BOZORG, one of the modes in traditional Iranian and Arabic music, mentioned for the first time by Ṣafī-al-Dīn ʿOrmavī among the twelve šodūd, later on called maqāmāt (Šarh¡, p. 376). Its origin is controversial, however: It is sometimes said to be derived (forūʿ) from Zirafkand (Ebn al-Afkānī [d. 1348/1923-30] apud Shiloah, p. 36), sometimes from ʿErāq (Ḏokāʾ, p. 192). According to the 7th/13th-ceritury author Qoṭb-al-Dīn Šīrāzī (Dorrat al-tāj), who corrected the measures of Ṣafī-al-Dīn, its basic scale was the pentatonic specie: G Ap B C C#(+)D (150, 267, 81, 128, 76 cents; p = koron, half-flat), extended into a maqām by the addition of E Gb G (204, 182, 112 cents, apud Wright, pp. 54, 70).
Although Bozorg lost its importance in Arabic and Turkish tradition, under the name of Bozrok it became one of the main maqāms of the Tajik-Uzbek šeš-maqām, characterized by a pentatonic structure: (C) D E (F#) G A B (C) D. In Azerbaijan, Bozrok is a small melody of Māhūr, and in Persian classical radīf the gūša Bozorg is played at the end of the development of Šūr on the descending scale: Bb Ap (b) G F Eb Dp C, centered on G and ending on C (oral transmission from ʿA.-A. Šahnāzī and Mīrzā ʿAbd-Allāh). There thus seems to be no connection among all these forms.
For a music sample, see Bozorg.
Bibliography:
Y. Ḏokāʾ, “Maʿrefat-e ʿelm-e mūsīqī, in Nāma-ye Mīnovī, Tehran, 1350 Š./1971.
M. Maʿrūfī, Radīf-e haft dastgāh-e mūsīqī-e īrānī/Les systèmes de la musique traditionnelle de l’Iran (radif), Tehran, 1352 Š./1973.
M.-T. Masʿūdīya (Massoudieh), Radīf-e āvāzī-e mūsīqī-e sonnatī-e Īrān be rewāyat-e Maḥmūd-e Karīmī (Radif vocal de la musique traditionnelle de l’Iran, version de Mahmud-e Karimi), Tehran, 1357 Š./1978; 2nd ed., 1364 Š./1985 (tapes with notes).
Šarḥ-e Mawlānā Mobārakšāh bar Adwār, tr. R. d’Erlanger, Les commentaires de Mawlānā Mubārak Šāh sur le Kitāb al-Adwār de Ṣafiyu-d-dīn ʿAbdul Mūmin Ibn Fāḫir al-ʿUrmawī, La musique arabe 3, Paris, 1938.
A. Shiloah, “The Arabic Concept of Mode,” Journal of the American Musical Society 34/1, 1981, pp. 19-42.
D. Wright, The Modal System of Arab and Persian Music, A.D. 1250-1300, London, 1978.
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(Jean During)
Originally Published: December 15, 1989
Last Updated: December 15, 1989
This article is available in print.
Vol. IV, Fasc. 4, pp. 426-427
