cinema trust Nyusha Tabibi wrote in Etamed newspaper:
1- Just a few weeks ago when Mr. Reza Qutbi passed away, many music fans remembered his management period and the services he gave to Iranian music. Although after the revolution and in that special atmosphere, many attributed to him westernization and the spread of western culture, but with the passage of time, it became clear that he was sensitive to the revival of national culture and art within the scope of his responsibility and authority and sometimes beyond that. And he did very important things in this field.
Among the very important works done by the late Mr. Reza Qutbi was the establishment of the “Iranian Music Preservation and Dissemination Center”. They provided an opportunity for the old generation of Iranian music masters to transfer their knowledge and experience to the new generation of Iranian musicians in a space away from livelihood concerns and other annoying factors. Both professors and students were paid to teach. It was in this center that great musicians such as Parviz Meshkatian, Mohammad Reza Lotfi, Mohammad Reza Shajarian, Hossein Alizadeh, Dariush Talai and many others were able to learn the tradition of Iranian music from the previous generation and then pass it on to the next generations as teachers. During the years of activity of this center – whose budget was provided by the radio and television of that day, other activities such as research and reconstruction of ancient works were also carried out.
Allocating time and studio and various facilities to record and broadcast the most famous works of Iranian music created a unique historical period. Still, after half a century of radio productions of the Fresh Flowers program – during the management period of Reza Qutbi on the Radio and Television Organization and Amirhoshang Ebtahaj on the radio music – we have not been able to produce collections of that quality. The orchestras that were formed like in all other countries with government funds and by competent and expert people, were regularly engaged in creating works, renovating old compositions and performing concerts and radio and television programs. Just listen to some examples of the works of Professor Payor and the culture and art group in the form of the fresh flowers program (for example, numbers 107, 133 and 158) to confirm my opinion.
The work of spreading Iranian music began in the following periods and despite all the hardships, the continuation of that path led to the production of very high quality works by the trainees of the Center for Preservation and Dissemination, the Faculty of Fine Arts and the Higher Conservatory of Music in the sixties and seventies. Works that can still be heard and praised today, and no one like them was ever made or performed.
2- Reading history in its communist and leftist way divides all people into two groups of bad and traitors and good and servants. Of course, our historiography and reading of history – like many other cultural affairs – has been influenced by the simplistic and linear view of the left’s historical reading until today. We read history in the way of stories in which a cruel tyrant whose life is full of corruption and blackness plays a role in front of a righteous person whose life is white and whose life is dedicated to the people. Or they have usually told us the description of the incessant atrocities of the ruler and the king, who had nothing to do but lust, eat, sleep, and sell the property and the nation to other people. You can see a clear example of this type of historiography, which is based on simplifying and promoting a linear narrative of historical periods, in the way of Mr. Khosrow Motazad. A narrative that has made its judgments in advance and based on the historical character and to what extent it is in harmony with the prevailing political opinion today, and based on this judgment, presents its historical narrative to the reader and listener.
A clear example is the narrative of Naser al-Din Shah’s character that has become popular in contemporary historiography. It has reached the point where the history falsifiers are completely illiterate and busy making stories about the life of this king, one percent of which are not true (of course, these silly stories have many customers on Instagram, YouTube, and social networks).
The fact is more or less that Naser al-Din Shah was a patriotic king, many development buildings were formed in his time and based on his understanding of new concepts. During his period, for about half a century, the people were a little relieved from chaos and civil war. The influence of the princes and rulers and their atrocities were slightly reduced (for example, when he was faced with the atrocities of his own brother, Ezz al-Doulah, the ruler of Hamedan, he dismissed him and did not give him anything until the end of his reign). He was neither a fun-loving and lustful king – as the Pahlavi and leftist historiography showed – nor a ruler without mistakes. It is true that the building of Dar al-Funun was laid by the late Mirza Taqi Khan Farahani, but it was with Naseruddin Shah’s special attention and follow-up that that plan and idea became a higher education institution and trained hundreds of people needed by various institutions of the country. Naser al-Din Shah was neither a traitor nor a patriot, in the most difficult world conditions and in one of the worst periods of Iran’s history, when the country was at its weakest, he managed the country and with the constraints of traditional monarchy and his understanding of modernization, he tried to keep the people safe. and keep comfortable. Undoubtedly, he had many mistakes, but he also did very important and good things. The first cultural institutions, the state translation center, the state consultative council, the printing house, and the state newspaper were established during his time. A look at the book of forty years of history (Al-Ma’athir wa Al-Athir) written by the late Etimad al-Sultaneh may shed light on some of his services during his reign.
3- Simplifying history and giving a one-sided and linear narrative is useful for propaganda and advertising. Knowing national history is necessary in order to understand the root of many issues today, just like a person’s psychological history, the past of a nation is effective in identifying the cause of its social behavior. Neither Reza Qutbi was an arrogant and promoter of decadent Western culture, nor was Naseruddin Shah Shahi a patriot and anti-Iranian. Both of them were the source of service to the country and without a doubt, they had errors in their records that should be read fairly.