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About 150 years ago the first university founded in Iran, called Dar Al-Fonun, was built in Teheran under the rule of Nasseredin-Shah. The planning and construction of this university was taken over by the Qajar chancellor of Naseri period, Amir-Kabir, who was killed on the order of Nassereddin-Shah just a few days before the opening. Before this incident the Shah had experienced a great number of ceremonial military marches on his numerous voyages to Europe. For this reason he later subdivided the subject military science in several specialized subjects like "military marches" at the Dar Al-Fonun University. Professors from Austria, France and Italy came to Teheran in order to be engaged at this university. They taught altogether seven different subjects. Basis In 1856 two music professors from France called Bosce and Royen were invited to Persia in order to teach the subject "military marches". Since they did not practice this job satisfyingly another French professor called Alfred Jean Baptiste Lemaire was invited to Persia in 1868. Unfortunately Lemaire could not speak Persian while giving music lessons. Therefore translators were called to support the new professor who achieved better results in his work than his predecessors. During this time Lemaire published some books in Persia concerning harmony and solfeggio, the two scopes of music. Furthermore he organized some concerts, conducted by himself, that were not only restricted to military marches. The international classic music as of Wagner, Verdi and Gounod, to mention only a few, was also considered. So it can be said that Lemaire is the personality that made European music familiar to the Persian people. Besides he was the first person who wrote down the notes of Persian songs and converted them in order to use them for orchestra. Despite all those efforts, Western music did not become very popular in Persia. The only supporters of this kind of music were aristocrats. Lemaire stayed in Persia altogether 41 years and died there. The first pupils of Lemaire Some of the pupils of Lemaire were very talented. One of the talented guys who became very famous was Gholamreza Minbashian (1861-1935). Planning to further his knowledge about music he went to the conservatory in St. Petersburg, Russia after taking part in Lemaires lessons. Before his return to his native country, two little orchestras had taken place in Teheran. The first one was a string orchestra conducted by a French violinist called Duval. The second one was the Ensemble Okhowwatt (fraternity), conducted by a Persian musician called Gholamhossein Darwish. After Minbashians return to Persia he wrote some books about harmony and instrumentation. He became the successor of his former professor Lemaire and therefore also the head of the music department in Dar Al-Fonun. The subject "military marches" was later integrated in the Music School. Minbashian altered the Persian notes in order to be able to play them on a European piano. The person who in 1910 reorganized the string orchestra, conducted by Duval, was again Minbashian. Two personalities From 1921 on, the development of concert and orchestra were intensified. Two personalities who presented new ideas were discovered in Iran, both educated in Europe. The names of those two talents were Alinaghi Waziri and Gholamhossein Minbashian, the son of Gholamreza Minbashian. After living in Paris and Berlin, Waziri returned to Iran in 1918 and founded the New Music School in 1923. One year later an orchestra was developed for the Music School. This orchestra consisted partly of European and partly of Persian instruments. The melodies of the songs sounded Persian, but the rhythm and the style of the songs reminded of European music. In 1928 Waziri reorganized his New Music School: since he received subsidies from the Iranian government he changed the names of both the orchestra and the New Music School into State Orchestra and State Music School. The head of these two new institutions was Minbashian jr. Before his engagement Minbashian jr. had founded himself an orchestra, which was called Townhouse Symphony Orchestra. This orchestra had more assumed the style of European music than of Persian music and was at that time the biggest orchestra in Iran consisting of 40 members. When Minbashian jr. began his office, he integrated his Townhouse Symphony Orchestra in the State Music School and the State Orchestra. Beside other musicians he also admitted musicians from Czechoslovakia in his State Orchestra in order to increase it. New forces During the Second world War Iran was occupied by armed forces of the Allies. Therefore cultural activities had to be cancelled. As a result of Minbashian's resignation, the State Orchestra had to be closed off. Some years later, in 1941, Waziri again became the head of State Music School. A new artist called Parviz Mahmoud, who had been educated in Brussels, became the new conductor of the Music School Orchestra. He succeeded in reorganizing this orchestra and so he held his first concert in Tehran in February 1942. There was a conflict between Mahmoud and Waziri, resulting in Mahmoud's resignation. But he tried to set up his own orchestra calling it Symphony Orchestra of Tehran. This one was the foundation of the Symphony Orchestra in Tehran of today. After the Second World War in 1946 Waziri resigned finally. Parviz Mahmoud substituted Waziri as the head of the Music School and the Orchestra of the Music School. One of