An analysis and transcription of a song-text notated in a fusion notation method (Abjadic-metric) by Mehdi-Gholi Hedāyat (Mokhber-al Saltaneh), considering the suggested intervals of Montazam-al Hokamā'

Although it seems that oral tradition has always been used for music education, preservation, and a representation of Persian musical culture, nevertheless, different notation methods have been applied at least since the ninth century in the Persian Empire and Islamic world. The most important and comprehensive of these methods has been the Abjadic alphabetical notation; an enhanced kind of notation system which was recognized in the form of a seventeen-tone temperament in the musical treatises of a thirteenth-century music school, called “Systematist”. Based upon this system, the contemporary Iranian musicologist, Mehdi-Qoli Hedāyat (Mokhber-al Saltaneh) (1863 – 1955) presents a unique Iranian fusion notation method (Abjadic-metric) in his lithographic printed book “Majma-al-Adwār”, which consists of a combination of modal structures of the said Abjadic seventeen-tone temperament, and the metric structure of the today’s European notation method, as well as some additional ornaments and articulation marks that are related to the performing techniques on the Persian instrument “Setār”. Although, these signs are not commonly used today, or are used in another sense, but undoubtedly are the essential elements for notating the elegance of Persian traditional melodies. In this article, after analyzing the details of Hedāyat’s notation method, which is described in “Dastur-e Abjadi”, an appendix to his book, the current author also transcribes the only song-text (Tasnif) notated in this fusion method in Majma-al-Adwār. The most important advantage of Hedāyat’s fusion notation method is that by replacing the Abjadic tone-letters of seventeen-tone scale with the European elliptical neumes on staffs, the need of using additional “accidentals” is eliminated, and there is also no need to use staff lines or ledger lines, neither to use any clefs and key signatures! The tone-letter “A” or “Alef” is the first pitch in the Abjadic notation System, which would be the fundamental tone of the lowest open string of the instrument, and the remaining tone-letters are tiered respectively to cover the almost two-octave range of an Iranian traditional instrument. However, one of the fundamental drawbacks to Hedayat’s fusion notation could be the non-differentiation of the same tone-letters in different octaves. Another advantage of Hedayat’s method is the application of the European metric system, which allows the more precise notation of time values, compared to the early Abjadic examples, in which the time values were simply written in natural numbers below each tone within a parallel horizontal line. An important point to be considered in the transcription of Hedayat’s song-text is the theoretical Pythagorean intervals of the Systematist musical school -except the octave (2:1), perfect fifth (3:2), perfect fourth (4:3), and major second (9:8)- are recognized as “unpleasant” by the practical maestros of both present and past times. Hedayat writes that “Abd al-Qādir [Maraghi] claims that the maestros of that time [(fourteenth century)] did not accept the Greek intervals, and manipulated them”. Instead, he presents a table of alternative intervals, most probably obtained aurally but also correspondent to the 53-EDO temperament, at the suggestion of Montazam-al Hokamā’, the most prominent Setar player at that time.