Rabbana
"Rabbana", or "Shajarian's Rabbana", is one of the revered works of Mohammad-Reza Shajarian, consisting of four supplications taken from the Qur'an. It is performed in the Segāh modal system, and each supplication begins with the phrase Rabbana.
The piece was recorded in July 1979, and for 30 years it was one of the main broadcasts of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting during the Islamic month of Ramadan. In May 2017, the piece was inscribed as a piece of Iran's intangible cultural heritage, with the registration number 1396.
According to Shajarian, because people had long been accustomed to hearing Seyyed Javad Zabihi’s rendition of the supplication Rabbana at iftar time, he composed a new version by adding two more Qur’anic verses and recorded it at a Radio Iran studio. His main motivation was to teach the piece to students who were to recite supplications on national television before iftar.
Mohammad-Reza Shajarian performed this supplication as a training version for his students to practice, unaware of its potential to rise to popularity.
Composition
In 1979, transformations were underway in the music department of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, and the management was considering halting music production. During this time, Shajarian advocated for retaining talented staff in the music department.The leader of IRIB asked Shajarian to create a new piece suitable for broadcast before iftar in light of the political and religious shifts in Iran. Shajarian initially declined, saying he had been away from such content for years, but the director insisted: "Only you can do this—we have no one else." At that time, Shajarian had transferred from the Ministry of Agriculture to IRIB and was formally a National Iranian Radio and Television employee. He agreed and in the summer of 1979, started a training course for students who were to recite Dua al-Sahar and supplications. Soon after, he began recording the pieces.
Form
Shajarian performed the piece in the Segah dastgah. Throughout the piece, the melody modulates into other dastgāhs and āvāzes of the Persian radif tradition, including Āvāz-e Afshāri, but ultimately returns to Segāh.Rabbana was released as part of Shajarian’s album “Be Yād-e Pedar”.
This rendition is nearly devoid of vocal ornaments known as tahrir and, aside from a few pitches, is primarily performed using glissando and vibrato techniques. It begins with tones around B♭ and ascends to C, staying largely within this range, and reaches its peak note at E♭.
Reception
- Mustafa Ghalwash, a renowned Egyptian qāriʾ, heard Shajarian’s Rabbana during his trip to Iran. He initially kept a copy of it for inspiration but later remarked that reciting it is not within the ability of just any singer.
- Hushang Ebtehaj, an Iranian poet, regarded Rabbana as both an unearthly work and “Shajarian’s great masterpiece,” saying that no one—not even Shajarian himself—could perform it the same way again.
- Shahram Nazeri, an Iranian singer and musician, stated that from a performance standpoint Rabbana is unmatched. He then expressed his long-held wish that it had been delivered with a more distinctly Iranian tone and style, believing it could have deeply influenced the expressive traditions of future generations of Iranian vocalists.
- Gholam Kuwaitipour, a religious vocalist, stated: “If you recite God’s word with love and listen to it with love, your body cannot help but tremble. I don’t recall ever hearing Shajarian’s *Rabbana* without being overwhelmed. Like many of his other works, Rabbana is immortal and part of our cultural and artistic heritage.”
- Ali Khamenei: “...those ‘Rabbana’ recitations sung by Shajarian and aired before maghrib during Ramadan are artistic productions; they are not spiritually-charged pieces. It is not appropriate to broadcast something like that after the adhan. I believe the ordinary, local voice from the mosque is more suitable and fitting after the adhan.”