Dastgah Concept Persian Music Studies

Seattle, WA (PRWEB) May 5, 2005

Dr. Hossein Omoumi, a renowned ney (Persian reed flute) player and co-founder Mr. Barry Alavi create Haft Dastgah Association to offer valuable cultural literacy to an ever-diversifying world. Haft DastgahÂ?s mission is to introduce classical Persian music and poetry to Americans and Canadians, familiarizing them with this 1000-year-old heritage of cultural wealth.Haft dastgah aspires to be the ultimate organization involved in research and preservation of traditional Persian music and aims to help North Americans to be actively involved in raising awareness and transmission of this cultural heritage. Fiscal agent Haft dastgah Associationism? S, Jack Straw Productions is the Northwest? S only non-profit multidisciplinary arts center audio....

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From the beginning of the Achaemenid Empire in the sixth century B.C. to present day Iran under the strict rule of Shiite Islamic clerics, this beautiful and ancient culture has experienced periods of intense wealth and great loss. Despite the many invasions by Greeks, Turks, Mongols, and Arabics, the Persian people were able to retain their rich cultural heritage. Unavoidably, lasting impressions from these invading cultures have left their mark in Persian society. The modern Persian language is itself a product of the Islamic Arabic conquest of Persia in the seventh cen­tury. It has adopted many Arabic alphabetical letters, words and names. At its greatest pinnacle in the Sassanian empire (third to seventh centuries B.C.), Persia extended from Egypt eastward to the Indus River in present-day Pakistan and from Syria into Central Asia. Persia was surrounded by the Romans to the west, the Huns in the northeast, and violent tribes in the north. What remains of the mighty Persian Empire can be found only in the present-day country of Iran. The classical music of the Persian culture reflects the deep sadness of brutal invasions, the complex beauty of nature, and fusion with a higher power of existence. Persian classical music has evolved as a fluid expression of the social and cultural values proudly embodied by the Persian people, as demonstrated by the musical theory system, the role of music in Persian culture, and the creation process of musical performance.

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