A microtonal national anthem?

I have been following the events in Iran lately; my ex-wife and her family are from there, and I've studied the Farsi language and the radif a little myself. I have been wondering something: if "Ey Iran" ever became the country's official national anthem, that might make it the world's only anthem that can't be played properly in 12-equal temperament. I think, and I've read, that it uses Dastgah-e Shur, which in the key of E is: E F> G A B C D E, where > is the sori, a sharp-fraction of roughly between 33 and 50 cents (or two commas in 53-et).

The patriotic tune, which was composed by Ruhollah Khaleqi in 1946 with lyrics by Hossein Gol-e Golab, was Iran's _de facto_ anthem briefly in 1979 after the Shah was driven from power, but now has become a song of protest. The sound file is an 1990 arrangement by Golnoosh Khaleghi, along with the mandatory Wikipedia article:

http://www.iranian.com/Music/Patriotic/Audio/EyIran.mp3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ey_Iran

One could perform the anthem of an Arab state in Maqam Rast or Bayati, especially if that was the intent of the composer in the first place, but you know, you always hear the versions performed with Western orchestral instruments at the Olympics and such events. And maybe the Thai anthem could be performed in that country's quasi-7-et scale...

~D.
http://ludwigvan-tx.livejournal.com
http://www.last.fm/music/Danny+Wier/

Hi freinds

From bloody iran ….. between fire and crowd of millions of peoples and their cries "Where is my vote?"

Ey-iran is composed in "Avaz-e-dashti " which is a mode of "dastgah-e-shur"

And also you can play it in 12-EDO with orchestral instruments.

Shaahin mohajeri , Tombak player and microtonalist

My microtonal web site <http://www.96edo.com/>

Shaahin in wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaahin_Mohajeri>

My farsi page in harmonytalk <http://www.harmonytalk.com/mohajeri>

Irandrumz ensemble <http://irandrumz.googlepages.com/>

وبلاگ "روايتي براي تمبك" <http://acousticsoftombak.blogfa.com/>

*********

www.kayson-ir.com <http://www.kayson-ir.com/>

2288 Iranzamin bldg Iranzamin Ave.

Shahrak Qods, Tehran 14656, Iran
Telephone: (9821) 88072501-9

Fax: (9821) 88072500
Email: shahinm@... <mailto:shahinm@kayson-ir.com>

P Please consider the environment before printing this mail note.

Thanks, Shahin; I was thinking to ask you, but I wasn't sure you could get online. Glad you're okay. ~D.

----- Original Message -----
From: Mohajeri Shahin
To: tuning@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, 19 June, 2009 01:22
Subject: [tuning] Re:A microtonal national anthem?

Hi freinds

From bloody iran ….. between fire and crowd of millions of peoples and their cries "Where is my vote?"

Ey-iran is composed in "Avaz-e-dashti " which is a mode of "dastgah-e-shur"

And also you can play it in 12-EDO with orchestral instruments.

On Jun 19, 2009, at 7:22 AM, Mohajeri Shahin wrote:
> From bloody iran ….. between fire and crowd of millions of peoples
> and their cries "Where is my vote?"

With all our heart we wish you that this situation leads to something
good.

Best
Torsten

--
Torsten Anders
Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research
University of Plymouth
Office: +44-1752-586219
Private: +44-1752-558917
http://strasheela.sourceforge.net
http://www.torsten-anders.de

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Torsten Anders <torsten.anders@...> wrote:
>
> On Jun 19, 2009, at 7:22 AM, Mohajeri Shahin wrote:
> > From bloody iran ….. between fire and crowd of millions of
> > peoples and their cries "Where is my vote?"
>
> With all our heart we wish you that this situation leads to
> something good.
>
> Best
> Torsten

Exactly what I wanted to say. I am forever a foolish optimist,
and don't have any idea whether vote fraud took place or not,
but I think this will indeed, with a little time, lead to
something good.

-Carl

By the way, I don't see a piece called Ey-iran on
Shahin's website. Am I missing it? -Carl

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Danny Wier" <dawiertx@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks, Shahin; I was thinking to ask you, but I wasn't sure
> you could get online. Glad you're okay. ~D.
>

From: "Carl Lumma" <carl@...>

> By the way, I don't see a piece called Ey-iran on
> Shahin's website. Am I missing it? -Carl

It's in the Wikipedia article in the original message of mine. ~D.

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Danny Wier" <dawiertx@...> wrote:
>
> From: "Carl Lumma" <carl@...>
>
> > By the way, I don't see a piece called Ey-iran on
> > Shahin's website. Am I missing it? -Carl
>
> It's in the Wikipedia article in the original message of mine. ~D.
>

Sorry! I see now that Shahin was answering your question
about the anthem.

-Carl