Listen to the Reed how it recounts the story of separation.

The Radif of Persian Classical Music:
The classical music of Iran is based on the Radif, which is a collection of old melodies that have been handed down by the masters to the students through the generations. Over time, each master's own interpretation has shaped and added new melodies to this collection, which may bear the master's name. The preservation of these melodies greatly depended on each successive generations' memory and mastery, since the interpretive origin of this music was expressed only through the oral tradition. To truly learn and absorb the essence of the Radif, many years of repetition and practice are required. A master of the Radif must internalize the Radif so completely to be able to perform any part of it at any given time.

The Radif contains several different maqam's which are distinguished from each other by their relationship of note intervals and the form of the movement of the melodies within them. A maqam portrays a specific sonic space. A dastgah may contain approximately from 10 to 30 gousheh's (melodies). The principle gousheh's of the dastgah specify the different maqams within that dastgah. The note, upon which the gousheh is based and often is the center of the gousheh, is called the shahead. The shahead moves when we modulate between principle gousheh's, and this movement creates a new sonic space. Rhythm in these melodies takes three different forms: symmetric, asymmetric(lang), and free form. The rhythm is greatly influenced by the rhythm and meter of the Persian poetry. The instrumental and vocal Radif are different from the rhythmical point of view; however, their melodic structures are the same. The name of the different dastgah's in the Radif are:

*Dastgah Shur: Avaz Abuata, Avaz Bayat Tork, Avaz Afshari, Avaz Dashti, *Dastgah Segah,
*Dastgah Chahargah,
*Dastgah Homayoun: Avaz Esfahan,
*Dastgah Nava,
*Dastgah Mahur,
*Dastgah Rastpanjgah.

More Info:
Music in Iran has an ancient history, which goes back to thousands of years ago and like other ancient cultures is an inseparable part of people’s beliefs, environment and climate. In other words, it is considered an essential part of people’s lives in this country.

The appearance, the fall and the transition of this art have always had ups and downs. However, it has managed to maintain its identity and prosperity due to the presence of deep cultural and traditional roots in this country.

During the past centuries, particular tunes, according to Iranian taste and aestheticism, were chosen as pleasant tunes, melodies and songs, which often had religious origins. Some of these tunes have been related to a divine world.

In ancient Iranian music, Khosrovant was the name of those melodies, which were played according to the seven-tune arrangement. Khosrovani meant a pleasant song and since there were seven of them, they were called Seven Khosrovani.

Gradually, the meaning of Khosrovani was changed to Dastan or Dastgah (musical division). Today what is called Dastgah is in fact Dastan. Dastgah consists of two parts: Dastan and Gah-or Gat in ancient times-which means song.

The course of the melody or tune in ancient Iranian music was one dung (sixth part of the entire pitch of an instrument - 4 continuous tunes or 3 shares) and two continuous dungs along with a complete musical note, which would complete a course.

Music, in ancient times, was based on Maqami (modal) arrangement. It was probably in the 11th century A.D. that this changed and from then on music became Dastgahi (based on musical divisions).

12 famous old Maqams (modes) are: Oshaq, Nava, Busolaik, Rast, Eraq, Isfahan, Zirafkand, Bozorg, Zangula, Hosseini, and Hejazi. Other Maqams (9 modes) have also been mentioned which were omitted or had a different name when the arrangement was changed to Dastgahi. In other words, in the Iranian music range, there are still a group of ancient Maqams (modes) that have become refined.

Today, the Iranian musical range consists of seven Dastgahs (musical divisions) and the fine tunes. The musical divisions are: Shour, Segah, Mahour, Homayoun, Rast Panjgah, Nava and the tunes include Abou Ata, Dashti Afshari, Bayat Turk and Isfahan and each dastgah includes a few modes.

In each musical division or tune, a few pieces which have various forms such as Pish Daramad, Daramad, Char Mezrab, Gousheh, etc. are put together in an aesthetic manner and are presented to the listener in an improvised style which is influenced by the time of performance and its location.

The “figures” of the division often start with bass tunes, which after the Daramads are performed, they gradually ascend and reach Hengam (Octave). Also in Hengam, some other musical figures are played.

In tunes, figures often start with moderate (with respect to sound level) melody and eventually end at a climax. The extents of the melodies in musical divisions are from the six dungs and in tunes are no more than three dungs. Basically, a tune is an arrangement, which consists of a few pieces of figures shorter than a musical division. In performing Iranian music, which is called range, factors such as proportions and intervals (the difference in vibrations with respect to the sound level between two melodies), rhythm, circulation of melody designs, coordination, order and arrangement of figures, the style of performance and its time and place are all very important.

Although, Iranian music is not just based on musical division and range, in each part of this land, music is also played according to the characteristics of that region. In fact, we can say that radif music belongs to different parts of Iran. These various types of music have been refined and presented in a more official manner as Radif music.

The traditional music of different parts of Iran, e.g. Khorassan, Sistan and Balouchestan, Mazandaran, Kurdestan, Lorestan, as well as their diversity, all originate from the essence of Iranian music which represents purity, loyalty and benediction.