Qamar-ol-Moluk Vaziri ( fa, قمرالملوک وزیرى ; 1905 – 5 August 1959), born Qamar Khanum Seyed Hosayn Khan ( fa, قمر خانم سید حسین خان), commonly known as "Qamar" ( fa, قمر ), was a celebrated
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
ian singer, who was also the first woman of her time to sing in public in Iran without wearing a veil. She is known as "the Queen of Persian music".
Singing with the vocal range of a
mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; ; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C ...
, she was revered for her mastery of the repertoire of Persian vocal music (
radif-e âvâz), especially her sensitive rendition of
tasnif Tasnif ( fa, تصنيف) is one of the several forms of Persian music and can be considered as the Persian equivalent of the ballad. It is a composed song in a slow metre. As is true of other forms of musical composition, most tasnifs are of relativ ...
and tarâna.
Life and career
Qamar was born in
Takestan
Siadehan or Siaden ( Tati: , ''Siyâden''), also known as Takestan ( fa, تاكستان ''Tâkestân''), is a city and capital of Takestan County, in Qazvin Province, Iran. At the 2011 census its population was 120,907. Takestan has a railway s ...
, a city in Iran. Her father died before she was born, and after her mother's death from
typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...
when she was one and a half years old, she was raised by her grandmother, rowzeh-khân (singer of
soaz
{{Husayn
Soaz or soz (Persian and Urdu: سوز) is an elegiac poem written to commemorate the honor of Husain ibn Ali and his family and Sahabah in the battle of Karbala. In its form the soaz, salam and Marsiya, with a rhyming quatrain and a coup ...
) at the
darbar of
Naser al-Din Shah Qajar
Naser al-Din Shah Qajar ( fa, ناصرالدینشاه قاجار; 16 July 1831 – 1 May 1896) was the fourth Shah of Qajar Iran from 5 September 1848 to 1 May 1896 when he was assassinated. He was the son of Mohammad Shah Qajar and Malek ...
,
Mollâ Khayr-ol-Nesâ' Eftekhâr-ol-Zâkerin (the latter name was bestowed on her by the king, meaning "Glory of the Narrators").
Qamar later recalled attending her grandmother's singing at the mosque, among the experiences which inspired her to become a singer.
She began her career in singing at age 19 in 1924 when she performed at the Grand Hotel in Tehran. When she performed she was among men and without the veil. During another performance at the Palace Theater in Tehran, again without the veil, she was accompanied by
Morteza Neidavoud
Morteza Neidavoud ( fa, مرتضی نیداوود) (1900–1990) was a prominent master of Persian classical music and a soloist of ''tar''. His 1927 Morq-e sahar (''Dawn bird'') is one of the most famous Persian songs which has been performe ...
, who she had met when she was 16, just a few years earlier. He encouraged her to study music under his tutelage and she studied and performed in 1924. Vaziri and Neydavood worked a lot together during her 3 decade long career and in 1956 accompanied her for her farewell performance. Her existing birth certificate, issued in Tehran in 1925, legally records her first name as "Qamar-ol-Moluk" and her last name as changed from "Seyed Hosayn Khân" to "Vazirizâdeh", a name she chose for herself in honor of the musician and theoretician of music
Ali-Naqi Vaziri
Ali-Naqi Vaziri, also transcribed as Ali Naghi Vaziri (Persian: علی نقی وزیری) (October 1, 1886 in Tehran, Persia – September 9, 1979) was a composer, thinker and a celebrated player of the tar. He is considered a revolutionary i ...
.
[
Vaziri retired from singing in 1956, having worked for over 30 years with songwriters and poets in Iran, such as Morteza Neydavud, and having been recorded on several gramophone discs. She had often sung for charity and for the poor in Iran as well. She devoted her last years to philanthropic activities, as Zobeideh Jahangiri recalls them in ''A Moon Which Became The Sun'' ( fa, قمری که خورشید شد / ''Qamar-i Keh Xoršid Šod'').
Vaziri died in 1959 in ]Shemiran
Shemirān ( fa, شمیران, , also Romanized as Shemīrān or Šemirân), also known as Shemirānāt ( fa, شمیرانات ) is the capital of Shemiranat County, Tehran Province, Iran, but is actually located just north of the borders of Teh ...
. She is buried at Zahir o-dowleh
Zahir-od-dowleh Cemetery ( fa, ظهيرالدوله) is located in Darband, close to Tajrish, Shemiran (now a neighbourhood inside Tehran's city limits) and many Iranian artists, poets and musicians are buried there.
Notable burials
* Ali Kh ...
cemetery. Contrary to popular belief that she died poor, she received a monthly salary of 800 tomans during the years preceding her death, which was about the salary of a high ranking university teacher.
See also
*No Land's Song
''No Land's Song'' ( fa, آواز بیسرزمین / ''Âvâz-e Bi-Sarzamin'') is a 2014 Iranian documentary film written and directed by Ayat Najafi, starring Sara Najafi, Parvin Namazi, Sayeh Sodeyfi, Emel Mathlouthi, Elise Caron, and Jeanne C ...
* Persian women musicians
*Persian women's movement
The Iranian Women's Rights Movement (Persian: جنبش زنان ایران), is the social movement for women's rights of the women in Iran. The movement first emerged after the Iranian Constitutional Revolution in 1910, the year in which the ...
*Varto Terian
Varto Terian (; May 11, 1896 – October 2, 1974) also known by the pseudonym LaLa, was an Iranian-born Armenian actress and educator. She was Iran’s first stage actress of theater.
Early life and education
Varto Terian was born on May 11, 1 ...
Notes
External links
QAMAR-AL-MOLUK VAZIRI
Encyclopædia Iranica
A moon in the sky of Iranian music
(BBC Persian)
*A rare photograph of Ghamar ol-Molouk
"Aman az in Del"
sung by Ghamar on Iraj Mirza
Prince Iraj Mirza ( fa, ایرج میرزا, literally ''Prince Iraj''; October 1874 – 14 March 1926) (titled Jalāl-ol-Mamālek, fa, جلالالممالک), son of prince Gholam-Hossein Mirza, was a famous Iranian poet. He was a modern p ...
's death
* A moon became the sun Publisher Ketab Co. 2015
1905 births
1959 deaths
Iranian musicians
People from Tehran
Singers from Tehran
Iranian women poets
People from Takestan
Iranian folk singers
Iranian women singers
Persian-language singers
20th-century Iranian poets
20th-century women singers
People from Qazvin Province
20th-century Iranian singers
20th-century Iranian women singers
People of Pahlavi Iran
{{Iran-singer-stub