The Life of Maestro Nasrollah Nasehpour and His Contributions to Persian and Azerbaijani Music

THE LIFE OF MAESTRO NASROLLAH NASEHPOUR AND HIS CONTRIBUTIONS TO PERSIAN AND AZERBAIJANI MUSIC

PEYMAN NASEHPOUR

Undoubtedly, Maestro Nasrollah Nasehpour is the great and loyal heritage holder of the great master of Persian vocal music, Maestro Abdollah Davami. - Nasser Mojarrad, author, journalist, vocalist, and a student of Ostad Gholam-Hossein Banan

Nasrollah Nasehpour was born in “Un¸ciMeydan” of Ardabil, Iran, on Thursday, October 24, 1940. His father “Aqa S¸@kur” (1902–1970), a shopkeeper, was an amateur garmon player and his mother “Huriy@ Xanım” (1920–1974), a housewife, was an amateur qaval player. Some relatives of Nasrollah’s father had ﬁne singing voices. In particular, his cousin, “Ma¸sadi Gudrat”˘ had an especially ﬁne voice and was an amateur singer of some reputation.

In those years in Ardabil, people were used to organizing private gatherings to play music. Also, in festive occasions and wedding ceremonies (in Azerbaijani, “bayramlar v@ toylar”), people were used to inviting musicians to play for them. In this way and because of Nasrollah’s family music backgrounds, he was acquainted with Azerbaijani music either mu˘gamsor a¸siqlarmusic.

Nasrollah Nasehpour received his secondary school diploma majoring in mathematics from Safavi High School in Ardabil, 1959. It is interesting to mention that Nasehpour was the last group of students that learned French as a foreign language in the school and after that most schools started teaching English as a foreign language.

After graduating from the Safavi High School, he moved from Ardabil to Tehran, to get a job and/or continue his studies. Though he participated in the entrance examination of the Oﬃcers’ Academy (in Persian D¯aneshkadeh-ye Afsari) and he was accepted as a student to study there, because of the strong disagreement and opposition of his mother, he left the Oﬃcers’ Academy and started seeking jobs and very soon he found a good one. He was employed in the Mercantile Bank of Iran and Holland on October 24, 1959, and worked there for about 7 years and 6 months. On May 10, 1967, Nasehpour asked to resign that bank and three days after that, his resignation was accepted. Later, and after an examination, Nasehpour was employed by Bank Melli Iran on June 27, 1967, and worked there till on November 9, 1989, the date he retired.

Working in the Mercantile Bank of Iran and Holland was very beneﬁcial for the young Nasehpour since he was encouraged to learn English. More importantly, Nasehpour was acquainted with Ostad Ali Akbar Shahnazi (1897–1985) since Shahnazi was one of the customers of this bank. The story

Date: October 26, 2020. © Dr. Peyman Nasehpour. All Rights Reserved. This edition may be copied for personal use. Please kindly cite as: Nasehpour, P.: The life of Maestro Nasrollah Nasehpour and his contributions to Persian and Azerbaijani music, preprint, 2020. If there is any suggestion, comment, and/or question, please email the author at [email protected]. 1 2 P. NASEHPOUR

Figure 1. Maestro Nasrollah Nasehpour. Photo Courtesy by Pooyan Nasehpour

that how Nasehpour got to know Ostad Shahnazi is quite interesting.

Since Nasehpour had such a good voice, he was used to singing for his bank colleagues, out of customer-service hours. One day, in early 1960s, Ostad Ali Akbar Shahnazi was passing the bank’s oﬃce and Nasehpour was singing for his colleagues in the time outside the customer-service hours. Shahnazi noticed the singing coming from inside, so he knocked on the door in order to explain something to whoever had been singing. Nasehpour went outside to explain to that man that the bank was closed to customers. But Shahnazi wanted to say something else: he said that Nasehpour seemed to be talented in singing and encouraged the young Nasehpour to enroll in Ostad Mahmoud MAESTRO NASROLLAH NASEHPOUR 3

Figure 2. In the ﬁrst row, the second student from the right is the young Nasehpour in Safavi High School Laboratory.

Karimi’s Vocal Radif Repertoire Class at the Free National Music Academy to learn classical Per- sian vocal music systematically. Ostad Shahnazi, himself, was a teacher of Persian tar in the same academy. Ostad Shahnazi had, also, wanted Nasehpour to participate in his own class and listen to the instrumental Radif pieces that he was teaching to the other students and help the young Nasehpour to be more familiar with the Persian classical music.

Mahmoud Karimi (1927–1984) was a teacher of Persian vocal Radif repertoire. He was a student of Ostad Abdollah Davami (1891–1981) and Haj Agha Mohammad Irani Mojarrad (1872–1971) and trained many students. Nasehpour was Karimi’s student for more than six years (but less than seven years) in the 1960s.

Nasehpour was used to participating in the private musical gatherings among them those which were organized by Maestro Soleymankhan Amirghasemi (1884–1970). In Maestro Amirghasemi’s gatherings, Nasehpour had the chance to get to know some famous musicians such as Saeed Hor- mozi (1897–1976), a great master of the setar and Ali-Asghar Bahari (1905–1995), a great master of Persian kamancheh. Later, Nasehpour became a close friend of Saeed Hormozi.

In any serious music gathering that Nasehpour was attending, he had heard the name of the great master of Persian vocal music, Ostad Abdollah Davami. Therefore, in order to broaden his knowledge in Persian music Radif repertoire, he started searching for Ostad Abdollah Davami, 4 P. NASEHPOUR

Oﬃcial receipt for Figure 3. Oﬃcial receipt for Nasehpour’s tuition fee payment in 1965 Figure 4. Nasehpour’s tuition fee payment in 1965 for Karimi’s vocal class for Karimi’s vocal class

Figure 5. Maestro Nasrollah Nasehpour MAESTRO NASROLLAH NASEHPOUR 5

Figure 6. Hand-written Document by Maestro Abdollah Davami

though it was not easy to ﬁnd him since he was secluded. Finally, after much asking and searching, Nasehpour discovered that Maestro Abdollah Davami resided in Jam¯ar¯anarea of Northern Tehran. Then he went there to ask the great Maestro to teach him the secrets of the Persian vocal music Radif repertoire.

