Sorna and dohol

In the mountains and valleys of western Iran, from Kurdistan through Kermanshah, Ilam and Lorestan to the Bakhtiari lands of the Zagros, the sound of a celebration is the sorna and the dohol. The sorna, also called zurna or karna in some places, is a conical shawm of wood with a double reed, played with circular breathing so that its piercing tone never stops. The dohol is a large double-headed cylindrical drum, struck on one side with a heavy stick and on the other with a thin switch, giving a deep beat against a sharp crack. Together they can be heard across a valley.

The pair are usually played by professional musicians, often from families who have practised the art for generations. In Lur and Bakhtiari society these musicians, called tushmal or by other local names, were long attached to tribal communities, playing at weddings, at the circumcision feasts of boys, at harvest and at festivals, and their repertoire of pieces is linked to particular moments in each ceremony.

The dance

Wherever the sorna and dohol play, people dance, men and women together in many communities. The Lur and Bakhtiari dance is often called chupi: dancers link arms or little fingers in a line or a curving circle, stepping and dipping in unison, while the leader at the head of the line, the chupi-kesh or sar-chupi, waves a coloured handkerchief and sets the pattern. Among the Kurds, the line dance known as halparke or govend takes many regional forms. The Bakhtiari also have a stick dance, chub-bazi or tarka-bazi, in which two men spar with sticks to the music, one attacking, one defending, a contest of skill and grace.

Music for mourning

The same instruments also serve grief. In Lorestan and Ilam, a funeral may be accompanied by the chamar, a mourning music played on sorna and dohol whose slow, heavy rhythm marks the passing of a respected person. Mourners may dance a slow, measured step, and laments are sung by women. That the instruments of the wedding also carry the funeral is part of their meaning: they mark the great moments of a life in a community, whatever those moments are. In some villages an elder can still name the piece once played for each stage of a wedding, from the fetching of the bride to the last dance.

Shawm-and-drum ensembles are found across a huge area, from the Balkans to Central Asia and India, and in the Iranian world they are played by Azerbaijanis, Turkmen, Baluch, Gilaks and others in their own styles. In the Zagros the pair remain a living tradition, recorded and studied but above all still played wherever people gather to celebrate. Musicians from families of sorna players have also carried the repertoire to concert stages and festivals in Iran and abroad.