This first CD, which contains recordings of Ostad Elahi’s improvisations on the tanbur, provides an overview of his art featuring playful and ecstatic suites (Jelo Shāhī and Saharī), a short meditative piece, and even a sung supplication (Sārū Khanī). 

Originally published on the occasion of the centennial of Ostad Elahi’s birth in 1995, this recording marks the first in the Le Chant du Monde collection. However, it should be noted that this body of work, produced with rudimentary technology and in less than favorable conditions, constitutes only a small fragment of Ostad’s vast repertoire.

A common, essential feature running throughout these pieces is the poetic expressiveness of Ostad Elahi’s celestial music, which is rooted in a tradition wherein poetry and music converge to describe spiritual states and celestial scenes. By virtue of its rhythmic nature, Persian poetry is musical itself, while sacred Persian music is inherently poetic inasmuch as its powers of expression are capable of suggesting spiritual states and celestial scenes. One such scene dear to Persian mystical poets is the communication between the soul and its Beloved, whose illustration is likewise sought in many modal developments of Persian music.