ḤĀJIĀNI

 

ḤĀJIĀNI, a guša (q.v.), or subdivision of a mode in the canonic repertory (radif) of Persian classical music. Its principal home is the mode (dastḡah) of Dašti (q.v.), one of the derivatives (naḡma) of the mode of Šur. Ḥājiāni occupies an important role among the five or six gušas that comprise Dašti. The origin of the name is unclear, but as the mode of Dašti is often associated with rural folk tunes of Persia, Ḥājiāni may conceivably be derived from the concept of pilgrimage, and thus from melodies sung (or thought to be sung) by pilgrims. A non-metric guša, its melodic content is similar to that of initial section (darāmad) of Dašti. In the early radifs its name appears sometimes, occasionally in the listing of gušas of Šur (Khatschi, p. 20). Also, it may at one time have been a tune subsumed by Dašti, from which, as it were, it eventually gained independence (for discussion of life-cycles of gušas, see Nettl, pp. 18-29). In the vocal Radif of Maḥmud Karimi (see Masʿudiya) it appears in the middle of the dastgāh, tied to the guša Daštestāni. In the Radif of Musā Maʿrufi (see Barkechli), the most influential in the 1950s and 1960s, it is the first subdivision of Dašti (and thus probably the most important one), and consists, furthermore, of eight parts, making it an exceptionally long guša. Only after the completion of Ḥājiāni does a guša titled Dašti, and melodically similar to Ḥājiāni, appear, suggesting that Ḥājiāni and the initial section (darāmad) of Dašti may be part of the same unit of musical thought. In Maʿrufi’s Radif, Ḥājiāni and the initial section of Dašti are closely related, forming a unit. In the Radifs of Nur-ʿAli Borumand (see During and Kiāni) and the recorded versions of his students Ḥosayn ʿAlizāda (recorded ca. 1990) and Dāryuš Ṭalāʾi (recorded 1992), it is also in the second half of Dašti. In the Borumand tradition, influential in the 1980s and 1990s, it plays a modest role; Borumand himself sometimes omitted it in his renditions. It is not mentioned in the analytical works of Hormoz Farhat, M. Sadeghi, and Ella Zonis, perhaps because of its close relationship to the initial section. Where it appears, Ḥājiāni is prominent by its length of two to four minutes, and it plays a substantial role in improvisations based upon the mode of Dašti.

For a music sample, see Hosaynqoli – Hajiani.

 

Bibliography:

Mahdi Barkechli, La musique traditionelle de l’Iran: les systèmes de la musique traditionelle de l’Iran (Radif), Tehran, 1963.

Jean During, Le répertoire/modèle de la musique iranienne: Radif de tar et de setar de Mirza Abdollah, version de Nur ʿAli Borumand, Tehran, 1991.

Hormoz Farhat, The Dastgāh Concept in Persian Music, Cambridge, 1990.

Khatschi Khatschi, Der Dastgāh: Studien zur neuen persischen Musik, Regensburg, 1962.

Majid Kiāni, Radif-e Mirzā ʿAbd-Allāh/The System of the Modes of Iranian Music According to the Musicologist Master Mirza Abdollah as Presented by the Late Professor Nur ʿAli Borumand I, Tehran, 1990.

Musā Maʿrufi, Radif-e haft dastgāh musiqi-e Irān/Les systèmes de la musique traditionelle de l’Iran, Tehran, 1353 Š./1974.

Moḥammad-Taqi Masʿudiya (Massoudieh), Radif-e āvāzi-e musiqi-e sonnati-e Irān be rewāyat-e Maḥmud Karimi/Radif vocal de la musique traditionelle de l’Iran version de Mahmūd-e Karimi, Tehran, 1978.

Bruno Nettl, The Radif of Persian Music: Studies in the Structure and Cultural Context, rev. ed., Champaign, Ill., 1992.

M. Sadeghi, Improvisation in Nonrhythmic Solo Instrumental Contemporary Persian Art Music, M.A. thesis, UCLA, 1971.

Ella Zonis, Classical Persian Music: An Introduction, Cambridge, Mass., 1973.

(Bruno Nettl)

Originally Published: December 15, 2002

Last Updated: March 1, 2012

This article is available in print.
Vol. XI, Fasc. 5, pp. 555-556