A Synthesis of the Encounter Between Tradition and Modernity in Iranian Classical Music; Case Study of Chavosh Ensemble

The central enquiry of the present study is how modern and traditional discourses of revolution influenced in shaping, living and dying Chavosh in the context of Iranian traditional music? In this study, we try to adopt an analytical method with a descriptive approach to examine the process of formation and collision of the way a musical discourse may superseded by a new one based on social and political changes within the society. We are particularly seeking to find how new musical discourses appeared over political activates led to 1979 Islamic revolution superseded previous life Iranian traditional music. Chavosh was one of the Iranian band shaped in this stream and tried to combine Iranian traditional music with revolutionary lyrical themes. The musical dimension of Chavosh's works includes components that are related to the “modern discourse” on the one hand and to the “traditional discourse” on the other, and their expression can be clearly traced in Chavosh's works. The intellectual and ideological field of Chavosh music, which is mainly reflected in the song contents, is influenced by the revolutionary tendencies and political atmosphere of the years leading to the 1979 revolution. This style gradually turned to build a new music genre among Iranian traditional music ensembles which continued its life even after Chavosh ended its life. Our findings show that Chavosh's discourse is a synthesis of modernism and traditionalism discourses in between the middle of the Nasseri period in second half of the 19th century and Islamic revolution in 1979.