The Radif

UNESCO describes the Radif of Iranian music as the traditional repertoire of the classical music of Iran — the essence of Persian musical culture — comprising more than 250 melodic units (gushe) arranged into cycles and passed from master to disciple through oral instruction.¹

Encyclopaedia Iranica treats the radif as the principal distinguishing feature of Persian classical music: a body of about 250–300 short pieces organized into twelve modal systems (dastgāh), used as points of departure for improvisation and composition rather than performed wholesale in concert.²

In the modern classical system, the repertoire is commonly organized into twelve modal systems: seven primary dastgāh and five secondary or derivative systems also called āvāz.²

Each system has a characteristic scale or pitch collection, characteristic motifs, and a sequence of gushe — melodic units of varying importance — through which a performer may move in instruction or in improvisation.

A full classical performance is often described as a suite of forms. Within that suite, āvāz is the central piece: improvised and largely non-metric, the place where performers show their knowledge of the radif as well as their creativity. It may be instrumental or vocal and typically lasts from about ten to forty minutes.²

The same Persian word āvāz also names the five secondary modal systems listed above — a related but distinct sense of the term.

Because the repertoire carries ornamentation that cannot be fully captured in scores, it is taught through oral tradition. Musicians spend years learning a master’s version of the radif as the set of musical tools for performance and composition; versions differ slightly from master to master while remaining recognizably part of one tradition.¹²

In 2009 the Radif of Iranian music was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.¹