Iranian men, there are three perspectives regarding the women: mother, sister and wife. Mother represents the emotional territory; sister represents the logical territory at home while wife represents the sexual territory.

Behzad Abdi’s opera Rumi was physically released by Naxos

Composing a traditional Iranian opera using the Iranian modal system, dastgāh, has always been my dream. I first approached this by composing an opera called Ashura followed by the operas Rumi and Hafez. I believe that in order to attract an international audience for Iranian opera, it is essential to fuse dastgāh with Western classical forms.

From Tradition to Trend: The Evolution of Decorative Arts in Iranian Dafs

Daf is one of the percussion instruments associated with the Kurdistan region of Iran, which has a special place in Iranian music. In the past, animal skin was used for the drum head, but now most of the tambourines in the market are made with artificial skin, which are designed with various decorations.

Interview with Farhad Poupel (I)

Born in Isfahan, Iran, and based in the UK, Farhad Poupel’s music has been performed and will be performed in numerous prestigious concert halls and festivals throughout the world including Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Japan; La Roque-d’Anthéron Piano Festival, La Roque-d’Anthéron, France; Biarritz Festival, Biarritz, France; Stoller Hall, Manchester, UK; Janacek academy of music and performing art, Brno, Czech Republic; Karlskrona International Piano Festival, Karlskrona, Sweden; by distinguished artists such as Kotaro Fukuma, Peter Jablonski, Daniel Grimwood, Margaret Fingerhut, Catherine Carby, Kristýna Znamenáčková,Jeffrey Biegel, Jean-Francois Bouvery and orchestras such as Windsor Symphony Orchestra or broadcasted on the NPR Radio 4, Netherland. The following is an interview with him on the ocaasion of the premier of the Legend of Bijan and Manijeh.