Mohammad Esmaili passes away

Master Mohammad Ismaili, a prominent musician and renowned tombak player, passed away on August 13, 2023, after battling an illness in the ICU of Rasoul Akram Hospital. His funeral will take place on Thursday, August 17, at 10 am in front of Vahdat Hall, and he will be laid to rest in the Artists’ Section of Behesht Zahra Cemetery.

Born on September 25, 1934, in Tehran, Mohammad Ismaili was introduced to Hussein Tehrani, by his cousins Morteza and Mostafa Gorgin Zadeh in 1954. He also had the opportunity to perform in the presence of Amir Nasser Eftetah. While he spent eight years learning classical clarinet alongside tombak, he primarily focused on tombak playing and never pursued a professional career in clarinet despite receiving invitations to perform with classical music orchestras.

In 1965, Ismaili joined the Ministry of Culture and Art’s music ensembles and, following the death of his mentor Hussein Tehrani, became the head of the National Instrument Orchestra under the supervision of Faramarz Payvar. This collaboration continued even after Payvar’s passing.

Ismaili was part of the first tombak group initiated by Hussein Tehrani with the encouragement of Ruhollah Khaleghi. In collaborating with Houshang Zarif, Mahmoud Rahmanipour, and Nasrollah Golpayegani, he began his musical journey. He was the only one specializing in tombak, while others had expertise in different instruments.

He was selected as a teacher at the National Music Conservatory instead of Tehrani based on the recommendations of music experts. During this period, Ismaili, along with Hossein Dehlavi and others (Houshang Zarif, Farhad Fakhreddini, and Mostafa Kamal PourTorab), started writing the book “Tombak Instruction.” This book was the first significant step in teaching Iranian percussion instruments and remains an important resource for tombak education due to multiple revisions made by Ismaili and his students.

In 1964, he began teaching tombak at the National Music Conservatory as a representative of his mentor. After the revolution, when tombak instruction was banned at the conservatory, he secretly taught the instrument to his students in the conservatory’s pantry area, ensuring that the legacy of his teacher, Hussein Tehrani, was not forgotten.

After the disbandment of Faramarz Payvar’s ensemble following the revolution, Ismaili’s stage activities in Iran were suspended until the revival of the Payvar ensembles. Both groups, the Masters and the Payvar ensemble, resumed their extensive activities under Payvar’s leadership.

Mohammad Ismaili has left numerous works in the form of ensemble and solo performances, with most of his notable works being collaborations with the Payvar Group.

A commemoration ceremony for Mohammad Ismaili was held on December 1, 2017, at Vahdat Hall in Tehran, attended by a group of artists. The event, organized by RadnoAndish Cultural Institute, honored Ismaili’s five decades of significant contributions to Iranian music and tombak playing. It is worth mentioning that Majid Ismaili, a renowned violinist, is Mohammad Ismaili’s son.

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The Legacy of Khosrow Jafarzadeh

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the passing of Khosrow Jafarzadeh (Khosrow Djafar-Zadeh), a distinguished architect and pioneering researcher of Iranian music, whose contributions to the magazine “Harmony Talk” have left an indelible mark on the field. The absence of this remarkable individual has significantly impacted the expansion and advancement of his theories, which are heralded as some of the most progressive in the history of Iranian music

Whose dream?! Whose reality?!

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

From Past Days…

Persian Music: “Mahour the Great” in Austria

In 1990  an Austria-based Persian musician Khosro Soltani, in cooperation with Hossein Alizadeh, put out an album entitled, Ancient Call A New (Nobang-e Kohan). After many years, a few ancient Persian instruments such as Sorna, Karna, Naghareh,etc. have been used, instruments which have been left out of the circle of Persian classical musical instruments for centuries.

Is the Iranian National Anthem a Copy? (II)

In response, it should be said that it is better for the national anthem of a country to use the musical material exclusive to that country; however, some problems might come up in doing so the most important of which include: lack of familiarity of other countries’ music performer with the concerned country’s specific music intervals and special musical technique; and secondly, the strangeness of that music to the foreign listener.

Rouhollah Khaleghi Artistic Center established in Washington DC

Golnoush Khaleghi (1941-2021), a Washington-based Persian musician and the daughter of the contemporary Persian (Iranian) composer and theoretician Rouhollah Khaleghi (1906-1965) founded a musical center called RKAC to keep the name and the work of her father alive.

Henry Cowell: “Persian Set”

Persian Set: Four Movements for chamber orchestra: Moderato; Allegretto; Lento; Rondo

Henry Cowell, one of the most innovative American composers of the 20th century, was born in 1897. Cowell and his wife visited Iran in 1956 and stayed there the whole winter, upon the invitation by the Iranian Royal Family, when he composed his album “Persian Set” in four movements for chamber orchestra. His composition is expressive of the characteristic quality of the Persian or the Iranian music.

The Structure of Kurdistan Daf (III)

“Our ancestors believe powerful blows upon the Daf scatters evil spirits of disease and distress to create a clean and holy space filled with health and prosperity. Adding tools to Daf increases this instrument’s purification, spreading, and summoning powers of evil forces and goddesses. Daf was mostly depicted by red, color of blood, in ancient times or sometimes it was depicted with green, the color of plants and nature. There were probably some mysterious designs painted upon the wooden body and frames of these instruments just like today” (Pahlavan, 2013: 44).

Principles of Violin Playing (VIII)

1.5.1.3.sometimes, a player, due to different reasons, may decisively want to play continuously two notes with a half-step by means of the same finger, in such a case, it’s necessary to open the interior curve of the finger like a spring. Naturally coming back, the curve of finger should be closed and the finger should become curved shape again (see paragraph 3.1.2.1).

Principles of Violin Playing (X)

Creating sound continuity between two notes in the source and destination positions when left hand position changes and “two different finger numbers” are involved is called portamento. Portamento can be performed on single string or two neighboring strings and with hand moving on fingerboard either upward or downward.

Tehran Flute Choir Established

Tehran Flute Choir was established in 1394 (late 2015) by Firouzeh Navai. Tehran Flute Choir, Iran’s first largest flute choir, recruited its members mostly from young talented flutists of Iranian Flute Association. Featuring piccolo, flute, alto flute and bass flute, Tehran Flute Choir, directed by Firouzeh Navai, premiered under the batons of Saeed Taghadosi on January 7-8, 2016 at Roudaki Hall in Tehran.

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.

“Symphonic Poems from Persia” Released in Germany

While the name “Persia” (Western historical name of Iran) has attracted tens of thousands of people from around the world to London’s British Museum to visit ancient Persian artifacts, the Nuremberg-based music company, Colosseum, invites Europeans to listen to eight masterpieces of Persian symphonic music.