The Origins of the Urban Music of Guilan; The Birth of an Invented Tradition

There is a duality between urban and rural Gilân. This research focuses on music that has been created in urban centers of Gilân. After the Constitutional Revolution in Iran, urbanization and modernization began in the province of Gilân and it sped up remarkably during the reign of Reza Pahlavi, from 1920s to 1940s. At this time, this new urbanized culture tried to introduce a modernized local identity and tradition. There were three  main influential elements that contributed to the formation of Gilak urbanized culture: a) Co-existence and migration of different ethnic groups in the city of  Rasht that introduced varied artistic forms to the existing culture; b) Efforts of intellectuals who tried to change the mindset of people against superstitions by performing moral theaters and music; c) Presentation of Iranian classical music by classical musicians from the capital in the area that introduced classical music to the Gilak people. These transformations caused the emergence of a modern urban culture, an amalgamation of urban transformation and preservation of the indigenous traditions in an effort to resist the influence of immigrant ethnic minority cultures. The first efforts for reclaiming and preserving the ethnic identity in the 1940s and the 1950s led to the birth of a hybrid and urbanized music. We call this period “the birth of the urban music of Gilân”. The musicians of this period tended to introduce a modernized indigenous music in competition with imported modernity, thus creating a kind of new exotic music which was unprecedented in the area. These efforts, consciously or unconsciously, caused the cultural border between the city and the countryside to become stronger and a new character to be created specifically in the urban settings. Although the music of the cities in Gilân originated in the rural tradition, it had changed so much that the final product could not be recognized as the original indigenous folk music. In the process of formation, this music has three influential factors that are recognized: a) development and growth of the middle class in cities that dreamed about modernity and pursued unprecedented desires; b) competition with foreign cultures such as Russian, Armenian, Georgian and Caucasian influences in order to introduce a modern local identity that could stand against cultural hegemony; c) and the role of the musicians of central Iran that prepared the first material of this music. Due to these cited factors, the music in urban Gilan accepted significant changes from different sources and re-shaped its music thus creating a new genre. The information of this research has been found by field research in addition to library resources such as books, articles, and notes available in various publication. Use of theoretical resources, especially non-Persian resources, have a key role in shaping the theoretical ideas of this project.