(b Tehran, 1902; d Tehran, 1957). Iranian violinist, composer and teacher. He was a competent performer on many instruments including the setār, the santur, the kamāncheh and the tombak, but in later life was identified above all as the foremost violinist of his time. He began his musical training when only six years old. His earliest teacher was Mirza Abdollah, who is credited with the definitive organization of the dastgāhs of Persian classical music.
In 1924 Saba enrolled in Ali Naqi Vaziri’s newly established music school, where he learnt about the theory of Western music and was attracted to Vaziri’s ideas for a reform of Persian music on European lines. In 1927 Vaziri founded a branch of his music school in Rasht in the Gilan Province and installed Saba as its principal. During his three years in Gilān, Saba collected folksongs from that region which he submitted to Western notation; he was the first Iranian to do research on the folk music of his country.
In the 1930s Saba began to establish a reputation as a violinist and a private teacher. In his violin playing he combined the versatility of Western technique with the subtle nuances and embellishments of traditional music, making for a highly individual and effective style. He trained a large number of violinists, many of whom became performers and teachers. He also occasionally accepted pupils for other instruments; the most notable among these is the santur virtuoso Faramarz Payvar.
Beginning in 1933 and continuing throughout the 1940s, several disc recordings were made of Saba’s renditions of various dastgāhs, and of his original compositions; they are striking representations of Persian violin style. He published several important books on the method of violin playing as well as four volumes on the method of santur performance and one book on the study of setār. These publications contain notations of selected gushehs from a number of dastgāhs.
HORMOZ FARHAT