In the mid-nineteenth-century, Persian court musicians such as Mirza Abdollah and his brother Aqa Hoseyn Qoli, both setâr and târ players, began to teach a body of traditional music to their pupils, which was organized into suites known as dastgâhs and âvâzes. They also used these suites as a basis for their own improvisation. This set of dastgâhs and âvâzes, which was collectively referred to as radif, was passed down by oral tradition to the twentieth-century. Although other radifs were also compiled and transmitted, both orally, in writing, and recordings, the Mirza Abdollah radif has been the most influential by far. One of the reasons for its predominance is that Dr. Nurali Borumand, who taught music at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Tehran University in the 1970s, had learned this radif and taught it to his students, many of whom are among the most impressive and influential performers of this musical tradition in Iran today. This volume, therefore, is a book of musical notation of the Persian classical music repertory, the radif, as handed down by the nineteenth-century master of the setâr and târ, Mirza Abdollah, to his students and children, along with a concise explanation of his music.

The book's musical notation and the explanatory material are written by Dariush Tala'i. He has transcribed his entire performance into musical notation so that a person who reads music can see exactly what is being performed. Information is given in the notations about fingering on the setâr, how to pluck the instrument, and what ornamentation to use. The accompanying written materials will provide information about the radif, the modal system, and a concise description of the characteristics of each of the two major parts of the radif.

Prior attempts by other publishers and music companies, to publish and record this radif, have been done with unsatisfactory results. Mazda Publishers, for the first time, is proudly presenting this valuable oral musical tradition with the highest recording quality possible and a scholarly text.
Manoochehr Sadeghi, a leading santur master and ethnomusicologist, translated Tala'i's explanation of his musical notations, staff by staff. This detailed description adds invaluable information that one might only receive through private instruction from a master musician.

About the Compact Discs:
This volume is accompanied by a set of 5 compact discs (CDs) with the complete radif performed by setâr virtuoso, Dariush Tala'i. The recordings were made at the University of Washington in Seattle in 1992 while Mr. Tala'i was a Visiting Professor in the School of Music.