Learning the Azerbaijani Tar: The Sad Story of Farhad Farajli

My interest in ethnomusicology—and in studying music rather than only performing it—developed partly through Hadi Sepehri. While searching for a research topic for the entrance interview for an ethnomusicology program, I considered learning the Azerbaijani tar. As a close relative of the Iranian tar, it belongs to a musical tradition that shares many modal concepts, instruments, and terminologies with Iranian music. Although the traditional music is often divided into sharply bounded “national” traditions in Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, I understand these traditions as closely interconnected musical systems expressed through different regional styles. I therefore assumed that my background in Iranian music would help me learn the Azerbaijani tar relatively easily. I also noticed that little research had been conducted on the Azerbaijani music modal system in Iran, which made it a promising subject for study.

I asked my colleagues at the Delshodegan Music School whether they knew an Azerbaijani tar teacher. Cheshmeh Okhovat Moghaddam, a children music teacher at Delshodegan, introduced me to a family friend, Farhad Farajli, a generous person and accomplished musician who taught the Azerbaijani tar in Tehran. I first met him at his modest home in a lower-class neighbourhood, where he helped me purchase an instrument and began teaching me. I studied with him for slightly less than two years. During that period, I strengthened my instrumental technique and learned three mughams/dastgahs (i.e. modal cycles).

I temporarily stopped attending lessons while preparing for the university entrance examination. I told Farhad that I would return after completing the two-year program. Our next meeting, however, took place at his grave in the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery. In the summer of 2017, I learned that he had died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of fifty.

I recorded all my lessons with Farhad using an audio recorder and, on some occasions, a camera. These recordings now preserve not only his teaching and musicianship, but also the time we spent together. The recording presented here is from one of our lessons, in which he teaches [name of the piece, dastgah, or technique].