The Mulberry Tree, the Birds and the Divine in the Music of the Dotār in Khorāssān (Iran)

Authors

Farrokh Vahabzadeh, Associate researcher Musée de l'Homme/MNHNFollow

Abstract

The relationship between music and environment plays an important role both in musical compositions and in research on music. The paper is about an anthropological study on the relationship between music of the long-necked lute dotār and the environment, in the region of Khorāssān in Iran. By examining the close relationship between the mulberry tree, birds, metaphor and music of dotār, we will try to show how the environmental factors, data or aspects can be directly or indirectly related to the music, particularly through the symbolism of Sufi beliefs in the region. These relationships to the nature are strongly linked to the perception and the discourse that a culture holds about its surrounding world.

Author Biography

Farrokh Vahabzadeh is an Associate Researcher in Ethnomusicology in Musée de l’Homme/MNHN in Paris. He holds a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology and Ethnomusicology from Paris l’EHESS. His main speciality is Central Asian and Iranian music. He is also interested in musical gestures, corporeality and performance studies. He held the Junior Research Chair Gestures-Acoustics-Music of Sorbonne University (2015-2017).

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Vahabzadeh, Farrokh (2019) "The Mulberry Tree, the Birds and the Divine in the Music of the Dotār in Khorāssān (Iran)," Yale Journal of Music & Religion: Vol. 5: No. 2, Article 8.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17132/2377-231X.1143