Analyses a single recording of classical Persian music made by Touraj Kiaras, a distinguished singer, accompanied by four noted instrumentalists. This book presents an analysis that identifies salient structural features, whether of the individual components or of the whole, in a way accessible to the western reader.
'Touraj Kiaras and Persian Classical Music stands favourably alongside Wright's other foundational Middle Eastern Studies as a refreshingly performance-focused foray into the increasingly cross-cultural character of twenty-first-century musical analysis.' Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 'Wright's exceptionally lucid explanations of the terms generally used in discussions of Persian classical music (26-35) would alone make the book a valuable resource for teachers... Wright also reproduces a few of Massoudieh's notations with modifications that facilitate comparison with his own. His flexible and inventive approach to notation is one of the book's many strengths.' Ethnomusicology '... the [CD] recording really is superb ... [Wright] presents some highly original and persuasive ideas... It cuts an intelligent swathe through current debates about the analysis of non-Western music. And it will persuade many of those wedded to anthropological and context-oriented approaches in ethnomusicology, in what is - once again - a rather polemicized environment, that there are decent arguments to be made for an analytical engagement with non-Western music, and not just reaction or retrenchment. This admittedly quirky but deeply thoughtful book must, in these terms, be judged a considerable success.' Music and Letters
