The master of
Persian Tar and Radif (repertoire of Persian classical music),
Reza Lotfi Larijani was born in Najaf (the center of Islamic
theology and studies) while his father was studying there
Islamic theology (religious jurisprudence). Then after coming to
Teheran, he became interested in Persian Tar, but his practicing
was secret and his father did not know anything about it, until
a day the sound of Persian Tar from the underground attracted
him, so he understood that his son, Reza was playing Persian Tar
and therefore he thought it was better to learn by a master and
since Kamalolmolk (the very famous painter of Iran) was also one
the encouragers of young Lotfi, his father decided to introduce
him the well-known master Darvish Khan and after some lessons
Darvish Khan said that he had so much intelligence and he
suggested him to go to the class of Musa Ma'rufi (one of the
famous Darvish khan's students who knew the Western notation
well) and learn basic theory of music, then he would be able to
learn Radif by himself (the Radif that Mr. Musaa Ma'rufi had
collected), after that he started to learn that Radif, and
finally finished it, but in his mind he was searching for
another thing that has impressed him before and that was the
playing of great master Mirza Hosseingholi and since
unfortunately at that time he had passed away and he searched
and found his eldest son great mastar Ali Akbar Shahnazi, who
was only the one that he had all of his father's Radif in his
mind and he requested master Shahnazi to learn and then notate
the melodies and this was their start and took 7 years and
another 3 years for comparing the melody then Master Shahnazi
confirmed accuracy of the written notations and write a
certificate for it that it allowed master Reza Lotfi Larijaani
to publish this wonderful work, though this never published. By
the way he has studied Law in the University of Paris, also
researched about Persian classical music of many centuries ago.
He wrote some books which we hope they will be published with
the help of his family.
He passed away in September, 2003, in Teheran, Shemiran. The
biography of the late Reza Lotfi Larijani comes from the
personal interview of Parham Nassehpoor with him. Parham was his
student from 1997 to 2003. Thanks Peyman Nasehpour for
translating the biography.
