ACADEMIA Letters Review of Peydāyesh-e musiqi-ye mardom pasand dar irān: Ta’ammolī bar mafāhīm-e kelasīk, mardomī, mardom pasand [Emergence of Popular Music in Iran: a survey of concepts of classic, folk, popular] by Sasan Fatemi, Tehran: Mahoor, 2013. pp. 156. ISBN 978-964-8772-35-7. Bardia Hafizi In the last 50 years a lot of effort has been put into decolonizing ethnomusicological works by aiming to negate the effects of ethnocentrism in analyzing and classifying the musics of the world. One of such endeavors is to empower and highlight local discourses, which not only offers a deeper understanding of cultures around the globe, but also offers international scholars a valid reference point to build and expand upon. These are the premises under which Emergence of Popular Music in Iran becomes an important source for scholars interested in the different types of music performed in Iranian societies. Sasan Fatemi is an Iranian ethnomusicologists whose academic focus includes, but is not limited to, historical studies of the musics of Iran-Arab-Turk region (a term he sponsored) and popular entertainment in Iranian urban cultures. He received his Phd in ethnomusicology from the university of Paris 8 and currently serves both on the academic board of the music department at University of Tehran and the editorial board of the music quarterly Mahoor.1 In this publication, the author considers popular music in Iran, its early conception and subsequent evolutions. He meticulously tries to clarify his theoretical framework, which results in a working model for all future studies on similar topics. At the same time, he goes 1 https://www.mahoor.com/en/quarterly Academia Letters, April 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Bardia Hafizi, hafizi19@itu.edu.tr Citation: Hafizi, B. (2021). Review of Peydāyesh-e musiqi-ye mardom pasand dar irān: Ta’ammolī bar mafāhīm-e kelasīk, mardomī, mardom pasand [Emergence of Popular Music in Iran: a survey of concepts of classic, folk, popular] by Sasan Fatemi, Tehran: Mahoor, 2013. pp. 156. ISBN 978-964-8772-35-7. Academia 1 Letters, Article 695. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL695. through the elements that made up the social settings of late nineteenth and early twentieth century Iranian music, particularly the non-classical types; Major social, technological and musical developments are taken as the distinguishing features of different periods of music style. They include the 1906 constitutional revolution and rise of romantic intellectualism, the coronation of Rezā Shāh in 1926 and his subsequent efforts for westernizing the country, inception of the radio in 1940, and the 1979 Islamic revolution which brought back earlier notions of nationalism. It should be mentioned that while the issue of popular music is mostly considered from a social perspective, in the case of tasnif the author consolidates his arguments with musical analysis. The book starts by studying the vocal form tasnif, which Fatemi defines as a composed rhythmic song with lyrics. Although he gives an overview of similar forms as described by Abd al Qādir Marāghī , he begins his formal survey from the Qajar era, arguing that none of the forms as2 mentioned by Marāghī have survived in Iran. He divides tasnif into three periods each with distinct compositional style, while also providing detailed information about his historical sources and their scope. The first period, which ends around 1930, is marked by a significant effort to raise the social status of tasnīf by emphasizing the poetic features of the lyrics. He shows tasnīf lyrics to be comprised of three elements: metric poems consisting of arūḍ, non-metric poems, and additional non-poetic phrases that do not carry significant meanings. After the 1906 revolution, elitist movements aimed to remove the non-poetic elements completely and compose tasnīfs on themes of social struggle and injustice. The melody was subsequently modified so that its rhythmic figures would be more in line with the syllables of the poem, in order to have greater linguistic impact. These styles were being developed in an era where musicians were becoming more independent and their status was changing from royal entertainers to social, literary and artistic elites. At the same time, class struggles were becoming more prominent and being critical of social developments while showing sympathy for the lower classes were the valued marks of an intellectual. The author further shows these developments with selected musical analysis of tasnīfs, ordered chronologically. The next period, spanning the years of the Pahlavī dynasty, is marked by an increasing westernization effort. The concepts of intellectual property and composer as an artist becomes prominent in this era. While in the final years of the previous period composers were writing the lyrics of their own tasnīfs, in this era a distinction began to appear between poet and composer. The routine was for the composer to create the melody first, and for the poet to come up with the lyrics fitting both the rhythmic structure of the melody, and the composer’s desired theme. Simultaneously, music theorists were struggling to modify and adapt the scales of Iranian music to the Western technics of harmony and orchestration, with the most notable 2 Persian composer and music theorist from 15th century Academia Letters, April 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Bardia Hafizi, hafizi19@itu.edu.tr Citation: Hafizi, B. (2021). Review of Peydāyesh-e musiqi-ye mardom pasand dar irān: Ta’ammolī bar mafāhīm-e kelasīk, mardomī, mardom pasand [Emergence of Popular Music in Iran: a survey of concepts of classic, folk, popular] by Sasan Fatemi, Tehran: Mahoor, 2013. pp. 156. ISBN 978-964-8772-35-7. Academia 2 Letters, Article 695. