Nasehpour Ensemble to perform at German festival
TEHRAN — Iran’s Nasehpour Ensemble will give a concert at the Musics of the World Festival that will be held from November 8th, 2009, in Halle, Germany.
The concert, which is a Improvisational performance, was held two years ago at the festival and was warmly received by the audience.
am Samstag, 7. November 2009, im Teo Otto Theater
zu Gunsten der Kinderkrebsklinik in Orumieh (Nordwest Iran)
sowie dem IKE Foerderverein fuer Interkulturelle Erziehung e.V.,
Moehrchen in Remscheid, Kinder-Selbsthilfeprojekt Our children and our future in Uganda und weitere Projekte
iranische klasische Musik:
Farzin Darabi Far (Tar und Setar) und seine Schueler
Peyman Nasehpour (Tonbak)
Naomi Yoshimura am Klavier
Orientalische Tanzgruppen Patchouli und Misch Misch
Nachwuchs-Showgruppe artistic jumpers
Einlass 18.00 Uhr
Beginn 19.00 Uhr
Eintritt 15.00 Euro
Schueler / Studenten 5.00 Euro
an der Abendkasse
Info: 0162 914 80 42
The Institute of Mathematics, Universität Osnabrück will hold a conference on “Combinatorial structures in algebra and topology” October 8 – 10, 2009.
Invited speakers:
C. Berger, Nice
M. Blickle, Essen
M. Boij, Stockholm
M. Brun, Bergen
A. Conca, Genoa
J. Gubeladze, San Francisco
T. Hüttemann, Belfast
U. Nagel, Lexington
F. Santos, Santander
S. Schwede, Bonn
N. Semenov, München
V. Welker, Marburg
T. Wendt, Freiburg
The invited lectures will be supplemented by short communications.
Organizing committee: H. Brenner, W. Bruns, T. Römer, O. Röndigs, R. Vogt
For further information see the conference web site. Conference e-mail address: confcsat at math.uos.de
Persian music and New Year traditions have been registered on UNESCO’s List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Tradition of Persian New Year, Nowruz, and the Radif of Iranian music were inscribed on the list during the 4th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage held from Sep. 28 to Oct. 2, 2009 in Abu Dhabi.
Nowruz, which coincides with the first day of spring on the solar calendar, is mostly celebrated in Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan.
For Iranians, Nowruz is a celebration of renewal and change, a time to visit relatives and friends, and pay respect to senior family members.
Iranians welcome the New Year by wearing new clothes and setting the Haft Seen, a table containing seven items starting with the letter ‘S’ — Sabzeh (freshly grown greens), Samanoo (A type of traditional pudding), Senjed (Jujube), Seeb (Apple), Seer (Garlic), Sumac and Serkeh (vinegar).
The Radif of Iranian music is the traditional repertoire of the classical music of Iran and reflects the cultural and national identity of the Iranian people.
UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) was established in the 1990s and deals with oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, traditional craftsmanship and knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe.
Parviz Meshkatian, the great master of Persian santoor, passes away.
Parviz Meshkatian was born in Neishabur (northeastern Iran) in 1955. He started his musical training at the age of six with his father Hassan Meshkatian, who played tar and santur masterfully and was also familiar with the violin and setar, having himself learned music from his father.
At an early age, Meshkatian entered the Tehran Academy of Arts, where he studied music theory and was introduced to radif (the Persian classical music repertoire) by the masters Nour Ali Boroumand, Dariush Safvat, Mohammad Taghi Massoudieh, and Mehdi Barkeshli. He focused on the radif of Mirza Abdollah for santur and setar.
After finishing his academic studies, Meshkatian continued the study of music with such masters as the late Abdollah Davami, Saied Hormozi, and Yousef Forootan. He has won the first prize in santur performance at the Barbad competition. He has taught santur at the Center for the Preservation and Dissemination of Music, where he also served as ensemble leader.
In 1977, Meshkatian founded the Aref Ensemble, which has brought a number of vocalists and musicians to prominence. He has composed numerous songs and pieces of music, all of which the ensemble has recorded and performed at concerts in Europe and America.
The ensemble has accordingly been recognized for its efforts to introduce Persian music outside of Iran. In the spring of 1992, Meshkatian was chosen as the best composer at the Spirit of the Earth festival in Italy. He was also one of the founding members of the Chavosh Artistic and Cultural Foundation, which has played a major role in the development of Iranian music in recent years. Meshkatian’s settings of classical poetry to music, based on a profound knowledge of Persian literature, established a new chapter of song writing in Persian classical music.
As a leading figure and a santur virtuoso, he has introduced many new santur performance techniques and, by adding new instruments, changed the color of the sound associated with ensemble orchestration.
Parviz Meshkatian has recorded over 200 pieces of work, published 18 books and many more articles, and performed in hundreds of concerts around the world. The Maestro remains active in recording, composing, and writing, and his work will continue to enrich Persian music for many years to come.
The website peyman and his tonbak has been updated, upgraded and redesigned. Not only the whole design and layout have been changed and broken links have been removed and redirected links have been edited, but also the website has been upgraded in this sense that there are no more Tripod Ads. Please check out the new website and send us your feedback, if possible. Also please check our new sale section. Please visit our sponsor for upgrading the website: Santoori.com Online Music Store
Morgenland festival is one of the biggest oriental festivals in Europe and in 2009, the fifth year is going to start tomorrow, 21.08.2009. I was myself a part of Morgenland festival in 2007 and I am happy that I was a part of this festival in that year.
The problem of the Iranian music part of Morgenland festival is that the festival has invited Salar Aghili and Nader Mashayekhi for most of the years.
Salar Aghili is a good singer and he was a student of Seddigh Tarif and Sedigh Tarif was my father’s student long time ago. Nader Mashayekhi is also a good conductor. I have no personal problem with any of the two mentioned Iranian musicians, but the question is why the director doesn’t invite new musicians to show different styles of Persian music.
It seems the two musicians have a nice friendship with the director and this is really great, but I guess a good director must invite different musicians from Iran to show some other musicians to people who attend in Morgenland festival.
Anyway the official website of Morgenland Festival is:
Silk Road Music at http://www.silkroad-music.com
Maestro Mohammad Reza Shajarian and Shahnaz Ensemble will tour in Europe in September 2009, while his concerts in Iran in this summer were cancelled probably because of the unrests of Iran’s post-election. The fourteen musicians who accompany Shajarian are young, but talented and among the best musicians in Iran. The melodies and pieces have been composed by Shajarian himself and Majid Derakhshani, the famous tar and setar player who is one of the most important members of Shahnaz Ensemble.
The maestro’s tour concert will start on Sep. 4th in Frankfurt, Germany and Sep. 5th in one of the best stages of Europe, Kölner Philharmonie, in Cologne, Germany and will be continued in other cities such as Hannover, Zurich, Paris and London.
Shajarian is one of the greatest and the most active musicians of Iran who has gained many awards in music including a couple of important UNESCO awards. The name of Shahnaz is for the appreciation of maestro Jalil Shahnaz, the great master of tar, also mentioning to a famous piece of Shahnaz in Dastgah-e-Shour, the mother of Persian melody modes.
Shajarian enjoys of many interesting talents. Recently, in a very important exhibition in Tehran, he showed off his innovations in making new music instruments with new sounds and possibilities.
The other members of Shahnaz Ensemble are: Ramin Safaei (santour), Mojgan Shajarian (Setar), Sahar Ebrahim (Setar), Radman Tawakoli (Tar), Hamid Ghanbari (Percussion), Mohammad Reza Ebrahimi (Oud), Shahoo Andalibi (Ney), Hossein Rezai-Nia (Daf), Kaveh Motamedian and Sina Jahan-Abadi (Kamancheh), Mehdi Amini (Robab), Mehrdad Nasahi (Gheychak Alto) and Hamed Afshari (Gheychak Bass).
For more info about the tour concert, please refer to Farzin Darabi Far’s Silk Road Music at http://www.silkroad-music.com
In order to appreciate Gitti Khosravi for promoting Oriental-Occidental dialog in the world, the cultural section of the consulate of Italian embassy in Hamburg with the help of Dr. Maria Mazza (a cultural attaché who is a diplomat with special responsibility for promoting the culture of his or her homeland.) which is herself an opera singer, is sending Gitti Khosravi to Florence to complete her Italian language and art studies and also to visit some musicians in Italy.
For more info about Gitti Khosravi go to her website:
I have noticed that Balatarin.com that is Iranian version of Digg.com has been hacked. Sometimes I was posting my cultural links there. I hope it will be back very soon.
Freitag, 30. Januar 2009
Vom 13. bis zum 15. Februar wird das internationale Festival „Musikwelten im Alten Kurhaus“ innerhalb der Reihen “konzertant” und “Klangkosmos” mit drei sehr unterschiedlichen Konzerten allen Musikfreunden ein außergewöhnliches und unvergessliches Wochenende bieten:
Zum Auftakt am Freitag, 13. Februar, 20 Uhr, wird das weltberühmte Raschèr Saxophone Quartet im Ballsaal des Alten Kurhauses erstmalig mit der kanadischen Pianistin und Komponistin Heather Schmidt gemeinsam zu hören sein.
Werke von Bach, Gershwin, Rachmaninoff, Terzakis, Glass und Schmidt stehen auf dem Programm – darunter auch zwei Welturaufführungen. Das Raschèr Saxophone Quartet inspirierte und inspiriert zahlreiche Komponisten, ihm Werke zu widmen, die in den bedeutendsten Konzerthäusern der Welt mit namhaften Ensembles aufgeführt wurden/werden. Das Raschèr Saxophone Quartet feiert dieses Jahr 40jähriges Bühnenjubiläum.
Am Samstag, 14. Februar, 20 Uhr, wird in der Klangbrücke im Rahmen der Reihe Klangkosmos das Ensemble Voix Polyphoniques aus Frankreich ein Konzertprogramm mit Gesängen vom Schwarzen Meer sowie eigenen Kompositionen in der Tradition georgischer Polyphonie dreistimmig präsentieren. Das Ensemble entstand 1991 unter Leitung der Pianistin, Schauspielerin und Sängerin Brigitte Cirla in Marseille und widmet sich seitdem neben der Auseinandersetzung mit der korsischen Polyphonie auch anderen Kulturen mit polyphoner Identität.
Farzin Darabi Far & Ensemble werden am Sonntag, 15. Februar, 20 Uhr, in der Klangbrücke mit seinem neuen Programm ‚Mystery of Existence’ gastieren. Ein Abend, in dem klassische iranische Kunstmusik mit modernen Elementen verbunden wird. Darabi Far begeisterte bereits bei seinem Auftritt mit dem Rumi Ensemble anlässlich der letzten Aachener Langen Nacht der Museen. Diesmal wird er von hochkarätigen Musikern aus dem Iran begleitet, darunter zwei der Besten Perkussionisten des Iran überhaupt: Peyman Nasehpour und Kamran Yaghoobi.
Der Eintrittspreis liegt zwischen 8 und 15 Euro. Festivalpreis für alle drei Veranstaltungen: € 30,–/20,– (erm.) Vorverkauf: An allen AN/AZ-Servicestellen, Ticketshop in der Mayerschen Buchhandlung, Klenkes Ticket im Kapuziner Karree und www.aachenticket.de, Tel.: 0180 500 34 64 (Die Eintrittspreise im Vorverkauf verstehen sich zuzüglich Vorverkaufsgebühr). Weitere Infos gibt es bei Susanne Güntner vom Veranstaltungsmanagement der Stadt Aachen unter der Telefonnummer 0241/4943 oder der E-Mail-Adresse Susanne.Guentner@mail.aachen.de.
Stop the war! Keep the Earth!
Ghaval solo
Tonbak solo
These two photos taken by photojournalist, Zohreh Khosravi
Shahla Khosravi
Naomi Yoshimura
“… Her playing is convincing and of great expression.” ,(Cord Garben, sheaves, chairman von Steinway piano competition, president of internationally Johannes Brahms society)
“….a concert very much developed… her musical performances came with very high praises. Her qualification gave us caus e, a want to work to together ….(Juan Carlo Reitze de la Maza ((leader of Johannes Brahms conservatoire))
Those Hamburg music world became threw their appearances among other things with that Hamburgers “night of the museums” (cooperation in internationally Johannes Brahms society in Hamburg), in museum for people customer Hamburg, at the Johannes Brahms conservatoire Hamburg and as soon as threw the broadcast and television productions with NDR, German wave and BBC Germany on it attentively.
1995 gave Naomi Yoshimura her orchestra debut as soloist with the national chamber orchestra Krakau under the conductor Stanislav Gavonski in Poland. Further concerts than solo and chamber music pianist in Japan, the USA, France, Belgium, Czech Republic and Germ any followed.
She was born in 1979 in Japan. With six years they received their first piano instruction. Already 1995 won it the 1.Preis with the piano competition in Kyushu/Japan. After the school-leaving exam in Japan it began its piano study at the university for music and theatre in Rostock. Later she advanced her studies at the university for music and theatre in Hamburg away and there locked artistic examination with “very well” (A / 1).
In the master classes of, Bernd Goeztke, Paul Pollei, Arnulf von Arnim, Nelson depression Vigine Fabbri and Cord sheaves refined her their artistic expression. It was grant from the Rotary Club old country, Buxtehude and State.
Apart from its concert activity she teaches since 2007 at the Johannes Brahms conservatoire in Hamburg in the specialty piano and accompaniment.
Her CD with piano works of Mozart, appeared published to Chopin, Prokofieff in the autumn 2008 and evaluated “…She is able to play all styles from Mozart to prokofieff. …Her playing is convincing and great of expression.” (Cord Garben sheaves, honor times producer of German Grammophon)
Hamburg December 2008
CD of Naomi has been recently released by Ancient Music Edition.
Gitti Khosravi is going to perform in Kulturladen, Hamburg, Germany.
In this concert that is for Nicolaus Party, she will be accompanied by Naomi Yoshimura (piano) and Peyman Nasehpour (hand drummer).
More info about the concert:
Opera Music by Gitti Khosravi Ensemble
Also Gitti will have another concert at Italienisches Kulturinstitut Hamburg. More info here:
In this concert she will be accompanied by Raminta Lampsatis
Somebody has posted a clip of Massoud Shaari’s setar accompanied by my tonbak in the Festival of Improvisation on Aug. 30th, 2001. We played this concert in the famous salon of Arasbaran Culture House (today named as Art Culture House).
Deutsche Welle sent out a nice report of Gitti Khosravi’s concert in Persian:
Gitti Khosravi, outstanding Iranian opera singer living in Hamburg, will have a beneficial concert for raising fund for a hospital of Orumiyyeh, the center of West Azerbaijan province of Iran. In this concert to be held on Nov. 14th, 2008, Firuz Bahor (componist and pianist from Tajikistan living in Berlin), Naomi Yoshimura (pianist from Japan living in Hamburg), Dorothea Mader (musician from Germany living in Berlin) and Peyman Nasehpour (drummer from Iran living in Osnabrück) will accompany and help her to perform some compisitions of Eastern and Western componists, particularly, the late Samin Baghcheban, the famous Iranian componist that recently passed away in Istanbul, Turkey.
Gitti Khosravi that is working on different projects to introduce East to the West and West to the East will sing in the concert in Remscheid city of Germany in different languages including, Persian, Azeri, Italian, German and Russian.
She is now translating some works of Suzuki into Persian and will have another concert on Dec. 10th, 2008 for welcoming the new year, 2009 in Hamburg. This concert has been organized by the cultural section of the embassy of Italy in Germany.
Opera singer Khosravi feels indebted to Baghcheban (Tehran Times in English)
Two Iranian Rock Music Bands, Kiosk and Dash, will perform in Morgenland Festival 2008 on September 20th in Lagerhalle Salon of Osnabrück, Germany.
More info about Morgenland Festival 2008
More info about Morgenland Festival from 2005-2007
Recently I have composed a paper in the field of commutative algebra and published it at arXiv.org:
Content algebras over commutative rings with zero divisors
Also I have created a page about commutative algebra in my website that time to time, I will update that:
Just now I noticed that CNN had a report about Iranian-American youth with a picture of daf (frame drum) while mentioning the name tonbak:
Peter Giger, world famous drummer and jazz musician has added a wonderful collection of his 50 years music career to his website:
Peter Giger recently toured in Germany with his percussion ensemble “Family of Percussion“.
More info about the tour concert
Eric Stuer, drummer, webmaster of Rhythm Web passed away, because of a car accident. The driver of the car was his wife, Deborah and she was killed too.
Eric’s famous quote about music:
The more you love music, the more music you love.
Eric was one of my best friends, though we never met in person. I am not in a mood to write more, so I insert the following information from here and there:
Texas couple dies in one-vehicle crash
A Texas couple died Friday evening in a one-vehicle accident on Interstate 49 in Natchitoches Parish, according to State Police.
The dead were identified as Deborah A. Longoria-Stuer, 53, and Eric K. Stuer, 55, both of Richardson, Texas.
Louisiana State Police Troop E responded to a fatal crash involving one vehicle at 6:55 p.m. Friday on I-49, milepost 158, in Natchitoches Parish.
State Police identified the fatalities
According to State Police, the accident happened at 6:55 p.m. as Deborah Longoria-Stuer was driving a 1994 Ford Explorer northbound on I-49. She lost control of the Explorer when a tire apparently blew out.
The Explorer ran off the left side of the road and overturned several times. Longoria-Stuer was partially ejected and Stuer was ejected.
Both Longoria-Stuer and Stuer were pronounced dead.
A passenger in the Explorer, 26-year-old Jules Stuer of Richardson, Texas, also was ejected, but received only minor injuries. Jules Stuer was transported to a hospital.
Routine toxicology tests are pending.
Resource: TheTwonWalk.com
Short Biography of Eric Stuer from Wikipedia:
Eric Stuer (born 1953 in Stamford CN USA) was exposed to a wide variety of music and art at an early age by his family, who enjoyed an active artistic lifestyle in the NYC area. He moved with his parents to Houston in 1957, and began formal study of percussion in 1962, first with big band drummer Jack Dudney and after several years from Houston Symphony percussionist “Hap” Fulghum. His professional career began in 1968 at the age of 15, with a series of fashion shows for Sakowitz department stores and a string of casual engagements in the Houston area.
His musical studies had continued from then until 2008 (that he passed away), with various teachers and from various other sources. He has since the early 70’s been based in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex, and specializes in various styles of drumset performance, along with a variety of hand drums and ethnic percussion, including homemade and found objects. Eric has experience arranging and composing, and is webmaster of Rhythmweb, an online resource for those researching rhythm and world percussion.
Update Number One:
Chris Sampson, drummer and webmaster of OMRadio wrote:
A note from OM: Without Rhythmweb.com, OMRadio might never have existed. Because of his tireless efforts, Eric Stuer made a huge difference in the modern hand drumming world. We have lost a great soul who asked for very little, gave all he had, and was kind beyond words. I knew Eric as a brother and friend and many times called him up to share the latest events. I was supposed to enjoy his company in the coming weeks as he had begun coming to Houston to play with Abu Bakir Kouyate. He was so jazzed to have some great gigs down here. My heart is heavy with this sad loss and I hope you will honor Eric in your own way. Here is the magnificent site he ran: Rhythmweb.com
One of my favorite websites in Persian language is www.baznegar.org. It is a very nice website hosting lots of Persian blogs, including my Persian blog: www.nasehpour.blogfa.com.
Recently because of some reasons it has been banned which I am not happy of that, because many bloggers that baznegar hosts will lose some of their visitors. I hope it will be accessible for Iranians in Iran once again.
These days, much more than the past, I see reports and opinions about the increasing of the probability of US and its friends’ attack to Iran. These things may be just a “psychological war” to put more pressure on Iran, but they can make peace lovers more worried obviously and that’s why I am really worried.
War in Iraq and Afghanistan and the tension in the world is really more than enough and a new front of war in Middle East (like any kind of attack to Iran) will make the problem much more complicated.
Let’s have a peaceful world.
No War in Iran!
Von Claudia Kolbeck Osnabrück
“Eins, zwei, drei, vier und: kleiner Finger, Ringfinger, Mittelfinger, Zeigefinger. Weiter mit der linken Hand.” – Mit solchen und ähnlichen Übungen führte der iranische Percussion-Virtuose Peyman Nasehpour rund 40 Osnabrücker in die Kunst der aserbaidschanischen und persischen Musik ein. In einem dreistündigen Workshop am “Institut für Musik” stellte der Künstler die Trommeln Tonbak, Daf und Ghaval aus seiner Heimat vor und zeigte dem Publikum grundlegende Techniken zum Spiel. Die Veranstaltung bildete einen der Schlusspunkte des Morgenland Festivals.
Mit einer Einführung über Aufbau und Tradition der Instrumente begann der Workshop, danach konnten die Teilnehmer üben: Durch Trommel- und Schnipstechniken und anhand leichter Rhythmen zeigte der Musiker den Osnabrückern, welche Fingerfertigkeiten man beherrschen muss, um die Instrumente aus seiner Heimat zu spielen. Und er wusste genau, wovon er sprach: Bereits im Alter von neun Jahren kam der Iraner in Berührung mit den traditionellen Instrumenten seines Kulturkreises.
Das Rhythmusgefühl wurde ihm quasi in die Wiege gelegt – sein Vater war Sänger, die Mutter ebenfalls musikalisch begabt, und so entfachte auch beim Nachwuchs schnell das Interesse für Rhythmen und Percussions. “Ich habe selbst sieben Jahre lang kontinuierlich geübt, um die Instrumente vollständig zu beherrschen, und danach durch viel Praxis immer weiter gelernt”, erklärte Nasehpour. Heute ist er weit über seine Heimat hinaus für seine Percussionkünste bekannt.
