Singing master, musician and calligrapher Mohammad-Reza Shajarian was born in 1940 in the holy city of Mashhad in northeast Iran. Hailing from a devout Shi’a Muslim family, Shajarian learned tajwīd, the discipline of reciting the Qur’an, from an early age. He graduated from there to learn the complex radīf style of classical Persian music, a repertoire which comprises old, largely secular, traditional melodies.

As well as being one of the world’s greatest singers, with a tenderly defiant tenor voice, what especially endeared Shajarian to the
Iranian people was his humility and his courage in speaking truth to power, both within his songs and without.

In 1978, when Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (r. 1941-1979) introduced martial law and the army fired on protesters in Tehran’s Jaleh Square, Shajarian and other leading figures in Iranian music wrote a letter of protest to the government and declared a boycott of state media.

Years later, after a security crackdown on protesters in the wake of contested election results in 2009, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad referred to the protesters as ‘dust and trash.’ In response, Shajarian told a BBC reporter that he considered himself to be the ‘voice of dust and trash.’ He also asked the government not to play his earlier recordings on national radio and television. As a consequence of his stance towards what came to be known as the ‘Green Movement’, Shajarian was never again invited to perform publicly in Iran.

One of these recordings is the plaintive prayer ‘Our Lord’, (Rabbanā), which hearkened back to Shajarian’s younger days as a reciter, or qāri’, of the Qur’an. Rabbanā is neither a song nor a hymn; rather, it’s a tajwīd medley of verses from four different chapters in the Qur’an, each verse being a supplication which opens with the word ‘Rabbanā’. This iconic recording has been associated with Shajarian for 40 years, and it was regularly broadcast during the month of Ramadan to announce the breaking of the fast.

Arguably, Shajarian’s most famous signature tune remains ‘Bird of Dawn’ (Morgh-e Saḥar), which is the second track on this tribute EP. If Shajarian has rightfully been described as the ‘voice of Iran’, this song
could easily be viewed as the ‘spirit of Iran’. All one needs to do is to watch footage of Shajarian’s live performances of this song, often following persistent encore requests, to realise the subtle power of this seemingly delicate work.

The story of a caged bird trying to break free from its bonds risks being classed as a cliché. But the exquisitely lyrical verse of one of Iran’s most celebrated poets, Mohammad-Taqi Bahar (1886-1951), has ensured that this melodious tale is as subversive as ever. No wonder, since it was first penned during the ‘awakening period’ of Iran in the 1920s, when Iranians were facing repression amidst their struggle to gain parliamentary representation during the rule of Reza Shah Pahlavi (r. 1925-1941).

The fact that Mashhad-born Bahar had previously had the prestigious title of poet laureate, King of Poets (Malek o-Sho’arā), bestowed on him did not stop him from joining the revolutionary movement at the beginning of the 20th century, which aimed at the establishment of a parliament in Iran. This was during the latter period of the Qajar dynasty, when many sectors of Iranian society took part in the Constitutional Revolution of Iran (1905-1911).

Bahar had originally written two stanzas for ‘Bird of Dawn’. The famous rendition associated with Shajarian and most other artists who have covered this song comprises the first, more lyrical, stanza. The second, less frequently performed, stanza was banned during the reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi, because of its relatively unconcealed political message.

But even if Shajarian had focused only on the first stanza, he nevertheless sang a quintessential protest song with nuance and passion. And despite the protagonist’s cry for safe deliverance, the regime of the Ayatollahs could not ban the song, because ‘Bird of Dawn’ had already been etched in the collective memory of the Iranian people. It is an anthem which embodies their struggle for freedom and democracy, from the beginning of the 20th century to the present.

Politics aside, ‘Bird of Dawn’ conveys an ambrosial air of spirituality. This, of course, is because Shajarian had been a reciter of the Qur’an, and Bahar a cleric (earlier in his life). Like Shajarian, Bahar learned
classical Arabic, and it’s believed that he had memorised a considerable portion of the Qur’an.

As for the music of this hymn to freedom, it was set by Isfahan-born composer, radīf master and tār virtuoso, Morteza Neidavoud
(1900-1990). Born into a musical family of Persian Jews, Neidavoud continued in the tradition of Jewish musicians who had been
prominent in the musical scene of Iran in the 19th century. Neidavoud’s talent blossomed when his family moved to Tehran, where he began to learn classical Persian music under the tutelage of some of the finest musicians of his time, both traditionalist and innovative masters.

After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Neidavoud moved to the US, where he lived until he passed away at the age of 90. ‘Bird of Dawn’ remains his, and indeed Bahar’s, most famous work. Its endurance has kept a love of traditional and classical music to the fore in the collective taste of the Iranian people, despite the multitude of non-classical musical forms which have developed since.