ʿĀref was the most influential taṣnīf (song) composer and performer of the period of the Constitutional Revolution. His works are among the best representatives of the classical taṣnīf style of the late Qajar period and are considered an important part of the currently performed traditional repertoire of Persian classical music. In responding to the economic and political events of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, ʿĀref mainly composed political taṣnīfs, which he used as effective vehicles to mobilize pro-revolutionary sentiment.

At the age of thirteen, ʿĀref studied music with Ḥāǰǰī Ṣādeq Ḵarrāzī for a period of fourteen months. Under pressure from his father to become a rawża-ḵᵛān (professional reciter of the martyrdom of Ḥosayn b. ʿAlī) ʿĀref sang nawḥa (religious threnodies) for two to three years, accompanying the sermons of Mīrzā Ḥosayn Wāʿeẓ Qazvīnī, his religious instructor. This period of training gave ʿĀref a background in both classical music and traditional rawża-ḵᵛānī. In his compositions he used traditional themes and forms in order to reach his audience, make them cry, and persuade them to act on whatever event or situation he set out to portray. In a nation attuned to the poetic theme of the lover-and-his-beloved, he portrays the nation as the beloved and the people as its lovers.

After moving to Tehran in 1898, ʿĀref found favor as an entertainer in aristocratic circles. He eventually joined the supporters of the constitutional movement. At the time of the granting of the constitution (1324/1906), however, he had not yet written songs for the revolution. It was the events following Moḥammad-ʿAlī Shah’s bombarding and closing of the parliament (1908) that precipitated ʿĀref’s political song writing. When in 1909 revolutionary forces entered Tehran and deposed the shah, he composed his first song “Ey amān” with political overtones. Often accompanied by Šokrallāh Khan on the tār (long-necked lute, q.v.), he began to sing his ḡazals and taṣnīfs in demonstrations and in revolutionary meetings, traveling from town to town.

One of his best-known taṣnīfs, “Az ḵūn-e ǰavānān-e waṭan,” was written in the mode of Daštī during the period of the Second Parliament (1909-11). This particular piece combines traditional metaphors with an emotional call to action. In form it is typical of many of ʿĀref’s taṣnīfs, which are stanzaic with a recurring refrain.

The Kollīyāt-e dīvān attributes twenty-nine taṣnīfs to ʿĀref, although at least two were actually composed by others (Ḵošẓamīr, pp. 21-22). These taṣnīfs reflect the events of his life—his fluctuating causes, loves, and moods. Exhortative revolutionary taṣnīfs are mixed with those which complain bitterly of defeats and injustice. They portray and react to events of the first years of the constitutional period; pointing out conditions of oppression, injustice, corrupting foreign influence, imperialism, and loss of national pride. For example, “Nang ān ḵāna” (1911) was written because of the Russian ultimatum to dismiss the American Morgan Shuster, who had been hired by the Second Parliament. ʿĀref wrote “Če šūhrā” (1917-18) to warn Iran of Turkey’s intention to annex Azarbaijan. “Gerya kon” (1921/22) commemorates the death of Colonel Moḥammad-Taqī Khan Pesyān whom ʿĀref considered to be the last real defender of the rights of Iran (Kollīyāt-e dīvān, p. 394).

For a music sample, see ‘Āref – Namidānam.