Ganz so viel Zeit hatten die Osnabrücker nicht zum Erlernen der Trommeltechniken, dennoch gefiel ihnen der Workshop offensichtlich: Besucher im Alter von neun bis über 50 Jahren verfolgten eifrig die Anweisungen des iranischen Lehrers. “Das Schnipsen auf der Oberfläche der Tonbak ist am schwierigsten”, befand Lukas Hülsmann nach kurzer Zeit. Sein Schlagzeuglehrer hatte ihn spontan mit zu dem Workshop genommen. Mit Erfolg – dem Neunjährigen gefiel der Schnellkurs: “Das macht viel Spaß, und einige Rhythmen kann ich schon nachspielen.”
Doch nicht nur die kleinen, auch die größeren Besucher versuchten sich begeistert an der fremdländischen Trommelkunst. Andreas Ottmer, Leiter einer Osnabrücker Musikschule etwa, war einer von ihnen. Er stand bereits gemeinsam mit Peyman Nasehpour auf der Bühne. “Ich wollte die Chance des Workshops einfach nutzen, um noch neue Techniken und Rhythmen zu lernen”, so der Osnabrücker. “Je besser ich meine Musikgruppen durch solche Percussions begleiten kann, desto mehr Spaß macht das Zusammenspiel.” Im Gegensatz zu manch anderem eifrigen Schüler hatte er dabei so gar keine Schwierigkeiten mit dem Schnipsen. “Das habe ich früher schon einmal für ein Stück geübt”, verriet er schmunzelnd.
Nach knapp drei Stunden Workshop klangen die anfangs eher zaghaften Trommler dann schon ziemlich rhythmisch. Begleitet wurden die Klänge von vielen freudigen Mienen – unter anderem von der von Peyman Nasehpour. “Ich würde mich freuen, wenn wir die Möglichkeit zu einer Fortsetzung des Workshops haben. Mir hat das Ganze viel Freude bereitet”, sagte der Musiker.
Source: Neue OZ
Der in der Schweiz lebende Schlagzeuger Peter Giger hatte in den 70er Jahren die legendäre “Family of Percussion” gegründet.
Das WFOPP (WORLD FAMILY OF PERCUSSION PACK) ist ein Kollektiv von hochkarätigen Schlagzeugern und Perkussionisten weltweit, entstanden aus der teilweise über 30 jährigen Zusammenarbeit mit der FAMILY OF PERCUSSION und durch die freundschaftliche Verbundenheit zu ihrem Gründer, Peter Giger. Das 11 Musiker umfassende Ensemble wurde 2007 aus Anlass des 30 jährigen Geburtstags der FAMILY von Giger zusammengestellt. Die FAMILY OF PERCUSSION als Kern des WFOPP, besteht weiterhin als Sextett.
Im September finden 4 Konzerte des neu aufgestellten Ensembles statt.
Mit dabei sind:
Peter Giger (Dr), Christopher Dell (Vibr.), Tom Nicholas (Perc), Peyman Nasehpour (Perc), Hermann Kock (Dr), Jonas Giger (Dr), Ibou N’Diaye (Djembe), Christoph Haberer (Perc), Ramesh Shotham (Perc).
Konzerte:
06.Sep: 20:00
Dortmund, Domizil
07.Sep: 19:00
Aachen, Trommeltage
08.Sep: 20:00
Frankfurt/M., Cyriakuskirche
09.Sep: 20:00
Köln, Stadtgarten
Info: Peter Giger
Source: Percussion Creativ Online
Von Veronika Krenzel-Zingerle
Osnabrück.
Persische Dichtung aus dem 12. Jahrhundert – ist das nicht sehr weit, zu weit entfernt für uns westlich-moderne Menschen? Schon wenige Worte des persischen Dichters Nizami aus dem Mund des exzellenten Sprechers Paul Sonderegger reichen aus, um die Zuhörer in der Lagerhalle ganz in den Bann dieser alten Texte zu ziehen.
In der Rolle des Perserkönigs Chosrou beobachtet er die armenische Prinzessin Schirin beim nächtlichen Bad in einer Quelle, besingt ihre silbrig schimmernde Haut, die Perlen der Wassertropfen auf ihren dunklen Locken, die wiederum das Schönste verbergen, seine Sehnsucht beschreibt er als einen Granatapfel kurz vor dem Aufbrechen. Wortgewaltig und bilderreich versucht er kurz darauf, Prinzessin Schirin (Neda Rahmanian) zu verführen, diese jedoch, obgleich selbst entflammt, ruft den König zu Besonnenheit, Geduld und Selbstbeherrschung auf.
Mit Witz und Charme, “kantig und süß wie Kandis”, bringt sie ihn dadurch nur noch mehr um den Verstand. Die Auseinandersetzung mit dieser starken, im Grunde ihm überlegenen Frau spielt die zentrale Rolle für den Reifungsprozess des jungen Herrschers.
Auch im Märchen des verhinderten Liebhabers, wunderbar erzählt von Neda Rahmanian, spielt der zivilisierende Bedürfnisaufschub eine wichtige Rolle. Vieles erinnert an das Minnekonzept der westeuropäischen höfischen Epen und lässt erahnen, wie stark der kulturelle Austausch zwischen Orient und Okzident im Mittelalter war. Die iranischen Musiker Parham Nassehpoor und Peyman Nasehpour begleiten die Lesung mit dem persischen Zupfinstrument Tar, dem Streichinstrument Kamantche und der persischen Kelchtrommel Tonbak.
Rahmanian vermittelt einen Eindruck von der Klangkunst der Texte Nizamis, indem sie ein paar Verse auf Farsi vorträgt. Die sprachliche Schönheit des deutschen Textes aber und die kunstvolle Übertragung der Bildlichkeit Nizamis sind das Verdienst des Übersetzers und Dichters Johann Christoph Bürgel, der – so Regisseurin Nadja Kayali – anlässlich seines 75. Geburtstages mit dieser Lesung geehrt wurde.
Source: Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung
Date of Publication: 24.08.2007
The new pack of the percussion band, “Family of Percussion”, led by Peter Giger, legendary Swiss percussionist and bandleader, will tour in September of 2007, Germany. The “World Family of Percussion Pack” will perform in the following cities:
6.09.07 Domicil, Dortmund
7.09.07 Trommeltage, Aachen (September 2007 Special)
8.09.07 Frankfurt/Rödelheim, Cyriakuskirche
9.09.07 Stadtgarten Köln
“Family of Percussion” was founded by Peter Giger and his friends, Trilok Gurtu, Doug Hammond and Tom Nicholas 30 years ago in 1977.
The nine percussionists playing in the new pack are:
Peter Giger (Switzerland)
Tom Nicholas (USA)
Ibou Ndiaye (Senegal)
Ramesh Shotham (India)
Christoph Haberer (Germany)
Christopher Dell (Germany)
Hermann Kock (Germany)
Jonas Giger (Germany)
Peyman Nasehpour (Iran)
The group led by Peter Giger aims to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the “Family of Percussion”.
Peter Giger, as a matter of fact, Hans Peter Giger, master percussionist and outstanding bandleader, was born in Zurich, Switzerland, April 12th, 1939 and grew up in and near to Berne.
He is a professional musician, since 1958 when he toured with “Tremble Kids” with the musicians Oskar Klein, Albert Nicholas, Bill Coleman, Joe Turner, Wild Bill Davison, Peanuts Holland. In 1960 after being a short guest performer in Armand Gordon’s Ragtime Band, moved to Paris playing with Bill Coleman, Stéphane Grapelli, Memphis Slim and so on.
In 1961 he played in Claude Bolling Sextet / Big Band. In 1963 he had an LP-recordings with Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorne, Alice Babs, a tour concert with Beryl Bryden, Diz Dizzley and Johnny Parker in Malaysia and Sarawak.
In 1964 he cooperated with tap-dancer Harold Nicholas and Renè Urtreger. From 1965 to 1968 he was a studio-musician in Paris, again with Claude Bolling.
In 1969 he moved back to Berne, worked with FOUR FOR JAZZ, Heinz Bigler, Isla Eckinger, Joe Haider, Gerd Dudek, Benny Bailey. He was the co-founder of the “Swiss Jazz School” and in 1970 he was the initiator of the first international Jazz Clinic in Wengen, Switzerland.
In 1972 he moved to Frankfurt / M., played in Albert Mangelsdorff Quintett, and til 1977 toured in Europe, Asia, Africa, Near East.
In 1973 he published his “neuen schlagzeugschule” Vol. I (out of print).
“Family of Percussion“
In 1975 he recorded his famous solo percussion LP: “family of percussion” and founded his famous label “nagara-records”.
In 1976 he formed trio “Giger-Lenz-Marron” and was the initiator and director of the first percussion-course in Weikersheim.
In 1977 he had a great solo performance at the Berliner Jazztage, published the “neue schlagzeugschule” Vol. II (out of print). Solo-LP was produced in the USA by the initiative of Max Roach and he founded the “FAMILY OF PERCUSSION (FOP)” with Trilok Gurtu, Doug Hammond and Tom Nicholas.
In 1979 he recorded the “direct-to-disc”-LP: “Africa meets Europe” with Papa Oyeah Mackenzie (Ghana).
In 1980 he had an LP and a tour with FOP and Archie Shepp.
In 1984 with FOP went to India (New Delhi, Bombay, Madras and so on) to have concerts with Zakir Hussein, Umayalpuram K. Shivaraman and Palghat Raghu. Guests in Giger’s different groups: Nana Vasconcelos, Gerd Dudek, Wolfgang Dauner, Joachim Kühn, Steve Swallow, Michal Urbaniak, Victor Bailey, Alan Skidmore, Christian Escoudé, Sam Rivers, Chistof Lauer, John Schröder, Thomas Heidepriem and so on. He directed the “World Percussion and Jazz Jubilee” in Wengen/Switzerland.
In 1985 he started the collaboration with Mangelsdorff / Dauner and FOP – “Moon at noon”.
In 1986 he had a duo-concert with Max Roach at the Jazzfestival, Hofheim.
In 1988 he formed “Peter Giger Quartet” with Jasper van t’Hof, Tomasz Stanko and Vitold Rek.
In 1991 he formed “FOP and Friends” in Mozambique. He made a Fusion music with timbila-musicians from Zavala (Leader: Eduardo Durao) and the he performed in “Peter Giger Trio” with Gerd Dudek and Vitold Rek.
In 1992 he formed “FOP and Friends” with senegalese Group SAF SAP and had his second journey to Mozambique. He made “JAZZ meets TIMBILA” at the JazzFest Berlin and offered the Live-CD “Mozambique meets Europe”.
In 1994 he moved to Meissen (Saxony) and founded the Sound-Studio. He had a tour with his trio and with FOP in Eastern Germany.
In 1996 the third visit of FOP to Mozambique happened and he participated in festivals in Zavala and Maputo.
In 1999, the Film: HERR DER TROMMELN (Lord of the drums) “the Peter Giger Story” was produced and he initiated “Association Worldmuseum of Percussion-Instruments Dresden”, with teachers and professors of the music-academy “Carl Maria von Weber”, a. o. Siegfried Ludwig, Günter “Baby” Sommer and Bernhard Schmidt.
In 2000, FOP participated at the “Euro Art Meeting” in Wroclav, Poland: “Ethnic Percussion Symphony” by Sambor Dudzinski
In 2002 – 2003 he moved to Ticino (Switzerland), and he had some solo concerts, regular participation at “Perugia Classico” and concerts at the Film-Festival Locarno.
In 2004 he had a Solo Tour in West Africa (Ivory Coast, Cameroun, Senegal).
In 2005 he had a concert in Dakar with “Géwél Rhythm Begg Falou” for the Goethe-Institute.
In 2006 the Issue of “A Drum is a Woman” and appearance of the double CD by Intuition Records ocured.
In 2007 he had some concerts at the Film-Festival Locarno and will tour with a nine piece Ensemble “World Family of Percussion Pack” in Germany (30 years Family of Percussion).
PersianMirror had an interview with me and now I have been informed by Ms. Shabnam Rezaei that it has been published today and it will be on the cover of the magazine for one week and the permanent link is:
INTERVIEW WITH MUSICIAN PEYMAN NASEHPOUR BY SHABNAM REZAEI
Born in Tehran to a family of musician, Peyman Nasehpour is one of the foremost experts on Persian music and more importantly wonderful instruments such as the daf and ghaval. We had a chance to talk to Peyman about his art form.
Shabnam Rezaei: Tell us about your childhood and what it was like growing up in Iran.
Peyman Nasehpour: My parents are both Azerbaijani so, as a mother tongue, I learnt Azeri and then Persian. My parents say I was interested in rhythm and drumming from an early age. My childhood was full of music, since my father is a professional master of Persian classical vocal music. Though my brothers, Pooyan and Parham, became instrumentalists, I was interested in percussion, so at the early age of 9, I had the honor to be the tonbak student of the late maestro Nasser Farhangfar, the great master of tonbak and one of the most popular drummers of Iran. My father used to want me to perform solos for our guests. I remember one of the first private concerts of mine was for my English teacher, Mrs. Ferdos Navabi. My first public concert was in 1988. Maestro Ali Akbar Shekarchi, the great master of kamancheh suggested that I play with some instrumentalists all of whom were much older than me.
SR: What have you learned from your father, the great Ostad Nasrollah Nasehpour?
PN: He is and has been more than a father for me. I have learned many things from my father but in the field of music, I learned of his empathy with the music and his effort to convey his knowledge to people. He has devoted all his life to training professional vocalists and some of his students are now famous vocalists in Iran and abroad. More or less I am following his line: to promote Iranian culture. Of course I am familiar with the radif repertoire of Persian vocal music, since my father has taught many of his students in our house in Tehran.
SR: Where did you go after Iran and how did you get started in playing tonbak, daf, and ghaval?
PN: I moved to Germany. Now beside my mathematical studies, I play in the solo form or with my brothers here and there. One of the workshops in Madrid was on “computational music theory” in Politecnica de Madrid University. I tried to explain how one can computerize some of the rhythms played in Persian, Azerbaijani and Kurdish music.
SR: Tell us a little about these wonderful Persian instruments?
PN: Well, as you know, I have written several articles about the drums played in Iran, and some other countries that are culturally related to Iran. Among those drums, my focus has been on the tonbak, ghaval and daf. The tonbak is the Persian goblet shaped drum and the chief percussion instrument played in Iran. It is played in all genres of Iranian / Persian music. The tonbak was considered an accompaniment instrument before the late maestro Hossein Tehrani, the father of modern tonbak. Only after this great master did the tonbak find a more important role in Iranian music. Though Iranian drummers need to work very hard to find a better status in music, thanks to the great masters of tonbak, this drum has become more recognised. The ghaval is the Azerbaijani frame drum. This drum is played in all genres of Azeri music, from folk to pop. Fortunately this drum has been promoted by American frame drummers and it is more or less known to fans of frame drums. One of the best ghaval players that I have seen is maestro Latif Tahmasebi-zadeh, a great ghaval player from Ardebil who now lives in Tehran. I have had the honor to be his student.
And finally, the daf is the frame drum played mainly in Kurdistan. But it is now in all genres of Iranian music. The promotion of this drum is due to Bijan Kamkar, the famous musician belonging to the Kamkar Music Group. The Daf is historically important too, since great Persian poets such as Rumi and Hafiz have mentioned this drum several times in their works. The Daf that was played in Sufi music in khanghah (Temple of Sufis) has been integrated into Iranian music successfully. One can learn more about these drums from my articles published in Internet, for example the one published on PersianMirror.
SR: What is the biggest misconception of Iran you face when trying to explain Iran to non-Iranians?
PN: When I say to non-Iranians that I am from Iran, they think I am Arab! They think Iran is just a desert! They really wonder when I explain that Iran has very high mountains like Damavand and Sabalan. I remember one of the artists in the PersianMirror explained that it was our fault that we were not able to promote our culture in the world. In my opinion she is right to some extent I am not disappointed at the misconceptions about Iran and Iranians. Instead of being unhappy we need to work really hard to promote our Iran and Iranian culture.
SR: What do you hope to achieve with your music and your online presence?
PN: I like to promote my culture all over the world, to show the positive faces of my country and my culture, and with my music and my online presence, I like to promote peace, love, respect and mutual understanding. I thank you and the PersianMirror for helping me in this matter.
SR: Tell us about your most recent project.
PN: My big project has been to promote the drums all over the world. Though thanks to some percussion websites that have published my articles on the Internet, (some of my articles have been online since 2000), I have been able to introduce the drums to some percussion lovers, but I am aware that I am at the beginning of the project and there is a long way to go. You can go to www.rhythmweb.com/peyman for more info.
SR: Desert Island. Three things. What will you take?
PN: My drums, my books and the Internet!
PersianMirror Quikfacts:
Full Name: Peyman Nasehpour
Favorite Color: Green
Favorite City: Tehran
Favorite Dish: Almost every Iranian food
Favorite Drink: Apple Juice
Languages: Azerbaijani, Persian and English.
Currently Reading: Mathematical books related to Algebra and “Where Mathematics Comes From: How the embodied mind bring mathematics into being”.
The author has been online since 1997. At that time there were a few websites on Persian music. Some of them were not professional and among them only Kereshmeh (in English) was great. It is online since 1995 and is still online and even now its information is great.
In 2000, Iran Melody, started its activities in selling Iranian music productions. The website is in English and Persian and sill online. The other old website on Persian music is Shayda of M. R. Lotfi that is still online, though it is a long time that it has not been updated.
One of the professional websites that is online since 2000 and is still useful for Iranian percussion lovers, is Tombak Network (in English). Tombak Network was established by Hormoz Dilmaghani and perhaps is the best resource for tonbak and Persian percussion.
In 2000, also many Persian music lovers started to establish Yahoo Groups discussion forums. Today some of them are not very active.
In 2001, some big websites on Persian music came to existance. Among them one can mention to Persian Art Music (it was mainly in Persian and now it is about two years that it is inactive, though still online) and Iran Flamenco that later it became a part of Art Music (in Persian). At those years other websites for music became online like Soroush Press (in Persian) and IRIB (both in Persian).
One of the first Iranian artists that became online in 2001 was Reza Vali. In the same year the website of Beethoven Music Center was introduced that is still active.
In 2002, Peyman Nasehpour (Iranian hand drummer), was one of the first Iranian musicians who offered his personal website, peyman and his tonbak, powered by tripod, that is still online, though he published his first work in Internet on Nov. 30th, 2000 at Tombak Network. He has been so active in promoting Persian percussion in Internet.
In 2003 at least 50 Yahoo Groups discussion forum were active discussing about Persian music and musicians that still some of them are active, but perhaps the best is Iran Zamin Music (in Persian) run by Maziar Ansari and some other moderators.
In 2004, when Iranian blogging fever started, many wrote about Persian music in their weblogs hosted by Persianblog. Today only a few of them are active. In second round Iranian blogging fever, many bloggers started to use Blogfa that many of them are very active. One can mention to Tahrir, Siyahmashgh and so on.
One year ago a very important event happened. Some young musicians gathered to create a website for gathering all useful links of Persian music in one place and linking to important music news. This website is Sol.ir. Perhaps it is the best directory for Persian music websites and its music news section is updated every day.
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The main reference for this article is the great article of Sadjad Pourghannad published at HarmonyTalk.com.
Nasehpour Ensemble will have a concert and a workshop in Morgenland Festival 2007 held in Osnabrück, Germany.
Morgenland Festival presents Middle Eastern music from traditional up to avant-garde style from 19 August to 2 September. Some believe that the knowledge of Arab and Persian culture is frighteningly small and therefore the aim of the yearly festival since 2005 is to introduce Middle Eastern music and culture. Indeed most of Western instruments are originated in Middle East.
Within only two years morgenland festival has been considered one of the biggest music festivals of Germany. It has been so important that many international mass-medias like New York Times have reported that. For more info, one may go to its official page:
Morgenland Festival (in German)
Yesterday our concert went well. It was a great international world music festival held in Halle an der Saale, Germany. My brothers and I played on our instruments, santoor, tar, kamancheh, tonbak and daf. The news was reported by some newspapers and websites in Germany and some newspapers and news agencies in Iran like this one:
Konzert iranischer Musik in Deutschland (in German).
The great master of Persian classical music and outstanding tar and setar player, the late Dr. Reza Vohdani was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1933. He learned Persian classical music from the very great masters such as Ali Akbar Shahnazi, Alinaghi Vaziri, Abolhasan Saba and Esmaiel Mehrtash.
He collected and notated the famous radif of Mirza Hosseingholi (the very great master of tar and the father of Ali Akbar Shahnazi) since in the past radif was taught chest-to-chest (sineh-be-sineh) and finally after 30 years of working and teaching experiences, he published the notated radif of Mirza Hosseingholi.
The late maestro Reza Vohdani had many conferences and lecture-demonstrations in order to promote Persian classical music. He has composed many songs and musical pieces that they have not been published yet.
I had the chance to meet him personally in some music gatherings and conferences.
He passed away in 2003 because of cancer illness.
A website has been dedicated to him recently:
Let’s bomb Iran is a website about the recent ugly joke of a politician who sang the sung “let’s bomb Iran”.
To kill innocent people is not a joke actually.
This is not the first threat of US politicians who always emphasize to use force to stop Iran in making nukes, while they themselves have nukes and they have nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki and I believe it will not be the last threat!
Meanwhile the only thing that caused me to write this short note is that this is perhaps for the first time that a politician expresses his threat to bomb Iran by making jokes!
The MoveOn.org wrote “war with Iran is not a joke.”
