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Soheil
Zolfonoon and Ensemble
Portland
State University
School
of Business and Administration, Room 190, 631 SW Harrison
St.,
297-6816
8 pm Saturday,
April 8
$15, $12
members and students
Setar-
(n) a long-necked Persian lute with four strings and a pear-shaped
soundbox. Absolutely not to be confused with the sitar,
a possibly related but entirely different instrument from
India.
"We have specific
modes or booshes in Persian music--about 400 modes--that
make the unique sounds of Persian music," Zolfonoon says.
"Persian music is really wild, you know, there are so many
cultures around the different parts of Iran gathered into
this music."
The setar doesn't look like much. Oh, it's exotic,
hailing from Persia, the stunningly diverse nation now doing
business as the Islamic Republic of Iran. To the untrained
eye, though, this thin four-string lute seems inauspicious--primitive,
even.
Hand this baby to a master like Portland's Soheil Zolfonoon,
though, and a world of sound explodes from its skinny body,
from intimate musings to elated, jubilant outbursts.
And, it turns out, there's a reason for the instrument's
low-tech look: It's old. In fact, the setar may be the ancestor
of a diverse family of instruments, including the Indian
sitar and Spanish guitar. In Zolfonoon's hands, it's characterized
by staccato improvisation, emotive riffing, and microtonal
Middle Eastern scales, and its expressive voice eerily resembles
its descendants. When you hear Zolfonoon play, the setar's
influence makes perfect sense. So why haven't you heard
of him?
A Portlander for two years, the 27-year-old former Atlanta
resident has so far evaded cultural detectors. In a recent
interview at Portland's Iran-centric Andisheh Center, the
soft-spoken Zolfonoon explains that he's been focusing on
mastering his musical discipline rather than snagging attention.
"First when I came to the U.S., I went to New York, and
with my father I performed at Lincoln Center," he says.
"There were like 12 cities where we performed, and I decided
to stay here, continue my education and teach--promote this
kind of music in the international market."
Soheil Zolfonoon's father and instructor, Jalal Zolfonoon,
is the world's leading setar player. The elder Zolfonoon
rose to prominence in post-Shah Iran as the xenophobic government
simultaneously dispatched foreign cultural influence and
championed Iran's ancient heritage. He also invented a standardized
approach to learning the setar, which facilitated its instruction
to thousands.
While Soheil Zolfonoon believes setar music holds its own
with the likes of Ravi Shankar's sitar music, language barriers
have thus far prevented his father's mission from translating
globally. Musical technique, he says, isn't the only key
to getting attention in America--spoken language is as important
to spreading a culture as music, which helps explain Indian
culture's popularity and Iranian culture's relative obscurity.
"You must be able to play," he says, "but also be able
to translate the meaning of what you play. If you grow up
in India, you automatically speak English, so you can easily
explain what is going on in the music."
Though it may be all but invisible in America, the setar
is enjoying a renaissance in Iran. Yet traditional music
has to compete with a rival musical universe for popular
enthusiasm. Many young musicians are drawn to Iranian pop
music churned out by Los Angeles' sizable expat community.
Still, they cannot ignore the vibrancy of traditional Iranian
music, especially since the ever-watchful mullahs sterilize
the pop that makes it to the homeland.
"So many people got discouraged from Persian pop, and for
that reason they want to know about traditional music,"
says Soheil. "I heard of one small town where there are
50,000 setar players."
Traditional Iranian music draws on the numerous diverse
folk traditions contained within its borders. For example,
the Kurdish people, perhaps the most significant minority
in Iran, strongly maintain their own traditions--many of
which are now part of the Iranian canon--and Zolfonoon expertly
performs many Kurdish songs in a soulful, oscillating voice.
Yet even as he follows the footsteps of his historical
predecessors, Zolfonoon finds ample room for himself within
the parameters of the form.
"Most of the musicians who play Persian music combine it
with their personality," he says. "For that reason you can
hear a different sound with each musician. The sources are
the same but the way they explain it is different."
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Willamette Week | originally
published April 5,
2000
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