An Introduction to
SEVEN DASTGAH-s,
The Structural Analysis & Interval Measurement
Based on Radif-e MirzaAbdollah
Written by Siavash Sahabi
This book includes a comprehensive analysis of the Persian official and prevalent music, called “Persian Traditional Music” or “Radif-Dastgahi Music”. Dastgah-s music in different Radif-s have been developed in multi-steps from the early Ghajar era to the end of this period where they were transformed to its completed structure as it is being used nowadays. In public perception, it is mistakenly supposed that this music style is irrelevant to the theoretical bases found in the treatises written in the previous periods when the Radif-s were formed (i.e., Systematist school). In contrast, the studies in this book show that they must be studied in an aligned correlated developing process, from the historical viewpoint. On the other hand, within the contemporary Persian music landscape, MirzaAbdollah’s instrumental Radif has achieved a prominent status among the recorded versions and is widely recognized and referenced by the majority of musicians and scholars. Therefore, this version of Radif has become the focus of analysis in this study.
The main theme that shapes the analysis in the book is a concept called “Molaiemat” (meaning consonance) which holds special significance in medieval musical treatises, whose origins could also be detected in acoustical rules upon closer examination. In this regard, reference has been made to numerous first-hand and significant sources created by influential Persian musicians, including AbuNaser Farabi, Ibn Sina, Safi al-Din Urmawi, Ghutb al-Din Shirazi, and Abd al-Ghader Maraghi. The important point highlighted in the proposed method for analyses was that the Dastgah-s must be regarded as a correlated system with internal interactions through the phrases of its Gusheh-s, rather than a collection composed of irrelevant components. In fact, the hidden relations between the Gusheh-s indicate the inherent cohesion in Dastgah-s, often compared to a miniature by some scholars. The proposed method utilized Owen Wright’s standpoint in his analytical procedure about medieval adwar-s (Iranian music gamutes), as well as the Molaiemat concept in ancient treatises e.g., Kitab Al-Adwar written by Safi al-Din Urmawi. Alongside the structural analysis and the exploration of relational elements among the main components of the seven Dastgah-s of Radif-e MirzzaAbdollah, the calculation of the consonant (Molaiem) intervals between the notes of the seven Dastgah-s scale is one of the highly significant outcomes of the book in the direction of the conducted analyses. In addition to drawing upon fundamental principles in Systematis’ theories, other criteria were also employed to define the arrangement of the intervals, including acoustical rules, the conditions of musical instruments (Tar & Setar) to transmit the desired Radif’s narrative, content analysis of the studied music, and ultimately arithmetic calculations. To practically apply the findings of the book, the author has also developed and publicly released an Android application called “Dastan Tuner” to help tune the consonant and tempered intervals of the Dastgah-s scale. In this application, users can tune the notes of the seven Dastgah-s scales in the two mentioned states from any desired tonality, and they have option to decrease or increase the overall pitch of scales notes.
Siavash Sahabi
Fall 2023