DOI: 10.7763/IPEDR. 2012. V51. 11

The Influence of Political Evolutions on the Modernization Process of Persian Music

+ Arman Goharinasab1 and Azadeh Latifkar2 1Music studies from Tehran University 2Art studies from University of Tehran

Abstract. Persian traditional music has been linked to Persian poetry for a long time through its rhythmic and metric structures and composition style. In contemporary era Persian music has been involved with two views. One of them was intellectual modernist view which believed in the metamorphosis of traditional music into western music and the other was traditional view which insisted on preservation and dissemination of traditional style and repertoire. These views led to various changes in Persian music, both in the form and poetic content. A review on changes in Persian music’s form and content in the 20th century obviously reveals the relationships between social and political evolutions and these changes. The Persian Constitutional revolution of 1905 and the Islamic revolution of 1979 are two main turning points during this century, which were followed by vast changes in contemporary literature, culture and arts. Although the experimental formal transformations which had been done by young musicians during these revolutions have been applied up to now, the political content of these revolutionary music have been dismissed. Keywords: Persian Music, Tasnif, Aref Qazvini, Persian Constitutional Music, Iranian Revolutionary Songs, Persian Literature, Chavosh.

1. Introduction During its enduring life, Persian music has always been one of the fundamental parts of Persian culture, consisting Persian literature as well. It developed through centuries and transmitted to next generations as an oral tradition and finally it was in Qajar era (19th century) when the Farahanies (a musician family) gather scattered music pieces and organize them under the name of Radif, the Persian traditional repertoire, which was written as a musical score years later. It must be indicated that what we mean by Persian music in this paper refers to the music pieces composed according to radif and performed by traditional instruments such a Tar, Setar, Santur and etc. Beginning of the 20th century became simultaneous with the last years of Qajar dynasty in Iran, when Iranian society expected vast reforms. The intellectuals began to criticize Qajar monarchs as they became familiar with the western lifestyle and democratic governing systems. The result of their attempt was Persian constitutional revolution which happened in 1905 and led to the establishment of the first parliament in Iran. New concepts appeared such as freedom and democracy, nationalism, atheism, freedom and education of women, so renewal measures must be done in the society according to the intellectuals’ demands. Modernization in different aspect of Iranian life began. Arts and literature should be changed as well as governing system, lifestyle and society. New concepts should be expressed with new words and art forms. Persian poetry changed in content and later in its form, the mystic and lyric content replaced by social, political theme. As a result Persian music changed to become able to reflect the new ideas. The objective of this paper is to carry out a research on the changes of Persian music toward its form and content from 1905 to 1979. In the first part we take a look on constitution era where new concepts such as freedom and patriotism were being discussed in society and were spread by newspapers, poetry and music as well. Many protesting songs and poems were composed during this era. Then the transition period began with the fall of Qajar dynasty in 1921 and the establishment of Pahlavi dynasty. The modernization project of Reza shah (1921-1944) was started while an intense censorship began. The next important point is in second Pahlavi monarchy (1944-1979) and preserving measures which took place to protect Persian music from destruction. We continue up to Islamic revolution in 1979 when we could observe the outcome of modernism in Persian music.

