Persian Music is EASIER to Learn
Persian music is definitely not as popular among Western peoples as is Arabic and Turkish music. There could be many reasons for this, but I think the two biggest ones are:
1.) The political climate of the last 30 years has closed off Iran’s cultural heritage to the world to only a select few with the tenacity to pursue it.
2.) The music itself rather introspective, and let’s be honest, it can put you to sleep.
But whatever the reason… I’m going to argue that, in the end, Persian music should be even more accessible and easier to learn than Arabic and Turkish music for Westerners because the aural/oral tradition has been written down in the form of the Radif.
Watch the video to hear me play excerpts of the Radif on Oud and find out why this is such a badass book.
The Radif of Persian Music
I have another blog where I wrote about the Radif and some of the Dastgah’s. You’ll learn Persian music. Please check that out here:
Persian Music – Unraveling the Mystery
Persian Music – Maqam Daad-o Bidad
Dastgah Mahur – Persian Music Continued
It will give you a good introduction to it.
Want to purchase a copy of the Radif? See the links below:
Mazda Publishers – Recommended
Further Reading:
Scholarly Article on Persian Music
You can also listen to the complete Radif of Mirza Abdollah on Spotify. Seriously, if you are learning Persian you NEED this resource.
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Navid, thank you for writing about this beautiful musical tradition. Where did you purchase your Radif from? I’m a bit confused with the links you shared. Is the Amazon link just a CD compilation or does it come with the book of notation? The copy from Mazda Publishers is out of stock. It seems like my only option is from the last link you posted. It says it’s for Tar and Setar. Is it difficult to transpose the originally written notations to Oud? Are these works exclusively in Farsi as well? Cheers.
The radif is indeed written for Tar and Setar, you either have to have some knowledge of how to use it for Oud, or have a teacher. It’s really not that difficult to play on Oud. I’ll have to do more research on better sources for the Radif. I’ll have to get back to you about this. My copy of the radif is quite old. I think the best source is to get it from Iran.