Eighteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Iranian tar was the most important instrument and the repertoire of Persian music was compiled by the tar players. The santur became an equally popular instrument at the end of the twentieth century (Atrai 1995). This phenomenon was largely due to the contribution of three distinguished santur players namely Faramarz Payvar, Parviz Meshkatian, and Ardavan Kamkar, whose innovations set new paradigms and attracted thousands of young generations. Payvar established a maktab (school of musical style) for teaching santur and published several books on three levels becoming the most prolific santur player and publisher. Meshkatian invigorated santur playing with his vibrant and poetic style following the 1979 revolution. Kamkar extended the technical ability of the instrument further and introduced a new style of performance and composition beyond the classical repertoire of radif. While these three musicians set the standards for santur playing they were not invited to teach at Tehran University. Instead, Majid Kiani became the main instructor of santur who pursued ultra-conservative perspectives toward teaching and practice of music. This paper elucidates how Kiani’s position at the University and other federal institutions enabled him to implement his viewpoints and how his viewpoints affected the styles of santur playing in Iran. I explore the relationship between conservative perspectives in music and the conservative cultural policies of the Islamic regime (Katouzian & Shahidi 2008). I also investigate the semiotic of ‘innovation’ in this context and how it could connote resistance against the status quo.