The present collection encompasses the most remarkable samples of the Iranian Shi'ite music repertory and the result of a field study followed between 1992-1999
I did my best to get the most authentic versions of music, however, performers tend to render their own versions of the original songs sometimes unconsciously with vast modifications. These are somehow according to their personal taste and sometimes are followed after traditional patterns available to them. But there is as well another trend that is to my view the result of new music influences.
In spite of this fact, the collection could be regarded as one of the most original religious music collections ever published in Iran. The phenomenon is subject to further changes and due to structural transformations.
The entries define the most important terms as regards tunes, narrators and ceremonies as well as Shi'ite rituals, and try to reflect on the transformation and modifications on their part in past few decades. Many tunes are now completely obsolete and some are inevitably disappearing into total oblivion.
Jahangir Nasri-Ashrafi