Journey to Europe and Western Musical Education
Around the age of thirty, Vaziri traveled to Europe, studying in Germany and France. This journey was transformative. He immersed himself in Western classical traditions, attending conservatories and learning orchestration, conducting, and composition.
In Germany, he encountered the discipline of Germanic music theory, with its emphasis on harmony and structure. In France, he absorbed the lyrical, impressionistic styles of composers such as Debussy and Ravel, while also encountering French approaches to pedagogy.
This exposure not only gave Vaziri technical mastery of Western orchestral practices but also convinced him that Iranian music could be revitalized if it were adapted to modern methods. He began envisioning orchestras that could perform Iranian melodies with Western instrumentation, schools that could teach music systematically, and books that could codify Iran’s oral traditions into notation.
Founding the High School of Music
Upon returning to Tehran, Vaziri founded the High School of Music, an institution dedicated to teaching music along Western lines. He introduced systematic classes in theory, harmony, and composition, while also encouraging the study of Iranian instruments within this framework.