When Nasehpour was going to visit the Maestro Davami, he provided five branches of rose to dedicate to him and in a very exciting meeting, he described his musical history and asked him to convey to him his knowledge and experience in music. Owing to the fact that he was busy working in the bank during the mornings, he asked the Maestro to teach him in the afternoons and he agreed to train him on Mondays afternoon. Nasehpour worked hard to learn the Radif and Tasnif under his supervision in a way that he was able to achieve the Maestro’s full satisfaction. Therefore (similar to a university certificate) he wrote on a sheet of paper to confirm that Nasehpour had learned the master course of the Persian vocal music Radif repertoire completely. 6 P. NASEHPOUR

Figure 7. Gramophone Disk No. 1: Vocals by Nasehpour and Tar by Lotﬁ Figure 8. The Book Musighi-ye Avazi-ye Iran by M.R. Lotﬁ [10]

Now we translate what Maestro Davami writes about Nasehpour in his hand-written document inserted in Figure 6):

“Since the notes of the vocals were not enough, I requested Mr. Nasrollah Nasehpour, which has been one of my students and learned the Radif completely, to sing the pieces in a way that everybody can use [and learn] them.”

The document, inserted in Figure 6, is a page of the book written by Mohammad Reza Lotfi on Persian vocal music. Two gramophone disks are attached to the book and in the disks, Nasehpour sings all the gushehs of Dastg¯ah-eShur and Lotfi accompanies him on tar. This book is bilingual, i.e. in Persian and French. • Listen to some of the gushehs of Dastgah-e-Shur by Nasehpour and Lotfi The story that how Nasehpour and Mohammad Reza Lotfi (1947–2014), a great master of the tar and setar, became friends together and then cooperated later is quite interesting. So interesting that in an interview with ILNA, Lotfi explains that. Using that interview, we bring the story as follows:

When Lotfi was 18 he had moved from Gorgan to Tehran and was renting a flat with a friend in Arbab Jamshid Street in Tehran while he searched for a music school in order to learn Persian classical music systematically. On one of those days that he was a teenager (say still 18 or maybe 19), on a Tuesday afternoon, he was passing a house near his flat when that he heard someone singing accompanied by a Persian tar. Then he noticed that on the door or wall of the house was written “Honarest¯an-eShab¯aneh-ye Musighi” (in English Music Night School). He explains in the interview that he was so delighted to discover that music school; a music school which was very close to his flat. He entered the school, Lotfi says to the journalist. The man who was playing the tar asked him if he knew how to play any musical instrument. The tar player who asked this question and was accompanying the vocalist was Mr. Kamal Mirzaei (b. in Arak, 1939 and a student of Ali MAESTRO NASROLLAH NASEHPOUR 7

Figure 9. The Picture of Maestro Saeed Hormozi (1897–1976). Dedicated to Nasehpour by Hormozi

Akbar Shahnazi). Then Lotfi had replied that he was able to play the tar and he played the tar for them. They had liked Lotfi’s tar, as he remembers during the interview, and the vocalist had encouraged Lotfi to enroll in the class of the great master of tar, i.e. Ostad Ali Akbar Shahnazi. But who was that vocalist? Well, in fact, Nasrollah Nasehpour!

This is how Nasehpour and Lotfi got to know each other and later became close friends. Finally, we add that Lotfi enrolled in Ostad Shahnazi’s class and gradually became the Lotfi that we know, i.e. one of the greatest masters of tar and setar.

In 1972/1973, Shayda Ensemble was established by Mohammad Reza Lotfi and his friends Ali Akbar Shekarchi, Hossein Omoumi, and Nasser Farhangfar in the University of Tehran. Later, Lotfi invited more musicians to join the ensemble. In 1977, Nasehpour sang in the Radio of Iran the Tasnif “hameh shab man akhtar shemoram”, composed by Aref Ghazvini (1882–1934), in Avaz-e-Afshari, as a guest musician, accompanied by the Shayda Ensemble, conducted by Mohammad Reza Lotfi. • Listen to Nasrollah Nasehpour accompanied by Shayda Ensemble After Black Friday (1978), Lotfi and other musicians (i.e. the members of Shayda Ensemble and Aref Ensemble) resigned the National Iranian Radio and Television and in 1978 and with the intellectual supports of Hushang Ebtehaj (poet and musicologist) decided to establish “the Chavoush Cultural and Art Center”, which they did it in 1979. The Chavoush Cultural and Art Center released 12 albums under the names of Chavoush 1–12 and at least one other album, which its singer was Nasehpour. The album was in a memory of Maestro Darvish Khan. Darvish Khan (1872–1926) was a master musician, renowned teacher, and innovative composer of Persian classical music. In this album, released privately in November/December 1983, with its Persian title “Be y¯ad-eDarvish Khan”, Lotfi played the setar, Nasehpour sang the Tasnif, “Ze man neg¯aram”,and Nasser Farhangfar accompanied them on the tonbak. • Listen to the Tasnif Ze man negaram at https://soundcloud.com/nasehpour 8 P. NASEHPOUR

Figure 10. Concert in the Chavoush center, N. Nasehpour (vocals), Bigjekhani (tar), and Bijan Kamkar (tonbak)

• Alternative link for the Tasnif Ze man negaram at Youtube.com/NasrollahNassehpoor It is also important to mention another album that Nasehpour sang, though it was not released by the Chavoush center.