But those who joke with the history of a very old civilized society of Iran (by showing Persians as wild animals in the movie 300), may bomb Iran and kill innocent people just for their fun. Don’t you see innocent people are killed in Iraq and Afghanistan everyday?
Oyax: Oyax is a social bookmark manager. It allows you to easily add web sites you like to your personal collection of links, categorize those sites with keywords, and share your collection not only with your own browsers and machine, but also with other people.
Link.ir: List of Iranian websites
Parseek: Iranian Search Engine
Blogfa: Free Persian Weblog Service
Baznegar A wonderful host for Persian blogs
Balatarin: A nice collection of links in Persian language
Search Engine Optimization and Free Submission
Important Search Engines and Directories:
Hooman Homayoonfard: IT specialist
Ostad Gholam Hossein Amirkhani was born in 1939, Taleghan city, Iran. He learned calligraphy by the great experts and masters of calligraphy such as Ostad Sayyed Hossein Mirkhani and Ostad Sayyed Hassan Mirkhani.
He has been the head of Supreme Council of the Society for Iranian Calligraphers since 18 years ago and is presently a member of its Board of Trustees.
He has also been teaching and instructing the calligraphers during this period. He is a member of Board of Juries for the worlds Calligraphy Competitions under the title of Yakut held in Turkey and he is the chief member of UNESCOs National commission of Iran as well.
Ostad Amirkhani, this great master of Persian calligraphy, has created so many precious calligraphies such as Tarjih-Band by the famous poet of Persia, Hatef Esfahani, Tarkib-Band by the famous poet of Persia, Mohtasham-e-Kashani, Divan-e-Hafez, Sarv-e-Sayeh-Afkan, Tazmin-e-Golchin-e-Sadi, Yad-Name-ye-Kalhor, Ghazaliyat-e-Khaju-ye-Kermani, Adab-al-Khat, Ghaside-ye-Qoraniyeh and Sahife-ye-Hasti.
Ostad Amirkhani, as well as taking part in more than one hundred exhibitions in Iran, has also participated in various exhibitions held in the other countries such as England, France, Germany, Turkey, Syria and Emirates.
My serious mathematical studies started at the age of 15, as I was fond of generalizing mathematical formulas. For example from the Phytagorean identities 3^2+4^2=5^2 and 5^2+12^2=13^2 I got 3^2+4^2+12^2=13^2 and Finally n^2+(n+1)^2+(n(n+1))^2 = (n(n+1)+1)^2. This is true in every ring with identity.
Later I collected this and some other problems in a paper which was published in a Persian mathematical journal. This was my first publication at the age of 19.
I entered Shahid Behshti University (before known as National University) department of mathematics in 1993. My main studies in those years were focused on Mathematical Analysis. Being an active student I had three lectures during the B.Sc. program.
I was acquainted with Dr. Siamak Yassemi in the last years of the program. During his lectures in modules in Commutative Algebra I found a counterexample for a formula. This has been mentioned in one of his published papers titled Maximal Element of Support.
After getting the Bachelor’s Degree in 1997 I went to the University of Tehran where Dr. Yassemi was one of the professors in the department of mathematics.
It should be mentioned that I stood at the 12th position in the second State Student Scientific Olympiad 1997, among 2836 participants, in the field of mathematics.
I got my Master’s Degree in pure mathematics in 1999. My thesis is on cancellation ideals and content modules. I loved that three-month period when I worked on my thesis. That was the most serious mathematical research during my academic studies.
Content of polynomials was one of the important fields of research at that time. A part of the thesis (Generalization of the cancellation ideals and content of module polynomial rings) has been published in Kyungpook Mathematical Journal with the title M-cancellation Ideals. This was my first academic paper.
My curiosity in knowing the fundamentals of mathematics led me to study mathematical logic. I was fortunate to find a good master when I decided to understand the concept of mathematics, logic and the language. I studied Wittgenstein’s Philosophy under the supervision of professor Seyyed Abdollah Anwar for eight years. This had important effect on my thought and my mathematics. Also he taught me about Old Modal Logic (Mantegh-e-Jahat) of the Islamic period and Old Theoretical Persian Art Music (Talif-e-Negham and Igha). As you may know music used to be the forth topic of mathematics in ancient time. I have been studying some parts of the famous book, “Human Knowledge” of Bertrand Russell under his guide.
I have been teaching mathematics since 1992 sometimes as a university lecturer, sometimes as a high school teacher and sometimes as a private tutor, but most of my mathematical activities in the field of training (education) of mathematics has been collaborating with seminars and confrerences in order to popularize mathematics in the society of Iran. Here is what one of my professors, Dr. Zahra Gooya, says about me:
“He also took an elective course in “mathematics education (teaching method)” with me, in the spring semester of 1996-97. His active participation in this course and his great interest in learning, made me believe that he has a very special talent that should be discovered, and should be nurtured by a suitable learning environment.
In addition, Mr. Nasehpour was my teaching assistant in a nationwide training session of 480 mathematics teachers, for new geometry textbooks for the 2nd and 3rd year of secondary school in Iran (I was curriculum designer and co-authored of these textbooks.) My main reason for asking Mr. Nasehpour to assist me in this national event was his stimulating ideas, and his friendly and very sociable character.”
Research Interests
Algebra (in particular Commutative Algebra)
Computational Mathematics (in particular COCOA)
Theoretical Computer Science (Formal Languages)
Philosophy (in particular Philosophy of Ordinary Language by Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell and Mathematical Logic)
Relations of Mathematics, Music, Computer Science and Philosophy
Ostad Habil Aliev, one of the great masters of Azerbaijani Classical music, was born on May 28, 1927 in Azerbaijan. His first concert was relayed from the TV in 1961. He played “Segah” with a new style of performing and technique, which caused a great reflect among the admirers of Azerbaijani music. He began to extend his creative researches from day to day. He gave a new life to many of mugams (Azerbaijani modal system). In 1952, he entered the kamancha (Azerbaijani spike fiddle) Dept. of Musical School after A. Zeynalli. Lately he worked at Philharmonic Society in Baku, Azerbaijan. He has been to more than 60 foreign countries, promoting Azerbaijani Classical music. He also became famous accompanist. To sound every mugam in its own language in a tripet, to protect its united spirit and to stress the individuality of all the components of the music is one of his splendid efforts.
An Article by Peyman Nasehpour
Akhlakandu: A very ancient percussion instrument. It was made of skull that it includes gravel stones in it. Today its name is Jeghjeghe that literally means rattle. It was played by shaking the instrument.
Ajlakandu: Another name of Akhlakandu.
Alvah: It is a set of wooden or metallic plates that is played by being struck with sticks.
Arabaneh: A kind of frame drum, maybe with jingles.
Arkal: A kind of drum, maybe frame drum.
Ayine-pil: A big metallic ancient drum that was banded on elephant and it was played with sticks. Its French name is Gong.
Batare: A kind of frame drum, maybe the same as Daf. It should be mentioned that Bateri is the same as the English word Battery (sound of drum and also a kind of percussion instrument).
Bendayer: A kind of frame drum, maybe the same as Bendir. Please refer to Bendir.
Bendir: A kind of frame drum with bells. Today the Bendir is a typical frame drum. Similar instruments are common in the whole Near East from Morocco to Iraq and also in Northern Africa. The special feature of this Instrument lies in the snare strings that run inside the instruments body near the drum skin.
Boshghabak: Small cymbal to be used by dancers.
Chaghabeh: Another name of Chaghaneh.
Chaghaneh: A kind of percussion instrument that is made of small dried gourd, which includes gravel stones. Dancers sound it during their dance performance.
Chalab: A kind of cymbal that is played in mourning ceremonies. Its smaller size is played in festive ceremonies. Another names of Chalab are Chalap, Senj, Zang, and Tal.
Chambar: It literally means frame. It has also been interpreted as a Persian tambourine.
Charkh: Any kind of frame drum. It literally means wheel.
Chini: A kind of percussion instrument to be played in army. Its body is made of clay that it is hung some little bells from its body. Shaking it sounds it.
Chumlak-dombolak: A kind of Turkish-Egyptian Dombak with clay body.
Dabal: Big drum. Dabalzan means Dabal player.
Dabdab: Drum, maybe kettledrum.
Daf: Daf is one of the most ancient frame drums in Asia and North Africa. As a Persian instrument, in 20th century, it is considered as a Sufi instrument to be played in Khaghan-s for Zikr music but now this percussion instrument has recently become very popular and it has been integrated into Persian art music successfully.
Daf-e-chahar-gush: A kind of squared Daf. This percussion-skinned instrument is played in Egypt and Syria.
Dafif: Another name of Daf.
Damameh: A kind of drum. It is a big bowl covered with skin. Also it is a kind of cylindrical drum.
Damam: Another name of Damameh.
Damaru: It has been interpreted as a very ancient Persian long-necked lute. But in India and it is a small hourglass drum traditionally ascribed to Shiva. Two small beads are attached to a string that winds around the middle of the instrument. Held in the right hand and rolled from side to side. It is played in Nepal also.
Damz: A kind of frame drum.
Daneh: A kind of drum that one side is covered with skin and the other side is left open. Maybe the same as the Indian drum Danka.
Dap: A kind of frame drum. Some believe that Dap or Dup is a Hebraic word, which means stroke or beat and Daf is arabicized of Dap. In Uyghuristan (Xinjiang of China) there are two kinds of frame drums. One is Dap and other that is smaller is Kichik Dap (Kichik literally means small). In Malaysia Dup is a double-headed drum and is cylindrical in shape. Dup is usually used in the Ghazal and ‘Gambuh’ performance. Goat hide is used to produce sound and it is hit using the hand or hitting equipment, which is wrapped with soft cloth. Dup is famous among the Malay community in Johor. The word “Dup” originated from the onomatopoeic system.
Dara: Dara-y. Please refer to Jaras.
Dara-y: Dara, Jaras. Please refer to Jaras.
Dara-ye-Hindi: A kind of Dara.
Dareh: A kind of Persian frame drums same as Dayereh. It is played in folk music of Dezful city in Khuzestan province of Iran. There is a proverb that is: Dara seda nadara, which means Dareh, has not sound! Dara is a dialect of Dareh and Dareh in Dezful is called Dara. In Dezful Dar means coarse sieve.
Dariye: Another dialect of Dayereh.
Davat: A kind of drum to be stroke by Ghazib (drum stick).
Dayereh: It literally means circle. It is a kind of Persian frame drum, though apparently Dayereh is an Arabic word. Some believe that Dayereh is the same as the Persian word Dareh.
Dayereh-zangi: Tambourine.
Desarkutan: A kind of drum to be played in Mazandaran province of Iran. Please refer to Naghghareh-ye-Shomal.
Dizeh: In Bojnord city of Khorasan province of Iran, Dareh is called Dizeh.
Dobol: A dialect of Dohol in Shushtar city of Khuzestan province of Iran.
Dofuf: Arabic pl. of Daf.
Dohol: A big cylindrical two-faced drum to be played by two special drumsticks. One is wooden thick stick that is bowed at the end and its name is Changal (or Kajaki). The other is thin wooden twig and its name is Deyrak. (In Hormozgan province of Iran, Dohol is played by two hands.) Dohol is the main accompaniment of Sorna (Persian Oboe, Turkish Zurna, Indian Shehnay and Chinese Suona).
Dohol-e-baz: Small brazen Dohol to be played in the time of hunting in order to encourage the prey hawk (falcon) for hunting.
Doholak: A kind of Dohol to be played in Baluchestan by two hands. Its name in Pakistan is Nal. In Mahashtra of India its name is Dholki. Dholak in India is crude folk drum characterized by a cylindrical wooden shell covered with skin on both sides.
Dombak: Another name of Tonbak. It is derived from the Pahlavi (Persian ancient language) word, Dombalak.
Dombalak: Pahlavi name of Tonbak.
Dombalak-e-ayyubi: Dombalak attributed to Ayyub. It is interesting to say that Ayyub is a Middle Eastern rhythm to be played in belly dance.
Donbak: Another name of Tonbak.
Donbalak-e-Moghren: An ancient drum that was a pair of Tombaks.
Doplak: Small drum. Please refer to Tablak.
Dora: A kind of small frame drum (Not to be confused with Japanese Dora that is a kind of Gong). It should be another dialect of Dara. Please refer to Dareh. In Tajikistan and Afghanistan Dareh is called Doira.
Dorokkor: A kind of Baluchestani cylindrical drum, similar to Indian Khol. Please refer to Tombak.
Dulab: Sarcastic or ironical name of drum.
Dulak: Dohol of Pakistan and Afghanistan. A kind of cylindrical drum.
Gapdohol: A kind of Dohol to be played in Hormozgan province of Iran.
Gavorga(ke) : Kus (Kettledrum).
Ghashoghak: Castanets.
Ghaval: Azerbaijani frame drum with or without rings. Ghavalchi means Ghaval player.
Ghodum: A kind of drum to be played in Turkish Sufi music. Another name in Turkey is Kudum.
Ghopuz: Jew’s harp of Turkmen Sahra of Iran. Please refer to Zanburak.
Gong: Metal disk with a turned rim giving a resonant note when struck with a stick. Gong apparently is of Chinese origin.
Gushdarideh: Tablak (Small drum).
Jalajel: pl. of Joljol. It literally means bells.
Jam-Danbolak: A kind of drum similar to Tonbak. It should be mentioned that Jam literally means cup.
Jaras: A kind of metallic percussion instrument. This is an Arabic word that its meaning in Persian is Dara-y. It is sounded by sledge. Its Chinese name is Chak.
Jeghjeghe: Persian rattle. Today in Iran it is considered as an instrument for entertaining children.
Jure: A kind of cylindrical drums same as Dohol to be used in folk music of Hormozgan province of Iran for accompanying Sorna (Persian Oboe, Turkish Zurna, Indian Shehnay and Chinese Suona) in wedding ceremonies or any other festive occasions.
Kabar: Drum, Tabl.
Kafeh: A kind of Daf (frame drum) to be played by the palm of the hand. Kaffeh means circular thing.
Kas: Please refer to Kus.
Kasat: It is a set of china bowls that are filled with water. Each bowl is struck with a light wooden mallet to cause it to ring. Its Indian version is called Jal-Tarang. Jal-Tarang can be translated to water-bowl chimes.
Kaseh: Literally means bowl. But in music it is considered as kettledrum. Kasehzan and Kasehgar both mean Kaseh player.
Kaseh-pil: A kind of drum that was banded on elephant. Please refer to Ayine-pil.
Kastan: It is two bowls that dancers struck them to each other during their performance. It should be the same as Castanets.
Keser: A kind of Dohol to be played in Hormozgan province.
Khanjari: A kind of small drum played in Qawwal music of Pakistan. Maybe there is a relation between Khanjari and Indian Kanjira.
Khar-mohre: A kind of Gong.
Khom: Kettledrum.
Khombak: Another name for Tonbak. Khomak: Khom-e-ruyin. It literally means small barrel. There is a kind of cylindrical drum in Bengal and its name is Khomok. The khomok of the Baul people of Bengal is also known as a khamak, anandalahari, and gubgubi. It looks like a small drum with a wooden body and a skinhead. The head is pierced with a string attached to a small piece of wood or metal to prevent it from passing all the way through the skin. The other end of the string travels through the instrument to come out the bottom opening and is attached to a small brass handle. The khomok is played by placing the drum body under the arm and pulling on the handle thus pulling the string and placing tension on the drum skin. The string is plucked while the tension on the string is varied, producing a surprising vocal-like sound. Some khomok have two strings that are played at the same time increasing both the volume and complexity of the sound.
Khom-e-ruyin: A kind of Khom with brazen body.
Khonb: Khom. Please refer to Khonbak.
Khonbak: Some believe that Khonbak was a small Kettledrum with metallic body. Then it was made of clay and now it is made of wood and it is same as today Tonbak.
Koli: A kind of Persian frame drum.
Kube: In Arabic, Al-kube. A kind of hourglass drum. Kube comes from the Persian verb Kubidan (to strike).
Kurka(e): A Turkish word. Please refer to Gavorga.
Kus: Persian Kettledrum.
Kus-e-Ashkebus: Kus attributed to Ashkebus, famous commander of King Afrasiyab mentioned in masterpiece Shahnameh of the famous poet of Persia, Ferdosi.
Kus-e-dolat: Kettledrum to be played during the victories.
Kus-e-id: Kettledrum to be played during id (festival).
Kus-e-Iskandar: Kus attributed to Iskandar.
Kus-e-jang: Kettledrum used in wars in order to embolden and encourage the soldiers.
Kus-e-khaghani: Kettledrum for Khaghan (title of Chinese emperors).
Kus-e-Mahmudi: Kettledrum attributed to King Mahmud Ghaznavi.
Kus-e-rehlat: Kettledrum to be played during the decamping.
Kus-e-ruyin: Kettledrum with brazen body.
Kust: Another name of Kus mentioned in Shahnameh of Ferdosi.
Mandal: Apparently a kind of Indian drum. Mandalnavaz means Mandal player.
Mohre: A kind of drum to be used in wars.
Naghghareh: It is a pair of drums to be played with sticks. They are kettledrums of old Nobat (traditional ensemble of nine instruments). Today it is used to accompany Sorna. Naghgharechi means Naghghareh player. We have a same instrument in India that its name is Nagada or Nagara to be used usually accompanying the Shehnay (Indian Oboe). Some believe that the root of Indian Tabla should be Persian Naghghareh.
Naghghareh-ye-Fars: A kind of Naghghareh to be played in Fars province of Iran.
Naghghareh-ye-Sanandaj: A kind of Naghghareh to be played in Sanandaj city of Kurdistan province of Iran.
Naghghareh-ye-Shomal: A kind of Naghghareh to be played in North of Iran. Its name in Mazandaran province of Iran is Desarkutan. Desarkutan is the combination of the words De, Sar and Kutan that they respectively mean two, head and to beat.
Naghus: Gong.
Naker: Naghghareh. Nakers were made of wood, metal, or clay and were sometimes equipped with snares. They were almost always played in pairs and were struck with hard sticks. They were probably tuned to high and low notes of identifiable pitch.
Nal: Please refer to Doholak.
Ruyin-khom: Kettledrum. Please refer to Khom-e-ruyin.
Samma: A kind of frame drum to be played in Sufi (mystic) music of south of Iran, esp. Sistan-Baluchestan.
Saz-e-fulad: A kind of percussion instrument that is made up of 35 metallic plates with different sizes. Fulad literally means steel. Fulad is arabicized of Pulad. Saz literally means musical instrument.
Saz-e-kubei: Percussion instrument. Kubei means percussion and comes from the verb Kubidan that means to beat, to strike and so on.
Saz-e-zarbi: Percussion instrument. Literally Saz means musical instrument and Zarbi means rhythmic composition.
Saz-e-zarbi-ye-pusti: Percussion skinned instrument. Pust and pusti literally mean skin and skinned.
Shaghf: A kind of frame drum.
Shahin-Tabbal: Shahin literally means royal falcon, but here is a kind of wind instrument. Tabbal means drummer. Shahin-Tabbal is a person who plays Shahin by one hand and Tabl (drum) by the other one.
Senj: Cymbal. Senj should be the same as Indian Jhanj (Large Cymbal?) or Manjira.
Tabang: Another name of Tonbak (Persian goblet drum).
Tabare: A kind of drum. Please refer to Tabire.
Tabire: It literally means drum. In Arabic it means Tabl. In French encyclopedia of Littreé it has been mentioned that the French word Tabur (small drum used in medieval times to accompany folk-dancing) comes from the Persian word Tabire.
Tabl: Drum.
Tabla: Indian drums to be played in Northern Indian music. The invention of Indian Tabla is attributed to Amir Khosro Dehlavi, famous poet-musician.
Tablak: Small drum. Doplak should be another version of Tablak.
Tabl-e-baz: A kind of drum to be used in the time of hunting. Please refer to Dohol-e-baz.
Tabur: A kind of Eastern percussion instrument, which it has immigrated to west and has been called Tambour there. Please refer to Tabire.
Taburak: A kind of frame drum. It comes from Tabire and the diminutive suffix “ak”. So it means small Tabire.
Taher: A kind of percussion instrument.
Tal: A kind of percussion instrument that is two small bowls. The bowls are beaten to each other to sound by dancers during their dance performance. This instrument can be found in India also.
Tanbal: Tablak or Dohol.
Tar: A kind of frame drum. This word is arabicized of the word Dareh.
Tas: Two kinds of percussion instrument are called Tas. One is a copper bowl covered with skin. This should be the same as Indian Tasa or Tasha. Tas is a small drum, which is beaten with sticks. Please refer to Tasht. It is interesting to mention that there was a custom that during the lunar eclipses the Tas or Tasht were played in Iran. Tas in ordinary use is a copper bowl used in bathhouses. Tasht literally means tub or basin. The other is a set of copper bowls without skin that its Indian version is called Jal-Tarang.
Tasht: A kind of percussion instrument. Tashtgar means Tasht player. Please refer to Tas.
Tempo: A kind of goblet drum very similar to Turkish-Arabic Dumbek or Darbuka (Not to be confused with the English word tempo).
Ter-yal: A kind of ancient percussion instruments same as Tirpal.
Timbook: A kind of cylindrical drums same as Dohol.
Tirpal: Please refer to Ter-yal.
Tombak: Another name of Tonbak. There is a kind of cylindrical drum in Baluchestan province of Iran. Its name is Tombak but it can be compared with Indian Khol. Khol also called mridang is a folk drum of northeast India. It has a body made of clay, a very small head on the right side (approximately 4 inches), and a larger head on the left side (approximately 10 inches).
Tombak-e-zourkhaneh: A kind of Tonbak to be played in zourkhaneh (Traditional Persian Gymnasium). Zourkhaneh literally means house of power.
