Tehran Times/2009-11-02 - Researcher on regional music Ahmad Sadri was surprised by the great performances rendered by the young musicians at the maqami music festival held recently at Tehran’s Niavaran Cultural Center.

Tehran’s Niavaran Cultural Center hosted the three-day festival exclusively arranged for young maqami musicians under the age of 28. 

“We originally conceived the idea of establishing a festival for youth, because we feared that maqami music was being forgotten since it had no adherents and we had already lost many veteran musicians. However, we never dreamed we would see such remarkable performances by young musicians as we have seen here,” Sadri said at the festival’s closing ceremony on Saturday. 

“Playing sorna (bugle) is very difficult and usually doesn’t attract youth, but fortunately we listened to performances by several youthful musicians who played sorna with polished technique and powerful emotion. These young people have selected maqami music based on their interests, while technology has captivated many of the youth in today’s world.

“The ability to play these maqami instruments is not developed over a short period of time; it requires much practice and dedication, and these youths have clearly made tremendous efforts to achieve such a high level of skill. We congratulate all these young musicians for their endeavors. It appears that they know precisely what they want to do and for them, its obvious that music is not merely a melody to be played but an entire culture, which they are striving to absorb and pass on by means of their music.” 

He went on to say, “The festival organizers and participants have done their best and it is now the responsibility of cultural officials to increase attention to this form of music which bears the imprint of our national identity.” 

Sadri, who was on the selection board, added that submitted works were of high quality and while the festival had the opportunity to run for a week, due to lack of time in an appropriate venue, it could only be held for three days. 

He expressed his gratitude to the mangers at the Niavaran Center for their cooperation and for providing the opportunity for the young musicians. 

At the closing ceremony after performances by selected groups, the Director of the center Khosro Zeinalpur also spoke saying, “Each nationality has a unique identity and the culture of that nationality forms the basis of the that unique identity. This is why ignorance of one’s culture is equivalent to ignorance of one’s nationality. 

“Over the past few years, maqami music has received less attention, and if this trend continues, it will gradually be forgotten, leading to the disintegration of different national identities in the country. 

“The music of each region is the essence of that nationality and the variety of nationalities in the country has created a brilliant collection of cultural trasures, the best of which is maqami music,” he explained. 

Seventeen groups of young musicians from Gilan, Kermanshah, Ilam, Lorestan, Mazandaran, Kordestan, and several other provinces presented their performances at the program. 

In Islamic music, a maqam is a specific musical scale combined with characteristic melodic elements or motifs, played following traditional formats, which together forms a complete system for the melodic and tonal structure of a musical performance. 

Photo: A music group from the Khorasan region of northeastern Iran performs during the maqami music festival held at Tehran’s Niavaran Cultural Center from October 29 to 31.