On 22 September 1980, Iraq attacked Iran and invaded some parts of Iran. Nasehpour decided to do something and invite all Iranians to unite against the enemy. He shared his ideas with Hos- sein Alizadeh and they both agreed to release an Azerbaijani music album. Some of the members of Shayda and Aref Ensembles, like Hadi Montazeri (kamancheh), joined the project. They also invited Musa Eskandarpour (Azerbaijani tar player) and Ashiq Imran Heydari (the gopuz player). The poet of the lyrics of the Azerbaijani songs was Iranian-Azerbaijani poet, Mozaﬀar Derafshi. This album was released in April 1981.

Listen to some pieces of the album “The Azerbaijani Songs”: • A¸sig@m m@n (I am in love) • V@t@n (Homeland) • A¸siqlarMusiqisi: Durnalar (Ashiq Music: Cranes) The Chavoush Cultural and Art Center also organized many private music concerts mostly performed in the center. One of those concerts was the concert by Nasrollah Nasehpour and Qolamhos- sein Bigjekhani (1918–1987), the celebrated and great master of tar, accompanied by Bijan Kamkar on the tonbak. They later gave the same concert at the Chang Music Center, another music center established by Mohammad Reza Gorginzadeh (1948–2013). Apparently this was Nasehpour’s ﬁrst concert after the revolution and he had only one Persian vocal music concert before the revolution (circa 1976 at the Cultural Center of the Embassy of France in Tehran) accompanied by Abdolnaghi MAESTRO NASROLLAH NASEHPOUR 9

Figure 11. Concert in Leipzig, Germany, 2008. P. Nasehpour (tonbak), Maestro Nasehpour, and Samawati (tar)

Figure 13. The Album the Azer- Figure 12. The Album in Memory baijani Songs released in 1981 of Darvish Khan released in 1983

Afsharnia on the ney and Pashang Kamkar on the santoor.

• Listen to Dastgah e Nava sung by Nasehpour and accompanied by Bigjekhani on tar and Kianinejad on ney (private recording) Another important task of the Chavoush Cultural and Art Center was to train music students. The center had three vocal music teachers, i.e. Nasrollah Nasehpour, Shahram Nazeri, and Moham- mad Reza Shajarian. In those years, Nasehpour trained many students and some of them became 10 P. NASEHPOUR

Figure 14. Andalibi, Samawati, Nasehpour, Alizadeh, Derakhshani, and Mazhari

good vocalists.

Some other musicians who taught in the Chavoush Cultural and Art Center were Mohammad Reza Lotﬁ, Hossein Alizadeh, Majid Kiani, Parviz Meshkatian, Pashang Kamkar, Nasser Farhang- far, Bijan Kamkar, Ali Akbar Shekarchi, Zeydollah Tolui, Mohammad Jamal Samawati, Farrokh Mazhari, Hadi Montazeri, Mohammad Firouzi, and Abdolnaghi Afsharnia. Note that this list may not be complete.

Nasehpour was a member of the Council of the Chavoush Cultural and Art Center. The other members of the Council included Mohammad Reza Lotﬁ, Hossein Alizadeh and Ali Akbar Shekarchi. Hamid Motebassem was the secretary of the Council.

Since Nasehpour was a bank employee, the Management Committee of the Chavoush Cultural and Art Center had employed him as an accountant of the center as well.

The Chavoush center was most probably the most important and eﬀective music center in the years between 1979 and 1985. In 1985, the Chavoush center was closed, because of some problems. The location of the Chavoush Cultural and Art Center was No. 110, Hoquqi Street in Tehran.

The Chang Music Center, established by Mohammad Reza Gorginzadeh (1948–2013), was also a very important music center in the years between 1979 and 1984. Some of the great teachers of the center were Parviz Mansouri (author and music theorist), Nasrollah Nasehpour (vocalist and master of Radif), Ali Akbar Shekarchi (master of kamancheh), Ataollah Janguk (master of tar and setar and author), Mohammad Reza Gorginzadeh (musician, composer, and author), Imran Heydari (master of Ashiq music and Azerbaijani qopuz), Mahmoud Forsi (pianist), Susan Shakerin (guitarist), Bijan Zelli (guitarist), Kazem Moazen (guitarist), Saeed Otovvat (clarinetist), and Mo- hammad Reza Darvishi (composer and researcher of Persian folk music). Note that this list may MAESTRO NASROLLAH NASEHPOUR 11

Figure 15. Massoudieh, Bigjehkhani, Fakhreddini, Nasehpour, and Darvishi

Figure 16. Concert in Tehran, February 5, 1992. P. Nasehpour, Habil Aliyev (Kaman¸ca),and N. Nasehpour (vocals) not be complete. The Chang Music Center was located in Dameshq Street in Tehran.

• Watch the Concert by Nasrollah Nasehpour, Habil Aliyev, and Peyman Nasehpour

Nasehpour also taught in other places, which we explain in the following: 12 P. NASEHPOUR

• Home: When the Chang Music Center in 1984 and later, the Chavoush Cultural and Art Center in 1985, were closed, Nasehpour said to his colleagues: “Every one of us should open one Chavoush center at home. Though they closed our Chavoush, we will open tens of music schools in our homes”. Nasehpour started teaching in his own house from November 24, 1985, till February 2018, when he became ill and went to Bank Melli Iran Hospital for recovering. After releasing from the BMI Hospital, he was not able to teach music, forever.

• Mashhad: Some devotee students of classical Persian vocal music in Mashhad city requested Maestro Nasehpour to ﬂy every two weeks and teach the students in their houses. Naseh- pour gave lessons for those students for about one and a half year, starting c. April of 1989, till c. September of 1990.

