69 – Gel va Dara (“Bringing Back”)

Range: C, D, E, F, G, A, B♭, C

Lavach (sections): First avaz (unmetered vocal section) and introduction of the maqam, first zemzemeh (humming passage), second zemzemeh, second avaz, third avaz and third zemzemeh.

Time signatures in the metric sections: 7/8.

Tuning: Haft Dastan or Barz (C, C, G)

This maqam, too, is one of the majlesi maqams of the tanbur, the secular melodic-modal pieces played at gatherings. According to Ali Akbar Moradi, Gel va Dara means “bringing back”, in the sense that with beautiful singing and playing we keep someone who is departing from leaving. Heydar Kaki, too, writes: “In former times this maqam was played to restore the divine glory (farr-e izadi) to the great figures of religion and politics, and there are two accounts of this:

1- Like that part of the Shahnameh (“The Book of Kings”) in which Sam, the world-hero, brings the divine glory back for King Jamshid, because before that King Jamshid had claimed to be God and the divine glory had departed from him.

2- The other account is that a man named Seyed Darvish sang this maqam for his brother, who had left Dalahu in anger, in the hope of keeping him from leaving.”

The lavach (sections) of this maqam are: 1- First avaz and introduction of the maqam 2- First zemzemeh 3- Second zemzemeh 4- Second avaz 5- Third avaz 6- Third zemzemeh.