Mahmoud's employees, Rubik Gregorian, helped Mahmoud to develop the orchestra. Gregorian was the fist person who founded an orchestra-choir. After Mahmoud's immigration in the USA in 1949, Gregorian became his successor. But after only two years as the head of the Music School, Waziri moved to the USA as well. From 1951 until 1957 the conductors of the orchestra changed very often and quickly. Some of those conductors were Ruben Safarian, Serge Chodsief, Heshmat Sandjari, who worked only for one year and Morteza Hannaneh, who worked two years. Later, Sandjari and Hannaneh went abroad for their further musical education. The first person that conducted the Symphony Orchestra of Tehran longer than two years was the Austrian Heimo Teuber. He conducted the orchestra from 1957 until 1960. Further possibilities In 1960 Heshmat Sandjari returned to Iran and became the permanent conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of Tehran, until 1972. Due to previous experience he knew the orchestra very well and worked there also as a violinist. Sandjari had the chance to learn a lot from the former conductor Parviz Mahmoud. Sandjari tried to use many Iranian songs for his orchestra in order to play them later in concerts. In 1967 a great music hall called "Roudaki" was built which was also available for Opera. This institution cooperated with the Symphony Orchestra of Tehran. The music hall offered many technical possibilities and all together 1600 seats for the audience. Because of the audience, the songs were improved and more and more people came to the music hall. In the twelve years period in which Sandjari worked for the orchestra, also foreign conductors and musicians were engaged being in service of the institutions. Some of them were; Yehudi Menuhin, Isaak Stern, U. Lutoslawski, Lilit Kraus, Andor Foldes and Raffi Petrossian. Beside these foreign musicians there where also Iranian soloists and conductors who lived abroad and traveled to Iran in order to play and work for the Symphony Orchestra. These Iranian musicians were: Novin Afrouz, Tanja Aschot, George Martirussian, Frahad Sandjari (son of Heshmat Sandjari), Loris Tcheknavorian and Alexander Rahbari. Tcheknavorian conducted internationally and Heshmat Sandjari was invited to conduct abroad when a very young Iranian conductor called Farhad Meshkat became his successor. At the same time Tcheknavorian returned to Iran in order to work as conductor of the new Tehran Opera Orchestra, consisting of musicians from the Symphony Orchestra and musicians from Eastern Europe. All of them cooperated with the "Roudaki Hall Opera House". Until 1979, the year when the Iranian revolution broke out, Farhad Meshkat directed the Symphony Orchestra. Every month new concerts took place in the Roudaki Hall. But on account of the revolution, the orchestra and other cultural institutions had to be given up. In the year after the revolution there have been attempts to build up the Symphony Orchestra of Tehran with the remaining musicians. Bijan Setajesch (player of the horn instrument), Nader Mortezapour (player of the double -bass) and Heshmat Sandjari could keep on directing the orchestra under restricted conditions. After Sandjari's death Fereidun Nasseri (player of the drums) became his successor. New groups Since 1950:s there have been other small and large orchestras beside the Symphony Orchestra of Tehran. Five of these orchestras were connected with the direction of the state organization "Fine Artis". Some other orchestras were independent. The respective conductors of the orchestras were: Khalegi, Meftah, Paiwar, Hannaneh and Ophelia Parto. Some of the important concerts which were developed in the 50:s were: Golha Orchestra, which cooperated with the Iranian Radio, the chamber Orchestra of the National Iranian Radio and Television whose repertoire consisted mainly of the classical European music, the Iranian Orchestra of the Jeunesse Musicale and the Orchestra of the Conservatory of Iran. The two later orchestras were from the beginning under the direction of Alexander Rahbari. The first concert, which was given by the Orchestra of the Conservatory, took place in 1974 in the Roudaki Hall. The program of this concert consisted of the "Suite of Scheherezadeh" from Rimsky-Korsakov, the piano concert from Immanuel Mellik Asslanian and furthermore of "Iranian blood on the G string (composed by Alexander Rahbari). Rahbari planned to continue his cooperation with the orchestra of the Conservatory but because of the financial and administrative difficulties his plan failed. So he immigrated abroad although he never gave up the idea of founding a new orchestra, which could only consist of Iranian musicians. Persian International Philharmonic Despite his numerous activities, Alexander Rahbari still hoped to be able to found an orchestra consisting only of Iranian musicians. In 1997 his dream could be realized; Rahbari collected 60 Iranian musicians in Bregenz in order to let them practice there together. The recording took place under the direction of Koch Discover International and two CD's were recorded. Rahbari himself said about the program: "The recording is the first step of a work which will be continued. There are sufficient Iranians except for me who could continue this work." The members of the PIP live in America, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland with nobody from Iran.
Mahmoud Khoshnam Copyright © 1997
Alexander Rahbari.
All Rights Reserved.
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