• Farhangkh¯anehin Sari: Ahmad Mohsenpour Ghadikolayi (born in 1946, Ghaemshahr, died in Ghaemshahr, 2016), the manager of Farhangkh¯anehCultural and Artistic Complex in Sari (the center of Mazandaran province), invited a couple of professional musicians to teach in his complex and improve the level of classical Persian music in Sari. Mohsenpour was himself a folk musician and his main specialty was the kamancheh and the lalev¯a(Mazan- darani folk reed). He invited Nasehpour to teach in Sari. Nasehpour taught there for one and a half year but we do not exactly know when he gave vocal music lessons in Mohsen- pour’s complex (probably starting from 1992).

• Maktabkh¯aneh-ye Mirza Abdollah: As we explained in the past passages, the Chavoush center was closed in c. November 1985. When the Chavoush center was about to be shut down, in 1985, first Lotfi immigrated to Italy and finally to the USA and stayed abroad for about 8 years and some months and was an active musician there. In c. December 1993, he returned back to Iran. His main purpose for coming back to Iran was to start his musical activities in Tehran, similar to what he was doing during his activities in the Chavoush Cultural and Art Center. One of his tasks was to establish a music school such that some masters of music can teach Persian music mainly based on the chest-to-chest method. On Tuesday, July 12, 1994, Lotfi came to Nasehpour’s house to invite him to teach in his new music school. He also invited the author to teach the tonbak in Maktabkh¯aneh-ye Mirza Abdollah, the name that Lotfi gave to the school. Maktabkh¯aneh-ye Mirza Abdollah was established in August 1994. It was located in the same place that the Chavoush center was, but one floor upper.

Lotfi also had the idea to establish a music ensemble similar to Shayda Ensemble. Lotfi invited almost all members of Shayda Ensemble and some of them such as Darvish Reza Monazzami and Abdolnaghi Afsharnia joined the new Ensemble, called later by Lotfi as Hamnav¯az¯an-eShayda Ensemble. He also invited some young musicians to join the En- semble. The author collaborated with Lotfi in that Ensemble for a while. Hamnav¯az¯an-e Shayda Ensemble started to practice in September 1994. The first album that Hamnav¯az¯an- e Shayda Ensemble recorded in September 1995, was a double-CD album recorded in the memory of Ostad Nour Ali Khan Boroumand (1905–1977), who was one of the foremost authorities on the performance and history of Persian classical music in the 20th century. In this album, Nasehpour sang two tasnifs, “Shenidam Sh¯ahiva M¯ahi”and “Che Shur h¯a”. This album was released in Europe and the USA, 1996. MAESTRO NASROLLAH NASEHPOUR 13

Figure 17. The Respect Ceremonies for Maestro Abdollah Davami, Held in 2015, Tafresh

– Listen to the Tasnif Che Shurh¯aby Nasehpour and Hamnav¯az¯an-eShayda Ensemble

Here is the list of all musicians who performed in the Tasnif Che Shurh¯a:Nasrollah Naseh- pour (vocals), Mohammad Reza Lotﬁ (tar and setar), Abdolnaghi Afsharnia (ney), Darvish Reza Monazzami (kamancheh), Peyman Nasehpour (tonbak), Mohammad Jamal Samawati (tar), Massoud Sha’¯ari(setar), Ebrahim Naghdian (kamancheh), Farrokh Mazhari (Bass Tar), and Pejman Taheri (santoor).

Nasehpour also toured with Hamnav¯az¯an-eShayda Ensemble in Europe, 1996.

– Listen to the Concert by Hamnav¯az¯an-eShayda Ensemble

• Tehran University of Art: The Music Department of Tehran University of Art, located in Karaj city, invited Nasrollah Nasehpour to teach Tasnif and “Jav¯ab-e-Av¯az”for¯ the music students. Nasehpour taught there for about ten years starting from September 2003 till February 2014. Nasehpour also collaborated with Hossein Alizadeh in the album “No B¯ang-eKohan”, edited by Khosro Soltani. The album, based on the gushehs of Dastg¯ah-eShur and released by Mahoor Institute of Culture and Art in 1990, was conducted by Hossein Alizadeh. Other vocalists who sang in the same album were Kaveh Deylami, Afsaneh Rasaei, and Jahangir Abujaladi (the ﬁrst members of a vocal ensemble known as Ham¯av¯ay¯amEnsemble).

Nasehpour has had some activities in Iran House of Music and Iranian Artists Forum. Iran House of Music (in Persian Kh¯aneh-ye Musighi-ye Iran) is an NGO and was established on Sunday, August 14 P. NASEHPOUR

6, 2000. Nasehpour has been active in the House since 2003 or even sooner. For some terms, he has been a member of the Board of Directors and for at least one term, he has been the Chairman of the Board. When he was the Chairman of the Board, he organized the respect ceremonies for the late Maestro Mahmoud Karimi performed in Vahdat Hall, 2004.

He has been a member of the Board of Directors for the Committee for Vocalists of Persian Classical Music at Iran House of Music and the Chairman of the same Board for a couple of terms.

When he was the Chairman of the Board of Directors at Iran House of Music, Nasehpour was invited to participate in the Meetings of the Board of the Directors of Iranian Artists Forum (in Persian Kh¯aneh-ye Honarmand¯an-eIran). He has been a Consultant to the Chief Executive Oﬃcer (CEO) of the Iranian Artists Forum for some years as well.

