Mohsen Mohammadi
Mohsen Mohammadi is a Lecturer in the Digital Humanities program at UCLA, where he teaches courses on Digital Musicology. His work bridges the gap between historical musicology and computational analysis, applying digital tools to the study of Iranian music theory, history, and archival practice.
He earned his Ph.D. from Utrecht University, where his research challenged established historical narratives through data analysis. For his dissertation, he mined mode data from early 78rpm record labels and publications on Iranian music. Through this quantitative analysis, he demonstrated that the traditional modal system of twelve dastgāh was not an ancient, immutable structure, but was in fact consolidated during the first half of the twentieth century as a direct result of the commercial recording of Iranian music. This innovative research was recognized by the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC), which awarded him a Certificate of Merit for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research.
At UCLA, Dr. Mohammadi continues to pioneer projects in digital musicology. He received a grant from the Sambhi Foundation to initiate a web-based digital critical edition of the corpus of Persian texts on music, creating a vital resource for comparative study. Currently, he is working on a project to adapt the Music Encoding Initiative (MEI) standards for Iranian traditional music. This work focuses on encoding transcriptions of the radif (the traditional repertoire), developing specific schemas to accurately represent the unique symbols and notations used in various historical transcriptions of the tradition.
Beyond his research and teaching, he is an active collaborator across the UCLA campus. He has partnered with the Iranian Studies Program, the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies, the Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience, and the Center for Musical Humanities. In addition to his academic collaborations, he has curated performances with cultural institutions such as the Skirball Cultural Center and has contributed to several multimedia productions.
Research
Books:
2018: The Treatise on the Seven Dastgah of Iranian Music. Tehran: Miras Maktoob. https://bit.ly/3CiOMit
2017: Modal Modernities: Formations of Persian Classical Music and the Recording of a National Tradition (Ph.D. Dissertation) Paperback: https://www.amzn.com/1547227931 Free pdf: http://ow.ly/hq3V30eDmSf
2015: Musical Souvenirs: European Transcriptions of Persian Music (1600–1910). Tehran: Mahoor. (In English and Persian; Certificate of Merit in the
2016 Musicians Guild of Iran Biannual Award for Best Book in Research) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0802604803
2007: The Gramophone Company’s Persian Recordings, 1899 to 1934. Persian Edition in collaboration with Michael Kinnear. Tehran: Society for the Appreciation of Cultural Works and Dignitaries. https://bit.ly/3T4d6ve
Articles
2022: “Marche Triomphale: A Forgotten Musical Tract in Qajar-European Encounters.” Iranian Studies 55 (3). Cambridge University Press: 765–76. https://bit.ly/3R98AdG
2021: “Naqqareh-khaneh: Sonic Time Signifier.” Guest blogpost for Sonic Tehran Project. Edited by Laudan Nooshin. https://www.sonictehran.com/post/naqqareh-khaneh-sonic-time-signifier
2020 “The Bird of Dawn: An Iranian Jewish Musician in L.A.” In 100 Years of Sephardic Los Angeles, edited by Sarah Abrevaya Stein and Caroline Luce. Los Angeles: UCLA Leve Center for Jewish Studies. http://www.sephardiclosangeles.org/portfolios/the-bird-of-dawn
2016: “Chef de Musique or Chef de Macaroni: The Twisted History of the European Military Music in Persia.” Rivista Italiana di Musicologia (Journal of the Italian Society of Musicology). V 51, 51-88. http://ow.ly/A1gq30eDhhF
2010: “Persian Records by the Lindström Company: Triangle of Political Relationships, Local Agents and Recording Company.” In The Lindström Project, Contributions to the history of the record industry, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Schallplattenindustrie. Eds. Pekka Gronow, Christiane Hofer. Wien: Gesellschaft für Historische Tonträger. pp 121-8. http://ow.ly/X4Tq30eDhmZ
2006: “Qand-i Pārsī: An Introduction to Twenty Persian Texts on Indo-Persian
Music.” Journal of the Indian Musicological Society. V 36-37, 40-60. http://ow.ly/dLfg30eDldT
2022: Avanegar: The History of Music Transcription in Iran. In collaboration with Behrouz Jamali. Washington D.C.: Dimension Media Production. https://youtu.be/2qykdstaqSU
2014: Let No One Judge You: Early Recordings From Iran, 1906-1933. London: Honest Jon’s Records. http://amzn.com/B00HCO8L6W
2013 Basteh-Negar: Early Recordings by Iranian Female Singers. A collaboration with Fateme Ahmadi. London: BBC (Persian Service). https://youtu.be/DzbmG59TbjI
Articles in Persian: https://ucla.academia.edu/Mohammadi