Tonbak: Persian goblet drums. There are many names for this instrument. Some of them are: 1. Dombar 2. Dombarak 3. Tabang 4. Tabnak 5. Tobnak 6. Tobnok 7. Tobnog 8. Tonbik 9. Tonbook 10. Tontak 11. Khonbak 12. Khombak 13. Khommak 14. Damal 15. Dambal 16. Donbalak 17. Dombalak 18. Khoorazhak 19. Khomchak 20. Tonbak 21. Tombak 22. Donbak 23. Dombak 24. Zarb.
Tonbak-e-bazmi: A kind of Tonbak to be played in parties.
Tonbak-e-razmi: Tonbak-e-zourkhaneh.
Tonbak-e-Ta’lim: A kind of Tonbak for training the athletes in zourkhaneh (Traditional Persian Gymnasium).
Tonbak-e-zourkhaneh: A kind of Tonbak and bigger than ordinary Tonbak that it is played in zourkhaneh (Traditional Persian Gymnasium).
Tonbook: Another name of Tonbak.
Tulomba(e): A kind of percussion instrument.
Zanburak: Persian Jew’s harp. It is played in Turkmen Sahra of Iran and its name in there is Ghopuz, Ghobuz and Khabuz. Its Indian name is Murchang.
Zang: Bell. Please refer to Jaras.
Zang-e-sarangoshti: Copper cymbals, played per pairs fixed on the inch and the major one of each hand. Mainly employed to stress the dance, one finds them in particular present in the miniatures Persians on figurines dancers of the beginning of the century, and in the past on low-relieves. Their existence seems to go back to immemorial times.
Zang-e-zourkhaneh: A kind of Zang to be played in zourkhaneh (Traditional Persian Gymnasium).
Zangol: Another name of Zang.
Zangolicheh: Small Zang or Jaras. It comes from Zangol and the diminutive suffix “cheh”.
Zanguleh: Small bell.
Zanjir: Literally means chain. Its Pahlavi name is Zanchir. It is made up of some hawk bells to be hanged from somewhere. It sounds by shaking.
Zarb: Another name of Tonbak. Zarbgir is old expression for Tonbak player and it comes from the verb Zarb gereftan that means to play on Zarb.
Zarb-e-zourkhaneh: A kind of Tonbak to be played in zourkhaneh (Traditional Persian Gymnasium). Zourkhaneh literally means house of power.
Zarbuleh: A kind of goblet drum to be played in North Africa and Syria. In Syria it is covered with fish-skin and in North Africa with goatskin.
Zerbaghali: Another name of Zirbaghali.
Zirbaghali: A kind of goblet drum very similar to Persian Tonbak to be played in Afghanistan. Zirbaghali is clay goblet drum and played with a technique somewhat between Persian Tonbak and Indian Tabla, with some Darbuka techniques thrown in for seasoning. Indian Tabla has influenced the Afghans, particularly Kabulis. This word has been spelled Zerbaghali too. It is interesting to say that there is a black spot (siyahi) on the skin of Zirbaghali, which shows the influence of Indian Tabla on Zirbaghali. Zirbaghali can be considered as an Indo-Persian musical instrument.
Zu-jalal: A kind of frame drum with bells.
Acknowledgements:
The author wishes to thank Hormoz Dilmaghani for his technical support.
References:
Abbas Aryanpur and Manoochehr Aryanpur, The Concise Persian-English Dictionary, Amir Kabir Publication Organization, Tehran, 1990.
B. Chaintanya Deva, Indian Music, New Delhi, 1974.
David R. Courtney, Fundamentals of Tabla, Vol.I, Sur Sangeet Services, Houston, 1998.
Michael Kennedy, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, Oxford Univ. Press, London, 1980.
Mehran Poor Mandan, The Encyclopedia of Iranian Old Music, Tehran, 2000.
Cemsid Salehpur, Türkçe Farsça Genel Sözlügü, Tehran, 1996.
Mehdi Setayeshgar, Vazhe-Name-ye-Musighi-ye-Iran Zamin, Tehran, Vol. I (1995) & Vol. II (1996).
A Research by Peyman Nasehpour and Mehdi Moghiceh (Painter)
We found the two above paintings to be painted in 1519 and 1590 that they show the tonbak. These are the oldest documents that show the Persian tonbak vividly. What is important is that in the paintings the tonbak players are in fact the Persian gypsies. Luti or Motreb-e-Doregard (traveller Motreb) is the Persian expression for gypsy. This needs more explanation:
First we like to have a lexical discussion of the word Motreb. Motreb is an Arabic word that comes from the word Tarab, witch means joy. Motreb means the musician who plays allegro and joyful melodies in the festive ceremonies particularly in wedding ceremonies.
Poets and writers have used the word Motreb very much through the history. For example Hafiz, the shining star of the Persian literature, has composed a very famous poem about the Motreb:
The translation of the verse is:
Wonderful harmony and great melody, the minstrel of love hath:
Every picture of the hidden he striketh, path to place hath.
Riq
It is really wonderful that the frame drums to be painted in Persian paintings (that is called in West Persian miniatures) are so similar to the today riq to be played in Turkey, Egypt and the other Arabic countries.
Anyway today riq is not played in Persia (Iran). Riq is small, tambourine-like frame drum used in classical, popular, and dance music. Jingles (circular metal discs) are inserted into its wooden frame. Other spellings are Riqq, Req, Rik, and Rikk.
Also we should mention that there are some poems to be composed by the very famous Persian poet and Sufi, Molana Rumi, which contain the word riq as a drum.
In so many Persian paintings that we considered we found some paintings that the frame drummers put the frame drums on their shoulders for amplifying their voice. This tradition has been remained also in Azerbaijani singers that play ghaval (Azerbaijani frame drum) for accompanying the traditional Azerbaijani ensemble of three instruments (tar, kamancheh and ghaval).
As the paintings show the frame drums were used to play in darbar (court of kings) and khanghah (temple of dervishes).
Kus and Naghghareh
Kettledrums have been painted in Persian paintings very much.
Persian large-sized kettledrums are called Kus. Many poets have mention to the word Kus in their works. It was a pair of drums to be made of clay, wood or metal in the form of a hemispherical kettle, with skin stretched over the mouth of it. Kus was played with drumsticks of leather or wood (The leather drumstick was called Daval). Kus usually was carried on backhouse, backcamel or backelephant. It was played in many occasions such as festivals, wars, decamping and so on.
It was the accompaniment of the Karnay (Persian trumpet or horn). Particularly the Persian epic poets Ferdosi and Nezami for describing the war fields have mentioned to Kus and Karnay very much. Many Persian paintings (miniatures) show the presence and importance of the Kus and Karnay in the war fields. There were applied to encourage the army. The antiquity of the Kus and Karnay reaches Achaemenid period (533-330 B.C.).
Apparently after Islam the word Naghghareh has been used to mention to small-sized kettledrums of the world of Islam. It seems that the word Naghghareh comes from the Arabic verb Naghr that means to strike and to beat (Today in Turkey Naghghareh is called Nakkare). A few poets have mentioned the name Naghghareh such as Molana Rumi.
Other Drums to Be Painted in Persian Paintings
Most of the drums to be painted in Persian paintings are frame drums and kettledrums. Here we explain the other drums to be painted in Persian paintings.
We have seen the dohol in Persian paintings also.
Dohol is a big cylindrical two-faced drum to be played by two special drumsticks. One is a wooden thick stick that is bowed at the end and its name is Changal (or Kajaki). The other is a thin wooden twig and its name is Deyrak. (In Hormozgan province of Iran, Dohol is played by two hands.) Dohol is the main accompaniment of Sorna (Persian oboe). It is played in outdoors in regional music of Persia in the festive ceremonies (The famous poet Molana Rumi has mentioned sorna and dohol in his poems). Dobol is a dialect of dohol in Shushtar a city in Khuzestan province of Iran. Dohol is called daval in Kurdistan. Saz-daval is an expression for sorna and dohol in Kurdistan. Other names such as davul, tavel and so on have been applied too. Since dohol is a double-faced drum sometimes it is called do-ruyeh in Persian language. I should mention that ghaval and daf are yek-ruyeh (one-faced).
There are some proverbs in Iran about this drum. The most famous proverb that many poets have been used in their works is: “Avaz-e-dohol shenidan az dur khosh ast” that literally means dohol sounds pleasant from a distance.
For more information about Persian drums and Persian drumming please refer to my articles.
Introduction
We are very lucky that we live in an era where we are the first generation of humans to experience the communication benefits of the internet. In the past, people typically had to study books that researchers had written about different drums. Other people were fortunate to meet drummers from different parts of the globe, those who had the chance to travel to different countries and play their drums in some festivals. But today, with the help of the internet, you can visit many percussive web sites and become acquainted with the drums of many different cultures, all from the comfort of your own home.
In 1997, Peyman learned first hand of the power of the internet as a research and communications tool. The first drums that he found information on were the Indian tabla (this wonderful pair of small drums), and the Middle Eastern tabla or the doumbek (the name that has been used by Americans for this great goblet-shaped drum). It was noticed however, that there was almost no information about the drums of Persia (Iran), and so a decision was made to introduce them to people as soon as there was time and opportunity to do so. Since November of 2000, Peyman has been lucky enough to meet many kind people who promote different drums of the world, and with their help has published some articles about Persian drums such as tonbak, dayereh and daf.
In this article, a brief introduction of the historic journey of Persian drums to different parts of the world will be offered. The internet will allow the journey of information on these drums to other parts of the world much easier than ever before.
Tonbak: The Persian Goblet-shaped Drum
Tonbak is the chief percussion instrument, and the first national drum of Persia (Iran). Etymology states that the Pahlavi (Persian pre-Islamic language) name of this drum was dombalak. Though there are many ancient manuscripts attesting to the different names of this drum, the oldest documented pictures that have been found by the author and his friend, Mehdi Moghiseh, are two Persian paintings painted in the 16th century showing some gypsy drummers and dancers, including tonbak players.
The name dombalak is still used in Turkey today. In Turkish dialect it is called dumbelek. A similar name is the name of the Greek goblet drum, which is called toubeleki. The doumbek, with different spellings such as dumbek, doumbeq, dumbeq and so on, has been brought to the USA by Middle Eastern immigrants, and is also related to these names.
The tonbak is played with a style that is very different from the style that the other goblet drums are played with, though they seem very similar at first sight. Also, the similarity of the names of different goblet drums should not cause the reader to assume that all goblet drums are played with the same style. The Turkish style is different from the Arabic style, although there are some similarities also. In Turkish style, like the Persian style, finger snapping is used. However, the structure of Arabic goblet drums doesn’t let you play finger snaps on it.
Fortunately for the Arabic/Turkish goblet drums, they have received widespread promotion. On the other hand, the Persian goblet drum is still relatively unknown today. The only goblet drum that the author knows is played similar to the Persian goblet drum, is the Afghani goblet drum which is called zirbaghali.
Thanks to many Iranian tonbak masters such as Hussein Tehrani (the father of modern tonbak) and Nasser Farhangfar, the awareness of the tonbak in the general population of Iran has progressed very much.
Dayereh: The Persian Frame Drum
Dayereh is one of the most popular frame drums played in the regional music of Iran today. Though it is not used in Persian art music, you can find it in many different regions of Iran. One of the most important styles of frame drumming in Iran is the Azerbaijani style played on the Azerbaijani frame drum called ghaval. Again, the similarity of the names of different frame drums should not cause us to assume that they are all played in the same style.
The Pahlavi (Persian pre-Islamic language) name of dayereh is dareh. This name is still in use in Dezful city of Iran. The pandeiro of Spain, Portugal and Brazil is related to the dayereh.
Ghaval is the Azerbaijani frame drum and is known by Persians as dayereh-ye-azari, which means Azerbaijani dayereh. Ghaval was the accompaniment drum in Azerbaijani art and folk music. The legendary ghaval player, Latif Tahmasebi-zadeh, has played many ghaval solos and added some interesting new techniques to the art of ghaval playing.
Thanks to some frame drummers and drum makers in the western world, this drum has been introduced to the western world, but more promotion is still needed yet.
Daf: The Persian Frame Drum
Daf is a very famous drum in Iran that was used in Sufi music. Many famous poets such as Hafiz and Rumi have mentioned to this drum in their poems. Thanks to many daf players, particularly daf players from Kurdistan of Iran, this drum has been widely promoted in Iran, and today it is considered to be the second national drum of Iran (Persia).
Originally, the Pahlavi name of daf was dap. Daf in Arabic countries is called duff and the adufe (the Portuguese drum) is related to this drum. The name dap is still used in Uyghuristan of China today.
Acknowledgement: The author wishes to thank David Johannes of Drum Journey, who helped to make the English of this article more understandable, and for publishing it to make it available to those who are interested in the drums of different cultures.
An Article by Peyman Nasehpour
Tonbak is the Persian goblet drum and chief drum of Persian music. Goblet-shaped drums are played in different regions of Asia, East Europe and North Africa. Though there are some similarities among all goblet drums, but the techniques for playing the tonbak is very different from the other goblet drums of the world. The finger patterns and techniques of the only goblet drum that is very similar to the tonbak is zirbaghali (the Afghani goblet drum).
The structure of tonbak is considered to have five parts: Skin, Body, Throat, Small Opening and Large Opening. Skin of Tonbak is glued on the head of Tonbak. Goatskin is most popular. Body of Tonbak is wooden. This is in fact the sound box of Tonbak. Sometimes many furrows are carved on its wood. Throat is almost cylindrical and it is connected from top to the body. Tonbak is open from the top and bottom. Small opening is in the bottom. It is similar to the mouth of trumpet. In fact throat and small opening together are in the form of a trumpet. Large opening is in the top and the skin is covered on it.
Daf is the Persian frame drum. There are many similar frame drums in all over the world. The structure of daf is divided into six parts as follows: Frame is wooden. The diameter of the frame is 48-53 centimeters. The width of the frame is 5-7 centimeters. Skin is glued on the frame. The most popular is goatskin. Pins are applied in behind part of the frame in order to keep the skin on the frame tightly. Hooks are applied in order to hang the rings in the inner part of frame. Rings are the jingles of daf. Leather band is applied in order to help the player for long duration performances.
Tonbak and daf are considered as pre-Islamic drums of Persia, since there are some pre-Islamic books mentioning to the names of these drums. The Pahlavi (Persian language spoken during pre-Islamic ages) name of the tonbak is dombalag. And etymologists believe that the name tonbak and similar names such as tombak, donbak and dombak and so on have been all derived from this Pahlavi name. It is so interesting that even today the word dumbelek is used for the Turkish goblet drum. I wonder if there is any relationship between the tonbak and gedombak, the Malay goblet drum. The Pahlavi name of daf is dap and it is believed that daf is the Arabicized name of dap. The name daf with its different dialects used in some other areas is not the aim of this article to be discussed here. Only one point that the name dap even today is used in Uyghuristan (a part of today China).
Unfortunately the history of Persian musical instruments is in dispute. The history of Persian music shows that many books have been written on Persian music and it is unfortunate that many of them have not survived and many of them that have survived have not been published in Iran.
According to my personal research, there are no books for describing Persian drums, though in many books many names of Persian drums have been mentioned. What we know is that tonbak and daf were played in the past, but how, I have not found any info!
Anyway, my friend, Mr. Mehdi Moghiceh (painter) and I found two Persian paintings belonging to 16th century, showing some gypsy tonbak, daf and dohol (Persian cylindrical drum) players. Also recently I found a poem of the very famous poet, Amir Khosro Dehlavi, mentioning to tonbak-e-hindi that should be a kind of Indian goblet drum, maybe related to Kashmiri goblet drum, tumbaknari.
Today, Tonbak is played in different genres of Persian music: It is played in Persian art music genre. Thanks to many books written on the tonbak recently, we know much about the tonbak and tonbak players from ghajar period up to present. Also it is played in motrebi style. Motrebi music is that genre of music that is played in some festive occasions such as wedding ceremonies, though today unfortunately this style of tonbak playing is going to be forgotten. It is played in regional (folk) music of Persia, particularly the regions of Lorestan, Kurdistan and Hormozgan too. Another kind of tonbak, called tonbak-e-zourkhaneh, that its size is larger than ordinary tonbak, is played in zourkhaneh, Persian traditional gymnasium.
Fortunately there are more paintings showing people playing frame drums. Daf, in the works of many poets such as Hafiz, Rumi have been mentioned and it has been the chief instrument of many Sufi gatherings. Even today daf is played in khangah (temple of Sufis).
What is important here is to mention that daf was considered a spiritual frame drum to be played in Sufi gatherings. Thanks to many daf players, recently daf has been promoted in Iran very much. This instrument that was considered only a Sufi drum to be played khangah (temple of Sufis), now it is played in many other Persian music genres successfully so that it is considered the second national drum of Iran beside the tonbak.
Sufi rhythms are played in Persian art music after the introduction of the daf to this genre of music. On the other hand, some modern daf players applied tonbak techniques on the daf. Therefore today we have two major styles for daf playing, one the traditional khangah style and the other modern style to be nurtured in Tehran.
An Article by Peyman Nasehpour
Introduction.
Dohol is a double-headed cylindrical drum for accompanying the sorna (Persian oboe) to be played in outdoors in regional music of Persia in the festive ceremonies. Different names are applied for this drum in Iran and other countries. In this article I will discuss different versions of this instrument in different regions. Any other information is welcomed.
Armenia
Dhol is an Armenian cylindrical drum traditionally covered with goatskin on both sides, one high and one low in pitch. It is covered with pre-fabricated head which is unaffected by changes in humidity, unlike natural skin. Played with the fingers and hands the dhol rests in your lap and sets off to one side with one arm resting on top of the drum. This is the same as Azerbaijani naghara. There is a proverb in Azerbaijani language that says toy-dan-sora-naghara! This literally means after the wedding ceremonies naghara!
Baluchestan of Persia
Dohol: Persian dohol.
Timbook: Small dohol.
Doholak: This is a small dohol but longer than timbook, to be played by two hands. There are two kinds of doholak; one is tunable while the other is not.
Bulgaria
In Bulgaria dohol is called tupan. It has a cylindrical wooden body on which two goat skin or sheep skin is stretched by means of a hoop and lacing. The tupan is played like the Persian dohol.
Egypt
In Egypt dohol is called tabl ballady.
Greece
In Greece dohol is called dauli.
Kurdistan
The dohol in Kurdistan is called daval. Daval is one of the most broadly used percussion instruments in festive ceremonies by the Kurds of Iran, Iraq and Turkey. The daval along with the saz (another name of sorna, Persian oboe) is played during group dances. It makes a very loud sound. The instrument is played by a stick-shaped cane in the right hand and a thin stick in the left. The cane like stick plays the strong beats of the rhythm, whereas the thin stick plays the ornaments and shorter beats.
India
There are three cylindrical drums in India that seems to be related to Persian dohol. Here is a brief description of the drums.
Dholak: A crude folk drum characterized by a cylindrical shell covered with skin on both sides. The name is Persian and a diminutive of Dhol, but this drum is of a distinct type, with its own historical roots. The dholak survives chiefly in North-Central and Northwest India and Pakistan, among performers such as the qawwal (singers of Muslim devotional music, qawwali), the Manganiyar musicians of Rajasthan etc.
Dholki: A small cylindrical folk drum, called also nal, popular in tamasha (street performance) of Maharashtra.
Tavil: A large cylindrical drum used in south Indian temples and wedding ceremonies sometimes accompanying the nadaswaram (a large south Indian oboe used in temples and wedding ceremonies).
Some believe that dohol and the other dialects of this name come from the Sanskrit name dholaka. Today dholaka is a kind of cylindrical Hindi drum.
Macedonia
In Macedonia dohol is called tapan. Tapan accompanies zurna (Macedonian oboe) in festive occasions such as wedding ceremonies. It is believed that these instruments are borrowed from the Turkish culture, while the others believe that they are borrowed from Persian culture. The musical culture of Turkey and Persia are very similar and at times very difficult to make a distinction.
Persia
Dohol is a big cylindrical two-faced drum to be played by two special drumsticks. One is a wooden thick stick that is bowed at the end and its name is Changal (or Kajaki). The other is a thin wooden twig and its name is Deyrak. (In Hormozgan province of Iran, Dohol is played by two hands.) Dohol is the main accompaniment of Sorna (Persian oboe). It is played in outdoors in regional music of Persia in the festive ceremonies (The famous poet Molana Rumi has mentioned sorna and dohol in his poems). Dobol is a dialect of dohol in Shushtar a city in Khuzestan province of Iran. Dohol is called daval in Kurdistan. Saz-daval is an expression for sorna and dohol in Kurdistan. Other names such as davul, tavel and so on have been applied too. Since dohol is a double-faced drum sometimes it is called do-ruyeh in Persian language. I should mention that ghaval and daf are yek-ruyeh (one-faced).
There are some proverbs in Iran about this drum. The most famous proverb that many poets have been used in their works is: “Avaz-e-dohol shenidan az dur khosh ast” that literally means dohol sounds pleasant from a distance.
The famous Persian astronomer-mathematician-poet, Hakim Omar Khayyam Naishpuri (1048-1131), the creator of the Jalali Calendar and contributor to Non-Euclidean Geometry, has composed the following robai (quatrain) that involves the above proverb:
The English translation by Edward Fitzgerald is:
Some for the Glories of This World; and some
Sigh for the Prophet’s Paradise to come;
Ah, take the Cash, and let the promise go,
Nor heed the music of a distant Drum [dohol]!
There are some expressions for dohol player in Persian language such as doholchi, doholzan, doholnavaz and doholkub. It is said that only sornachi (sorna player) is able to meet the protests of doholchi!
