A Critical Study of the Iranian Teaching Textbooks on Iranian Classical Performance

Abstract

Introduction Many Iranian and international authors and researchers such as Bruno Nettl, Jean During, Stephen Blum, Laudan Nooshin, Nelly Caron with Dariouche Safvat, Hormoz Farhat, Sasan Fatemi, Mohsen Hajarian, Ameneh Youssefzadeh, and Mohammad R. Darvishi have attempted to construct a broader understanding of Iranian music structure and to place it in the context of postrevolutionary sociopolitical change in Iran. (1) Since the turn of the twenty-first century a significant number of publications pertaining to Iranian music have been released by Iranian scholars in Iran. Scholarly interest in Iranian music has been mirrored by an increasing number of performances and a general growth in cultural-musical festivals and industry publications within Iran. Support and patronage for Iranian music has reached a point where one cannot count the number of concerts (Western, popular, regional, and Iranian classical), festivals, and music competitions that take place in Iran today. For example, one Iranian music association released a collection of ninety-six cassettes of regional music, with booklets, in Tehran in 1995. (2) Despite religious restrictions over the use of music, Iranian classical music has remained of great interest to both Iranian and foreign scholars. Iranian classical music education refers to the master-disciple educational framework in which all performance and interpretation happens through imitation, memorization, and repetition of the radif--the Iranian music repertoire-until, after many years of study, the student becomes a mature improviser-composer. (3) Despite widely held misconceptions, the 1979 Islamic revolution can be considered the greatest renaissance in the history of Iranian music because to a large extent it protected Iranian classical music against semi-Westernized pop music during the late 1970s. In 1968 the Centre for the Preservation and Dissemination of Music (Markaz-e Hefz Va Esha'e-Ye Mosiqi Sonati), which was initially proposed by Nur-Ali Borumand (1909-76), was established under the support of National Iranian Radio and Television. The Centre aimed to revive Iranian classical music, and it significantly preserved Iranian classical music during the late 1970s. (4) There are a few exceptions to this, such as motrebi, a kind of traditional entertainment music genre. (5) It can be argued that the increase in the musical literature of Iran reflects the people's nationalistic passion for their cultural roots and the government's effort to promote the cultural reconstruction that had begun earlier in the 1990s. This research examines the development of Iranian music pedagogy through a critical study of the teaching materials and textbooks in the field of Iranian classical music pedagogy. Context In general, the literature published on Iranian music can be organized thematically into six categories: (1) biographical literature; (6) (2) theoretical analysis of Iranian classical music; (7) (3) historical and sociopolitical contexts; (8) (4) regional music of Iran; (9) (5) musical instruments; (10) and (6) Iranian music pedagogy. (11) Of the six music categories noted above, writing on the theoretical analysis of Iranian classical music encompasses the greatest percentage of publications, while the research on regional music and Iranian music pedagogy are quite limited in number. (12) Among these categories, only the Iranian pedagogical category is relevant to this research, as it will be addressed throughout the article. Challenges Confronting Iranian Music Pedagogy Many rapid socioeconomic and political changes have impacted Iranian instrumental teaching and learning processes since the early twentieth century. Prominent among these changes are the institutionalizing of Iranian music education and the introduction of sound technology and Western notation. The two other factors that emerged in the late twentieth century are financial issues (e. …