Also known as Colonel Vaziri, he was born on October 1, 1886 in Tehran. He entered the military and discovered martial music.
Vaziri studied elementary and high school in a French school in Iran and went to Germany and France to learn Western music.
He made a lot of research in music, so that the University of Tehran accepted him to teach arts and aesthetics. He also founded an orchestra for Iran’s radio and worked with national music association.
Among his notable service to Iran’s music can be mentioned the establishment of the School of Music in 1923. The school is especially praised for introducing many great musicians to Iran’s music history.
Vaziri made a number of disciples, including such great figures of Iranian traditional music as Abol-Hassan Saba, Rouhollah Khaleghi, Mousa Maroufi and Esmaeil Mehrtash.
Colonel Vaziri’s educational school made such a transition in Iranian music and its orchestration that all musicians of following generations were affected, says Bizhan Taraqqi, a renowned Iranian musician.
He also authored a number of books on music, including Dastar Tar and Theoretical Music. Vaziri also contributed to compositions of the first national anthem of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Vaziri promulgated writing notes for traditional Iranian music which had been conveyed orally for centuries or even millennia and tried to introduce the theoretical foundation of Western music to Iranian composers.
Competence in playing Tar and violin, writing a number of books, composing, leading orchestras, establishing School of Music, raising many disciples, founding a music club, running many concerts and holding various posts in Iranian musical organizations bespeak the great character of Vaziri.
He also established Vaziri Foundation to preserve and publish Iranian music works. The foundation went forgotten but was revived by Keyvan Saket years later.
“News and Documents on Colonel Ali-Naqi Vaziri” is a book authored by Mahdi Noormohammadi in 2017. The book has collected articles from newspapers from the late 19 century until the 1950s and documents from Iran’s National Library about the life and works of Vaziri.
Colonel Vaziri died on September 9, 1979 at the age of 92; however, his great influence in Iranian music remains alive for generations to come.
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