Iranian music, along with Arabic and Turkish music, is a member of a larger family whose origin dates back over a thousand years. For centuries, this music family has had relatively uniform rules and standards, and all of the cultures that comprised it have played a role in developing such rules. Since nearly three to four centuries ago, the members of this large family have chosen different ways for their evolution. Such a division has resulted in the emergence of smaller musical families, such as the Eastern and Western Arabic music family and the Central Asian musical family, which also share many theoretical foundations despite their distinctive characteristics. In the meantime, Iranian and Azerbaijani music make up a single family with some similarities to Iraqi music.
Most works written in the twenty-first century on Iranian music theory have focused on the theoretical foundations of European music rather than the extensive background of Iranian-Arabic-Turkish music theory. Therefore, experts believe that developing an Iranian music theory for teaching in fine arts schools that originates from this type of music is essential.
Recognizing that the modern Iranian music system differs from the previous system, this book has taken fundamental theoretical concepts from traditional theoretical sources and extracted the principles and rules of Iranian music from what is performed today. These rules and regulations correspond with Iranian classical music called “Radif.” Consequently, Radif, in its broadest sense, is the foundation of the theories presented in this book, and the authors have refrained from focusing on a particular Radif for formulating the theoretical foundations of Iranian classical music.
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