Music of Iran

Music of Iran

The music of Iran has thousands of years of history, as seen in the archeological documents of Elam, one of the earliest world culture, which was located in southwestern Iran. A distinction needs to be made between the science of Music or Musicology which as a branch of mathematics has always been held in high regards in Persia/Iran; as opposed to Music performance, which has had an uneasy and often acrimonious relationship with the religious authorities and, in times of religious revival, with society as a whole.

The history of music construction in Iranian culture

The history of musical performance in Sassanid Iran is however better documented than earlier periods. This is specially more evident in the context of Zoroastrian ritual.By the time of Xusro parviz, the Sassanid royal court was the host of prominent musicians such as Ramtin, Bamshad, Nakisa, Azad, Sarkash, and Barbad. Among these survived names, Barbad is remembered in much documents and has been named as remarkably high skilled. He has been credited to have given an organisation of musical system consisting of seven "Royal modes" named Xosrovani, thirty derivated modes named lahn, and 360 melodies named dastan. These numbers are in accordance with Sassanid's calendar of number of days in a week, month, and year.The theories based on which these modal system was based are not known, however the writers of later period have left a list of these modes and melodies. These names include some of epic forms such as kin-e Iraj, kin-e siavash, and Taxt-e Ardashi and some connected with the glories of Sassanid royal court such as Bagh-e shirin, Bagh-e Shahryar, and haft Ganj. There are also some of a descriptive nature like roshan cheragh.