Abolhasan Saba

Abolhasan Saba was born into an aristocratic scholarly family in Tehran and studied classical Persian music under Mirza Abdollah and Darvish Khan, while mastering Western violin technique under Ali-Naqi Vaziri. In 1927, he directed the newly established music academy in Rasht, traversing the villages of Gilan to collect rare folk melodies.

Saba was a musical genius who adapted the violin to play Persian dastgah music with sublime microtonal delicacy, glissandi, and ornamentation without sacrificing traditional modal purity. He authored the foundational method books for violin and santur, and trained virtually every major Iranian master of the mid-20th century, including Faramarz Payvar and Rahmatollah Badie.