The ceremony commemorating the third anniversary of Mohammad Reza Shajarian’s death with the title “Khosrowye Awaz,” along with the unveiling of the sculpture of Mohammad Reza Shajarian by Maryam Najafi, on October 30, 2023, was held in the Jalil Shahnavaz Hall, in the presence of several artists and fans of the Master of Music, and hosted by the House of Iranian? Artists, in collaboration with the House of Iranian Musicians.
Mohammad Mahdi Asgarpour, CEO of Iran Artists House; Hamidreza Nourbakhsh, CEO of Music House, Gholamhossein Amirkhani, Chairman of the Supreme Council of Calligraphers Association, Ghotbedin Sadeghi, Davood Ganjoi, Dariush Pirniakan, Arash Amini, Ali Jahandar, Babak Chamanara, Fazel Jashmidi, Alireza Miralinaghi, Shahram Gil Abadi, Abbas Majidi, Yunes Shekarkhah were the guests of this event.
Seyyed Abbas Sajjadi was the host of the program.
Holding commemoration ceremonies is an Iranian culture
Gholamhossein Amirkhani, the head of the Supreme Council of Calligraphers Association and House of Artists said in part of his speech in this commemoration ceremony: We hold treasure in all cultural and art fields, which, if paid attention to and given proper opportunities, will reach the highest peaks of creativity.
He continued: In cultural programs, we should not look for a historical excuse because the history of culture and art of our land is so brilliant that every day can be made into a special occasion, and every 365 days of the year, we can hold a cultural event. Though this may not be possible due to limited resources.
Amir Khaniki, referring to the talents of Shajarian, especially in the field of calligraphy, added: “We calligraphers breathe with poetry. Our culture is unique, but it has been some time that we have been silent. the world is eager to know about our culture and art, and we must try, more than before, to introduce to the world our art and outstanding figures like Master Shajarian. This tradition of commemorating comes from Iranian culture.”
Shajarian is the most prominent symbol of our music
Ghotbedin Sadeghi, writer, researcher, teacher, and theater director, pointed out that Iran’s culture, apart from classical literature, as four amazing flags. It has music, drama, carpets, and architecture, he said. These treasures are the pride of our land, in this world, and one of the most prominent symbols of our music is Shajarian.
Sadeghi added: “Shajarian is an example of Schopenhauer’s sentence: “all other arts try to reach music, in value. In music, what is decisive and influential is the power of abstraction, which apart from content or form can communicate with our subconscious and touch our hearts and souls.” An example of this is the piece “Rabana” by Shajarian; this piece, with all the spirituality found in Iran, can effect the audience deeply.”
This researcher and writer said: Shajarian, is the only artist with three characteristics of great artists. The first feature is “perception”. With his knowledge of the common people’s culture, traditional/religious culture, classical literature, and contemporary culture, Shajarian created conditions for the works he performed to have an impact on the audience.
His second characteristic was “technical mastery of musical instruments.” Shajarian had unique compositions which made him an outstanding musician. The third characteristic of Shajarian was “emotion.” His emotional concentration came from the richness of the ancient and thousand-year-old culture of Iran. This feature leads to the impact of his works on the audience. By having these three noble qualities, Shajarian was able to gain a great place in the music culture of Iran.
He added: “What made Shajarian a symbolic image of our contemporary culture was not only the mastery of these three characteristics, but his personality as well. Together with musicians like Mohammad Reza Lotfi, Hossein Alizadeh and others, he created music that took Iranian music out of the state of party music, and gave it a social dimension that was very cultural, effective and brilliant. The leader was Shajarian, who gave credit to musicians and composers.”
Shajarian gave music an emotional scope
Yunes Shekarkhah, a journalist master of communication sciences and a friend of Mohammad Reza Shajarian, was one of the other speakers at the meeting.
He said: “One of the biggest events that took place for Iranian music at the hands of Shajarian was to move music from the realm of an auditory phenomenon to other social and cultural conditions and dimensions. He brought music from the level of feeling into the realm of art.”
Shekarkhah added: Shajarian insisted on the importance of meaning over form, and for this reason, he did extensive research in all dimensions; he was a multidimensional human being.”
He continued: “The audience was important for Shajarian; it was not for no reason that he was associated with social changes. He wanted to connect with the audience: performance was not just for himself; but for the audience. Shajarian was also very forbearing.”
In the end, Shekarkhah said: “Shajarian knew the metatext very well, and this feature helped him, apart from the audience and himself, take the situation to its destination. He reached the destination, without doubt; he understood that the text is tied to the hypertext, and the margin, “Morge Sahar,” was when the audience was tied to the text. Shajarian knew that he had to take a difficult path and was able to turn the singer into a music master.
Saman Sadeghian (Tar player), Amin Damagh Gol (Tar player), Mojtaba Asgari (vocals), and Ali Jahandar (vocals), students of the late Shajarian, performed music in a part of the program. Playing music videos of Shajarian, along with a retelling of his life and artistic activities, was also another part of this commemoration.
