Overview

In recent years, people have become more interested in the diverse musical cultures that have come to exist in our world. World music festivals and concerts have provided excellent opportunities for those who are eager to discover and enjoy music different from that found in their native culture. Academically, ethnomusicology has served as one of the main tools for deeper discovery. Ethnomusicologists investigate the different aspects of a musical culture, and since the 20th century, they have explored and introduced many different musical cultures to the global community. However, due to a variety of reasons, some countr ies and cultures have received more attention than others. Some Western ethnomusicologists have studied Persian music and have attempted to introduce the Persian musical culture to non-Iranians by publishing books and articles. Although their efforts are admirable, there is still a long way to go to present all the different aspects of Persian music. This is especially true when it comes to Persian musical instruments, and we realize that there is not nearly enough information about them. There are few comprehensive materials, such as books or academic articles, about many Iranian instruments, even in Persian. We will come back to this later in the book. In Preface fact, the need for having a more reliable, comprehensive, and authentic source about one of the primary Persian instruments, the tar, was one of the main reasons for writing this book. As a friend and co-worker of the author, I have been involved in the process of writing, publishing, and translating this book .The idea of writing a book about the tar was in the mind of the author for a long time. As a tar player and instructor, Ashkan Ghafouri saw the need for a book that contains basic and necessary information about the instrument and prominent players through its history that can be useful for tar players, tar instructors, and Persian music lovers in general. For such a goal, a serious, determined, and disciplined endeavor was required. Fortunately, the author had the drive and motivation to follow his interests and accomplish his goal. In writing this book, Ashkan Ghafouri decided to invite some dedicated and well-known experts to participate and contribute. Various parts of the book were written with their supervision and consultation. In some cases, a whole section was written by one of these experts. Furthermore, many documents, including pictures, letters, audio record-ings, etc. had to be collected. As a result, it took several years to finish and publish the book. It should be mentioned that the advice and supervision of the two undisputed masters of Persian music, Hossein Alizadeh and Houshang Zarif, in all areas of this project were very helpful and essential.

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9781667896489

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Ashkan Ghafouri was born in 1967 in Tehran Iran. He has studied past and contemporary Tar techniques/styles and Persian Radif (classical modal system) under Hooshang Zarif and later refined his techniques under M.R Lotfi. He has further studied music, harmony and composition theories under the direction of Farhad Fakhredini. He has co-authored, along with H. Zarif, a music textbook, on teaching the Persian modal system. He has also transcribed Master Morteza Neydavood's Persian Radif Version. In 2001, he founded Tarschool, a school to study Persian music in the Bay Area, CA. He has many performances in the Bay Area. In addition, he has been a member of many different orchestras and ensembles with performances in Tehran, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities. In 2019 he published this book in original language.He is doing intensive research on the life and works of the great Jewish Persian classical musician, Master Morteza Neydavood, to be published in the near future.

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