Maestro Nasehpour believes that music is a dynamic phenomenon. Of course, Ostad Abdollah Davami’s vocal Radif repertoire is one of the best Radifs, created in the tradition of Persian music. This is right that Radif must be protected and promoted but this should not stop our creativity in music. Radif must be analyzed and then developed by knowledgeable experts of Persian classical music. According to this belief, Nasehpour has added some new gushehs to the Radif. One of those gushehs is the gusheh so-called Nowruz-e Saba (Gusheh-ye Nowruz-e Saba):

• Listen to Nowruz-e Saba by Maestro Nasrollah Nasehpour

Nasehpour performed Nowruz-e-Saba after the lecture that he had given for the respect ceremonies for Ostad Abdollah Davami, held in Tafresh, on Thursday, May 7, 2015. The respect ceremonies were organized by Elham Fazeli, the ney player and alumni of the Music Department of the University of Tehran. For the ceremonies, Maestro Dariush Talai (master of the tar, setar, and Radif and a student of Ali Akbar Shahnazi, Nour Ali Boroumand, Yousef Forutan, Saeed Hor- mozi, and Abdollah Davami) was also invited to give a lecture-demonstration about Ostad Davami. Nasehpour and Talai performed in Shur and M¯ahur dastg¯ahson the stage for the audiences.

• Nasehpour and Talai perform in the respect ceremonies for Ostad Abdollah Davami

Nasehpour is not a traditionalist, but he believes that one has the ability to innovate in Persian music if the one has enough knowledge in the ﬁeld. What we explained in the last lines of the paragraph has been one of his motivations to research on old (i.e. Qajar period) and ancient (i.e. pre-Safavi period) music of Persia. Now, this explains why Nasehpour did a deep research on the ancient music of Persia for 10 years and edited a book on the theory of ancient Persian music by Allame Ghotb al-Din Shirazi and wrote an annotation for that. Based on this research, Nasehpour had a lecture with the title “Traveling in Persian Music: Yesterday and Today”, held in Auditorium of Carpet Museum in Tehran, on Monday, February 12, 2001.

For a musician, in particular, for a vocalist, it is very important to learn poetry and literature. Nasehpour learned Persian and Azerbaijani poetry and literature both by himself and other masters of music like Ostad Abdollah Davami. Nasehpour was used to going to the house of Hushang Ebtehaj for about one year and a half starting from 1988 and learning prosody (in Persian ’aruz) from him. He also studied the books on prosody related to Persian poems. One of Nasehpour’s favorite books on this topic is the book with the title “Vazn-e She’r-e F¯arsi”(Persian Poetic Meter) written by Parviz Natel-Khanlari (1914–1990). MAESTRO NASROLLAH NASEHPOUR 15

Figure 18. A. Fardi, M.R. Shaﬁei Kadkani, H. Ebtehaj, M.H. Shahriar, and N. Nasehpour

In 2006, Maestro Nasehpour was invited by Prof. Dr. Gretel Schw¨orer-Kohl(Professor of ethnomusicology) to give a lecture in the Music Department at the Martin Luther University of Halle- Wittenberg and the title of the lecture was “The Relationship between Poetry and Music”. The translator of the lecture from Persian into German was Pooyan Nasehpour.

Remark. The information of this biography is based on a personal interview with Maestro Naseh- pour and his wife, Mrs. Vejahat Toﬁghi.

About the Nasehpour Family • Aqa S¸@kur (Nasrollah’s father) was born in Ardabil, Azerbaijani area of Iran, 1902. He was a shopkeeper and an amateur garmon player. He passed away in Tehran, 1970. • Huriy@ Xanım (Nasrollah’s mother) was born in Ardabil, 1920. She was a housewife and an amateur qaval player. She passed away in Tehran, 1974. • Vejahat Tofighi (Ostad Nasrollah Nasehpour’s wife) was born on Wednesday, September 8, 1948, in Gorgan city, Iran. Mohammad Reza Lotfi introduced Vejahat to Nasehpour. Vejahat’s father and Lotfi’s father were close friends in Gorgan. In October 1971, Nasehpour and Lotfi went to Gorgan for marriage offer and on Thursday, June 15, 1972, Nasrollah and Vejahat married. When Vejahat married Nasrollah, she moved to Tehran. Mrs. Vejahat Tofighi remembers that in the Spring of 1972, together with Ostad Nasehpour, they had gone to the house of Ostad Saeed Hormozi to see him. Nasehpour had wanted to introduce Vejahat to Maestro Hormozi when she was the fiance of Nasrollah. Ostad Hormozi played a piece in Av¯az-e-Dashti¯ on setar for Nasehpour and his fiance, as a present for their upcoming marriage ceremonies. • Peyman, hand drummer and mathematician is Ostad Nasehpour’s first son. He was born in Bank Melli Iran Hospital, Tehran, 1974. Currently, he lives in Tehran and Golpayegan. • Pooyan, a researcher of Qajar music and santoor player, is Ostad Nasehpour’s second son. He was born in Tehran, 1975. Currently, he lives in Germany. • Parham, a researcher of Persian classical music and Persian tar, setar, and kamancheh player, is Ostad Nasehpour’s third son. He was born in Tehran, 1976. Currently, he lives in Tehran. 16 P. NASEHPOUR

Figure 19. Nasrollah Nasehpour, Ali Salimi (composer and master of Azerbaijani tar), and Vejahat Toﬁghi

Maestro Abdollah Davami (1891–1981), the Founder of Persian Vocal Radif Repertoire The founder of Persian vocal Radif repertoire and the great master of tasnif and tonbak, Ostad Abdollah Davami was born in the village “Ta” of Tafresh city, Iran, 1891. In traditional schools in Tafresh, he learned elementary knowledge such as how to write and read the Persian language. When he was a child, with his family, he moved to Tehran and continued his studies. In Tarbiat School, he was a classmate of Rokn al-Din Khan Mokhtari (1887–1970). After finishing his studies, he worked in Tehran’s Post Office for a while and then he worked in Tehran’s Finance Office till he retired.