1+ Corresponding author. Tel.: +989127942210. E-mail address: [email protected]. 46 2. The Constitution Music and Evolution of Tasnif The historical background of Persian music with political content could be found in the poetry and tasnifs of the constitution era. According to Zhoukovskii, Russian orientalist who worked on Qajar popular songs in 19th century, tasnif is a “simple rhythmic prose” which was prevalent at that time. It is similar to Persian poetry but differ slightly in its rhythm. Tasnif usually follows the syllabic rhythm, which is closer to natural speaking rhythm than the poetry prosodic rules so this feature made it more popular than poetry. The most popular themes of these tasnifs were common scenes of daily life, beautiful women, some lampoons, and etc. It is also worth mentioning that up to Qajar period most of tasnif composers were unknown. A famous tasnif composer from that era is Sheida who was a setar player and began to compose lyric tasnifs with pleasant melodies according to what Aref Qazvini (1882-1934), one of the main characters in post constitutional poetry, wrote about him.“ before my works people thought that tasnifs must be composed for prostitutes of the royal court or for babri khan, the Nasser al-Din Shah’s cat. From twenty years before Sheida had made transformation in tasnif and his compositions have pleasant melodies.”(Aref, 2005) Aref undoubtedly had taken a look at the popularity of the tasnif and put most of his protests and criticism in this form in order to be sung by ordinary people and being spread in the changing society. By Aref, tasnif was raised from ordinary people to elite class and was given social content. (Shafiei Kadkani, 2012:63) This social and political content were inspired by the new concepts which had become considerable in political and cultural era after the Iranian political activity in the cause of freedom. It is also could be found in a wide spectrum of opinions and writings of the constitutional intellectuals. These concepts could be classified into various categories according to Shafiei Kadkani, freedom (as defined in western democracy), national ideals, patriotism, Islamic union, socialism, atheism and criticism of religion, women problems and protest against colonialism. He also indicates that the voice of patriotism and social critic is more obvious (Shafiei Kadkani, 2001:34) Aref composed many tasnifs inspired by political events of his time; many of them still exist in the musical memory of Iranian society and also have become part of Persian music repertoire. Some of these tasnifs are as follows: Az khoone Javanan e vatan which was composed in memory of the martyr which began as this tulips have been raised from the blood of the patriot youth (tulip is a symbol of martyr in Persian literature) Del havas e sabze o sahra nadarad was another tasnif which was composed to encourage the freedom fighters to resist and dedicate themselves when the deposed king return for his crown by the Russian troops support. Another famous tasnif was composed in memory of colonel Pesyan, a political activist. Aref himself perform these tasnifs in numeral concert which were warmly welcomed by the public. As a poet, tasnif composer and political activist, He had a strong impact on music, first of all he was the first person who discovered the tasnifs’ potential for socio-political protesting and used it as an effective art form, a freedom song of constitution. The second is related to his performance which could be named a popular style against the ceremonial performances before. He preferred uncomplicated singing rather than prevalent ornamented Persian singing. His tasnifs must be preformed simple enough for ordinary people to be memorized and sung. The third points returns to social status of a musician. A Qajar musician, who was merely an entertainer in royal courts, became a socio-political activist in the front line of the struggles for freedom. Another memorable tasnif, Morgh e Sahar (Dawn bird) from constitution era was composed by Malek o shoara Bahar. It has been became somehow a national song during recent years and is interpreted as a protest to difficult political situation. Abolqasem Lahouti and Farrokhi Yazdi were other important poets trying to express their political ideas through poetry. Lahouti, born in 1887, began with patriotic contents in his poetry and continued with revolutionary ideas and as Shafiei mentioned he composed poems talking about a kind of internationalism (Shafiei Kadkani, 2012:56) although he tried to put his political ideas in his poems “most of his poems are weak and even have grammatical mistakes and a lot of Russian words could be found in his words.” (Arian Pour, 2008) Farrokhi Yazdi used an excellent language and forms of traditional Persian poetry to express Marxism. He was one of the first constitutionalists whose poems were read in Democratic Party meetings while he was in jail during Reza Shah period. Lahouti and Farrokhi later became notable figures in leftist literature and their voice was heard through the music of 1979 revolution (such as in Chavosh albums) where the leftist movements had played an important role. At the end, the influences of constitutional revolution on the literature and poetry accomplished by the appearance of revolutionary, national and ideological contents and the transformation in music feature in 47 constitution era, restricted to popularity of tasnif with new contents as mentioned above and therefore a little transformation could be seen in traditional structures. 