Reza Varzandeh was born in 1927 in Kashan, Iran. He was born to Morshed Varzandeh who was a famous musician in his time. Morshed Varzandeh exposed Reza to Iranian music from an extremely early age.
At age 7, Reza first started learning how to play the santoor.
By age 10, Varzandeh had mastered all of the "dastgahs" and "gooshes" in Persian music.
Eventually, Reza started to develop his own style when it came to the santoor.
One thing he did was to change the design of the santoor.
He made it longer and wider to improve the sound.
He also developed a method of "tanzeem-e-kharak" which involves changing the position of the columns that
hold the strings in order to change their pitch (traditionally one had to tune the strings to change "dastgahs").
He also changed the design of the "mezrabs" (wood pegs that hit the strings).
Instead of having a finger ocket, he made the handle straight and developed the "finger technique."
Instead of hitting the pegs with the wrists or arms, Varzandeh used his finger creating a much faster speed. Another accomplishment he had made was putting a towel on the santoor whenever he wanted to create a more mellow sound. Varzandeh never had a standard. He did something different everytime to create a certain mood. When Varzandeh played, one would think he wa talking.
Varzandeh's career started when Ghavami (a famous singer) visited Kashan. Ghavami was extremely amazed by this 17 year old boy.
From there Ghavami asked him to come to Tehran to play for "Radio-e-Artesh" (army's radio broadcast). Eventually, Varzandeh was asked to play santoor for Radio Tehran where he met all the top musicians of Iran: Abulhassan Saba, Morteza Mahjoubi, Hossein Tehrani, Faramarz Payvar, Mansour Yahaghi, Manouchehr Sadeghi, and Mansour Saremi.
From 1952 to 1972, Reza Varzandeh played for Radio Tehran on a formal basis where he had reached the peak of his career.
Many people discovered his talent during these 20 years.
Varzandeh was most greatly recognized for his improvisational skills.
He was able to create the certain mood he wanted by changing beats.
There were very few tombak players that could keep up with him.
His incredible talent had inspired many Iranian mucisians because he was able to bring in a new "sweet tone" into classical Persian music.
He lived the last years of his life as a poor man. Varzandeh passed away in 1977.
May he always be remembered.
Today, most people have forgotten his great achievments and other musicians' accomplishments that have gone unrecognized. Now few remain who have followed Varzandeh's footsteps. May them and all other musicians become recognized, for they are preserving a vital part of the Persian cultureNeema Hekmat
