Conceptualization of Melody Types of Iranian Radīf: A Multidisciplinary Study in Assisting Youth to Employ Traditional Dastgāh-ha in Improvisation

Abstract

Iranian musician, since the early stages of learning music in school of tradition, learns how to employ this heritage in his or her performance. This heritage is called radif. By attempting to writing down the radif of Iranian music in last three or four decades and appearing various notated versions on the radif, however, signs of a new problem is being seen. This problem seems to have an indirect connection with the new circumstances of learning the radif through the notations instead of gaining its essence of by heart. The problem is decline of ability to improvise music based on the written versions of the radif-ha. Moreover, it seems that the majority of new generation of teachers and pupils are not willing to disregard the notation system and go back to traditional learning system. This means there is need for a scholarly solution in which the ability of improvisation resumed while the new generation of performers can go on with using the notation system they have been getting used to in last four decades. Studying numerous performances of contemporary performers of Iranian traditional music and participating in several teaching occasions made this fact clear that the problem primarily comes from treating the gusheh-ha of the radif as finished tunes rather than looking them as raw-materials. In other words, since the notational system normally notates only one possibility of performing each gusheh in shape of a finished tune, pupils mainly memorise that as the key formation of gusheh and representing it with little or no change once they are asked to replay it. The problem with this is that for newly trained performer it is very hard to distinguish the ‘elementary features’ of each gusheh from the ‘momentary ornamentations and optional tahrir-ha’ once he comes to set the basis of such gusheh for improvisation. This study tries to provide a guidance of melodic abstract of each gusheh to illustrate the elementary features which performer can use as the point of departure for his or her improvisation without loosing the identity of gusheh through out the performance. This will take place by analytically comparing the available versions of radif-ha of Iranian music with the co-operation of a number of radifd-ha and high rank performers in Iran.
(PDF) Conceptualization of Melody Types of Iranian Radif: A Multidisciplinary Study in Assisting Youth to Employ Traditional Dastgahs in Improvisation. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275517824_Conceptualization_of_Melody_Types_of_Iranian_Radif_A_Multidisciplinary_Study_in_Assisting_Youth_to_Employ_Traditional_Dastgahs_in_Improvisation [accessed Sep 26 2018].