Ostad Elahi began playing the tanbur at an early age, and it would remain a lifelong practice and companion: “There are two things on which my time was well-spent: the tanbur and spiritual practice.” 3 The essential thing about the tanbur, he would say, is to hear its celestial resonances, for “music should be considered as a means for establishing a spiritual connection, not as a goal in itself.” 4 Indeed, in addition to its remarkable aesthetic and artistic qualities, Ostad Elahi’s music is above all a means to directly connect one’s attention to the Creator and to animate and encourage the soul along its spiritual journey. To mark the addition of these instruments, two new remastered recordings- My Beginning and My End and Resilience-were released as a commemorative box set entitled The Musical Legacy of Ostad Elahi at the Met. Following the conclusion of The Sacred Lute: The Art of Ostad Elahi exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2015, 2 one of Ostad’s tanburs has been featured there in a showcase named “Famous Musicians” of the 20 th century. More recently, the museum expanded its collection by adding four additional instruments once owned by Ostad: a choghur (Turkish lute), a setar (Persian classical music lute), a Kurdish daf (a kind of tambourine), and a singular five-stringed tanbur. These instruments are on display in the vicinity of other world heritage musical treasures at the Met. Since the release of the first recordings on the centenary of his birth in 1995, 1 Ostad Elahi’s music has been the subject of numerous studies, publications, and events.
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