Ali-Akbar Morâdi, Samâe Mastâneh (Persian Classical Music)

About the Present Work

The present album is a live record of the concert performed in San Francisco, the United States, 2000. All the pieces of such fusion of Sahari maqâm of tanbur with dastgâh-e Chârgâh are my compositions accompanied by the delicate performance of my dear friend, Pezhmân Haddâdi. There were shortcomings relative to the live recording of the concert done by the American sound engineer which we did our best to increase the sound quality in Iran with the aid of Mr. Orod Anzâbi-Pur. We hope you would enjoy it. - Ali-Akbar Morâdi, Tehran, 2004

Tanbur is the ancient, religious and ritual musical instrument of Ahl-e Haq (Yârasân) Sect and the elder name for Dotâr. The name of this instrument, tanbur, has frequently been mentioned in Shâhnâmeh by Ferdowsi. Today, tanbur is vastly played in the west (Kordestân) and the east (Khorâsân) of Iran.

Kurdish tanbur which is called Tisfuni has been highly respected as a ritual, sacred instrument among Yârasân Sect for more than a thousand years.

The sort of music played by tanbur is somehow peculiar since its fretting system and maqâms are totally different from the Persian classical music and also from Kurdish music. The most homogeneous contemporary musical system to such music is Siâ-Chamâne and Howre prevalent in Howrâmân and Gurân.

The maqâms played by this instrument can historically be divided into three main categories: Kalâm, Majlesi and Majâzi.

Tanbur’s pear-like soundbox is made of mulberry wood and its neck of walnut wood. It normally has thirteen or fourteen frets and two or three strings. The sound range of this instrument is a scale plus a whole-tone and is characterised by two main tunings of the fourth and the fifth. Moreover, tanbur is a plucked chordophone instrument which is played with all fingers of the right hand.