One day, he had gone to a gathering in the house of Majd-al-Mamalek that he sang for the at- tendees, among them Ali Khan Nayeb-al-Saltaneh. In that gathering, Ali Khan encouraged him to learn Persian vocal music and he was the young Davami’s ﬁrst teacher. Davami learned the Radif, in particular, Dastg¯ah-e R¯astpanjg¯ahfrom Ali Khan. According to Davami, Ali Khan Nayeb-al- Saltaneh was the only vocalist who knew how to sing the R¯astpanjg¯ahin those years.

In order to broaden his knowledge in Radif, Davami learned diﬀerent points from other great masters of his time such as Hossein Khan (master of kamancheh), Darvish Khan (master of the tar and setar and composer), Malek-al-Zakerin (master vocalist), and Mirza Abdollah (master of the setar). He also attended in the class of Mirza Hosseingholi (1851–1915) for learning Mirza’s Radif.

For learning the tasnif and the tonbak, Davami was a student of important masters of his time such as Sama’ Hozur (master of santoor, tasnif, and tonbak), and Sama’ Hozur’s sister, “Zivar Sul- tan” entitled to “Andalib al-Saltaneh” (master of santoor and vocal music), Haji Khan, and Agha MAESTRO NASROLLAH NASEHPOUR 17

Figure 20. Maestro Abdollah Davami (1891–1981)

Jan.

In March 1914, Abdollah Khan Davami, Abolhasan Khan Eqbal Azar (master vocalist), Darvish Khan (master of tar), Seyed Hossein Taherzadeh (master vocalist), and Bagher Khan Rameshgar (master of kamancheh) went to Tbilisi to record Persian music on gramophone disks. They also had a couple of concerts in Tbilisi, the ﬁrst one performed on Thursday, March 26, 1914.

When Rokn al-Din Khan Mokhtari was freed, “the Center for Fine Arts” decided to open a school for music and wanted Mokhtari to be the manager of the school. After the establishment of the school, Mokhtari wanted Davami to teach vocal music there. Except him, Ostad Abolhassan Khan Saba and Ostad Ali Akbar Khan Shahnazi were teaching at the school. In this school, some students were introduced to him to learn vocal music from him. The names of his students in that school were Mr. Mahmoud Karimi, Ms. Fakhereh Saba, Ms. Marziyeh, Ms. Khatereh Parvaneh, Ms. Elaheh, and Ms. Homa. Among them, only Mr. Karimi and Ms. Marziyeh were more interested in the class, as Davami explained once. 18 P. NASEHPOUR

Here we need to explain that older masters of music and Davami had three levels for Radif, Elementary Radif Course, Intermediate Radif Course, and Master Radif Course and unfortunately, none of those students reached to the level of Master Radif Course. On the other hand, since it was not possible for Davami to continue teaching at this school anymore, he suggested them to invite Mr. Karimi to teach instead of him at the school and he accepted some students to teach the Radif in his own house privately. Nasehpour was one of the rare students of Davami who learned the master course, according to a certiﬁcate that Davami gave to Nasehpour.

Many famous master musicians including Nour Ali Khan Boroumand and Haj Agha Mohammad Mojarrad Irani learned some of the tasnifs from him, as Davami said once.

He passed away in Tehran, on Saturday, January 10, 1981.

• Listen to Davami singing the Tasnif “M¯adar e Khalvat be Ruy at soundcloud.com/nasehpour

Remark. The information of Davami’s biography is based on the resources [10, p. 10] and [27, p. 201] as well as a personal interview with Maestro Nasehpour. Acknowledgments. The author wishes to thank his parents and brothers for reviewing and helping the author to improve the text. He also wishes to thank Diarmuid Pigott, an Australian author and poet for his editorial points. He is, as well, grateful to Jahanshah Saremi (the tar player) and Shahram Saremi (the kamancheh player) who gave the pictures in the Figure 12 and the Figure 13 to the author. He is also grateful to Bahram Jamali (the tar player and researcher in Persian music) for giving the video clip of the concert by Nasehpour, Aliyev, and the author. RADIF IS THE KERNEL OF PERSIAN ART MUSIC

