Seven Transformations: The Tanbour’s Journey from Persian Maqam to Orchestral Resonance

This artistic research investigates how the Iranian-Kurdish tanbour, a sacred instrument rooted in maqam-based musical traditions and connected to the ancient cultural history of the Susiana plain, can interact with contemporary Western orchestral practices. The project explores how the tanbour’s modal language, improvisational practices, and storytelling traditions can enter new musical contexts while maintaining its cultural identity. Structured around seven compositions inspired by Attar’s The Conference of the Birds, the project explores a musical journey in which each composition reflects a stage of transformation. Through storytelling, improvisation, composition, and collaboration, the research creates a dialogue between the tanbour and musicians from different musical traditions. The study contributes to intercultural music-making and artistic research by demonstrating how a culturally specific instrument can generate new forms of musical expression without losing its historical and spiritual grounding. Situated within artistic research and intercultural music practice, the project foregrounds dialogue between musical traditions and cultural perspectives.