3. Transition Period (1921-1968): Innovation and Preservation The Constitutional revolution led to the fall of Qajar dynasty. Collisions between political parties and different tribes resulted in internal conflicts. On the threshold of World War I the Russian and English troops were in charge of the country. These crisis continued till 1920 and the military coup by Reza Khan as the commander the Russian-trained Cossack Brigade. He suppressed local tribes and communists up to 1924 and then was selected as the new Monarch by the parliament, so the Pahlavi dynasty was established. According to Abrahamian he accomplished most of the innovations which were proposed but not fulfilled by reformist such as prince Abbas mirza, Amir Kabir, Sepahsalar, Malkom khan and constitutionalist democrats. (Abrahamian, 2008: 169) He tried to modernize Iran by developing modern industries, constructing roads and national cross country railroad system and he also established a modern educational system which included universities. He also tried to spread Western lifestyle among Iranian urban families, which applied to their clothing, domestic architecture, daily entertainment and also new art forms such as cinema which developed during this era and also westernized music. Educational reform was the most effective one and led to the development of an intellectual class who were the audiences of new music. Reza shah abdicated his power to Mohammadreza shah, his Son, in 1941 and the westernization process continued. Two main events affect the Persian music in this era which would be explored in the following paragraphs. 3.1. The Modern View toward Persian Music In the atmosphere of Reza shah’s modernization, Ali-Naqi Vaziri (1887- 1979) established the first music academy in Iran in 1923, which was then upgraded into a music Conservatoire in 1934. Before that Aref once had said: the greatest misery for Persian music is the lack of musical score and one of my depressions is that what is sang from my works is full of mistake he added that one of his ambitions is to establish a music academy. (Aref, 2005) and (Arian Pour, 2008) His ambitions put into practice by Vaziri who was raised in an educated family. His mother was one of the pioneer women in Qajar era. He began to teach Persian music according to western musical theory he had learned from a three year study in Europe. He tried to invent a theory for Persian music and adapted it to classic music rules such as harmony. He also established a musical club and performed concerts based on his new teaching methods and new orchestration style which was based on classic harmony and counterpoint. His works led to fundamental changes in Persian music which made this music totally different. He and some of his followers did not just use the new theory and notes but also they try to replace Persian musical instruments with European ones. (For example: using violin instead of Kamancheh) From the early years from then on Vaziri’s modernist works and his new style were always been criticized by traditionalist figures in Persian music. But there is no doubt that he is one of the most influential figures in modern Persian music both in introducing new theories and establishing modern music school.

3.2. Establishment of the Center for Preservation and Propagation of Persian Music in 1968 In 1968 when Persian traditional music was going to be reduced to a museum object, Darius Safvat established a Center for Preservation and Propagation of Persian Music as a part of National Iranian radio and television. The main objective of the center was to preserve Persian traditional music and trained a new generation of musicians by the elderly masters such as: Ali Akbar Shahnazi, Nur-Ali Borumand, Mahmoud Karimi, Abdollah Davami, Yousef Forutan and Said Hormozi. Safvat explained his goals in his book, National Music of Iran. He wrote that Persian music must be preserved in the way that historical buildings are preserved.