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Historical background of
Persia and Persian Music
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Periods in Persian History
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Map of the Achaemenian Empire |
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ANCIENT Period |
MEDIEVAL Period |
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RENAISSANCE Period |
MODERN Period |
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ANCIENT Period |
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from : Classical
Persian Music by Ella Zonis |
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Achaemenid
empire
Greek conquest and cultural influence
during Parthian dynasty
Sassanian
empire |
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6th to
4th centuries B.C.
4th century b.c.
to
2nd century a.d.
3rd to 7th centuries |
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From the
Sassanian
period
(third to seventh century
a.d.) survive
the earliest native Persian sources relating to music.
These give names of musicians, their activities,
and descriptions
of
the instruments they played.
The most famous Sassanian musician was
Barbad, court musician to King Khosros II
(591-628 A.D.), who became legendary for his virtuosity, for the richness of
his interpretations,
and for some significant numbers of
musical compositions and systems. |
Barbad is said to have written 360 banquet melodies for the
king, 30 lahn (Modulation
forms) and 7 Khusrovania which corresponded to
the 360 days of the year, the 30 days of the month and the 7
days of the week . What these
were is unknown, but it is thought that the Khusrovania were
modes, and thus Barbad is credited with inventing the
Persian musical system of Seven Dastgah. |
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| MEDIEVAL Period |
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from : Classical
Persian Music by Ella Zonis |
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Islamic
conquest and cultural influence
Turkish and Mongolian
conquests |
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7th to
10th centuries
11th to 15th centuries |
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With the coming of Islam to
Iran
there occurred a most important confluence of
two musics, Arabian and Persian. A
closeness between them persisted for at least two centuries,
especially during the Golden Age of the Abbasid caliphate at
Baghdad.
Historians of Persian art are fond of the doctrine that the
Arabs, coming straight from the desert to
a more advanced civilization in Persia, adopted
the art and music of the vanquished culture. Moreover,
Persian musicians claim that Persian music must have
strongly influenced Arabian
music because Persian musicians were favored in the Arab
royal courts, Persian instruments were introduced, and a
great deal of Persian musical terminology came into Arabic
music. Arab musicians, on the other hand, feel that their
music |
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was
the basis for Persian music because there are equally as
many Arabic words used in
Persian music terminology.
The Islamic period produced more writings on music
than any other.
The monumental Kitab al Aghani by Abul Faraj
al-Isfahani (897-967), now in a twenty-one volume
edition, lists the virtuosi of the period and the music they
played—a sort of Grove's dictionary of the day.
During the twelfth century, many works of
Farabi (873-950) and Avicenna or Ibne Sina
(980-1037),
translated into Latin, were used in European Universities.
Among his several works on music, the greatest is the
Kitab al musiqi al Kabir (Grand Book on Music) in which Farabi
discusses every known
aspect of music. |
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| RENAISSANCE
Period |
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from : Classical
Persian Music by Ella Zonis |
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Safavid kingdom |
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16th to 18th centuries |
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After many centuries of foreign domination, the Safavid
dynasty produced a renaissance of
Persian culture. But whereas examples of Safavid
architecture and fine arts are well known, it appears that
the Safavid period is one of the low points in the history
of Persian music.
In their attempts to solidify the country and to create an
independent political unit, the Safavid rulers reemphasized
religion, which had been relatively absent from politics
since before the
tenth century.
In Safavid Persia,
music became the province of illiterate entertainers, who
were accorded the rank of laborer and in contemporary
accounts are even called "laborers of pleasure" (Amaleh
tarab). |
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Among the upper classes, those with musical talent who might
otherwise have become professionals remained amateurs,
practicing their art in private.
Social
disapproval of music remained in marked contrast to the
honoring of musicians in Sassanian times and to the great
respect the musical profession held during
the early Islamic period. some writers also called the following
centuries as a Dark age in Persian music, until
Vaziri reestablished Persian music on a scientific basis
in 1923. |
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