Traditional Persian Art Music: The Radif Of Mirza Abdollah (5 VOL SET) [Audio CD]

Dariush Tala'i (Author)

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Mazda Pub (July 20, 1999)
• ISBN-10: 1568590733
• ISBN-13: 978-1568590738
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 6.4 x 3.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,409,344 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, clear recordings by a master of Persian music, October 16, 2009

By 

W. Brown "person" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Traditional Persian Art Music: The Radif Of Mirza Abdollah (5 VOL SET) (Audio CD)

I saw these discs some time ago after I started studying Persian traditional music. I asked my teacher, Lloyd Miller, what he thought about them, and hearing that the recordings were Tala'i's work, he said "buy them!" As it turns out, Dr. Miller knew Dariush Tala'i personally when he studied under Daryush Safvat in Iran, and considers him one of the authorities on and loyalists to traditional Persian music. Personally, I still know so little of the tradition that I can only report what I've been told.

As for the recordings themselves, they are high-quality but may bore some people. Tala'i played the entire collection on a setar, a small four-string instrument with a sound similar to a guitar tuned to a chord and fingered only on one string. It's actually a soothing, melancholy sound, but if you're expecting exotic and weird music, keep on looking. This is music with a spiritual text, and as such the fitting word is "meditative" rather than "exotic." I have two recommendations for listening. First, listen to only one disc, or even one mode ("dastgah" or "avaz") in a sitting. Second, actually listen to the music at least once, doing nothing else except perhaps reading the names of the tracks as you hear them. The tendency of the setar is to fade into the background, so to follow it at all, you have to focus on it.