Radif for Oud Musical Instrument by Mansour Nariman

Radif for Oud Instrument

The Book “Radif for Oud Musical Instrument” is written by Mansour Nariman. The oud is a short-neck lute-type, pear-shaped stringed instrument, usually with 11 strings grouped in 6 courses, but some models have 5 or 7 courses, with 10 or 13 strings respectively. The oud is very similar to modern lutes, and also to Western lutes. The modern oud is most likely derived from the Assyrian Lute. Radif is a collection of many old melodic figures preserved through many generations by oral tradition. It organizes the melodies in a number of different tonal spaces called dastgah. Mansour Nariman was born in 1314 in Mashhad. He learned to play the setar from his father and practiced as a musician for Radio Mashhad at the age of 14. With great effort, he was able to place the ancient oud instrument after half a century among Iranian musical and traditional instruments.