Kamanche: Seyed Mirza Azizi
Vocals: Ahmad Ali Rezayi
Zarb: Zolf Ali Bonyadian
Accompanying notes by: Hamid Reza Ardalan
The epic and lyric music of Lorestan could be classified into 3 relatively separate categories, each of which belonging to a certain period of history. The criteria for this classification have arised from the organological differences, rhythmic patterns, as well as musical inherent characters attributed to these periods.
In the formal analysis there could be seen a large similarity between these three periods; however, in deep ethnomusicological surveys these similarities manifest themselves as a series of true disagreements.
As a matter of fact, the music of Lorestan is divided between ancient, middle and contemporary periods. With the first we refer to the old traditional modes and maqams and their related contents, those that are usually performed with no or minimum alterations now. Some of these maqams like Hura, Sorna-vo-Dohol, Karna-vo-dohal are more than a thousand years old. Hence it is possible to logically identify the new versions with their ancestors.
The music in the middle period begins with the introduction of kamanche to this region and lasts until the 2 or 3 decades ago. The majority of the masters (ostads) of this musical trend (e.g. Pir-Vali Karimi, Alireza Hoseyn-Khani, Hemmat-ali Salem, and Shah-Hasan Bonyadian) are now passed away, and this has changed into a declining tradition that sooner or later disappears completely.
The unique aspect of the present collection lies in the fact that it entails the performances of some of the wholly-devoted musicians to the tradition. It was aimed to collect a complete series of maqams and naqmehs of Lori music to offer a reliable anthology which has potentiality to become an open subject for further investigations.
The new era is characterized by the introduction of non-Lori and even non-Persian elements to this music; of its indicators are an inclination to styles of performance based on conceptual interpretations of ancient and middle period, as well as well as arrangements of these maqams for the instruments with other than Lori origins. ...