Russia
In Russia dohol is called tumyr.
Sri Lanka
The Sri Lankan “dolak” is used extensively in Sri Lanka, in both Buddhist and Hindu communities, to accompany musical forms imported from India. It is now usually conical in shape, with a badama spot (which affects the tuning and timbre) on one head. The hemp (or nylon) braces pass lengthways down the drum, through metal rings and over wooden blocks, both of which are used for tuning.
The term is also used more or less indiscriminately in Sri Lanka to denote any folk or popular drum, those that are more properly termed demala-bere, for example, often being called dolak.
Turkey
In Turkey dohol is called davul that is the accompaniment of zurna (Turkish oboe). It varies in sizes. One side is made of goatskin; the other side is made of sheepskin. It is played while hung on the shoulder with knitted or leather strap. The thin-skinned is beaten with a light wooden stick or twig, and the thick side is hit with a tokmak (in Persian and Azerbaijani tokhmagh that it literally means beetle but here a heavy drumstick for producing the bass sound). The davul is generally played in outdoors. There is a proverb in Turkish language that is interesting to mention here: Davul birinin boynunda, tokmak bir baskasinin elinde. This literally means: The davul in on the shoulder of one person while the tokmak (heavy drumstick) is in the hand of the other person! Another proverb is: davulun sesi ozaktan hos gelir that literally means: the distant davul sounds pleasant. The latter one is exactly the same as the Persian proverb mentioned in above. I should mention that there is another cylindrical drum in Turkey that is called naghara (nagara) and is defined in Turkish koltuk davulu that means armpit davul. Koltuk (in Azerbaijani, gholtukh) means armpit. This is similar to Azerbaijani naghara and Armenian dhol.
Yugoslavia
In Yugoslavia dohol is called teppan.
Acknowledgment. The author wishes to thank Ms. Anna Smart for e-mailing the information about the Sri Lankan dolak.
References:
[AA]: Abbas Aryanpur and Manoochehr Aryanpur, The Concise Persian-English Dictionary, Amir Kabir Publication Organization, Tehran, 1990.
[C]: David R. Courtney, Fundamentals of Tabla, Vol.I, Sur Sangeet Services, Houston, 1998.
[D]: B. Chaintanya Deva, Indian Music, New Delhi, 1974.
[K]: Omar Khayyam, Rubaiyyat of Omar Khayyam in 30 languages, by effort of Mohsen Ramezani, Padideh Publication, Tehran, 1987.
[P]: Mehran Poor Mandan, The Encyclopedia of Iranian Old Music, Tehran, 2000.
[SA]: Cemsid Salehpur, Türkçe Farsça Genel Sözlügü, Tehran, 1996.
[SE]: Mehdi Setayeshgar, Vazhe-Name-ye-Musighi-ye-Iran Zamin, Tehran, Vol. I (1995) & Vol. II (1996).
An Article by Peyman Nasehpour
Ghaval (also spelled gaval in Azerbaijani latin alphabets and not to be confused with qawwali music) the Azerbaijani frame drum is played in Azerbaijani folk and art music. In folk music of Azerbaijan Ashigh (poet-musician) sings and plays on gopuz (nine-stringed long-necked lute) and sometimes composes poems in different festive occasions. The drum that usually accompanies the Ashigh is ghaval. In Azerbaijani art music a traditional ensemble contains a singer, which plays on ghaval and two instrumentalists, one plays on tar (long-necked lute) and the other plays on kamancheh (bowed spike fiddle). In modern art music of Azerbaijan an ensemble can contain more than two instrumentalists. Usually the drum that accompanies the modern ensemble is naghara (a kind of cylindrical drum that is called in Armenia dhol).
Ghaval is the same as Persian dayereh. In Persia (Iran) there are different types of frame drum. But only daf is considered as the only national frame drum. It is unfortunate that ghaval is not integrated into Persian art music like the daf, though some ghaval players particularly the late Mahmoud Farnam tried to do this by accompanying the great masters of Persian art music, Ostad Eghbal Azar (very skillful vocalist) and Ostad Gholam Hossein Bigchekhani (very skillful tar player).
The history of dayereh goes back to many centuries. An engraved bronze cup from Lorestan at the Notional Museum of Iran, Tehran, portrays a double ney (reed pipes), chang (harp), and dayereh in a shrine or court processional, as similarly documented in Egypt, Elam, and Babylonia where music involved the utilization of large orchestral ensembles.
Some believe that the word dayereh comes from the Pahlavi (Persian pre-Islamic language) name dareh. Abu Saeed Abolkheir (967-1048), the poet, has mentioned in his works to the word dayereh as a drum.
Ghaval was not considered a solo instrument. After the effort of Ostad Latif Tahmasebi-zadeh ghaval has found an independent role.
Ghaval’s frame is wooden and the skin stretched on it can be goatskin or fish skin, though today the head of modern ghavals is synthetic (plastic) because the skin-headed ghaval is sensitive to changes in humidity. Some metal rings are incorporated into the drum to provide jingle. Its is much larger than Western tambourine but smaller than daf.
Basic Rhythms of Ghaval
There are four basic rhythms in Azerbaijani art music.
Diringi: Diringi is a light rhythm for dance music, though it is found in vocal music also. It is played in both low and high tempo, depending on the occasion of the performance. Diringi can be considered the same as Persian Reng.
Diringi is in 6 beats.
Yalli: Yalli is another light rhythm for different rhythmic compositions of vocal and instrumental music.
Yalli is in 4 beats.
Lazgi: Lazgi is the most famous Azerbaijani dance. It is played in medium to high tempo. It is for instrumental music.
Lazgi is in 6 beats.
Mahni: Mahni is in fact the rhythmic form for vocal music. The most famous rhythm for Mahni has been linked here. Mahni can be considered the same as Persian Tasnif.
6 beat version of Mahni.
Free ghaval lesson at rhythmweb
Glossary
Ashigh: (Pl. Ashighlar) Some believe that Ashigh comes from the Arabic word eshgh (love). While the others believe that Ashigh comes from Ashk and Ashkanian. They reach the history of Ashigh to the Ashkanian period (Parthian period 247 B.C.-224 A.D.) and they mention to this point that Ashghabad (capital of today Republic of Turkmenistan) had been one of the most important centers of Ashkanian. A famous tradition in the art of Ashighlar is really wonderful. This tradition that is called de’ishma is a kind of musical debate. According to a very old tradition of the skillful Ashigh-s, occasionally the Ashigh-s do this musical debate (de’ishma) and every Ashigh that loses should give his instrument (the saz or the gopuz) to the winner and leave his job. In this musical debate to compose poems by improvisation is often the winning trump.
Gopuz: Gopuz is the long-necked lute to be played by the Ashigh in Azerbaijan. It is called Saz too and Saz is generic name for musical instrument in Iran, Turkey and India. There is a similar instrument to gopuz in Turkey that is called Baglama.
Kamancheh: Kamancheh is bowed spike fiddle to be played in Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Central Asia, Turkey and Egypt. Kaman literally means bow. Many musicologists consider the kamancheh the predecessor of the violin.
Qawwali: Qawwali or ghawwali or kawali is the Islamic devotional song. It is a lively, light style, which has a popular appeal for both Muslims and Hindus alike.
Tar: Tar is a long-necked lute to be played in Iran. Its Persian version sometimes is called tar-e-shiraz (tar of Shiraz which is one of the most important cities of Persia and located in SW) and its Azerbaijani version is called tar-e-ghafghaz (tar of Caucasus). Tar literally means string, chord and so on. The word tar can be see in some other musical instruments such as ektar, dotar, setar, sitar, khoshtar and guitar. Not to be confused with Egyptian tar witch is a kind of frame drum.
References:
[N]: Peyman Nasehpour, Personal Interview with Ostad Latif Tahmasebi-zadeh, Aug. 1994-Aug. 1995.
[S]: Mehdi Setayeshgar, Vazhe-Name-ye-Musighi-ye-Iran Zamin, Tehran, Vol. I (1995) & Vol. II (1996).
Percussion instruments are played with hands or sticks and some drums are played with both, i.e. while one hand uses a stick, the other hand uses palm and fingers to play the drum. For example in Iran (Persia), there are some drummers who play the dohol (double faced cylindrical drum) in a way that one face is played by the hand of the artist, while the other face is played by a stick.
It is obvious that it is not easy to explain about all playing styles of world percussion instruments in this short note, but hopefully with some good examples and links, one can learn more. One may consider percussion instruments in four sub-categories:
1) Percussion instruments made of wood or metal (but not having skins for producing sounds) and played by sticks. Good examples are: marimba, xylophone, triangle and txalaparta. One may consider piano and hammered dulcimers in this category too.
2) Percussion instruments made of wood or clay (but not having skins for producing sounds) and played by hands. Good examples are: cajon, ghatam, udu and so on…
It is clear that the most important sub-category of percussion instruments is drums, therefore one may consider drums in two important sub-categories:
3) Drums played by sticks and good examples are: timpani, dohol (Persian cylindrical drum) and so on…
4) Drums played by hands and good examples are: djembe, doumbek, daf, bongo, conga, tabla and so on…
How to play hand drums
Since hand drums are too many drums with different shapes and every hand drum has its own hand drumming techniques, therefore it is almost impossible to give a formula or a method for playing hand drums. Even those drums that are similar to each other have very different methods of playing. For example goblet shaped drums are so similar to each other, but the way that the Persian goblet drum (tonbak) is played is somehow very different from the way that Egyptian goblet drum (tablah) is played.
Traditionally every drum has its own techniques that are the result of the experience of many drummers. Today with the help of Internet that many drummers of different regions have been connected to each other, people are going to use the techniques of different hand drums on their own drums and hopefully this will enrich the techniques of all hand drums.
Tonbak (Persian hand drum) is one of very rare hand drums in the world that is played with all fingers of the drummer.
Perhaps one of the best resources for world percussion is rhythmweb. Therefore if one likes to learn more about the art of world percussion styles, rhythmweb.com is strongly recommended.
Some other useful links:
A Letter to Dr. Mostafa Moeen, the Presidential Election Candidate in 2005:
Mr. Dr. Mostafa Moeen,
I am happy you expressed your sorrow when you heard one of the Iranian musical ensembles will never play in Iran.
The fact is that it is not possible to talk about the rights of minorities and not to pay attention to regional music of Iran. Regional music of Iran (i.e. the music of minorities) is the foundation of the art (official) music of Iran (i.e. the dastgah-radif (modal) music of Iran). But when the official music of Iran is not official, then the situation of regional music of Iran is clear.
Why the folk music instruments should not be taught in the universities, while western musical instruments are taught as “universal” musical instruments! Let’s not to mention that the tonbak that is an official-national musical instrument is not taught in our universities. Persian musical instruments that are the mother of the most of musical instruments of the world are in the shadow (not in the public views). This is what should cause our sorrow. The demise of folk music of Iran will cause the demise of art music of Iran and this will be a knock-out to our identity.
Dr. Moeen, thank you so much for your attention to the music of Iran (Persia) that belong to all of Iranians, but if you are the president, bring the music of Iran from the margin to the context! The culture of Iran is one the richest cultures of the world and whenever it is not supported and offered, it will not progress. The voice of voice-less people should be heard! The voice of voice-less people is the folk music of Iran, i.e. the voice of minorities.
I wish you success and victory.
Peyman Nasehpour
The Letter in Persian was originally published at Eqbal Newspaper
Iran Artists Organization — Khane-ye-Honarmandan-e-Iran
Iran House of Music — Khane-ye-Musighi-ye-Iran
Harmony Talk: Music online magazine in Persian
Kargah.com — Iranian Artists’ Website
Pendar.net: Iranian Independent Media for Art News
Moala: This is a very nice site created by Ostad Hamid Ajami, Iranian calligrapher.
SARA musik (Sources ARAbes sur la Musique): History of music from Arabic and Oriental sources. Texts, manuscripts, writers, bibliography, mailing-list by Anas Ghrab.
Art That I Like: Fantasy art, 3d computer art, History of art, museum listings, art chats and forums, Christmas art, art supplies, digital art, religious art, animal art, online art courses. Add your website to our art database.
The Irish Dancing Directory – Your Irish Dance Website – Worldwide directory of Irish Dancing teachers, schools, suppliers and dressmakers. Europe, America, Australia & New Zealand. Locations, phone numbers, websites & contact info. Your one stop shop for the Irish Dance World.
Persian Mirror: Online Modern Magazine for Persian Art and Culture
Forever Under Construction: An Iranian blogger who writes about art and many other interesting topics.
pearlbamboo: An American blogger who wrires about music, art, dance, poetry and history.
Sennheiser Wireless Microphones and Headphones: Online store featuring Sennheiser microphones, headphones, noise cancelling headphones and wireless mics.
Neon Plague Music Promotion: music promotion, viral advertising, ecards, flash flyers, e-cards, music promoters, interactive
Haftan: Art news in Persian
Kodoom.com: Every Persian Event on the Planet
If you are interested in drum link exchange, percussion link exchange or even music link exchange, then please email me!
Parham Nassehpoor: Iranian multi-instrumentalist (tar, setar, kamancheh and Azeri tar player)
Silk Road Music: Concerts and Events of Persian Classical Music by Farzin Darabi Far
Farzin Darabi Far: Iranian Cologne-based tar and setar player and composer
Persian and Azerbaijani Music Discussion Group: Persian and Azerbaijani Music Group is a group at Yahoo Groups established by my father maestro Nasrollah Nasehpour. Anybody who is interested in Persian and Azeri classical and regional music can join to this group.
Free Music: Free music, free music downloads, MP3 music, MP3 players
Find Free Music: MP3 players, music downloads, find free music online
Free Music Downloads: Find free music downloads. Download MP3 files, MP3 players, software and tools for free online music
PanteA Alvandipour (Iranian/Persian Female Vocalist and a student of maestro Nasrollah Nasehpoor
Vadoud Mo’azzen: Azerbaijani Vocalist, a student of maestro Nasrollah Nasehpoor
NIKOS DIMITRIADIS (Oud site): A very nice website based in Greece.
The Oud: The most popular instrument in Middle East by David Profitt. In this site you will find info of the history, tuning, playing and artists of oud.
Animus Music: Animus, jam’n world fusion music! On this website site you’ll find Animus’ performance dates, history, booking contact, MP3s, Pictures and CD ordering information and more.
RichHeart Music is the music for meditation, inspiration, healing, and enlightenment from Richard Shulman.
Mid-East Mfg., Inc.: The Ethnic Musical Instrument Company TM offering more than 500 ethnic musical instruments at great prices!
Tagafolk and Anamnèse are nice website of Eric Forgeot, France based artist in both English and French. He has a page for Persian Music.
Brain Transfer Project: Website with great sound files that Dana does in the studio. He plays guitar, sax, trumpet, keyboard, sahna (Chinese oboe), accordion and he sings too!
EthnoSuperLounge is dedicated to world peace and cultural understanding through the creation of cross-cultural music in an open, empowering and transcendental way, inspired by the traditional devotional music and mystic philosophies of the world and especially the rich cultural traditions of India and Asia.
Contemplation Garden: World Music Info by Greg Turner
Mohsen Namjoo – Iranian Vocalist, a student of maestro Nasrollah Nasehpoor
Ethnic Music in English and Turkish
Bam Ahang Productions: Canada-based music website for supporting independent music and musicians. Do check their website.
The Malay Nobat Music
Caravansary
Culture and Music Magazine in Persian
Iranian Oud (Persian Lute)
Sol.ir: Persian Music Directory and Music News in Persian
Music News: We spread the word!
Piano Lesson by Tammy: Tammy’s website on Piano lessons
Scandinavian folk music, folk dance and related traditional arts discussion group run by Bruce Sagan US-based musician and mathematician.
VOCALIST: International mailing list and free resource for singers and singing teachers.
If you are interested in drum link exchange, percussion link exchange or even music link exchange, then please email me!
Good Quality Tonbak, Ghaval & Daf: Some pieces of advice about good quality tonbak, ghaval and daf.
Cooperman Fife and Drum Company: The Cooperman Company, as known as Cooperman Fife & Drum Co., is a second-generation family business founded by Patrick H. Cooperman in 1961. They offer hand drums such as Ghaval, Kanjira, Riq, Hadjira, Tar, Bendir, Bodhran and drumsticks, Rope tention drums and fifes. This US-based site is really well-designed by my friend, Chris Sampson.
Great Trading Path: Native American Indian drums, crafts, art, beadwork, jewelry, pottery and Southeastern Indian history. It is a very informative website and do check it out!
Cymbalism Music: Drum sets, electronic drum sets, alchemy cymbals, bongo drums, congo drums for sale.
The Drum and Whistle prides itself on making quality, inexpensive instruments availible to it’s customers. Greg Fisher and the other friends offer doumbek, djembe, Bodhran and some other drums. Have a look the Design Works by Greg Fisher too.
Columbia Products International: Musical Instruments for Sale: Bagpipe, Bodhran, Dumbeck, Harp, Skin Head and Tambourine.
Hand Percussion Drum:Tammy’s site on Djembes hand percussion African drum
African Drum Beat: Dedicated to West African Drumming and Percussion
Mojave Drums: Info about gourd drums (for sale) by Sandra Ainsworth (Instructor and Media Director) and her friends.
Shake and Rattle: They make the finest hand-crafted shekeres using gourds and other natural materials.
African Rhythm Traders: A very good and informative site for books, CDs, workshops and so on about world (particularly African) rhythms.
Drumset Connect – Drums Percussion
Tongue Drum: Website of Steve Roberts who makes tongue drums, which are all wood drum tuned in musical scales.
SEKERE.COM – for custom designed, natural beaded, gourd hand drums. We have been making and selling beautiful sekeres in Pennsylvania since 1993. Because we also play the instrument, we are able to work with you assisting with your customization when necessary. We have also taught many people who have gone on to develop a rewarding hobby making and selling these instruments.
Kevork Drum Factory: owned and operated by Kevork Krikor Kazandjian. Kevork is from Lebanon and has been playing and making percussion instruments for all his life.
Instrument Zone: A website for musicians, instrument retailers, instrument manufacturers selling or buying musical instruments (Category: Musical instrument)
If you are interested in drum link exchange, percussion link exchange or even music link exchange, then please email me.
High Quality Tonbak, Ghaval and Daf
A high quality drum should have at least three characteristics:
1) It should have a good body with a good skin.
2) The sound should be great.
3) It should be beautiful.
Related keywords: buy, buying, purchase, purchasing, tombak, dombak, donbak, zarb, dayereh
By Peyman Nasehpour
Budbudke: Hourglass drum of Mysore beaten with a knocked string by shaking the drum
Chenda: Cylindrical drum of Kerala, usually heard as accompaniment to the Kathakali dance, made of wood, it is suspended from the shoulders of the player almost vertically and only upper face is beaten with sticks.
Daff: A large circular open drum usually played with drumsticks. This word itself has been imported into India from Persia (daf).
Danda: This is a pair of sticks, with or without jingles, beaten together, used in folk dances.
Dhol: (paul’s addition) North Indian (Punjabi) barrel or cylindrical drum, treble and bass heads. played with thilli (cane switch) for treble and curved cane stick for bass
Dholak: Folk instrument known throughout the Indian continent, made of wood in the form of barrel, the two mouths are fixed with hide and beaten with sticks or hands.
Gajjai: Dancers ankle bells of south India
Ghatam: Found in south India it is an earthen pot and it is held with its mouth to the belly of the player and stuck with palms and fingers.
Ghumat: Goblet drum of Goa
Ghungroo: Dancers ankle bells of north India
Gilabada: Small shells of dried fruit tied in a garland and round the waist found in Chenchus of Andhra.
Gna: Two-faced frame drum of inhabitants of Himalayan hills, performing in their Lamaic dances.
Idakka: Hourglass of Kerala
Jaltarang: Which literally means water-waves is a series of porcelain cups filled to various levels with water is arranged in a semicircular manner. The choice of the size, thickness and material of the bowl, and the amount of water in it determines its pitch. The cups are laid out and the player, squatting in the center of the semicircle, beats them with thin bamboo sticks. Its Persian version is called kasat.
Jamuku: Goblet drum of south India
Kal-chilampu: A hollow ring filled with small pellets or balls worn on the feet
Kai-chilampu: A hollow ring filled with small pellets or balls held in the hands
Khanjari: Small sized frame drum struck with hands found in northern villages and may have jingles.
Khanjeera: Small and slightly deep frame drum found in southern India has no jingles and is covered with crocodile or iguana skin.
Kolu: This is a pair of sticks, with or without jingles, beaten together, used in folk dances.
Mridangam: South Indian cylindrical drum
Nagara: Kettledrums often in pairs, the smaller female and the larger male, made of earth, wood or metal, beaten with sticks vary in size from a few inches to feet in diameter. It should be of Persian origin.
Noot: It is an earthen pot, used by Kashmiri singers of the rauf or soofiyana kalam, and is stuck on the sides and the open mouth.
Pakhawaj: North Indian barrel or cylindrical drum and accompaniment of the dhrupad (the ancient style of Indian singing)
Pataha: Ancient Indian frame drum
Pianjan: A hollow ring filled with small pellets or balls worn on the feet
Pung: Barrel drum of Assam
Tabla: A pair of bowl-shaped drums and typically a north Indian instrument, the right one is called dayan and of the form of a large coffee-cup and made of wood, while the left one is called bayan and like an oversized tea-cup and of metal or burnt clay.
Tammatai: South Indian version of Daff
Tamukku: small sized nagara
Tappatai: Another name of Tammatai
Tasha: medium sized nagara accompaniment of shehnai (Indian oboe). Its Persian version is called tas.
Tumbaknari: Goblet drum of Kashmir, similar to Persian tombak.