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL695. among them being Ali Naqī Vazīrī. The last period, starting about ten years before the 1979 revolution, consisted of struggles to erase the modifications and innovations of the previous era, while reclaiming the prePahlavī elitist movement. Notions of national identity and glorifying pre-Islamic history of Iran, instituted a revival movement of Iranian Classical music which had its own interpretation of tasnīf. Building3 on the ideas of the first period, musicians started to only use classical poetry in their compositions, thus forgoing the role of the lyricist. These ideas became popular with the public due to the rising nationalism sponsored by the state; The notion of relating tasnīf to pre-Islamic musical forms, which the author criticizes as mainly being a political effort, comes from this period. Equally important, in the preface to the book Fatemi talks about the practice of reducing musics to key features and grouping them together. He discusses whether such practices are ethical and whether they provides us with valid understanding. He argues that, although classifying humanly organized practices is a significantly difficult task, overly complicating the matter more resembles scholarly ostentation, than actual reservation. He also mentions that even though terms such as serious, light, classical and folk are widely used by ethnomusicologists, the nature of these labels have yet to be discerned. In later chapters he treats this topic in great detail, identifying two possible basis for categorizing music: social and musical. However, after going through the existing literature, it becomes evident that labeling some music types popular is dependent on how people in societies interact with the music; Therefore it becomes a primarily social issue with implications in musical style. Subsequently he goes through the two major dualities in perception of music: simple complicated and amateur-scholarly. Fatemi’s unique perspective comes form the fact that he puts the works of distinguished researchers such as Jean During and John Baily alongside the existing discourses in Iranian societies. He quotes Baily as his motivation, arguing that all musical labels in ethnomusicology are only legitimate when the culture under study also acknowledges them. Perhaps the most important insight Fatemi provides is a possible process for how classical musics are formed —thus providing a unique definition— and distinguished from folk musics. He bases his analysis on the concepts of deterritorialization and reterritorialization as developed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. In his perspective, classical musics are primarily developed from the combination and reformation of simpler (folk) musics, creating a complex music system. On the other hand, simpler types of music can be derived by simplifying aspects of this complex music system. This second process generally occurs in urban areas and, in the case of Iran, is the main root of popular types (of music). Moving on, Fatemi argues that different classes of society might appropriate certain types 3 Most notably the Center for Preservation and Propagation of Iranian Music Academia Letters, April 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Bardia Hafizi, hafizi19@itu.edu.tr Citation: Hafizi, B. (2021). Review of Peydāyesh-e musiqi-ye mardom pasand dar irān: Ta’ammolī bar mafāhīm-e kelasīk, mardomī, mardom pasand [Emergence of Popular Music in Iran: a survey of concepts of classic, folk, popular] by Sasan Fatemi, Tehran: Mahoor, 2013. pp. 156. ISBN 978-964-8772-35-7. Academia 3 Letters, Article 695. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL695. in order to distinguish themselves from the socially-defined other. Building on the ideas of Pierre Bourdieu, he proposes that certain types suitable for elitist ideology are thus appropriated by the social elite as classical or scholarly music. This leaves the less-valued types —labeled popular music— to the lower classes. Such processes create a point of hierarchy for artistic value and integrity. This development in Iran coincide with the independence of musicians from royal patrons; It explains why professional musicians, struggling to belong to the elite class, forwent the title of mutrib, leaving it for the amateur less-dignified musicians. Finally, Fatemi introduces the concept of mesomusic as developed by Carlos Vega. He defines mesomusic as old tunes, dance musics and songs based on them. These types are shared between elite and lower classes, existing in both classical and folk musics, and serve various functions in society (feasts, rallies, games, …). Most importantly, mesomusic generates popular music and only exists in cultures that have the classical and folk distinctions. In the case of Iran, the 1906 constitutional revolution, subsequent rise of the middle class and inception of the radio in 1940 set the stage for the generation of these popular musics. Fatemi identifies three possible roots for these types: Iranian mesomusic, mutrib music, and Western mesomusics. The first root corresponds to tasnif, which was first classicized and then served as the basis for radio music. Interestingly, this had a reciprocal impact on classical music, similar to the twentieth century developments in Egyptian music; It introduced new styles and lowered the value of improvisation. These reformations were later contested by the revival movement, their efforts continuing to this day. The second branch is dubbed ‘café music’ by the author; Its origins were either in the street music (mutrib) of late 19th century, or Arabic popular musics. This branch mostly rose in the lower parts of society, similar to the Greek rebetiko and Argentinian tango music. Lastly, the third branch is a direct imitation of Western popular musics, mostly from Latin cultures, Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Originally it was called jazz music, but later was renamed to Iranian pop music. After the 1979 revolution this branch was combined with café music, making it significantly distinct from Iranian classical music. To conclude, Fatemi provides us with a unique perspective on the evolution of tasnīf, emergence of new styles, classicization and popularization of musics, and the social settings in which they occurred in Iran. Although Emergence of Popular Music in Iran is written in Farsi, readers interested in this work can follow similar themes by the author in his international publications. It is my hope that this review can provide an incentive for translation of this work and similar literatures in ethnomusicology. Academia Letters, April 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Bardia Hafizi, hafizi19@itu.edu.tr Citation: Hafizi, B. (2021). Review of Peydāyesh-e musiqi-ye mardom pasand dar irān: Ta’ammolī bar mafāhīm-e kelasīk, mardomī, mardom pasand [Emergence of Popular Music in Iran: a survey of concepts of classic, folk, popular] by Sasan Fatemi, Tehran: Mahoor, 2013. pp. 156. ISBN 978-964-8772-35-7. Academia 4 Letters, Article 695. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL695.