Songs practicing with Master Monzavi: starting by Biate Esfahan
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dastgah
Dastgāh (Persian: دستگاه) is a musical modal system in traditional Persian art music. Persian art music consists of twelve principal musical modal systems or dastgāhs; in spite of 50 or more extant dastgāhs, theorists generally refer to a set of twelve principal ones. A dastgāh is a melody type on the basis of which a performer produces extemporised pieces.
Short summary[edit]
Each dastgāh consists of seven basic notes, plus several variable notes used for ornamentation and modulation. Each dastgāh is a certain modal variety subject to a course of development (sayr) that is determined by the pre-established order of sequences, and revolves around 365 central nuclear melodies known as gushehs (each of these melodies being a gusheh) which the individual musician comes to know through experience and absorption. This process of centonization is personal, and it is a tradition of great subtlety and depth. The full collection of gushehs in all dastgāhs is referred to as the radif. During the meeting of The Inter-governmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Heritage of the United Nations, held between 28 September – 2 October 2009 in Abu Dhabi, radifs were officially registered on the UNESCO List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.[1][2][3][4]
The dastgāh system has been a major influence in the maqam system in the Arabic music, both of which are deeply rooted in the Sassanid Persia's melodies which entered into the Islamic world following the Arab conquest of Iran in the 7th century.
The system of twelve dastgāhs and gushehs has remained nearly the same as it was codified by the music masters of the nineteenth century, in particular Mîrzā Abdollāh Farāhāni (1843–1918). No new dastgāh or large gusheh has been devised since that codification. When in the modern times an āvāz or dastgāh has been developed, it has almost always been through borrowings from the extant dastgāhs and gushehs, rather than through unqualified invention. From this remarkable stability one may infer that the system must have achieved "canonical" status in Iran.[citation needed]
The terminology[edit]
The term dastgāh has often been compared to the musical mode in Western musicology. This however does not reflect the correct meaning of the term. The term can be described by noting that a dastgāh is usually the name of the initial mode of a piece of music being played which is referred to again and again and moreover a dastgāh identifies a group of modes which are grouped together according to tradition. In short, a dastgāh is both the collective title of a grouping of modes as well as the initial mode of each group.[5]
According to musicians themselves, the etymology of the term dastgāh is associated with “the position (gāh) of the hand (dast) [on the neck of the instrument],” The Persian term dastgah can be translated as "system," and dastgāh is then "first and foremost a collection of discrete and heterogeneous elements organized into a hierarchy that is entirely coherent though nevertheless flexible."[6]
In conventional classifications of Persian music, Abū ʿAṭā, Daštī, Afšārī, and Bayāt-e Tork are considered to be sub-classes of Šur dastgāh. Likewise, Bayāt-e Esfahān is defined as a sub-class of Homāyun, reducing the number of principal dastgahs to a total of seven. A sub-class in the conventional system is referred to as āvāz.
The Seven Dastgahs[edit]
Most scholars divide the traditional Persian art music to seven Dastgahs, although some divide them to 12 Dastgahs (by counting Abu Ata, Dashti, Afshari, Bayat-e Kord and Bayat-e Esfahan as separate Dastgahs rather than subcategories of other Dastgahs).[7] Those who categorize the traditional Persian art music into seven Dastgahs often also list 7 Avazes (Persian: آواز, which means songs) in conjunction with these Dastgahs. The following is a list of the 7 Dastgāhs and 7 āvāzes:
- Bayāt-e Tork [9] (referred to as Bayāt-e Zand, before the conquest of Qajar dynasty over Zand dynasty)
- Abū ʿAṭā [10]
- Daštī [11]
- Afšārī [12]
- Bayāt-e Kord [13]
- Bayāt-e Esfahān [15]
- Šūštar
- Navā
Note that in some cases the sub-classes (āvāzes) are counted as individual dastgāhs, yet this contradicts technicalities in Iranian music. BAYĀT-e EṢFAHĀN, or ĀVĀZ-e EṢFAHĀN, a musical system based on a specific collection of modal pieces (gūšahā) which are performed in a particular order. According to the late 13th/19th-century author Forṣat Šīrāzī (apud Ṣafwat, p. 81), Eṣfahān was listed as one of the pieces of the modal system (dastgāh) of Homāyūn. In the twentieth century it has developed from a gūša of Homāyūn into a nearly independent dastgāh. Its smaller repertoire and cadential references to Homāyūn support the theory that it is a sub-dastgāh (āvāz, naḡma) of Homāyūn. Some theorists (Farhat, p, 164; Caron and Safvate, p. 89) believe it to be an independentdastgāh; others believe it to be derived from the dastgāh Šūr (During, p. 118).
