He proposed this reformulation to fascilitate the composition of polyphonic pieces in a system which was traditionally monophonic. This conception of Persian music was published by Ali Naqi Vaziri in his Musiqi-ye Nazari. In response to this pressure, and in a misdirected effort to "raise" Persian music to the level of Western music, two theories on the intervals and scales of Persian music were proposed in the twentieth century:
The Pahlavi Dynasty brought with it an intense push towards westernisation. The modern dastgah system, a codification and reorganisation of the old modes, dates back to the late Qajar dynasty. The imperial courts of the Safavid and Qajar dynasties did patronize the arts, however, maintaining a faint link to the traditions of the past. Social power for the next few centuries was dominated by Shiite clerics who frowned on musical expression, and were responsible for its suppression. Abu Ali Sina, Safiaddin Ormavi, who codified the mode into twelve divisions with six melodies also lived at this time. Abu Nasr Farabi, whose Kitab al-musiqi al-kabir laid the foundations of the musical tradition of the core Muslim world, for example worked at the royal court in Baghdad.
This increasingly secular dynasty re-established music at the courts, and Iranian musicians were scattered throughout the Muslim world. Musical activity was suppressed during this period.Ībbasid dynasty (A.D. Its enduring heritage is the names given to some dastgahs in the modern system of Persian music.Īrab Invasion (A.D. This was the oldest Middle Eastern musical system of which some traces still exist. Barbod, the most famous of these court musicians, reportedly conceived a musical system consisting of seven royal modes, thirty derivative modes, and three-hundred sixty melodies. Exalted status was conferred to court musicians. However, little else is known about musical activity in the Persian Empire. The writing of Herodotus and Xenophon suggests that music played an important role in court life and religious rituals during this period. See: Iranian Traditional Music InstrumentsĪchaemenid Dynasty (550-331 B.C.). The following example, in which all of the instruments play the same melodic line is typical of Persian music. Click on the names or pictures to read a description and to hear a sound sample.Įven though they have unique voicings, these instruments are intertwined in the ensemble to maintain a monophonic texture. The most important instruments are listed below. These groups typically consist of the singer, one or two accompanying melodic instruments (either of kamanche, tar, santur, setar, or nay) and perhaps a rhythmic instrument, such as the dombak, or the now rarer daf. Iranian classical music is usually performed by small ensembles of variable size. It has a design similar to the pishdaramad, and is usually placed immediately before the reng. The third instrumental form is the reng, which is a simple dance piece that is usually played at the conclusion of the dastgah.
Cheharmezrab is a solo piece, mostly with a fast tempo, and is usually based on the melody immediately preceding it. It may be in duple, triple, or quadruple time, and it draws its melody from some of the important gushehs of the piece. Pishdaramad was invented by a great master of the tar, Darvish Khan, and was inteded as a prelude to the daramad of a dastgah. The instrumental forms are pishdaramad, cheharmezrab, and reng. There are three instrumental forms and one vocal form in Persian music. Also, Iranian music is unique in the Middle Eastern tradition in that the different melodic phrases, or gushes are supposed to model the rhythmic stamp and melodic pattern of poetry.Vocal parts are often decorated with Tahrir, a vocal ornamentation similar to yodeling.The tempo is often rapid, and the ornamentation is dense.Emphasis is on cadence, symmetry, and motivic repetition at different pitches.Melodic movement occurs by conjunct steps.Melodies are concentrated on a relatively narrow register.The following are characteristics which distinguish Persian music from other Central Asian music: There are a number of substantial pauses in each piece.The use of microtones divides the scales into more than twelve semi-tones.The execution of the melodic types are left up to the musician. The music is based upon a modal system with each mode engendering different melodic types, called gushehs in Farsi.The music is mainly monophonic, with each instrument in an ensemble following one melodic scheme.The following characteristics are shared between Iranian and other Central Asian music: An introduction to Iranian Classical Music