Morteza Mahjoobi (‎; 1900 – 21 March 1965) was an Iranian

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

. He was a piano soloist for the '' Golha'' radio programme.

Early life

Morteza Mahjoobi () was born in 1900, in

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. His father, Abbas Ali (), known as Nazer (), played the

Ney The ney ( ; ) is an end-blown flute that figures prominently in traditional Persian, Turkish, Jewish, Arab, and Egyptian music. In some of these musical traditions, it is the only wind instrument used. The ney has been played for over 4,500 ye ...

. His mother, Fakhr-o-SSaadaat (), played the piano. Mahjoobi's parents sent him, along with his older brother

Reza Reza () is the Persian variant of the Arabic name Rida, which literally means "the fact of being pleased or contented; contentment, approval". It is one of the most widely used names in Iran. According to Annemarie Schimmel, "riḍā is closely ...

, to Hossein Hang Afarin who taught Reza the

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

and Morteza the

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

. At the age of ten, Morteza performed a concert accompanying

Aref Qazvini Abolqassem Aref Qazvini or َAref Qazvini (1882 – January 21, 1934; ), also known as National Poet ( Persian: شاعر ملی) was a distinguished Iranian poet, lyricist, and musician. Known for his significant contributions to Persian literatu ...

in Farus Cinema (). In the following years, he went on to perform with other musicians including

Darvish Khan Darvish Khan (, Gholam Hossein Darvish; 1872 – 22 November 1926) was a Persian classical musician and a tar player.http://www.hamshahrionline.ir/news.aspx?id=44944 Biography Darvish Khan was born in Tehran. His teachers included his father a ...

, Seyyed Hossein Taherzadeh (), and Hossein Esmail Zadeh ().

Teachers

His first teacher was Hossein Hang Afarin, from whom he learned the preliminary studies. He was then sent to Mahmoud Mofakham to further his studies of the

and

radif In Persian poetry, Persian, Turkic, and Urdu poetry, Urdu ghazals, the ''radīf'' (from Arabic ; ; ; ; ; ) is the word which must end each line of the first couplet and the second line of all the following couplets. It is preceded by a ''qafiya'' ...

. He also studied with other musicians, including

, Hossein Esmail Zadeh, Hajikhan Zarbgir, and Seyyed Hossein Taherzadeh.

Performance style

Mahjoobi's performance style was

improvisational Improvisation, often shortened to improv, is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. The origin of the word itself is in the Latin "improvisus", which literally means un-foreseen. Improvis ...

. According to Navvab Safa, he never planned or prepared for his performances, and if he played a piece ten times he would play it differently each time.

Compositions

Mahjoobi has composed many

tasnif ''Tasnif'' () is one of the several forms of Persian music and can be considered as the Persian equivalent of the ballad. It is a composed song in a slow metre. As is true of other forms of musical composition, most ''tasnifs'' are of relatively ...

s (ballads), pīshdarāmads (rhythmic preludes), and rengs (rhythmic pieces). A noteworthy example is his composition "Man az Rooze Azal Divane Boodam" ("I Was Bewildered From Pre-eternity"). This tasnif has been performed by

Gholam-Hossein Banan Gholām-Hossein Banān (; 5 May 1911 – 27 February 1986) was an Iranian musician and singer. One of the most prominent Iranian singers of the 20th century, he was renowned for the quality of his voice. Biography Born in Tehran, Banān descend ...

. While Mahjbi was unfamiliar with western notation, he devised a notation system similar to Siaaq (a set of symbols used in premodern times to note the weight of merchandise or monetary figures), which he used to transcribe musical ideas.

Students

Mahjoobi had many students the most famous of whom is Fakhri Malekpour who studied with Mahjoobi over a period of twelve years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahjubi, Morteza 1900 births Iranian musicians Iranian pianists 1965 deaths 20th-century pianists