An overview of the fruitful life of Mohammad Reza Shajarian
Mohammad Shajarian, a teacher of Iranian songs, grew up in the city of Mashhad. He was born in that city on the first day of Mehr 1319 (September 1940). It had been a year since World War II hit Iran, and the hardships of the war had a heavy toll on the people. But slowly the difficulties reduced and life regained its former state.
Mohammad Reza was 5 years old when he started humming children’s song in his solitude. However, some time passed until people heard his pleasant voice on Radio Khorasan and made prediction of a bright future for this teenager. AT that time sHAJARian was 12 years old. His hobbies were not only singing. He was also diligent in his studies and was known as an excellent student among the students of Mashhad. Besides that, he was also interested in sports and participated in sports events.
In 1336, solar (1957), young Shajrian entered Mashhad Preparatory Academy. In addition to studying, he also taught music and singing and performed short programs on Khorasan Radio. Now, his voice was familiar to fans of traditional Iranian singing. However, he was still at the beginning of the steps to reach the peak of artistic creation.
After finishing his high school, he was employed in the Education Department. But he didn’t give up studying under the music masters of Khorasan and learned to play the dulcimer.
To reach the heights of Iranian singing art, Shajarian had to follow a path unavailable in his hometown. He had to come to Tehran to learn the art of prominent Iranian music masters. Therefore, in 1346 A.H. (1967), he moved from Khorasan and went to the capital. Since he was a keen artist, he soon get acquainted with Master Ahmad Ebadi, who was a master of sitar, and here he found his way. This acquaintance was the first step that Shajarian took to learn from the distinguished and famous masters of Iranian music. His songs were also broadcast from time to time on Iranian radio. The first performance and recording of his voice was on Azar 15, 1346 (November 1967), which was broadcast and heard in a program called “Barge Sabz” (green leaf) and the name he chose for himself was Siavash. Besides that, he also benefited from the vocal knowledge of Esmaeil Mehrtash. This was one of the characteristics of Shajarian’s personality that he never stopped learning and did not see himself needless of the music knowledge of the masters of the time.
Learning the art of calligraphy was one of the other artistic endeavors of Professor Shajarian in those years. In Tehran, he continued his calligraphy with master Hasan Mirkhani until he became a master. Examples of Shajarian’s beautiful and masterful handwriting can be seen in the calligraphy on the cover of some of his vocal albums.
Shajarian learned tunes in “saba” mode from Payoor. Shajarian learned the vocal line of Saba from Payor. Another productivity of his in these years was getting to know Hoshang Ebtehaj, a famous poet of Iran, and collaborating with him on the radio program “Golehaye Tazeh.”
In 1352 (1973), Shajarian founded the “Music Preservation and Dissemination Center” together with young artists such as Mohammad Reza Lotfi, Hossein Alizadeh, and Jalal Zulfonun, who later became famous masters of Iranian music. The head of this center was Professor Dariush Safvat.
Shajarian performed a program at the Toos festival in 1355 (1976) along with several masters of those years, and a year later, he founded the “Dell Awaz” company. Among the other vital events in Shajarian’s artistic life was his acquaintance with Gholamreza Dadbeh, an outstanding master of Iranian music, in the 1358 (1979) solar year and further learning of Iranian musical lines. There is a picture from those years of young Shajarian next to Master Dadbeh, which shows Shajarian’s modesty when meeting his vocal teacher.
The peak of singing and artistry in Iranian music of this king of Iranian music, should be considered in the years when he collaborated with Parviz Meshkatian. One of the reasons for this collaboration was the release of the “Bidad” album, which had an amazing response by the people attachment to Shajarian’s voice and his unique way of singing. Significantly, the selection of appropriate poems that fit the mood of the Iranian people and their unspeakable pains made Bidad’s album one of the most essential albums in the history of Iranian music. After that, other albums of Shajarian, named “Nava” and “Dastan,” were released with the cooperation of Parviz Meshkatian. Performing concerts abroad was one of the other artistic endeavors of Professor Shajarian. These performances continued until 1371 (1992), accompanied by Dariush Pirniakan and Jamshid Andalibi, as well as his son, Homayun Shajarian, who performed in America.
Shajarian’s collaboration with Professor Kivan Kalhor began in these years. One of the two joint programs was performing a concert for Bam earthquake victims in the winter of 1383 (2004). In 1393 (2014), his world concert tour was also held with Saeed Farajpouri, which was titled “Losers of Love”.
Professor Mohammad Reza Shajarian, who was one of the leaders of Iranian singing and music, finally passed away at the age of 80 in Jam Hospital in Tehran on Mehr 17, 1399 (8 October 2020), after a long period of illness. His body was buried in the grounds of Ferdowsi Mausoleum in Toos.
Photos by Leila Ebrahimi
