personal

Setar

I spend most of my spare time practicing the Setar, a traditional Persian instrument, which I have been playing since 2010. Currently, I am completing the Persian musical repertoire known as “Radif” under the esteemed guidance of Maestro Reza Mazandarani. Below are some short clips of my performance:

Persian music heavily relies on poetry and is inherently an aural tradition, and unlike Western music, it has only recently been documented. For centuries, it was passed down orally from one generation to the next, not because of lacking musical notation — in fact, notation existed in ancient Iran. However, due to the complexity of its vocal and tonal nuances, Iranian music had to be transmitted orally. Even today, musical notation is used more as a formality. Those who are interested in learning more about the Persian music repertoire can refer to the preface of the book The Radif of Mirza Abdollah for Tar & Setar, written by Jean During in both French and English.