(Safvat,2009: 263) According to Hossein Alizadeh this was a French idea which led to formation of a center for musical archeology in order to train a number of “young musical archeologists” of Persian traditional music. (Shahrnazdar, 2002: 17) These young musicians were selected from the students of the Music department of Tehran University which was established in 1964 and among them we can see Alizadeh, Mohammadreza Lotfi and Parviz Meshkatian who became the most influential musician of post revolutionary era. Safvat’s another idea related to propagation of Persian music. He believed that traditional music must be performed through concerts and other media in an understandable way, so the music which is once belonged to noble families would penetrate between different classes of the society and there would be an opportunity for all of the people to appreciate its beauty. (Safvat, 2009: 263) So they began to perform in Radio and 48 attended in official festival and ceremonies which were being held by the government. The most famous event was Shiraz Arts Festival (1967-1977) where the elderly masters performed traditional pieces of Persian music and the young musician preformed in Aref and Sheida groups which were named after the two tasnif composer of Qajar era. Aref and Sheida performances were according to Persian traditional repertoire (radif) accompanied by mystic and lyric poems. These performances reflected the essence of the center’s activities in preserving Persian music in its traditional form relying on radif and away from innovations and experiencing new forms and contents. 4. Islamic Revolution and Chavosh Albums (1978-1982) In September 1978 struggles against Pahlavi regime reached to its climax. On the September 8th, Black Friday, when many people have been killed through their demonstration by the security forces, all of the musicians of the Centre for Preservation resigned from national radio and joined the protestors. The head of National Iranian Radio was among them: Hoshang Ebtehaj (Sayeh) whose poems were used in composing revolutionary tasnifs later. Actually the musicians of Aref and Sheida band had began composing music and songs inspired by the revolutionary atmosphere of the time. Lotfi compose Shabnavard (one who goes through the night) which was acclaimed by the leftist. Alizadeh compose Savaran-e-Dasht-e-Omid (the riders of the hope) and Hessar (The Siege) which were both dedicated to political prisoners. Composing and performing of these pieces took place under the name of Chavosh (which means a person who goes in front of a convoy and sings exciting anthems.) These albums besides some popular music became one of the important parts of the Islamic revolution Voice. Chavosh albums were published in 12 volumes from 1978 to 1983, but they are not published in numeric order. The pieces in these 12 albums could be classified into three main groups: 1. Revival of Persian traditional music in performances of traditional repertoire, 2. Revolutionary Songs (Tasnifs), 3. Instrumental pieces; in preceding statements we mostly deal with the second group which were composed according a modernist view toward Persian music. The main characteristic of these songs is the innovations both in their form and poetic content. In the poetic content analysis of these songs, lack of religious concepts, struggle for freedom, the spirit of resistance and solidarity, hope and some leftist literal concepts; are more obvious. The analysis of repeating words shows opposition between two poles which are the symbols of two sides of the struggle: black / white, night/day, darkness/ illumination, freedom/captivity, pain/ treatment and so on. Musical emphasis also helped to arise the feelings by modulation, and repetition of the words in the parts which indicates triumph, hope and etc. Another important thing about this revolutionary songs points to their poetical dependent identity. This means that most of these songs do not follow the classical poetry prosody and they are not well developed according to poetic rhetoric and therefore they have no independent poetic identity apart from the music. So if they are written or read as poetry works they become like slogans . Among them are Shahid (martyr) by Alizadeh, Brother and Father by Lotfi. The music and poem of the revolution are immediate narrations of the revolutionary events expressed in artistic way. One of these expressions can be inferred from the usage of the percussion instruments such as cymbal and side drums in some pieces. This kind of orchestration which was unprecedented in Persian music was exclusive to that era and never repeated again. This experimental approach toward Persian music became the most important formal aspect of their work. The other feature is polyphonic form which followed the development of Vaziri’s modernization in Persian music and became the origin of polyphonic structure in Persian music after the Islamic revolution. These experiments were developed by Alizadeh and Meshkatian and other composers and many works of music created. Another experiment dealt with the issue of singing. Solo singing which is the main characteristic of the traditional music transformed into Choral singing. From what Chavosh members had said it can inferred that they have some security reasons for these choral singing, another thing returns to the leftist content of the song lyrics which resemble these songs into leftist group chants. This choral singing became more prevalent after Islamic revolution when the women