Setar : Yusef Forutan
Ostad Yusef Forutan was born in 1891 in Tehran. His brother Mo'addab-os-Saltaneh had a keen enthusiasm for Persian music and this caused him to get acquainted with many of the masters of his time. He studied setar with Mirza Abdollah and tar with Aqa Hoseyn-Qoli.
Forutan performed concerts with prominent contemporary masters for the benefit of refugees and the victims of natural disasters. Generally he never played in public unless for charity purposes and never had a stage appearance. After some years, he performed some pieces by setar in Mahur by the tomb of Hafez (Hafeziyyeh) in Shiraz for the presentation of Persian music. Forutan had a perfect mastery in setar, tar, piano and violin using a style of his own. He was among the few masters that National Radio and Television managed to take advantage of their knowledge and experience. He recorded a cycle of Dastgahs and instrumental Radif of Persian music with setar for National Radio Corporation; Presently this recorded cycle is preserved in the Archive of Radio and Television (Seda va Sima). Forutan had taught many of our present masters, including Hossein Alizadeh, Daryush Tala'i, Davud Ganje'i and Parviz Meshkatian. He had great dynamism and action in playing; Forced, complicated and fluent pluckings are some of his special features in performance, that seem to be rooted in the styles of Yahya Zarpanjeh and Darvish Khan. In his old age, Forutan abandoned setar, and eventually died in 1979.
Published [29/10/2000]
