Mahmudi Khwansari

Mahmudi Khwansari, Mahmud (1934-1987)

Vocalist specializing in classical Persian singing (awaz) as well as ballads (tasnif), he stands on a par with the four other male singers who performed in the Golha programmes: Banan, Shahidi, Qavami, and Gulpayigani. Born into a family of traditional Muslim clerics all known for their fine voices, he received a religious scholar’s education at traditional schools in his hometown Khwansar. In the art of singing, he was largely self-educated, having learned his art listening to gramophone records made by master vocalists. He initially began singing on Radio Shiraz  round about 1958 and then later on went on to perform on Radio Tehran, where he made a name for himself in the musical circles as being a talented vocalist whose powerfully emotional delivery was imbued with deep mystical feelings. His vocal artistry attracted the attention of Davud Pirnia, at whose suggestion the most prominent soloists performing in the Golha, including Murtaza Mahjubi, Farhang Sharif, Parviz Yahaqqi, and Riza Varzanda, were commissioned to accompany him in a series of some of its most famous programmes. Later on, when he was at the zenith of his career, he was accompanied by Asadu’llah Malik and Habibu’llah Badi‘i in numerous programmes. He hardly ever sang any popular lyrical tunes, folksongs or light ballads (tasnif/ tarana); rather his performances reflect his sublime sensibility and hard to please taste. He also selected certain melodies at the close of each program and performed them with his own innovations in rhythmical forms. 

Not only his artistic expression but also his lifestyle was imbued with a passionate mystical sensitivity, suffering and self-mortification. He became a kind of model unrivalled among contemporary musicians in his own generation for incarnating a living spirituality – and this caused his singing and life to have far greater impact both on musicians and the masses. In selecting lyrics for the songs that he sung, he was extremely careful and scrupulous to choose poetry that faithfully reflected his own mystical sensitivities, spiritual humours and sorrows. He regarded himself indebted to the Golha programmes broadcast under the supervision of Davud Pirnia and Hushang Ibtihaj and maintained that the Golha was the only place that provided a safe haven for true artists, acknowledging each his proper place and value; these  programmes, he used to say, were a refuge where Sufi artists like him, indifferent to television, cinema, cabarets and enormous incomes, could freely express their mystical states and feelings. From this point of view it might be said that the Golha programmes and Mahmudi Khwansari brought acclaim to each other.

Numerous performances featuring Mahmudi Khwansari’s singing have been released. Most of these albums include the Golha programmes and some of them feature private performances recorded in friends’ homes. His vocal delivery reflects his own mystical humour that manifests profound sorrow and melancholy and which is expressed in a style eloquently befitting his deeply spiritual character.  Living in poverty and celibacy, his life turned into a full-scale tragedy following the Revolution in 1979 when retirement that was enforced upon all artists. He performed his very last programme on Radio Tehran in the autumn of 1979, in which he was accompanied by Ahmad ‘Ibadi performing on the setar. After this, a series of afflictions and ailments reduced him to complete misery: isolation, poverty, and especially, being forbidden to perform by the regime in power, even though at the same time, the most prominent masters of the previous generation of the Golha artists still celebrated and praised him. His biography titled Murgh-i Shabahang (“Nightingale”) was written by Hamid Bahrayni (Tehran: Fikr-i Ruz 1997). His released albums include a cassette titled Avaz-i Mahmudi Khwansari (Tehran: Surush 1998). 

Sayyid ‘Ali Riza Mir‘alinaqi