Dastgāh

Template:Short description Template:Italics title Template:Culture of Iran Dastgāh (Template:IPAc-en; Template:Langx, Classical: , Iran: ) is the standard musical system in Persian art music, standardised in the 19th century following the transition of Persian music from the Maqam modal system.

A Template:Transliteration consists of a collection of musical melodies, Template:Transliteration. In a song played in a given Template:Transliteration, a musician starts with an introductory Template:Transliteration, and then meanders through various different Template:Transliteration, evoking different moods. Many Template:Transliteration in a given Template:Transliteration are related to an equivalent musical mode in Western music.

For example, most Template:Transliteration in Dastgāh-e Māhur correspond to the Ionian mode in the Major scale, whilst most Template:Transliteration in Dastgāh-e Shur correspond to the Phrygian mode.

In spite of 50 or more extant Template:Transliteration, 12 are most commonly played, with Dastgāh-e Šur and Dastgāh-e Māhur being referred to as the mothers of all Template:Transliteration.

Summary

Each Template:Transliteration consists of seven basic notes, plus several variable notes used for ornamentation and modulation. Each Template:Transliteration is a certain modal variety subject to a course of development (Template:Transliteration) that is determined by the pre-established order of sequences, and revolves around 365 central core melodies known as Template:Transliterations (each of these melodies being a Template:Transliteration), which musicians come to know through experience and absorption. This process of centonization is personal, and it is a tradition of great subtlety and depth. The full collection of Template:Transliterations in all Template:Transliterations is referred to as the radif. During the meeting of The Inter-governmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Heritage of the United Nations, held between 28 September – 2 October 2009 in Abu Dhabi, radifs were officially registered on the UNESCO List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The system of twelve Template:Transliterations and Template:Transliterations has remained nearly the same as it was codified by the music masters of the nineteenth century, in particular Mîrzā Abdollāh Farāhāni (1843–1918). No new Template:Transliteration or large Template:Transliteration has been devised since that codification. When in the modern times an Template:Transliteration or a Template:Transliteration has been developed, it has almost always been through borrowings from the extant Template:Transliterations and Template:Transliterations, rather than through unqualified invention. From this remarkable stability one may infer that the system must have achieved "canonical" status in Iran.

Terminology

The term Template:Transliteration has often been compared to the musical mode in Western musicology, but this is inaccurate. A Template:Transliteration is usually the name of the initial mode of a piece, which the music returns to—and moreover, a Template:Transliteration identifies a group of modes grouped according to tradition. In short, a Template:Transliteration is both the collective title of a grouping of modes and the initial mode of each group.

According to musicians themselves, the etymology of the term Template:Transliteration is associated with "the position (Template:Transliteration) of the hand (Template:Transliteration) [on the neck of the instrument]". The Persian term Template:Transliteration can be translated as "system", and Template:Transliteration is then "first and foremost a collection of discrete and heterogeneous elements organized into a hierarchy that is entirely coherent though nevertheless flexible."

In conventional classifications of Persian music, Abū ʿAṭā, Dashti, Afshāri, and Bayāt-e Tork are considered sub-classes of Šur Template:Transliteration. Likewise, Bayāt-e Esfahān is a sub-class of Homāyun, reducing the number of principal Template:Transliteration to a total of seven. A sub-class in the conventional system is referred to as Template:Transliteration.

Distinguished pitches

File:U+1D1EA.svg

Koron (half flat) sign

A Template:Transliteration is more than a set of notes, and one component of the additional structure making up each Template:Transliteration is which pitches are singled out for various musical functions.

Examples include:

Finalis

It's so named because it usually functions as the goal or destination tone that melodic cadences end on when they have a conclusory feel. This is also sometimes referred to as "tonic" but some authors avoid that usage because "tonic" is associated with Western tonality.

Āghāz ('beginning')

It's the pitch on which an improvisation in a Template:Transliteration usually begins. In some Template:Transliteration it is different from the finalis while in others it is the same pitch.

Ist ('stop')

It's a pitch other than the finalis which often serves as the ending note for phrases other than final cadences

Shāhed ('witness')

It's a particularly prominent pitch.

Moteghayyer ('changeable')

It's a variable note – one that consistently appears as two distinct pitches, which can be used alternately in different contexts or at the performer's discretion.