The introductory part (darāmad) is in the mode of Eṣfahān. The scale degrees are F G Ap B C D Eb. The recitation tone (šāhed) is on C, the initial pitch (āḡāz) may be on C or G, the cadential pitch (īst) may be C or Ap, and the final pitch is on G, although earlier in the century it concluded on F.
Like other dastgāhs, Eṣfahān’s scale and modal configuration have changed over time. The mood of Eṣfahān has been described as mystical and profound, expressing a mixture of happiness and melancholy. Its current similarity to the Western minor scale has made it a much-used mode in popular and semiclassical music, where Western minor tuning is used and the Ap eliminated (Zonis, p. 87).
The important gūšas of Bayāt-e Eṣfahān are the Darāmad, Jāmadarān, Bayāt-e Rājeʿ, ʿOššāq, Šāhḵatāʾī, Sūz-o-godāz, and Maṯnawī. Bayāt-e Rājeʿ is one of the most important gūšas, and has a slightly different modal character than the Darāmad. ʿOššāq, also very important, represents a distinct modulation. Šāhḵatāʾī, which is modally close to ʿOššāq, expresses the high pitch area (awj) of the dastgāh, cadencing to Eṣfahān at its conclusion. Both Sūz-o-godāz and Maṯnawī have modal configurations similar to Eṣfahān.
Bibliography:
N. Caron and D. Safvate, Iran: Les traditions musicales, Berlin, 1966, pp. 88-91.
J. During, La musique iranienne: Tradition et évolution, Paris, 1984, pp. 118-19.
H. Farhat, The Dastgah Concept in Persian Music, Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1965, I, pp. 164-75; II, pp. 355-58.
M. Forsat Šīrāzī, Boḥūr al-alḥān, ed. ʿA. Zarrīnqalam, Tehran, 1345 Š./1966.
M. Karīmī (coll.), Radīf-e āvāzī-e mūsīqī-e sonnatī-e Īrān, transcribed and analyzed by M.-T. Masʿūdīya (Massoudieh), Tehran, 1357 Š./1978, pp. 83-97.
R. Ḵāleqī, Naẓar-ī be-mūsīqī II, Tehran, 1352 Š./1973, pp. 207-14.
K. Khatschi, Der Dastgah: Studien zur neuen persischen Musik, Regensburg, 1962, pp. 102-03.
M. Maʿrūfī, Radīf-e haft dastgāh-e mūsīqī-e īrānī, Tehran, 1352 Š./1973 (s.v. Bayāt-e Eṣfahān).
M. Sadeghi, Improvisation in Nonrhythmic Solo Instrumental Contemporary Persian Art Music, M.A. thesis, California State University, Los Angeles, 1971, pp. 35, 60, 62-63.
D. Ṣafwat, Ostādān-e mūsīqī-e Īrān wa alḥān-e mūsīqī-e īrānī, Tehran, 1350 Š./1971, pp. 74-99.
E. Zonis, Classical Persian Music: An Introduction, Cambridge, Mass., 1973, pp. 86-88.
(M. Caton)
Originally Published: December 15, 1988
Last Updated: December 15, 1988
This article is available in print.
Vol. III, Fasc. 8, pp. 884-885