Tumda: Hourglass drum of Orissa beaten with hands
From the book: B. Chaintanya Deva, Indian Music, New Delhi, 1974.
Pandit Arvind Parikh, master of sitar, is the famous student of the very great master of sitar,the late Ustad Vilayat Khan (Aftaab-e-Sitar). Purvi Parikh, daughter of Pt. Arvind Parikh, is a very good vocalist. This is a part of his email to me about the Ustad:
“Indian musicians believe that teentaal (16 beats) is the King of all rhythms and once she/he is proficient in playing/improvising in teentaal, she/he can improvise in other rhythms without any difficulty. Though Ustad Vilayat Khan most of the times plays gat-s in teentaal (16 beats), he does occasionally play gat-s in the other rhythms such as rupak (7 beats) and jhaptaal (10 beats). He also plays in ektaal (12 beats) especially in the drut laya (faster tempo).”
Indian Classical Music Links:
Pandit Arvind Parikh: One of the first students of Ustad Vilayat Khan, a great master of sitar.
Veena Sahasrabuddhe: A very great vocalist
ITC Sangeet Research Academy (ITC-SRA): A very great website for promoting North Indian Classical Music (Hindustani Sangeet). Presenting lots of great masters of the past and today with their musical samples in Real Format. One need to install Real Media Player to be able to listen this great musical sounds. Some of them are really rare!
DoveSong Indian Classical Music MP3s Archive
Ganesh Kumar (Kanjira Artist): A young and excellent kanjira artist. Kanjira is south Indian frame drum. For more info, please do check his great website built by OM Radio of Chris Sampson.
Mardala is a very nice and great site dedicated to promoting Odissi mardala similar to Hisdustani pakhawaj (North Indian cylindrical drum).
Mridang-Pakhawaj is an article of Paolo Pacciolla (percussionist) in both Italian and English language.
Kalamandalam Unnikrishnan: South Indian percussionist who plays Chenda (cylindrical drum).
Insight Reisen GmbH Hans Wettstein: Sitarist from Switzerland.
Tabla Players
An Article by Peyman Nasehpour
Introduction
“Good King Bahram Gour of Persia was moved by the laments of his most impoverished subjects. They called for music, and wished to celebrate like the rich. Bahram Gour asked his father-in-law, King Shankel of Kanauj, who lived in the high valley of the Ganges, to send twelve thousand musicians. When they arrived, the king provided them with a means of living off the fact of land, giving each a donkey, a cow and a thousand bushels of wheat. After a year had passed, they appeared before him, starving. They had simply eaten the cows and the wheat. Annoyed, the king advised them to fit their instruments with strings of silk, mount their donkeys and take to the road – and henceforth earn their living from their music.”
Maybe this was the first influence of Indian music on Persian music. Melodies and musical instruments came to ancient Iran. Even now this influence has been remained in contemporary music of Persia. In Radif repertoire of Persian art music, there are some melodies named Rak-e-Abdollah, Rak-e-Kashmir and Rak-e-Hindi. Rak here is arabicized of Rag and Rag in Indian music means musical mode. Rag literally means color and is the same as Persian word, Rang. The names of melodies say us that they should be Persian version of Indian Rag-s. Also Ramkali in Dastgah-e-Abu-Ata should be related to Rag Ramakali in Indian music. At last it is possible to give another important example, which it is the melody Danaseri, which should be related to Indian famous Rag, Dhanashri [S] & [DA].
The instruments, Dara-ye-Hindi (A kind of metallic percussion instrument from India to be used in Iran) and Van (Van is ascribed as a kind of stringed instrument with two gourd resonators) that should be the same as Indian instrument Rudra Vina, are another examples for showing the influence [S].
It is well known that today there are two systems of Indian music. One system is found in Northern India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. This system is called Hindustani Sangeet. The Carnatic Sangeet is the system found in Southern India. The Hindustani system may be thought as a mixture of traditional Hindu musical concepts and Persian performance practice. The advent of Islamic rule over Northern India maybe caused the musicians to seek patronage in the courts of the new rules. Several centuries of this arrangement caused the Hindu music to absorb musical influences from Islamic world, primarily greater Persia. This shows the influence of Persian music on Indian music. For instance the word tabla is a generic term for drum in Arabic language [C].
It should be mentioned that Persian art music uses a modal system which provides a set of modal frameworks. This system has much in common with the modal music of this part of the world, where the main musical cultures other than that of the Persians are those of the Turks, the Arabs and to some extent to the Indians [T].
Because of the common history of the Persian and Indian musical cultures and applying the tabla in these years by some Persian musicians in Persian music it seems necessary to have a brief discussion about tabla and Indian Tal-s.
Tabla
This is a pair of drums. It consists of a small right hand drum called dayan (literally means right) and a larger metal one called bayan (literally means left).
Undoubtedly the most striking characteristic of the tabla is the large black spot (called siyahi) on each of the playing surfaces. The siyahi (Siyah literally means black) is mixture of gum, soot, and iron filings. Its function is to create the bell-like timbre that is the characteristic of the instrument. The invention of sitar and tabla and many other things is attributed to Amir Khosro Dehlavi. There is a tendency among Indians to attribute the development of almost everything to him. Anyway it is unfortunate that the history of the beginning of tabla is still in dispute [C].
Indian Tal-s
Tal is a framework in time. Tal is structured into two or more sections, each having the same or different numbers of beats. The particular arrangement of audible sounds and silence is what defines the unique character of each Tal. Since drums are used to maintain the flow of Tal in music and dance, the character of Tal becomes vividly when manifested on a drum. The technical term for this manifestation of Tal on a drum is theka [DU].
Here is the theka-s of those Indian Tal-s that I think they can be used in Persian music.
Dadra: Dadra is in 6 beats divided into 3+3.
Dha Dhi Na, Na Tu Na.
Rupak: Rupak is in 7 beats divided into 3+2+2.
Tin Tin Na, Dhi Na, Dhi Na.
Kaharba: Kaharba is in 8 beats divided into 4+4.
Dha Ge Na Ti, Na Ke Tu Na.
Ektal: Ektal is in 12 beats divided into 3+3+3+3.
Dhin – Dhin – Dha Ge, TeRe KeTe Tun – Na -, Kat – Ta – Dha Ge, TeRe KeTe Dhin – Na -.
Dipchandi: Dipchandi is in 14 beats divided into 3+4+3+4.
Dha Dhin -, Dha Dha Dhin -, Na Tun -, Dha Dha Dhin -.
All Tal-s that are in 16 beats are very suitable for Persian music especially the most popular Indian Tal, Tintal.
Tintal: Tintal is in 16 beats divided into 4+4+4+4.
Dha Dhin Dhin Dha, Dha Dhin Dhin Dha, Dha Tin Tin Na, Ta Dhin Dhin Dha.
Remark. These Tal-s have been extracted from [DU].
Acknowledgement. The author wishes to thank Pt. Arvind Parikh (master of Indian sitar) and Mr. Lakshman Rai for helping the author in order to research Indian music.
References
[C]: David R. Courtney, Fundamentals of Tabla, Vol. I, Sur Sangeet Services, Houston, 1998.
[DA]: Alian Danielou, The Raga-s of Northern Indian Music, Barrie & Rockliff (Barrie Books Ltd.), London, 1968.
[DU]: Aloke Dutta, Tabla (Lessons and Practice), 2nd Edition, Texas, 1995.
[S]: Mehdi Setayeshgar, Vazhe-Name-ye-Musighi-ye-Iran Zamin, Tehran, Vol. I (1995) & Vol. II (1996).
[T]: Dariush Talai, A New Approach to the Theory of Persian Art Music (The Radif and the Modal System), Mahoor Cultural & Art Publication, Tehran, 1993.
Persian or Arabic Mathematics!
A short note by Peyman Nasehpour
Before I start criticizing to the great works of two Scottish mathematicians who have worked on the history of mathematics, I congratulate for their works and I express that I have tried to seek for reality and there in no place for nationalism in my critics.
The question is that why most of the Iranian (Persian) scholars in the history are considered as Arabs. For example while Khayyam is considered as a Persian poet, he is introduced as an Arab mathematician!
Iran is a big country that different nations live beside each other and some of them are Arab too, but they live in Kuzestan, a southern province of Iran. Also we should not forget that in the past Iran (Persian Empire) was bigger and after different separations, Iran has become smaller.
This is right that many of those scholars have written their works in Arabic (the international scientific language among people of that time), but this should not cause us to think that they have been Arab. Today most of the scholars write in English, then should we consider them American for instance?
Though it is wonderful that the two esteemed mathematicians have started publishing some great articles about the contribution of Iranian mathematicians in the history of mathematics in Internet, but it is surprisingly strange that why they have categorized it as Arabic, the mathematics that has been nurtured and flourished by these great mathematicians, most of them non-Arab mathematicians!
The title of this great article is “Arabic mathematics: forgotten brilliance?” and then they start their article by this passage that “recent research paints a new picture of the debt that we owe to Arabic/Islamic mathematics. Certainly many of the ideas which were previously thought to have been brilliant new conceptions due to European mathematicians of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are now known to have been developed by Arabic/Islamic mathematicians around four centuries earlier. In many respects the mathematics studied today is far closer in style to that of the Arabic/Islamic contribution than to that of the Greeks.”
Again the question is why Arabic/Islamic contribution?
And this passage becomes more interesting when they add that “there is a widely held view that, after a brilliant period for mathematics when the Greeks laid the foundations for modern mathematics, there was a period of stagnation before the Europeans took over where the Greeks left off at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The common perception of the period of 1000 years or so between the ancient Greeks and the European Renaissance is that little happened in the world of mathematics except that some Arabic translations of Greek texts were made which preserved the Greek learning so that it was available to the Europeans at the beginning of the sixteenth century.
That such views should be generally held is of no surprise. Many leading historians of mathematics have contributed to the perception by either omitting any mention of Arabic/Islamic mathematics in the historical development of the subject or with statements such as that made by Duhem in [3]:-
… Arabic science only reproduced the teachings received from Greek science.”
And at the end when they want to describe the period that they want to discuss they write:
“Before we proceed it is worth trying to define the period that this article covers and give an overall description to cover the mathematicians who contributed. The period we cover is easy to describe: it stretches from the end of the eighth century to about the middle of the fifteenth century. Giving a description to cover the mathematicians who contributed, however, is much harder. The works [6] and [17] are on “Islamic mathematics”, similar to [1] which uses the title the “Muslim contribution to mathematics”. Other authors try the description “Arabic mathematics”, see for example [10] and [11]. However, certainly not all the mathematicians we wish to include were Muslims; some were Jews, some Christians, some of other faiths. Nor were all these mathematicians Arabs, but for convenience we will call our topic “Arab mathematics”.”
The inconvenience shows itself when they vividly express that “the regions from which the “Arab mathematicians” came was centred on Iran/Iraq but varied with military conquest during the period. At its greatest extent it stretched to the west through Turkey and North Africa to include most of Spain, and to the east as far as the borders of China.”
And when one refers to the biographies of these mathematicians understands that most of them have been from Persia (now Iran), so why those mathematicians must be considered as Arabs. And since Persians has had a very great and glorious culture and civilization in pre-Islamic ages, then why there is no mention to the probable influence of pre-Islamic Persian mathematics on “Persian mathematics from the end of the eighth century to about the middle of the fifteenth century”!
And at the end, despite of this critic to their work, I consider their works very useful for the history of mathematics, since thanks to the great efforts of these specialists of the history of mathematics, today we know that what they did was not just a reproduction of the works of Greeks!
References:
In my opinion, democracy and freedom of music means that every musician has right to offer her/his music and every audience has right to listen to her/his own favorite songs and nobody has right to ban any musician or audience from their rights mentioned in above.
Nobody has right to say that this genre of music is forbidden or the like.
It is obvious that a teacher will emphasize on the style and techniques of their own training, but this should not cause some teachers to say her/his students that their style or school is the best and such-an-such styles or schools are not good and the like. A teacher who says to her/his students such things, not only may be doing a major disservice because she/he causes the students to lose some other styles and techniques, but also is doing something against the democracy and freedom of music, because in this way the teacher tries to ban the other musicians and take the freedom of her/his students. It is obvious that those behaviors of the musicians increase the tension among musicians and their students, discussing which style or school is the best and so on.
Ethnomusicologists and musicologists started researching about different genres of music and tried to document and offer them to people. This has had a good affect on the social status of musicians, particularly the musicians of poor countries. At least their music became more available.
I strongly believe that Internet is one of the most useful tools for offering music. This is right that today, most of the people on the Earth, particularly the people of poor countries do not use Internet or their Internet connection is not so fast (Dial-up Networking), but very soon, everybody will use Internet with better connections and in a near future, all the people of the Earth will get in touch with each other and exchange their ideas about the subjects of their interests.
Internet is helping to the democracy and freedom of music at whole. In the past you would not be able to offer your music to music lovers, except your music were offered and advertised by big companies or Medias, but today you may offer your music on the web free of charge or at least much cheaper than before. For example, the MP3 has helped many musicians to offer their music on the web. At least MP3 offers their music internationally and makes them a little more famous. You may not become that famous, but at least you are more available than before!
Music lovers were not able to find some info about different genres of music easily, but today they may find their favorite songs easier and cheaper than before. In the past you had to listen to that genre of music that big companies or Medias were offering you, but today you have more freedom in choosing your own music by surfing in Internet.
I believe Internet is empowering musicians, audiences, democracy and freedom of music. Now it is the time for all musicians to offer their music on the web and at last people will decide what they should listen and what they should not!
Date of Publication: July 08, 2003
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And now YouTube.com has come up! It helps people to broadcast themselves!
Saturday, 12 March 2005
Music has three dimensions: 1) Melody 2) Rhythm 3) Accent. Since skin headed percussion instruments are the main instruments for performing rhythmic cycles, consideration of the percussion instruments of Iran (Persia) has special importance. Because of cultural varieties in Persian music, we have a lot of different percussion instruments in Iran. It is not possible to discuss all of them here so this letter will be about the “tonbak” and the “daf”, the only national drums of Iran.
According to organology, tonbak is considered as a member of the goblet-shaped drum family. Similar drums are the “darbouka”, played in Arabic countries and Turkey, and the “zirbaghali” in Afghanistan. The antiquity of tonbak with its “Pahlavi” (Persian pre-Islamic language) name, “dombalak” goes back to pre-Islamic ages and according to the late Dr. Moeen, “dombak” is a transformed form of this ancient name. The Tonbak has progressed in recent decades and it is thought of as a solo and independent instrument. This progress is in debt to the pure efforts of valuable masters of the tonbak, and among them, the role of the late maestro Hosain Tehrani is so important that he can be labeled as the father of modern tonbak. Even though this instrument has progressed so much and it is used broadly in different genres of Persian music, unfortunately it is not taken to be as important as it should be. For example one cannot receive his bachelor’s degree in music as a tonbak player, while on the other hand choosing instruments such as “tar”, “setar”, “kamancheh”, etc., she/he can.
According to organology, “daf” is considered as a member of the frame drum family. Similar drums are the “ghaval”, “riq” and “bendir” in neighbor countries of Iran. The antiquity of “daf” with the Pahlavi name, “dap”, goes back to pre-Islamic ages and “daf” is an arabicized form of “dap”. The “daf”, which was played in Sufi gatherings, now is played broadly in all genres of Persian music. And according to the view of Mohammad Reza Darvishi (esteemed researcher of Persian regional music), “daf” should be considered a national drum the same as tonbak. When the tonbak with its status is not considered as important as it should be, then guess what happens to the “daf” as well as the other percussion instruments of Iran.
According to what it was said in the above, the following suggestions are offered:
A new major of music in the universities should be created in the way that one can receive a bachelor’s degree in percussion music as a tonbak or daf player.
International percussion festivals should be performed in Iran with a focus on Persian percussion instruments.
An independent committee for percussion instruments should be created in the most famous Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) for Persian music, called “Iran House of Music”.
Remark: Perhaps harmony can be considered another dimension in western music, but this open letter discusses about Persian music.
Acknowledgments: The writer of the letter wishes to thank Mr. Grant Smith for his useful pieces of advice about the translation of the letter from Persian to English.
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The letter in Persian was originally published at the online daily magazine for music, harmonytalk.com
Nasrollah Nasehpoor’s Words Published in Hamshahri Newspaper on the Problems of Persian Music Training in Iran:
“Given that not any remarkable musicians have ever been observed among the graduates of music faculties, the performance of the faculties has not yet been satisfactory. The tests to be taken initially by the students have nothing to do with music at all and the individuals achieving to obtain high marks might have insufficient knowledge on music. However, those failing to get good marks in music will after all manage to pass on account of the high marks obtained in other subjects. It is quite evident that once such candidates manage to pass, those known to be gifted in music will be left out.”
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Nasrollah Nasehpoor’s word published at Iran Daily Newspaper:
TEHRAN, Jan. 11–Each country’s music is considered the gem of its culture and every nation’s cultural identity is assessed on the basis of its regional literature and music, observed head of board of directors of Music House, Nasrollah Nasehpour.
Commenting on the Sixth Iranian Regional Music Festival, he told Mehr news agency that a country, which boasts of diverse regional music, enjoys cultural richness.
“Iran’s regional music is one of the richest and most diverse in the world but unfortunately little attention has yet been paid to it,” he noted.
Nasehpour further stated that regional music festival is one of the most qualitative events to be held in Iran.
In conditions that the Iranian music is grappling with difficulties and the national media do not show the instruments, the festival provides the opportunity for the youth to become familiar with regional music directly, he noted.
Nasehpour said that the reason that Iranian youth are more interested in western instruments is that they see them in the films, programs and music performed on them.
“If the youth has such an exposure to the Iranian regional music, they will also be interested in it,” he said.
Calling for holding the festival more than once in a year, Nasehpour noted that officials should pave the way for presenting such music on more occasions.
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This trapezium made me crazy!
The great craftsman Mehdi Nãzemi, who developed the most reliable, scientific and effective method of making santoors, is the second child of his family among four brothers and two sisters.
His ID shows his birthday 1905, but a document written by his father shows his year of birth as 1910. These different dates arose because it was not usual to have a birth certificate in the Ghãjãr era.
Nãzemi says: “It was a local custom for rich families in Yazd that when a son was born in a family, a great party would be held. When my brother was born, among those invited to the celebration was an ensemble of the most famous singers and musicians of the region. They played instruments such as the santoor, tãr (Persian long necked lute), kamãnche (Persian spike fiddle) and arabãne (a kind of frame drum), and the famous singer Rezã Boland accompanied them. The santoor player of the ensemble, whose name was Gholãm-Hossein Naghãrechi, most strongly drew my attention. I was a nearly eight years old and hearing the sound of Santoor made me feel very happy. After the end of party I went to Gholãm-Hossein Khãn and asked him to give me a santoor, but I received only a smile. It was my first contact with the santoor and a santoor player”.
Rhythm Web: RHYTHMWEB is an excellent site for different drums and has lots of cool links. Created by Eric Stuer, percussionist, web designer and a dear drum brother of mine.
Watch Drumming Demonstration of Peyman Nasehpour at YouTube
Tombak Network: Tombak Network is an educational site for tombak (tonbak, Persian/Iranian drum) created by my friend, Hormoz Dilmaghani. I have published some articles there.
Drumdojo is Paul Marshall’s website. He is sound artist and percussionist from North Ireland and a dear drum brother of mine.
Online Doumbek Guide: Kamuran’s Guide for Doumbek Players. On this website of my dear drum brother, you will find:
* How to make specific sounds on the doumbek
* Consistent, easy-to-read notation for dozens of rhythms — the rhythms are grouped by count length, from 2 to 32
* Difficulty rating for each rhythm
* Articles on accompanying dancers and buying riq
Rick Walker’s LooppooL: The exotic sonic world of Rick Walker’s Loop.pooL. A leading figure in the emerging international live looping movement, Rick is a sound designer, electronic music composer, author, percussionist, trapset drummer, multi-instrumentalist and “found sound” artist. He is a dear drum brother of mine.
Daveed Korup’s DrumFest: A percussionist, poet, composer, instrument maker, workshop facilitator, and above all else, a teacher. Daveed offers an energetic, highly participatory, multicultural program called DrumFest! which is available to both children and adults. He is the hand drummer of Turku Music (Turku Eurasian Folk Ensemble – Columbia, SC). And a dear drum brother of mine.
Middle Eastern Rhythms FAQ (rhythms for middle eastern dance for dumbek, dumbec, doumbec, doumbek, Arabic tabla, darabuka, tombak, zarb …) created by my dear drum brother, Jas. This is the best list for ME rhythm cycles with Jas’s MIDI Rhythm Generator that I have seen in Internet.
Drum Journal: Drum Journal is a site dedicated to the experience of making your own music using drums and percussion instruments, drum circles, music education, and the sharing the creation of music across cultures. This great website has been created by my dear drum brother Dale Wambaugh.
Rhythmuseum: A site dedicated to many drums such as Japanese Taiko, Senegalese Sabar, Korean Chango, Persian tonbak and Indian Tabla by Christopher Arnold.
PERCUweb: Quebec percussionists’ great website by Prof. Robert Leroux and his friends!
Rene Dalton is a Brazilian percussionist in Brasilia working on Arabic rhythms and plays derbuka. Very well designed website!
Drums and Drum Sets – Offers drum lessons, tips, and advice for beginners. Discusses the history of drum sets and manufacturers, such as Pearl, Ludwig, Drum Workshop (DW), and Tama.
Daniel Ruegg: Switzerland based, German language percussion website of Daniel Ruegg. His works moves over drums and rhythms (instruction, workshop, drum and rhythm circles, organizational developement and so on), drums for sale (Bata, Bougarabou, Darabukka, Djembe, Surdo, Tabla, Timbales), drumming and introducing some African musicians… Check his informative website.