The Seven Dastgahs

File:Dastgah chahargah.png

Chahargah

File:Dastgah homayoun.png

Homayoun

File:Dastgah segah.png

Segah

File:BAYĀT-E TORK 02.wav

Bayat-e Tork (audio file played on Santur.

File:Segah Mode.wav

Segah (audio file played on Santur.

File:Nava Mode.wav

Nava (audio file played on Santur.

File:Homayoun Mode.wav

Homayun (audio file played on Santur.

File:Chahargah Mode.wav

Chahargah (audio file played on Santur.

File:Mahoor Mode.wav

Mahur (audio file played on Santur.

File:Rastpanjgah Mode.wav

Rast-Panjgah (audio file played on Santur.

Most scholars divide the traditional Persian art music to seven Template:Transliterations. Others divide them into 12 Template:Transliterations by counting Abu Ata, Dashti, Afshari, Bayat-e Kord and Bayat-e Esfahan as separate Template:Transliterations rather than subcategories of other Template:Transliterations.

Those who categorize the traditional Persian art music into seven Template:Transliteration often also list seven Template:Transliteration (Template:Langx, which means songs) in conjunction with these Template:Transliterations.

The following is a list of the seven Template:Transliterations and seven Template:Transliterationes:

Common Dastgah and Avaz

There are listed in order as per the radif (music) of Mirza Abdollah.

Flats are shown with a ׳♭׳. Koron (half flats) are shown with a ׳p׳.

• Shur شور (C^a D^f Ep F G A/Ap^m B♭ C)
  • Bayat-e-tork بیات ترک (C^a,i D Ep F^f,ŝ G A B♭ C)
  • Dashti دشتی (C D^f E♭ F^a G A/Ap^m,ŝ B♭ C)
  • Abu-ata ابوعطا (C D^f Eb^a,i F G^a,ŝ Ap B♭/Bp C)
  • Afshari افشاری (C^f D E♭ⁱ F G^a,ŝ Ap/A^m B♭ C)
• Segah سه‌گاه (C D/Dp Ep^a,f,ŝ F G Ap B♭ C)
• Nava نوا (C D Epⁱ F^a G^f A B♭ C)
• Homayun همایون (C D E♭^a Fⁱ G^f Ap^ŝ B C)
  • Bayat-e-Esfahan (also called simply Esfahan) اصفهان (C D Epⁱ F♯ G^a,f,ŝ A B♭ C)
• Chahargah چهارگاه (C^f Dp E F G Ap^a B C)
• Mahur ماهور (C^a,f D^ŝ E F G A B C)
• Rast-Panjgah راست‌ پنجگاه (C D E F^a,f G A B♭ C)

Less common are:

• Bayat-e-kord (C D E♭ F G Ap B♭ C) (Sometimes included as an Avaz under Shur)
• Shushtar (Sometimes included as an Avaz under Homayun, but usually just as a gushe)

Note that in some cases the sub-classes (Template:Transliterations) are counted as individual Template:Transliterations, yet this contradicts technicalities in Iranian music.

See also

• Dastgah music
• Mugam
• Persian traditional music
• Persian maqam

Further reading

• Hormoz Farhat, The Dastgāh Concept in Persian Music (Cambridge University Press, 1990). Template:ISBN, Template:ISBN (first paperback edition, 2004). For a review of this book see: Stephen Blum, Ethnomusicology, Vol. 36, No. 3, Special Issue: Music and the Public Interest, pp. 422–425 (1992): JSTOR.
• Ella Zonis, Classical Persian Music: An Introduction (Harvard University Press, 1973)
• Lloyd Clifton Miller. 1995. Persian Music: A Study of Form and Content of Persian Avaz, Dastgah & Radif Dissertation. University of Utah.
• Bruno Nettl, The Radif of Persian Music: Studies of Structure and Cultural Context (Elephant & Cat, Champaign, 1987)
• Ella Zonis, Contemporary Art Music in Persia, The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 51, No. 4, pp. 636–648 (1965). JSTOR

External links

• The Dastgah system
• A sample of solo music on Setār by Master Ahmad Ebadi in the following Dastgahs: Segāh, Chahārgāh, Homāyoun, Esfahān, Afshāri.