The radif of Persian music : studies of structure and cultural context in the classical music of Iran

From Preface: "The centrality of the body of music known as the radif in the classical music of Iran is acknowledged in many publications and by the world of Iranian musicians. Most books and articles that deal comprehensively with Persian music describe the radif in some detail, and there are also a number of specialized studies of some of its components. This volume, in order to complement and supplement the extant literature, presents several independent though closely related studies that approach the radif in various ways. In the first part, two chapters describe the radif as a whole and provide some generalizations about the interrelationship of its parts....From this general introduction we move to a second part, three case studies in which parts of the radif are examined from different but overlapping viewpoints....The third part, 'The Radif in Iranian Culture,' makes a group of forays that are in some respects analogous to the case studies of dastgahs....Chapter 7 describes the attitudes of residents of Tehran towards classical music. Chapter 8 shows the radif reaching beyond the improvised avaz, to compositions in the classical repertory, to popular music, and to rural and regional folk music. Chapter 9 examines a number of cultural contexts in which the radif has operated during the twentieth century, focusing on the role of culture change, particularly Westernization and urbanization, in the recent history of the radif....Finally, Chapter 10 attempts to trace relationships between the society and culture of Iran and the characteristics of Persian music, arguing that the radif expresses and, in a sense, symbolizes the central values of the culture...."