– MAESTRO NASROLLAH NASEHPOUR

MAESTRO NASROLLAH NASEHPOUR AND MAESTRO ABDOLLAH DAVAMI 20 P. NASEHPOUR

Scholion (1) The pieces that constitute the repertoire of Persian traditional music are collectively called the Radif [8, p. 21]. Old masters of Persian music consider three levels for the Radif, known as Elementary Radif, Intermediate Radif, and Master Radif. Master Radif is the most complicated and difficult version of Davami’s Radif in which the gushehs are included with different forms in the Radif [10, p. 13]. (2) Tasnif is a composed piece, to be performed by a vocalist or several vocalists accompanied by instrumentalists, which can be placed anywhere in a performance. Tasnif is of two kinds. The first kind is sung in a Gusheh of Radif e.g. Tasnif-e Rak that is sung in the Rak or Tasnif-e Zabol that is sung in the Zabol. Note that Rak and Zabol are Gushehs of Radif. The other kind is sung in different Gushehs of Radif. Most of the traditional tasnifs are in 6 beats rhythm cycles and almost always in slow tempos [17]. (3) We need to clarify that in different books, websites, and media, we have seen different romanizations for the family name of the Maestro Nasehpour and they include Nasehpour, Nassehpour, Nasehpoor, Nassehpoor, and Nasehpur! (4) “Un” in Azerbaijani language means flour [23, p. 68] and “¸ci”is a suffix for a profession [7]. So, Un¸ciis translated into flour seller. “Meydan” means area or square [23, p. 331]. “Un¸ci Meydan” is one of the six old areas of Ardabil. The names of other old areas of Ardabil are “Çe¸sm@ ba¸si”, “S¸eyx qabaqi”, “Pir Abdülm@lik”, “U¸cdükan”,¨ and finally, “Tabar” (According to a personal interview with Nasrollah Nasehpour. Also check [5]). (5) Garmon is a kind of button accordion. Azerbaijani garmon (spelled in Azerbaijani language as qarmon or qarman [23, p. 267]) has a right-hand piano keyboard but a little smaller and has the left-hand round-button keyboard [14]. (6) Qaval, also spelled as ghaval, is a medium-sized Azerbaijani frame drum, with jingles incor- porated in its frame [21, p. 349]. (7) Aqa and Xanım mean Mr. [7] and Mrs. [23, p. 170], respectively. (8) Ma¸sadi(also romanized as Mashhadi) is a person who has gone to the pilgrimage of Imam Reza’s Shrine (in Mashhad, Khorasan, Iran) [7]. (9) For more on bayramlar v@ toylar, refer to the book [6]. (10) For more on mu˘gams or a¸siqlarmusic, refer to the article [1]. (11) Safavi High School, located in the S¸ah Ba˘giarea of Ardabil, constructed by German archi- tectures in the years between 1936 and 1938, was one of the best high schools in those years of Iran [11]. Maestro Nasehpour remembered some of his teachers in that school. We list their names here: Naser Ghaffarzadegan (manager), Ahmad Pousti (mathematics teacher), Rezagholi Khalafi (physics teacher), Yousef Behjat Khamehyar (poet and teacher of Persian literature), and Kazem Panahabadi (teacher of French language and literature). (12) The Mercantile Bank of Iran and Holland, established in Tehran, on March 19, 1959 [22, p. 1054], together with 10 other banks merged in Tejarat Bank on December 20, 1979 [29]. (13) Gusheh literally means a piece [7]. Roughly speaking, a collection of some specific pieces of music, under a special order, arranged traditionally, configures a dastg¯ah.Many believe that Radif has the 7 “dastg¯ah”scalled Shur, M¯ahur, Hom¯ayoun, Nav¯a,R¯astpanjg¯ah,Chah¯arg¯ah, and Seg¯ahand 5 “¯av¯az”es(sub-“dastg¯ah”s)called Bay¯at-eTork, Abu At¯a,Dashti, Afsh¯ari, and Bay¯at-eEsfah¯an[19]. Hormoz Farhat calls them 12 “dastg¯ah”s[8]. Nasehpour believes that Bay¯at-e Kord is also an ¯av¯azin the Radif. For more on Radif, also refer to [32, 33]. (14) Lotfi’s book [10] has been cited in the references [3, 12, 20]. (15) Iranian Labour News Agency is a Tehran-based Iranian news agency. MAESTRO NASROLLAH NASEHPOUR 21

(16) Black Friday is the name given to 8 September 1978 (17 Shahrivar 1357 in the Iranian calen- dar) because of the shootings in Jaleh Square in Tehran, Iran. The deaths were described as the pivotal event in the Iranian Revolution that ended any “hope for compromise” between the protest movement and regime of the Mohammad Reza Shah. (17) Amir Hushang Ebtehaj, with the pen name of H. E. Sayeh, born in Rasht, Iran, on February 26, 1928, is an eminent Iranian poet. (18) Maestro Nasser Farhangfar (1947–1997) was a prominent tonbak player. The author of this article was a tonbak student of Nasser Farhangfar till the Chavoush Center was closed in 1985. Later, Farhangfar taught in his own house, and the author and many other students continued learning the tonbak there. (19) Jamshid Andalibi, a ney player, was a student of Nasrollah Nasehpour and learned Ostad Abdollah Davami’s vocal Radif repertoire before the 1979 Revolution. (20) Mohammad Reza Darvishi was the teacher of Child Music Course (Carl Orff Method) and Peyman Nasehpour and his brothers Pooyan and Parham were all in the same course, given for the first time in Iran, 1983. (21) Jav¯abis an Arabic word and it is also used in Persian and in both languages, it means “answer”. Av¯azis¯ a Persian word and it has several meanings such as song, singing, vocal, and sound. The phrase Jav¯ab-e-Av¯azcan¯ be translated as “the answer to the vocal”. In Persian classical music, when a vocalist sings, the vocalist is accompanied by an instrumentalist or some musicians and the instrumentalist (or the musicians) needs (have) usually to repeat and mimic the melody of the singer. In other words, the instrumentalist needs to answer the vocalist’s question. Sometimes the instrumentalists answer a bit longer or even perform a rhythmic piece to help the vocalist to rest in the long vocal performances. (22) Mozaffar Derafshi was an Iranian-Azerbaijani poet. He was born in Tabriz, Iran, 1924 and was a teacher in Danesh school of Tabriz. He passed away on Thursday, February 5, 2015 [4]. (23) The educational curriculum outlined by Plato in The Republic (Book VII), influenced the formation of the “trivium” and “quadrivium” in the ancient times [2]. In such education, seven major subject areas, also known as the seven liberal arts, were taken into consideration, which consisted of grammar, rhetoric, and logic (known in Roman times as the “trivium”) and arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music (referred to as the “quadrivium” [25]). The tradition of four mathematical sciences, i.e. quadrivium, can be seen in different treatises written by some Persian and non-Persian scholars, for example the book [26] written by Shirazi (Annotated by N. Nasehpour [16]). (24) For more on prosody and the relationship between vocal music and poetry, refer to the article [30]. (25) Rokn al-Din Khan Mokhtari (1887–1970) was arrested in c. 1941 and he was freed 5 years later c. 1946 [15]. (26) “Markaz-e hefz va esh¯a’eh”[9] can be translated into English as “Center for protection and promotion of music”. This center was established in 1968 by Dariush Safvat (1928–2013).