David Elia Kuckhermann: Germany based multi-percussionist. His site has some useful info about basic strokes and lessons of tar, riq, bodhran, darbuka, tonbak.
Eric N. Peterson: Eric’s Middle Eastern Drum Page. Info of Middle Eastern Drums and Drummers and Link to other Websites.
PAS: The Percussive Arts Society® (PAS®) is a music service organization promoting percussion education, research, performance and appreciation throughout the world.
World Percussion Music and Resources: Australia based percussion website by Kevin Tuck. Music for percussion ensembles, from beginner to advanced pieces and e-Books for drums and percussion, great for teachers and students.
Jon Mattox: A very active percussionist, artist, web-designer. His site is very well-desinged and has a very detailed link section!
DrumRhythms: Lessons for Drumset and some small hand percussion instruments such as congas, djembe, bongos, timbales and so on.
Ralf Schuh AKA Thorralf, German Bodhran Player has very good websites for Bodhran (Irish frame drum)
Tomás Howie Drumming Web: A website for drums and drumming rudiments by Tomás Howie, the moderator of Rudiments Yahoo Groups.
Khalouze (Kalouze): Khalouze is a kind of goblet-shaped drum and has inside two strings attached just under the skin so the sound is a little buzz. Belly-dance.org has offered a very nice historic photo of a female khalouze player. Check it out! Also some words about Persian zarb and Arabic derbukka that is interesting.
Hands-On Drumming: A very nice website of Internationally known percussionist, educator and community drumming leader Jim Greiner.
Tim Rayborn: Multi-instrumentalist with specialities in medieval, Middle Eastern, and Central Asian music.
Kenne Thomas: Great website of Kenne Thomas, professional drummer, percussionist, author and educator. Info of djembe, taiko and so on.
Alex Pertout: Percussionist, composer and educator in Australia. His website is so informative and has info of different drums and percussion. Please do visit his website to find out about different world traditional drums, rhythms and percussion.
Alex Spurkel is an accomplished drummer with over 15 years of experience in both Western and Non-Western traditions. His forté is world percussion–particularly the Middle-Eastern Doumbek–and his unique brand of electronic drumming suited for various genres of dance music.
Fredrik Gille is a Swedish percussionist that collects instruments, playing-techniques and inspiration from percussion-traditions all around the world. He plays Indian tabla too.
Mauro Gatto: Drums and Percussion Website of Italian percussionist Mauro Gatto both in Italian and English language.
Harmonic Motion is a not-for-profit arts organization resident in South Florida. Harmonic Motion’s music and dance performing groups focus on folkloric and ethnic idioms, cross cultural, and improvisational projects. The core performers and teachers are musician/composer Joe Zeytoonian and dancer/percussionist Myriam Eli.
Erik Smith: Norway based drumset site of Erik Smith, a very active drumset player.
Tony Natale: American wonderful percussionist. He is now located in Bach’s city in Germany and recording his own CDs. He owns a very nice website both in English and German.
El Toque De Candombe: Traditional Afro-uruguayan rhythm – for Afro-Uruayan Chico, Repique and Piano drums, Drumset and Bass – Culture and more.
A Gaita Do Fol: A site by Juanjo Fernandez dedicated to Galician music.
ALGORHYTHM: South African Percussion Portal, info about djembe, conga, tabla, zarb (tonbak), tama, sabar and so on…
Patrick Graham: Canadian percussionist and explorer of new percussion techniques. He has worked on Western classical music, frame drums, Japanese, South-Indian and Mediterranean and Irish rhythms.
River Paul Guerguerian: US-based Multi-percussionist, composer and educator. He is frame drummer of Omar Faruk Tekbilek’s Ensemble. His website has been designed very well.
The Ocean of Rhythm: Website of Christoph Haas, German percussionist, vocalist and composer. He has studied on many rhythmic styles such as Rock, Jazz, Mediterranian countries, West Africa, South America and Southern India.
EthnoSuperLounge is a network of musicians from many cultural backgrounds who come together to share their songs and sounds in the spirit of unity, healing and transcendence. It’s a mellow world music fusion group including musicians from India, Tibet, Turkey, Japan and Africa, along with many Australians strongly influenced by various ethnic music traditions as well as jazz, ambient and electronica.
Peter Giger – Master Percussionist based in Switzerland
Rafael Pereira – US based hand drumming expert from Brazil
Jon Sterckx – UK based percussionist
Virtual Drummer School (The world’s first online school for drummers and percussionists)
Numan Elyer (All finger style of darbuka)
Andrea Piccioni: great drummer (frame drums particularly Italian Tamburello)
Michael Drake: A useful website having articles, books, and music downloads on shamanic drumming, including a very interesting article on drum therapy.
Harmen Sikkenga (Tamburisto): Multi-Percussionist from Netherland
Taaliqa: UK-based Multi-instrumental Duo Website for Oud, Tabla,Tabla Tarang (row of tuned tablas), Darabouka, Zarb, Daf & Gatam.
Pete Lockett UK-based multi-percussionist, Pete Lockett is one of the most active percussionists of the world who has worked on many drums and percussion instruments. Here is the list of the instruments that he plays:
North/South Indian percussion: tabla, mridangam, kanjira, ghatam, vocal percussion, dholak, naal, bhangra dhol. Middle Eastern percussion: darabuka, req, bendir, frame-drums. Latin percussion: congas, bongos, timbales, berimbau. Also Irish Bodhran, Nigerian Udu, West African djembe, Japanese taiko, Western drumset and many weird and wonderful percussion effects such as waterphones & spring drums, along with many strange percussive objects built and customised by Pete. He also works extensively with electronics & samplers, both live and in the studio, using samplers, effects units and live electronic looping to create densely alternative percussion fabrics.
GRAMMY-AWARD WINNING San Diego Rock Funk Blues Drummer Bill Ray
Afro-Percussion: Switzerland based Website of Markus Maggiori on African percussion in German language.
Paulinho Silva – Percussão – Brasil: Spanish language website of pandeiro player from Brazil.
Chip Ritter Drummer: Free Drum Solo MP3s
High Energy Drums: High Energy Drums publishes e-books on how to make Native American Stave Drums, Tongue Drums, Thumb Pianos, and Gourd Drums. Free chapter samples are available. Immediate download through PayPal.
Mario Calandrelli: drummer, percussionist, educator, clinician and “computer – drum machine programmer”. His Italy-based website is really great in both in Italian and English language and very well-designed.
Wooden Bongo: A nice site by Pedro E. Barriera Colon about Wooden Bongo.
Gene Krupa: American Ace Drummer Man (1909-1973). He is famous for having recorded the first drum solo in the history of American popular music. He was also famous because he soloed a lot on the tom toms and had a ‘tribal’ feel (read: African) which was very unusual in the jazz tradition. Thanks to my drum brother Rick Walker for his explanation.
Grant Smiths Drums and Percussion: Grant Smiths plays drumset, hand drums, timpani and mallets.
Wayne June: Wayne June is an active freelance vocalist and drummer.
Norberto Mazzoni: Italian Percussionist and drummer, a professional musician, chorus and composer who tries to promote ethnic music from different cultures and countries.
Ramon Rossi: Italy-based website of Italian drummer. He is the member of the following band: Millenium Band.
Mathieu Soucy: Canada based website of Mathieu Soucy, multi-instrumentist, composer and multimedia specialist.
General Drum and Percussion Resources
Drum Journey: This site is dedicated to the promotion and support of community drumming and hand drums as a vehicle for healing, personal and community spirit, or just plain fun!
Tabla links: Links to different websites related to tabla, the Indian pair of small drums.
DrumminMen: The Drummers Resource and Detailed Drumming Directory!
Drum Magazine: Enter Music Publishing by Drum Magazine!
Drummer World: Pictures and Sound of Famous Drummers of Jazz and Folk.
DrumsOnTheWeb: General Info of Drums, Drumming and Drummers.
DrumPRO Magazine: Lots of free downloadable stuff for drums and drumming.
Percussion Press: is a newsletter for percussion related news. Join us to receive the news as soon as we receive them.
Drumming Discussion Forums:
Goblet Drumming Group is a group at Yahoo Groups established by Peyman Nasehpour (moderator) and Eric Stuer (co-moderator). Anybody who is interested in discussing about goblet drums may join to this group.
Indian Tabla Group is a group at Yahoo Groups established by Peyman Nasehpour (moderator). Anybody who is interested in tabla can join to this group.
If you are interested in drum link exchange, percussion link exchange or even music link exchange, then please email me.
Kamancheh, the Persian bowed instrument
An article by Peyman Nasehpour
Abstract
Kamancheh is the chief Persian bowed instrument and is played both in Persian art and folk music. The aim of this article is to offer an introduction to this important Persian instrument.
Kamancheh before Ghajar Period
Kamancheh is an ancient instrument. According to different books that I have studied, Ebn-e-Faghih is the first who mentions to this instrument in 10th Century. Also some Persian poets such as Masoud-e-Sa’d, mentions to the name Kamancheh in his poems.
Allameh-Ghotb-al-Din Mohammad Shirazi, in his famous encyclopedia, Dorrat-al-Taj, mentions to this instrument by the name Komajeh that should be a dialect of Kamancheh. The very famous Azerbaijani musician/theorist/poet, Abd-al-Ghader Maraghi, describes this instrument in his famous book, Jame’-al-Alhan and says that the sound of Kamancheh is more beautiful than Ghezhak that is another Persian bowed instrument and today Ghezhak (with the name Gheychak) is played in Sistan-Baluchistan of Iran and is related to Indian sarangi.
In the book Kanz-al-Tohaf by Hassan Kashani that is maybe the only historical book on making Iranian instruments, it has been written about Kamancheh of that time and describes how to make a Kamancheh and its accessories. It is very interesting to notice that the author of the book mentions to this instrument with the name Gheshak (another dialect of Ghezhak). Maybe some object us what he describes is not the Kamancheh but fortunately he has painted the shape of Kamancheh in his book and it is wonderful that he mentions that bow (he calls it mezrab. I should mention that mezrab today is used for plectrum of Persian plucked instruments) of Gheshak is called Kamancheh. Etymologically it is better to say that Kamancheh is more suitable to mention to the bow of this bowed instrument than the instrument itself. The reason is that the word Kamancheh is the combination of the two words, Kaman that means bow and cheh is diminutive suffix in Persian language. Anyway, to apply Kamancheh for this Persian bowed instrument is error allowed by usage and it seems there is no better name to offer.
Another book the Behjat-al-Ruh, mentions to Kamancheh as a perfect instrument.
Fortunately there are some historical Persian paintings (called in the West as Persian miniatures) that show the Kamancheh.
Some famous Kamancheh masters of Iran before the Ghajar Period are: Mirza Mohammad Kamancheh’i, Ostad Ma’sum Kamancheh’i, Molana Ahmad Kamancheh’i entitled to Amir Ghazi, Ostad Zeytun, Malek Mahmud, the brother of the author of the famous book, Tarikh-e-Sistan.
Kamancheh in and after Ghajar Period
According to different books in Persian language, it seems Kamancheh had only two strings. Though we don’t know when the third string had been added to this instrument, but we know that in Ghajar period, Kamancheh had three strings.
Different books mention to the completion of this instrument. For example, one of the famous Kamancheh players of Ghajar Period, Agha Jan, the father of Mirza Habib Sama’ Hozur (very famous santoor and tonbak player) had invented a kind of Kamancheh that had strange strings and keys and it had a long handle and he was used to play that while standing up and he had named that Kamancheh, Majles-Ara!
Some famous Kamancheh players in and after Ghajar Period are: Khoshnavaz Khan, Agha Motalleb, Esmail Khan, Hossein Khan Esmail-zadeh, Gholi Khan, Musa Kashi, Mirza Rahim, Javad Khan Ghazvini, Bagher Khan Rameshgar, Alireza Changi, Mirza Gholamhossein, Safdar Khan, Hossein entitled to Karim-Kur and his daughter, Vajiheh, Farmanfarma the Uncle of Naser-al-Din Shah, Jamileh (the female student of Esmail Khan), Ali Khan, Reza Khan Nikfar, Hossein Yahaghghi and his sister Keshvar Khnum entitled to Farah-Lagha, Haig, and at last, Asghar Bahari.
According to some books that we brought some parts of them here, we see that Kamancheh was very popular and important in Persian art and folk music. After the introduction of Western violin to Iran, unfortunately everything changed! Though the forth string was added to Kamancheh after seeing that violin had four strings, but many instrumentalists put the Kamancheh down and started playing violin. It is interesting to mention that even most of the students of Hossein Khan Esmail-zadeh such as Reza Mahjubi, Rokn-al-Din Mokhtari, Abu-al-Hasan Saba, Ebrahim Mansuri and so on were violin player.
Please consider what Ruh-al-Allah Khaleghi, the famous historian/composer/theorist says about Kamancheh in his famous historical book, Sargozasht-e-Musighi-ye-Iran:
“The sound of Kamancheh is nasal, while the sound of violin is closer to nature! When the violin was brought to Iran, since it had four strings, another string was added to Kamancheh for imitating the violin and since it was very similar to Kamancheh, many Kamancheh players became violin instructors. Since violin was similar to Kamancheh, portable and its shape was more beautiful, therefore gradually replaced by Kamancheh and today nobody plays Kamancheh. It is always natural that the more complete instruments will be replaced by non-complete ones. Similarly flute was replaced by ney and oboe by sorna.”
Anyway, there were some compassionate artists such as Aref Ghazvini that was not happy for what was happening to Persian art music and warned about the danger of abolishing the Persian art music and its important instruments like Kamancheh, Santoor and Tar.
One day Hasan Mashhun, Persian art music researcher, asked from one of the most famous Kamancheh players of his time: “Why did you put down the Kamancheh? We have lots of violin players, but Kamancheh players, one after another, are becoming old and disabled.” That the master replied: “There is no student of Kamancheh. People have become modern and play violin!”
It is obvious that using western instruments instead of Iranian instruments is not necessarily a smart idea. As my ethno-musicologist friends tell me, there should be a difference between modernization and westernization. Violin is violin and Kamancheh is Kamancheh. It is clear that every instrument has its own value and there is no need to discuss about that more.
As historians mention, the late Asghar Bahari, gave a new life to Kamancheh by playing this instrument in many concerts and gatherings and radio and TV.
It is fortunate that today we have many Kamancheh players in such a way that today there is no need to be anxious about being abolished the art of Kamancheh playing.
The picture of the late Asghar Bahari in this article appeared in Jean During’s book, The Art of Persian Music, page 114.
Ghamar-ol-Moluk Vaziri, the most famous vocalist of Persian art music, was born in 1905. In childhood she lost her mother while her father had died too, so her grandmother became her guardian. Her grandmother, Molla-Kheyr-on-Nessaa (titled to Eftekhaar-oz-Zaakerin), was singer of the Rozekhaani ceremonies (religious ceremony) and Ghamar accompanied her and participated in the ceremonies. This was her first acquaintance with the Persian vocal music of the Rozekhaani genre. Their house was in the Sangalaj district of Tehran.
When Ghamar’s grandmother went to Karbalaa on pilgrimage of Emaam Hossein’s shrine; she stayed at the house of her cousin (the wife of Majd-os-Sanaaye’) where musical gatherings (Mahfel-e-Musighi) were held, and great masters of Persian music such as Darvish Khaan (very famous master of tar and setar), Rokn-ed-Din Khaan Mokhtaari (composer and master of violin), Haaji Khaan Eyn-od-Dole (very famous master of tonbak) and Shaah-zaadeh Hessaam-os-Saltane (multi-instrumentalist) were playing. Through this, she became more acquainted with Persian music and she was invited in a wedding ceremony where the great master of tar, Mortezaa Neydaavud was invited too.
When she sang in the wedding ceremonies privately, Ostaad Neydaavud played tar and asked her to sing again and she sang again and the Ostaad loved her voice and invited her to attend his class in order to learn the radif repertoire of Persian music. She went to his class and very soon she became one of the best singers of Iran. Their first concert was at the salon of the Grand Hotel about 1924. Then again their second concert was at the Palace Cinema located in the Laalezaar Street of Tehran.
So she became more famous and was acquainted with famous poets and writers of her time. Gradually she recorded many gramophone disks and performed many concerts with the tar of her master and colleague Ostaad Neydaavud and she became more and more famous. What money that Ghamar earned she shared among the poor people and when she passed away in August 5, 1959, she was poor.
Yahyaa (Haarun) Zarpanje, Jewish tar player, was born in Tehran, Iran (Persia), about 1897. His father, Rabi’ was a singer and daayere (Persian frame drum) player. His brother, Musaa, was also tar player. Yahyaa started playing tar during his childhood with his brother, Musaa, and then he became the student of the very famous tar and setar player, Darvish Khaan and Aaghaa Hossein-Gholi, the greatest tar player and master of radif repertoire. He was called Yahyaa Kolang (Kolang literally means pick!) by Darvish Khaan because his tar plectrums were very strong and powerful. Yahyaa Zarpanje was very serious practicing tar and everyday he used to play for many hours. He made some trips to Esfahaan, Rasht and Shiraaz (some important cities of Iran) and performed some concerts there, and people loved his music. Fortunately, he recorded some of his tar pieces on gramophone disks. He passed away at the age of 35.
Nassehpoor Ensemble has four members:
Maestro Nasrollah Nasehpoor
(vocalist and master of vocal radif of Persian art music)
Peyman Nasehpour
(percussionist: tonbak, ghaval and daf player)
Pooyan Nassehpoor
(santoor player)
Parham Nassehpoor
(tar, Azeri tar, setar and kamancheh player)
Nassehpoor Ensemble has been established in April of 1996 in order to promote Persian art music.
Übersetzt: Pooyan Nassehpoor und Heino Schmull
Reza-Gholi Mirza-Zelli kam 1906 auf die Welt. Ohne Zweifel ist er einer der großartigsten Sänger, welche die persische Musikgeschichte je hervorgebracht hat. Seine warme und beeindruckende Tonmalerei zusammen mit seiner Stimmbreite und Gesangstechnik ergibt einen außergewöhnlichen Gesang, der in jeder Hinsicht brillant und ausgezeichnet ist. Zelli studierte persische Vokalmusik bei Abol-Hassan Eghbal und Aref Ghazvini (Dichter, Sozialaktivist und einer der größten Tasnifkomponisten Persiens).
Zelli spielte verschiedene Konzerte zusammen mit Ali-Akbar Shahnazi. Im Auftrag der Plattenfabrik Columbia nahm er Schallplatten auf. Es sind nur 8 Schallplatten, die überhaupt zum Andenken von Zelli übrig geblieben sind. Auf diesen Platten wird Zelli von Moshir-Homayun Shahrdar auf dem Klavier, Abol-Hassan Saba auf der Violine und Arsalan Dargahi auf der Setar begleitet.
Zelli starb 1945 unerwartet nur mit 38 Jahren.
Rezaa-Gholi Mirzaa-Zelli (1906 – 1945), vocalist and master of Persian radif repertoire was one of the best masters of Persian vocal music. He studied Persian vocal music under the training of Abol-Hassan Eghbaal (one of the greatest masters of Persian vocal music) and Aaref Ghazvini (social activist and one of the greatest tasnif composers in Iran). Zelli played concerts and recorded some pieces of his voice accompanied by instrumentalists such as Moshir-Homaayun Shahrdaar (pianist), Abol-Hassan Sabaa (violin). He passed away at the age of 38.
Ostad Hosain Tehrani, the very great master of tonbak and the father of modern tonbak, was born in 1912 in Tehran. Once that he had gone to zourkhaneh (Persian traditional gymnasium) he felt that he loved the tonbak of the morshed (Morshed is the singer and tonbak player of zourkhaneh that leads the athletes to practise marshal art in zourkhaneh. Morshed literally means spiritual guide.) So when he went back to their house, he made a hole at the end of a clay vase and covered the bigger mouth with skin and started playing his first strokes of tonbak on it.
When his father was at work, he was able to practice in a room. But after some days the neighbors complained to his father that sound of Hosain’s tonbak was tormenter. So he stopped practicing at home and started playing tonbak in the train (at that time it was called in Iran ‘vagon-e-asbi’) for people. That train’s line was between Lalehzar crossroads and Machine-Garage at the end of the South of Tehran. This was the first experience of this great master of tonbak of playing in front of people.
According to his interviews he started learning tonbak seriously in 1929 under the training of the late Ostad Hosain Khan Esma’ilzadeh (great master of kamancheh) and since at that time there was no notation for tonbak he had to call to mind the rhythms with some interesting phrases such as ‘Yek-Sad-o-Bist-o-Panj’ and ‘Baleh-vo-Baleh-Ba’leh-Digeh’.
For continuing his studies and research he went to the classes of the great masters of his time such as the late Ostad Reza Ravanbakhsh and the late Kangarlu. Even he studied the style of the gypsy tonbak players (tonbaknavazan-e-doregard).
In 1938 he became acquainted with the late Ostad Abolhasan Saba (multi-instrumentalist) and this acquaintance was an important point in his life and then they became heartfelt and sincere friends and this friendship continued till to the time of the sorrowful demise of the late Ostad Saba. He himself said: ” except the recitation of rhythms that I learnt from Khaleghi, [the late Ostad Ruhollah Khaleghi was composer and writer. His famous works are his book on the history of Persian music (Sargozasht-e-Musighi) and his very famous national composition, Tasnif-e-Ey-Iran.] what I know about the theory and practice of Persian music comes from Saba.”