voice was banned by the government and women were only authorized to sing in choirs. The voice of Chavosh had been heard as the demonstrations intensified and therefore a bilateral relationship appears between their work and society but their activities did not continue. After the beginning of Iran and Iraq war and political transformations after revolution, restrictions were deducted for arts and especially for music. They did not accompany the governmental music in the war fronts although they have rhythmic form and revolutionary lyric content. “The establishment of Chavosh became simultaneous with the Cultural Revolution and suspension of universities.” Alizade said and “one of the first actions of this was the elimination of the music from the universities curriculums. Chavosh became the alternative for music 49 department of university of Tehran and most of our students were taught there, therefore most of today’s famous musicians have been educated in center for preservation and Chavosh center.” (Shahrnazdar, 2002: 19-20) But how these young musicians of center for preservation and Propagation of Persian Music Who were trained to preserve traditional Persian music, applied such revolutionary expressions in their works. Alizadeh explained that as a young musician looking for his own artistic experience, he was always thinking about not to become merely an imitation of the elderly masters. This personal attitude toward tradition besides their westernized education at Tehran University and also the socio-political environment of Iranian society during last years of 70s, led them to that revolutionary music. 5. Conclusion The occurrence of constitutional revolution and its sociopolitical influences on the Iranian society paved the way for the transformation of most of the poetic contents from lyric and mystic contents to patriotic, critical and nationalist ideas. Tasnif as a popular musical form which mostly contained vulgar themes during Qajar era became the most important media for spreading constitutionalist’s ideas. Aref modified tasnifs by using new social and political themes, presenting society images and political event and using syllabic rhythm instead of Persian prosodic rules. As the modernist view became dominant by the rise of Pahlavi Dynasty, Persian music began to be isolated and western music and imitation of Arabic Turkish orchestrations became pervasive. The preservation ideas which developed during the second Pahlavi monarchy, led to the establishment of the center for preservation and Propagation of Persian Music. On the threshold of 1979 Islamic revolution, the young musicians who published Chavosh began their work in the revolutionary atmosphere. Therefore they began to experiment formal innovations according to Persian traditional repertoire, inspired by revolutionary events in the society and this became one of the most important features of Chavosh besides; usage of polyphonic form, performance of counterpoint scores, experimental usage of choir instead of a solo singer, modernist view toward Persian orchestra and in the contents of the lyrics, appearance of leftist literature, struggle, freedom, are the main difference of the pre revolutionary music and post revolutionary one and the Chavosh works. What mainly distinct works done by Chavosh from what had been done in constitution era is experiencing new musical forms. Today the constitutional tasnifs have became part of Persian repertoire for their national valuable contents. But after the subsidence of the revolutionary enthusiasms of 1979, the political and ideological content of the poems was forgotten and the formal innovations make that era as one the most notable eras in Persian music and also a pattern for innovations in Persian music. 6. References [1] Aref Qazvini, a Collection of Aref’s Poetry, Seaday-e-Moaser Publication, Tehran, 2005. [2] A. Miralinaghi, Bibliography of Iranian Music vol.1, Soorey-e-Mehr publication, Tehran, 2007. [3] E. Abrahamian, Iran between two revolutions, Sales Publication, Tehran, 2008. [4] H. Alizadeh, Busehay-e-Baran, Mahur Publication, Tehran, 2005. [5] L. Hawkins, The influence of politics in the music of Iran, Thesis, SAE Institute London, 2005 [6] M. Setayeshgar, a Glossary of Iranian Music, Etelaat Publication, Tehran, 2002. [7] M. Shahrnazdar, an Interview with Hossein Alizadeh on Persian Music, Nashr-e-Nay, Tehran, 2002. [8] M. Shafiei Kadkani, With Light and Mirror: In Search for Origins of Persian Contemporary Poetry, Sokhan Publication ,Tehran, Iran 2012 [9] M. Shafiei Kadkani, Persian Poetry Periods, Sokhan Publication, Tehran, Iran 2001 [10] S. Fazel, Song Writing in Post Constitutional Persian Literature, Hozehye Honari Publication, Tehran, 2000. [11] V. Zhoukovskii, Iranian Folk Songs (In Qajar Era), Asatir Publication, Tehran, 2003. [12] Y. Arian Pour, From Saba to Nima: The Contemporary History of Persian Literature, Zavvar Publication, Tehran, 2008. [13] Safvat. D, National Music of Iran, Nikbook publication, Tehran, Iran, 2009.

50