Music of Iran - Persian Classical Music

Persian Classical Music

Persian classical music goes back a long way. Musicians like Barbad were legendary in the empire of the Sassanid era.

Until the early 20th century, musiqi-e assil was heard almost entirely at the royal courts of the monarchy. After the elitist Qajar dynasty ended in 1925, the Pahlavi dynasty funded and supported traditional Iranian music "Musiqi-e assil" and made it available to the people to enjoy for the next few decades, especially after cassettes were introduced in the 1960s. During the Pahlavi Dynasty from 1925 to 1979, Iran produced the Classic / Dastgahi singing stars Adib, Badie zadeh, Banan, Marzeyeh, Hoseyn Ghawami, Taj esfahani, and instrumentalists like Majid Kiani, Shahnazi, Abolhasan Saba, Asghar Bahari, Ahmad Ebadi, Hossein Tehrani, Faramarz Payvar, Ali Tadjvidi, Jalil Shahnaz and Hassan Kassai.

The years after the 1979 revolution emerged Islamic Republic approved stars like Parviz Meshkatian, Sodeyf Rambod, Hatam Askari Farahani, Jamshid Andalibi, Kayhan Kalhor, Mohammad Reza Lotfi, Hossein Alizadeh, Dariush Talai, Mohammad-Reza Shajarian, and Shahram Nazeri. The renaissance brought popularity to the genre. Even though the revolution era coincided with the music's popularity, music and Islam have not always meshed well, and many Iranian conservatives disliked even the simple melodies and lyrics of classical music. Women were banned from singing as soloists for male audience, though they were allowed to continue performing as soloists for female audience, as instrumentalists and in chorus.

Most notable living Iranian classical vocalists are: Sodeyf, Shajarian, Shahram Nazeri . Among relatively new classical vocalists we can name: Mohsen Keramati, Ali Jahandar, Homayoun Shajarian, Hamid Reza Nourbakhsh and Iraj Bastami.

More notable Iranian progressive musicians whom at their own time have created modern and contemporary Persian classical based theories and styles include the late Ostad Parviz Yahaghi, the late Ostad Asadollah Malek, the late Ostad Mohammad Baharloo, the late Ostad Alinaghi Vaziri, the late Ostad Varzandeh, the late Ostad Hossein Tehrani, Ostad Faramarz Payvar and Ostad Bahman Rajabi who have impacted and influenced the classical Iranian traditions with their respective innovative musical approaches.

Notable bands:

• Hamavayan Ensemble
• Manoochehr Sadeghi: Santur
• Aref Ensemble
• Zoufonoun Ensemble
• National music ensemble (Shahram Nazeri's group)

• Dastan ensemble: winner of Grand Prix du Disque for World Music
• Shams ensemble
• Kamkars ensemble
• Shakila's group: winner of Persian Academy Awards International
• Chemirani ensemble
• Lian ensemble
• Axiom of Choice band
• Chakavak Ensemble
• Bijan Vakili and Mehrbanou Goudarzi group
• Radif ensemble
• Nour ensemble
• Afsaneh music and dance group