In 1940 after the establishment of Radio Tehran, he and some other artists collaborated with the Radio. In 1941 in the Master Course Music School under the directorship of the late Ostad Ali Naghi Vaziri (tar and setar player and theorist of Persian music and specialist of esthetics) he started teaching tonbak. When somebody else became the director of this music school, the programs of the teaching of Persian music was omitted and the teaching activity of Ostad Tehrani was postponed.1949 after the efforts of Ostad Khaleghi and some other musicians the National Music School was established and Ostad Tehrani was invited to teach in this new music school.
In these years after the establishment of National Music Orchestra and National Music Society, he collaborated with these artistic organizations too.
After these activities the tonbak became more popular and many volunteers wanted to learn tonbak and Ostad Tehrani invited some of them in order to establish a musical group for tonbak for the first time in Iran.
After the establishment of Iranian TV in 1958, he started playing tonbak accompanying Ostad Faramarz Payvar (composer and santoor player).
In the first Shiraz Art Festival (1967) he played with Ostad Payvar and was the conductor of the tonbak group and one of the tonbak players of the group was Ostad Mohammad Esmaili.
Not only he was very famous and respectful artist in Iran but also many foreigner musicians had praised his tonbak. He had also some concerts in European cities such as London, Paris and Rome.
His book Amuzesh-e-Tombak, even now, is the most famous instructional book on tonbak. Later this book was reprinted and Ostad Esmaili has recorded the lessons of this book in two cassettes.
Ostad Tehrani recorded some tonbak solos and accompaniments in gramophone disks and some pieces have been reproduced in a cassette.
In 1972, though he was ill, he recorded his last performance, rhythms of zourkhaneh.
He was acquainted with ‘radif’ repertoire of Persian art music and ‘tasnif’ (rhythmic compositions of Persian vocal music).
He was kind, smiling, chic (I should explain that he lost one of his eyes while he was working in a technical workshop in his youth and because of this he was always wearing a smoked glasses), self-possessed and witty.
Unfortunately after a long indisposition, he passed away in Feb. 25th, 1974.
A very great master of tar (Persian six-stringed long-necked lute), Ostad Ali Akbar Shahnazi was born in Tehran, Iran, 1897.
His father, Mirza Hossein Gholi, the great master of tar named him Ali Akbar according to a very old tradition: the grandson should be named as his grandfather. His grandfather the Ali Akbar Khan of the Farahan village of the Arak city was a great master of tar. One day after a quarrel with his neighbor he went to the roof to play with his tar named Ghalandar. Tomorrow of that night they found him died in the roof.
He started learning tar from his respected father at the age of 7. After five years he reached at the level that he was able to teach some of his father’s students.
At the age of 14 recorded two gramophone disks by playing tar the Persian famous melodies, Avaz-e-Afshari and Avaz-e-Bayat-e-Tork accompanying the great vocalist Jenab Damavandi.
At the age of 18 after the demise of his father he was the responsible of his father’s class and started teaching them.
He established the Shahnazi Music School in 1929.
He recorded many pieces with the great vocalists of his time such as Eghbal Azar, Nakisa and so on. Also he has collaborated with other great master of his time such as Reza Mahjubi (violinist) and Hosain Tehrani (father of modern tonbak).
Not only he taught his students his father’s radif, but also he composed a very beautiful radif and called it radif-e-dore-ye-ali and taught it to his students too.
He comes from a music family called in Persian Khandan-e-Honar that literally means art dynasty. His younger brother Abdolhossein was a very good tar player also. Their uncle Mirza Abdollah was a very great teacher of setar. Ali Akbar Khan’s nephew the Gholam Hossein Khan was another great tar player.
He recorded his radif in 1977. He had recorded his father’s radif in 1962.
He passed away in 1986 at the age of 88.
A very great master of radif, tasnif and tonbak, Ostad Abdollah Davami, was born in Ta village of Tafresh city, Iran in 1891. As a teenager he discovered that he had a good, audible and suitable voice, so he decided to learn the elementary principles of Persian vocal music.
One day he had gone to a gathering in the house of Majd-al-Mamalek that he met Ali Khan Nayeb-al-Saltaneh. After that he became the student of Ali Khan Nayeb-al-Saltaneh for learning radif and Haji Khan, Agha Jan, Sama’ Hozur (santoor player) for learning tasnif, and the art of tonbak playing.
Because of his talent in learning music, he became friend of great masters of his time such as Mirza Hosseingholi (tar player), Hossein Khan (kamancheh player) Darvish Khan (tar and setar player), Malek-al-Zakerin (vocalist) and Mirza Abd-al-Allah (setar player). He has trained many students. He passed away in 1980.
Tonbak is the chief percussion instrument of Persia. This goblet drum is one the most interesting drums of the world. For playing on it you use all the ten fingers. After the effort of the great masters of tonbak such as Ostad Hosain Tehrani and Ostad Nasser Farhangfar (my master of tonbak) tonbak has advanced very much.
Social Status of the Tonbak Players of the Past
Tonbak was not considered as a solo instrument in the past. I should explain that in Ghajar period vocalists were of two kinds: avazkhan and tasnifkhan. The avazkhan’s job was to sing the non-rhythmic compositions of Persian radif repertoire and the tasnikhan’s job was to sing the rhythmic compositions of Persian art music. Though there were some vocalists that were the master of the both kinds: for this maybe the most famous example is the late Ostad Abdollah Davami. Also most of the tasnifkhan-s were tonbak player (zarbgir). So tonbak was the instrument to be played by the singers and it was not considered as an independent instrument.
In the past, tonbak players were to undergo at the hands of their fellow musicians and from their status in society. They had to bear humiliation, insults and exploitation This is still in some views true. Tonbak players are labeled as accompanists, considered second-class citizens of the music world, even if they occasionally play solos. This ill treatment that they receive is partly due to the generally held concept that tonbak is incapable of expressing different emotions. Tonbak has its own unique role in Persian music and it seems that any other instrument cannot be substituted.
Until the early part of this century, tonbak was used mainly as an accompanying instrument. The primary job of tonbak players was to play the basic rhythmic structure as an underpinning to vocal and instrumental music. They had to maintain a low profile at all times, even when the soloist made a mistake and yelled at them in public. They had to be silent and could not say anything because they were afraid of losing their job. They were the only ones who knew how much devotion lay behind their skill. The pain of knowing this and yet not being permitted to express it sometimes made them desperate.
Despite all these negative attitudes, tonbak players fortunately never ceased to improve and according to the most of the researchers this revolution started by the late Ostad Hosain Tehrani. It was necessary for tonbak to be free from the yoke of tasnifkhan-s and to be given at the hands of players that they were interested to work on tonbak more seriously and independently.
The world went through a series of upheavals. Also some movements happened in Iran. Due to this turmoil, the Iran’s social structure began to change. This, in turn, had a strong effect on musicians and music. The former music patrons, i.e. the kings and aristocrats, were replaced by businessmen Music Colleges and Radio and then TV. Rather than performing in small salons for groups of relatively cultured aristocrats who apparently were trained to appreciate the classical form, musicians increasingly were expected to perform in larger halls for larger and apparently less well-educated audiences with different tastes.
This bad social status of tonbak players and these changes in Iran caused that tonbak players started to change and make movements.
Outstanding tonbak masters such as Ostad Hosain Tehrani because of their love of tonbak tried to make some changes. Gradually tonbak and tonbak player made a better place in the music world. Then other prominent tonbak masters such as Ostad Nasser Farhangfar came to fore and progressed the tonbak more. The clarity, stamina, extraordinary speed and overall power of these tonbak players caused the tonbak to reach to the very good point of progress and popularity. Tonbak found more roles in instrumental music, though one of the most important characteristics of the art of tonbak playing, i.e. to play cyclic rhythms, was forgotten.
The Social Status of the Tonbak Players of Today
The effort of these dear and devotee tonbak players such as Ostad Hosain Tehrani and Ostad Nasser Farhangfar caused that tonbak became more popular among well-educated people and found more roles in instrumental music. Tonbak players of today now really play very good. The clarity, stamina, extraordinary speed and overall power of today tonbak players are really praiseworthy. But by taking these progresses into consideration, the question rises: what good has it really done to the social status of tonbak players? Maybe tonbak players of today are more successful apparently. But the overall image of the tonbak player is almost the same as the past. They are those accompaniments and the secondary musician on the stage. The primary job of the tonbak player is still to make the main artist’s music more colorful and enjoyable by becoming an adjunct to him or her. The social status of tonbak players has not changed and in fact only their exposure has altered.
What Should It Be Done?
In my opinion the way that Ostad Hosain Tehrani had started should be continued and tonbak players should start again to make more tonbak solo recitals. By this comment I am not trying to say that the accompanying style of tonbak playing is not incredible. Accompaniment is an art in itself, particularly when it is performed on tonbak. There are many sensitive and intelligent tonbak players, which show the power and beauty of the techniques of the art of accompaniment.
Remark. The idea of this article comes from an article of the excellent work of Pt. Aloke Dutta, Tabla, Lessons and Practice, 2nd Edition.
References:
[KH]: Ruhollah Khaleghi, Sargozasht-e-Musighi-ye-Iran, Tehran, 1974.
[M]: Hassan Mashhoun, Tarikh-e-Musighi-ye-Iran, Tehran, 1994.
[NS]: Peyman Nasehpour and Siamak Sahafi, Vas’iyat-e-Ejtema’i-ye-Tonbak Navazan, Farda-ye-Behtar Magazine, No.16, 2nd year, Oct. 22nd, 1999.
[T]: Hosain Tehrani, Amouzesh-e-Tombak (Tombak Rudiment), Tehran, 1970.
Forlornness of percussion instruments in Iran!
Peyman Nasehpour: Forlornness that has been carried on the tonbak – by Sama Babayi
Last week, Peyman Nasehpour performed in the European Musician’s Meeting in Barcelona of Spain that was about frame drums. In this meeting ghaval of Azerbaijan, Daf of Kurdistan, Tamburello of Italy, Daf and Req of Arabs, Tambourine of Europe, Adufe of Portugal and so on were discussed. Musicians from Spain, Germany, France, Poland, Canada, USA, Panama and so on and “Peyman Nasehpour” from Iran played in this meeting. For this reason, we have had a talk with him:
How was your performance in Barcelona?
In the second day of the meeting, I taught tonbak, Azerbaijani ghaval and Sufi style of daf and the night of that day, I had tonbak, ghaval and daf solo that drumming solos were welcomed; also I accompanied an artist from Spain, his name Juanjo Fernandez, who was the player of a special bagpipe from the Galicia of Spain. The meeting will be held next year too.
It seems that the role of percussion instruments is weaker and less colorful than stringed and bowed instruments. Why?
In the past music was one of the branches of mathematics and it was the forth branch. Music in theory and practice was divided into two sections; one was the “ta’lif-e-neghmeh-ha” (composition of notes) that was the melody and the other was the “igha” that today it is the rhythm and it was an important section of the knowledge of music. Since the role of drums is to show the rhythms more colorful, so they were considered very important, but unfortunately in a period of history of music, the drums were never paid attention and to investigate about the reasons of this historical problem needs a broad research and this period should be named as the “lost-ring-of-the-history-of-music”.
How many genres of percussion instruments we have?
Generally some of them like tonbak and daf should be considered national, while some like “damam” who accompanies the “neyanban” (bagpipe) of Bushehr city of Iran should be considered folkloric or regional. Of course it is possible that in future these drums will be used in the traditional or national music and they will be considered as national drums too.
When did this drum found an independent character gradually?
Maestro Hosain Tehrani revolutionized the tonbak. Before Safavid period this instrument was supported and played but then it was forgotten and then maestro Hosain Tehrani revolutionized the drum.
So should Hosain Tehrani be considered as the most important character of tonbak?
Exactly! He was born in 1912 and passed away in 1974 and he should be considered as one of the most prominent tonbak players and as I mentioned above, he revolutionized the tonbak. He was a pioneer/modernist tonbak player who had a new style in the art of playing the tonbak and by his solo and accompaniment performances attracted the society in the way that every day from his time up to now new methods and styles coming and some famous tonbak players have come up and even the world is going to pay attention to this drum.
Despite of all these things, it seems that there is no important role for the tonbak in many orchestras. Why?
This is because of the many restrictions that this instrument has had during the last centuries and unfortunately a part of those restrictions still exists. If somebody wants to receive a bachelor’s degree in art at any rate that person can not choose a percussion instrument as one’s main instrument, while one can and must choose a stringed or bowed instrument and this is a big question for me. Why cannot somebody receive a bachelor’s degree in art, while choosing dohol as his main instrument, whereas Dr. Courtney from USA has PhD of tabla! Why shouldn’t this happen in Iran? Addition to this problem, I think to have percussion festivals is a very good way that players of inside and outside of Iran can exchange their information that they can be familiar with different styles of these instruments, meanwhile we should have an independent committee in “Iran House of Music”.
Are the percussionists not a part of the committee of players in “Iran House of Music”?
Yes they are but we should notice that there is a difference between an instrumentalist and a percussionist. Because percussionists play the rhythms, while the instrumentalists play the melodies. And by considering the forlornness that these instruments had, they will be given special attention.
Who are the important characters of this drum in Persian music?
Maestro Abdollah Davami (who was a great master of radif, tasnif and old style of tonbak), Agha Khan, Agha Jan the First, Maestro Ravanbakhsh, Haji Khan Zarbgir that had the old style and Maestro Hosain Tehrani that gave a lot of different changes to the tonbak and he should be named as “the father of modern tonbak”, and then Maestro Eftetah, Maestro Farhangfar and Maestro Bahman Rajabi that worked on this drum very much.
How is the ability of this drum in fusing with other instruments in western music?
European musicians have a tendency in using it, because they have similar instruments such as setar, tar, santoor and so on, but they don’t have similar percussion instruments we have and for this reason they are interested in tonbak, tabla and tempo (darbouka), of course they have some similar drums that are played with sticks such as dohol and I hope tonbak like the drums of Arabic countries, India and West Africa will have its suitable status in the modern and western music.
How many are interested in tonbak?
The number of people who are interested in this instrument is growing. For example Maestro Helmi, the famous tonbak maker, has sold about 200,000 tonbaks that shows the quantity of people who are fond of tonbak; of course tonbak despite of the other instruments is not financially beneficial!
By Azita Mohammadi
Peyman, most of your performances are in the form of tonbak recital, while tonbak is considered as an accompaniment?
After the effort of outstanding tonbak players such as Ostad Hussein Tehrani and Ostad Nasser Farhangfar, tonbak has shared in instrumental music more than the past and this can be considered an advance in the art of tonbak playing. As you know tonbak before Ostad Tehrani was metronome! Since tonbak players have not given enough solo performances, even now tonbak is considered as an accompaniment. In my opinion tonbak as a chief percussion skinned instrument of Persian art music, is the most suitable instrument for expressing the rhythmical characters of Persian art music and tonbak recital is the best method for this subject.
Do you work on any other percussion instruments?
Yes, I work on ghaval (Azerbaijani frame drum), daf (Kurdish frame drum) and Indian tabla.
But why Indian tabla?
Tabla is the chief percussion instrument of North Indian music (Hindustani sangeet). It is about forty years that tabla has been popularized in the world. This is due to great tabla players such as Ustad Alla Rakha (accompaniment of Pandit Ravi Shankar) and his son, Ustad Zakir Hussain. Indian music is rich in rhythm. I try to gain the experiences of Indian percussionists.
How much has the researching of Indian music influenced on your tonbak playing?
First of all there is a relationship among Persian and Indian culture and their sub-cultures that it is called Indo-Persian culture. Also there is a special characteristic in Indian music that it is called mathematical complexity of rhythm (tal). I have tried to apply it in some of my tonbak solo performances.
What is your style in the art of tonbak playing?
Since I have been one of the students of Ostad Farhangfar, so his style has had a great influence on my style of tonbak playing.
What should somebody do if he wants to be a good tonbak player?
He should have a good tonbak. Never buy a mashghi (low-level) instrument! He should have a good teacher too. He should listen, practice and research.
Research about what?
Many things: 1. Tonbak performances of great tonbak players (cassette, video, CD, book) 2. Rhythms of Persian regional music 3. Ancient music of zourkhaneh 4. Rhythms of other countries esp. neighbors 5. Old Persian rhythms (Igha’) and so on.
Please explain a little about Igha’?
Igha’ was the second important topic of music in the past. It has been discussed in Persian, Arabic and Turkish manuscripts. The rhythms have been notated by Atanin method (Persian onomatopoeia system) e.g. tanan tanan tananan tan (the cycle of Kereshmeh). These rhythms can be found in today Middle Eastern Music.
What is today notation?
Today notation comes from West. We have two systems: 1. One-lined system 2. Three-Lined system. Three-lined system has been used in the famous book of Ostad Tehrani, named Amouzesh-e-Tombak. One-lined system has been used in the book of Ostad Amir Nasser Eftetah. This book has been published by the effort of Mr. Fereydoun Helmi and some other people.
Which system is better?
Every system that is able to notate the rhythms of tonbak is good but one-lined system is much better, because it is written, read, taught and learnt easier. Anyway today everybody should know the both.
What is your view about the future of art of tonbak playing?
I’m hopeful!
Thank you Peyman.
You’re welcome Azita.
Prof. Seyyed Abdollah Anwar was born in Tehran, Iran, 1924. He received his high school diplomas in Literature and Mathematics in 1942 and 1943.
Also he received his Bachelor’s Degrees in Laws, Pure Mathematics, Politics and Economics in 1945, 1946, 1948 and 1949.
Then he continued his research and studies personally on the following fields:
Philosophy, Mathematics particularly Mathematical and Modal Logic, Physics, Laws, Politics, Economics, Theology, Religious Jurisprudence, Library Science, History, Tehranology and Genealogy Science.
His famous works:
List of manuscripts of Iranian national library in ten volumes
Ten volumes books of the very famous Persian dictionary, Dehkhoda dictionary
The very famous book of Khajeh Nasir-al-Din Tusi, Asas-al-Eghtebas and its comment
The very famous book of Abu-Ali-Sina, Shefa in 22 volumes and its comment and comparison with Aristotles works
So many articles in different fields
He has trained so many students and now his students are very famous in different parts of the world.
Pooyan Nassehpoor, santoor player, the second child of Ostad Nasrollah Nasehpoor, was born in Tehran, Iran, 1975.
In his family he was acquainted with Persian and Azerbaijani art music. In 1983 he had a course for Child Music with Mohammad Reza Darvishi (researcher of Persian regional music). After finishing the course he started to learn the santoor (Persian dulcimer) with Ostad Majid Kiani. Then he continued his santoor studies with Dr. Soheil Sadi-Nezhad. In order to continue his musical studies, he had a course with his father for vocal radif repertoire of Persian art music. For studying theoretical Old Persian music he studied with Prof. Sayyed Abd-Allah Anwar.
He is researcher of the music of the Ghajar period. He also teaches santoor and has solo, duet and ensemble performances as a member of Nassehpoor Ensemble.
E-mail: Pooyan.Nassehpoor at gmx.de
Pooyan Nassehpoor’s santoor website
Hammered Dulcimer Discussion Group: Description
Greetings! This group is for all those instrumentalists interested in the hammered dulcimers. They are known by many names listed here:
Chinese Yang-Chin, Egyptian Santoor, German Hackbrett, Greek Santoori, Hungarian Cimbalom, Indian Santoor, Iraqi Santoor, Persian Santoor, Turkish Santoor and so on…
We welcome your participation. Please introduce yourself, and remember to put your dulcimer related website URLs in the links section. The calendar too, is available to all. Please keep all posts related to hammered dulcimers. Mentioning other instruments and music in context is fine. However, political posts, flames, and those posts considered hostile or offensive to list members are off topic, and repeated off topic posts are grounds for removal.
This group has been established by Pooyan Nassehpoor (moderator).
Very Rare Recording of Persian Art Music
The DoveSong Foundation in cooperation with the Nassehpoor Family of Tehran is pleased to provide all people of the world with this page of important and rare music. For the first time, these great treasures of Persian Art Music are being made available, transcribed to MP3 format by Pooyan Nassehpoor from very rare recordings.
Together the DoveSong Foundation and the Nassehpoor family dedicate this page to our brothers and sisters in all lands, that may we learn to love and understand each other through an understanding our our music and culture.
Biographie von Peyman Nasehpour auf Deutsch
Geboren 1974 in Teheran (Iran)
Durch seine Familie wurde er schon in sehr jungen Jahren in die aserbaidschanische und persische Musik eingeführt.
Er besuchte die “Child Music Course” und studierte dort die Theorie der alten persischen Musik.
Mit 9 Jahren begann er “Tonbak” (Persische Kelchtrommel) und “Ghaval“ (azerbaijanische Rahmentrommel) zu spielen. Darüber hinaus beschäftigte er sich auch mit dem Instrument “Daf” Diese kulturellen Einflüsse vermischt mit seinem akademischen mathematischen Studium haben einen hervorragenden Tonbakspieler aus ihm gemacht.
1997 und 1999 beendete er seine Ausbildung mit dem Bachelor’s und dem Master’s Degrees in Mathematik.
Seit 1997 beschäftigt er sich auch mit der indischen Tabla.
Er hatte viele Bühnenauftritte mit seinem Vater (Maestro Nasrollah Nasehpoor) und anderen berühmten Musikern.
Persische Musik hat in Peyman’s Familie große Tradition.
Email: nasehpour at gmail.com
handynummer: 0049 (0)176 54 53 18 92
Related keywords: handtrommel, handtrommeln, hand, musik, perkussion, portable, schlagzeug, trommel, trommler, trommeln, azerbaijanische
Welcome to the website and blog of Peyman Nasehpour, tonbak, ghaval and daf player. For more info, please surf in the pages and posts.
