Musical Reformation: A research and critique on "the traditional music of Iran" with an approach to "the Iranian musical tradition" in contemporary times*

Basically Iranian music has always been connected to two important and fundamental terms. One of them is "musical tradition" and the other is "traditional music": the first term indicates a kind of historical identity and a firm foundation for traditional music, and traditional music is an embodiment of musical tradition. Even though the nature of them is constantly changing, the activeness and efflorescence of music depends on their cooperation throughout history.
At a glimpse, it can be seen that the traditional music of Iran has to a great extent distanced itself from the Iranian musical tradition in recent years, since it agrees with neither the essence of tradition which is based on evolution, nor what Iranian musical tradition advocates. The appearance of a variety of musical genres in contemporary times is a reflection of this disconnection. We need a reformation of traditional music to connect past with present, reconstruct the present in a way as not to be the same as the past nor destroy its links with time so that it can look toward the future. Because we do not want to give up our identity, nor will we accept to take on other discordant forms.