Bayat-e Kord – Persian Music Continued

by Navid Goldrick on March 7, 2014, no comments

isfahan music hallWelcome to the first podcast of Majnuun Music and Dance. This is a new avenue that I wanted to try. I think it will be easier for people to grasp what I’m talking about when they listen and hear the melodies right away.

 

This podcast is all about another sub-dastgah of Shur called Bayat-e Kord. This is not to be confused with Maqam Kurd, which is very different from the Persian Bayat-e Kord.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/138504271″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

As we have seen from other sub-dastgah Bayat-e Tork,  Afshari, Dashti, and Abu Ata, they all use the root of Shur know in the Arabic world as “Bayati”, as in D Eqb F G but they develop melody differently particularly in the upper range of notes above G. I’ll quickly play for you some of the qualities of each.

(Please refer to Soundcloud file above)

Now for Bayat-e Kord. Bayat-e Kord emphasises the 5th note in the scale, which if we are paying from D, that would be the note A.

(Please refer to Soundcloud file above)

So obviously the A note was the focus, it always emphasised these notes

In the beginning, the root of Shur was also made reference to, and then the melody went back to A. The way the opening was closed in interesting because it closes on D, the root of Shur.

To really hear this let’s listen to Hijaz from Abu ata, remember Abu Ata also emphasizes the 5th note of the scale, but Hijaz is actually more than just emphasizing that 5th note.

Let’s look at another example from Bayat-e Kord to show how another melodic niche can sound different from the opening melody called daramad.

(Please refer to Soundcloud file above)

As you can see, a lot of the root of Shur is being played in this Gushe. This gushe ends on C which seems like a very strange place to end. But if you look at what comes next in the Radif then it starts to make sense. Remember that Radif means order, and these Gushe are not here randomly. What comes after Bayat-e Kord final Gushe is another Dastgah called Segah. Which happens to start on C. So when the Radif is played in this way, the final C in Bayat-e Kord makes a lot of sense, because it goes right into Segah. Segah uses a very similar set of notes as Shur. In reality however, when you hear Bayat-e Kord in a concert, the musicians may choose not to end in that way. It is really up the performer. In most cases if you hear a composition in Bayat-e Kord the final note will probably be the root of shur which is D.

I hope you liked this podcast. In two weeks we will discuss a whole new Dastgah in Persian music. Be sure to check out www.oudforguitarists.com and follow me on twitter @ thOudGeek.

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