Iranian Dotar Maestro Abdollah Sarvar Ahmadi Passed Away

Iranian dotar maestro Abdollah Sarvar Ahmadi passed away in Iran.

Prominent Dotar Player Passes Away

Prominent dotar player, maestro Hossein Samandari passed away.

Hossein Samandari was born in Khaf city, Khosrasan province, Iran, 1932. He learned music at the age 8. He performed in many concerts in Iran as well as abroad.

Iran House of Music expresses its condolences for the demise of maestro Hossein Samandari.

Resource: http://www.iranhmusic.ir/misc.php?t=3&id=538611B

Kazakh musician to play dotar at Iranian Regional Music Festival

TEHRAN — Iranian-based Kazakh musician Mostafa Qazaq will play dotar at the 7th Regional Music Festival running from May 14 to 18 in Tehran and Kerman.

Dotar is mostly played in the traditional ceremonies of the Kazakhs and in earlier times, the elderly played the music while they advice to the youths, Qazaq said in a press release published by the Public Relations Office of the festival on Friday.

“In our culture, some ceremonies are usually performed with music such as the ceremony the bride’s father holds in his house in which we play dotar and sing traditional songs.

“Dotar in Kazakhstan is different with the ones of other regions. Ours is weaker and more fragile but can play all the melodies of western classical music. For example, it can play the same melodies as those played on a violin.

“Our dotar is only made of two strings stretched on an empty wooden bowl. The strings used to be made of sheep’s intestine, but now this has been replaced with nylon,” he added.

Iranian Kazakhs emigrated from their homeland, now a republic in central Asia northeast of the Caspian Sea, to reside in Bandar Torkman, Gonbad-e Kavus, and Gorgan in Golestan Province.

Resource: http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=239341

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Impact of Persian Music on Flamenco Music

Zaryab, the Persian musician

The impact of Persian music on other cultures have been discussed on the following article of Maestro Nasrollah Nasehpoor in details:

Impact of Persian music on other cultures and vice versa

In this short note we like to mention of the impact of Persian music on flamenco music. It is famous that the musician, “Zaryab”, Persian style, also spelled as Zyriab, Zorab, Kurdish style, Ziryab, Arabic style (some name him as Abolhasan Ali Ebn Nafe) immigrated to Cordoba in Spain and established a music school and conveyed the music that he learnt from his master, Eshaq Museli. And since the music that his master offered was the music strongly affected by Persian music, we can imagine why we can talk about the impact of Persian music on Flamenco music.

Etymology of Zaryab

Zaryab comes from the combination of the two words “zar” (Persian word, literally means gold) and “yab” (comes from the Persian verb “yaftan”, literally means to find) and therefore “zaryab” literally means gold-finder.

Point: Some believe that he was entitled as ziryab, an Arabic word that is the name of a special bird.

Originality of Zaryab

While some believe that he is African, possibly a Zang of Tanzania, some researchers believe that he is a Persian Kurd.

Zaryab Immigration

It is said that Zaryab immigrated from Baghdad of Iraq to Syria, sometime after the death of Caliph Al-Amin, then to Tunisia and then Andalusia because of the invitation of Hakim, Umayyad prince.

The signs of the impact of Persian music on Flamenco music:

If one listens to Flamenco music can easily feel the similarity of flamenco vocal music with Persian music.

Guitar

Etymology of guitar: the word guitar seems to be the combination of the two words “guit” that may have its origin in the word “sangeet” that in sanskrit it means music and dance and “tar” that means chord and string. Actually many instruments in Persia (Iran) and India and other places related to Persian culture contain the word “tar” such as Persian tar, Persian setar, Persian dotar, Indian sitar, Indian ektar and so on…

The antiquity of these long-necked instruments goes back to at least 2000-1500 BC, the shape of these instruments found in some statues found in Susa of Iran, kept in National Museum of Iran.

The structure of guitar is quite similar to Persian tar and the big hole on the sound-box of the guitar shows the influence of ud (or barbat). Therefore one may consider guitar as the fusion of the two instruments ud and tar.

Article by Peyman Nasehpour