References [1] Albright, C.F.: The Azerbaijani Ashiq¯ and his performance of a d¯ast¯an, 9(4) (1976), Journal of Iranian Studies, 220–247. [2] Avery, J.: Plato’s Republic in the core curriculum: multiculturalism and the canon debate, The Journal of General Education, 44(4) (1995), 234–255. [3] Babiracki, C.M., Nettl, B., Internal Interrelationships in Persian Classical Music: The Dastgah of Shur in Eighteen Radifs, Asian Music, 19(1) (1987), 46–98. [4] Baghban-Karimi, M.R.: Ashn¯ayib¯a“Mozaﬀar¯ Derafshi” sh¯a’er-et¯azehdar-gozashteh-ye Azarb¯aij¯an,2015.¯ [ON- LINE] Available at: http://durnanews.ir/?p=11642. [Accessed 26 August 2018]. 22 P. NASEHPOUR

[5] Bozorgnia, Z.: Faz¯ah¯aye Shahri va Me’m¯ariye Ardabil, Me’mar Quarterly, 26, 2004. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.zohreh-bozorgnia.com/fa/index.php/fazahayeshahrivamemarieardabil [Accessed 1 September 2018]. [6] Breyley, G.J., Fatemi, S.: Iranian Music and Popular Entertainment, Routledge, London, 2016. [7] Dehkhoda, A.A.: Loghat N¯ameh-ye Bozorg-e Dehkhoda, Tehran University Press, Tehran, 1931. [8] Farhat, H.: The Dastg¯ahConcept in Persian Music, Cambridge Studies in Ethnomusicology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004. [9] ILNA: Markaz-e hefz va esh¯a’eh did-e kheili h¯a r¯a taghyir d¯ad, 2011. [ONLINE] Available at: http://old.alef.ir/vdcfexdytw6dm0a.igiw.html. [Accessed 25 August 2018]. [10] Lotfi, M.R.: Musique Vocale d’Iran: Radif du MaˆıtreAbdollah Davami (Dastgah Shur), with two gramophone disks (vocals of Nasrollah Nasehpour Accompanied on Tar by Mohammad Reza Lotfi), Calligraphy on the Cover of the Book by Hossein Mirkhani, the Graphics on the Cover of the Book by Reza Derakhshani, Tehran’s Gutenberg Publications, Tehran, 1976. [11] Makareminia, A.: Dabirest¯an-eSafavi, 2018. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.makareminia.ir/?p=1090. [Accessed 24 August 2018]. [12] Massoudieh, M.T.: Die Musikforschung in Iran: Eine bibliographische Ubersicht¨ (Fortsetzung), 52(2) (1980), 79–83. [13] Mojarrad, N.: Bargi az B¯agh:Negareshi be yek gharn musighi dar Iran, Mojarrad Publications, Tehran, 2002. [14]N @c@fzad@, A.I.O.:˙ Çal˘gıAl@tl@rimiz, Min bir mahnı, Bakı, 128 p., 2004. [15] Najmi, N.: Bazigaran-e Siyasi-ye Asr-e- Reza Shahi va Mohammad Reza Shahi, Einstein Publications, Tehran, 1994. [16] Nasehpour, N.: An Annotation for a Treatise on Music by Allame Ghotb al-Din Shirazi: Dorrat al-Taj Le-qerrat al-Dabbaj, in the Persian language, Iranian Academy of the Arts Publishing, Tehran, 2008. [17] Nasehpour, P.: Rhythmic forms of Persian art music, 2006. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.rhythmweb.com/persia/forms.htm. [Accessed 30 August 2018]. [18] Natel-Khanlari, P.: Vazn-e She’r-e Farsi, University of Tehran Press, Tehran, 1966. [19] Nettl, B.: Musical values and social values: symbols in Iran, Asian Music, 12(1), Symposium on Art Musics in Muslim Nations (1980), 129–148. [20] Nooshin, L.: Iranian Classical Music, Routledge, London, 2015. [21] Pahlavan, K.: Daf va D¯ayere, Arvan Publications, Tehran, 960 p., 2014. [22] Paxton, J.: The Statesman’s Year-Book: Statistical and Historical Annual of the States of the World for the Year 1972–1973, The Macmillan Press Ltd, London, 1972. [23] Peyfun, M.: Farhang-e Azarb¯aij¯ani–F¯arsi(Azerbaijani–Persian¯ Dictionary), D¯aneshp¯ayeh Publication, Tehran, 1983. [24] Pourghannad, S.: Bozorgd¯asht Mahmoud Karimi, 2004. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.harmonytalk.com/id/553. [Accessed 27 August 2018]. [25] Raschke, C.: Humanities, Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions, Edited by Anne L. C. Runehov, and Lluis Oviedo, Founding Editor: Nina P. Azari, Springer, Dordrecht, 2013. [26] Shirazi, A.G.: A Treatise on Music, Dorrat al-Taj Le-qerrat al-Dabbaj, edited and annotated by Nasrollah Nasehpour (in the Persian language), Iranian Academy of the Arts Publishing, Tehran, 2008. [27] Shushinski, F.: T¯arikh-eMusighi-ye Azarb¯aij¯an,translated¯ from Azerbaijani into Persian by Siroos Lotfi, Donya- ye-no Publication, Tehran, 2015. [28] Talai, D.: A New Approach to the Theory of Persian Art Music: The Radif and the Modal System, Mahoor Cultural-Artistic Institute Publications, Tehran, 1993. [29] Tejarat Bank: Annual Report 2007–2008, 2018. [ONLINE] Available at: Annual Report 2007–2008 - English language. [Accessed 24 August 2018]. [30] Tsuge, G.: Aspects of the Avâzinˆ Persian music, Ethnomusicology, 14(2) (1970), 205–227. [31] Yar-Shater, E.: Encyclopedia Iranica, Columbia University, New York, 2010. [32] Zonis, E.: Contemporary Art Music in Persia, The Musical Quarterly, 51(4) (1965), 636–648. [33] Zonis, E.: Classical Persian Music, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1973.