Dastgâh

Dastgāh (دستگاه) is the standard musical system in Persian art music, standardised in the 19th century following the transition of Persian music from the Maqam modal system. A consists of a collection of musical melodies, . In a song played in a given , a musician starts with an introductory , and then meanders through various different , evoking different moods. Many in a given are related to an equivalent musical mode in Western music. For example, most in Dastgāh-e Māhur correspond to the Ionian mode in the Major scale, whilst most in Dastgāh-e Šur correspond to the Phrygian mode. In spite of 50 or more extant , 12 are most commonly played, with Dastgāh-e Šur and Dastgāh-e Māhur being referred to as the mothers of all . Each consists of seven basic notes, plus several variable notes used for ornamentation and modulation. Each is a certain modal variety subject to a course of development () that is determined by the pre-established order of sequences, and revolves around 365 central nuclear melodies known as s (each of these melodies being a ), which musicians come to know through experience and absorption. This process of centonization is personal, and it is a tradition of great subtlety and depth. The full collection of s in all s is referred to as the radif. During the meeting of The Inter-governmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Heritage of the United Nations, held between 28 September – 2 October 2009 in Abu Dhabi, radifs were officially registered on the UNESCO List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The system of twelve s and s has remained nearly the same as it was codified by the music masters of the nineteenth century, in particular Mîrzā Abdollāh Farāhāni (1843–1918). No new or large has been devised since that codification. When in the modern times an or a has been developed, it has almost always been through borrowings from the extant s and s, rather than through unqualified invention. From this remarkable stability one may infer that the system must have achieved "canonical" status in Iran.