Connection of Persian literature with music

Homayoon Kazemi

This presentation is divided into three main sections :

Persian Literature

Persian Music

Persian Literature + Music

Brief note on persian history :

The persian empire was a series of imperial dynasties centered in Iran spanning from the Achaemenid
era (6th century BC) till the Pahlavi dynasty(1979) after the Pahlavi dynasty the 2500 years of continues
Persian monarchy was overthrown and abolished as a result of the
Iranian revolution .

Cyrus the great was the founder of Achaemenid Empire, the first Persian Empire.Under his rule, the
empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East , expanded vastly and
eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much of Central Asia and the Caucasus.

Cyrus the Great respected the customs and religions of the lands he conquered. This became a very
successful model for centralized administration and establishing a government working to the advantage
and profit of its subjects.

Cyrus the Great is also well recognized for his achievements in human rights, politics, and military
strategy, as well as his influence on both Eastern and Western civilizations .(The Cyrus cylinder is
debatable proof of that )

Persian Literature :
Persian literature is one of the world’s oldest literature , It spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of
the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its sources have been within Greater Iran including present-day
Iran, Iraq, the Caucasus, and Turkey, regions of Central and South Asia where the Persian language has
historically been either the native or official language. For instance, Mowlana Rumi, one of best-loved
Persian poets, born in Balkh or Vakhsh (in what is now Afghanistan), wrote in Persian, and lived in Konya,
then the capital of the Seljuks in Anatolia .

Poem by Rumi :

Don't look at your form, however ugly or beautiful.

Look at love and at the aim of your quest. ...
O you whose lips are parched, keep looking for water.
Those parched lips are proof that eventually you will reach the source .

Persian Music :

The history of musical development in Iran dates back to the prehistoric era. King Jamshid of Persia, a
mythological figure of Shahnameh, is credited with the "invention" of music. Fragmentary documents from
various periods of the country's history establish that the ancient Iranians possessed an elaborate musical
culture .
Alexander the Great is said to have witnessed many melodies and instruments upon his invasion, and
music played an important role in religious affairs .
Barbad was the most famous and skilled court musician of the Sassanid Empire of Persia. Barbad is
remembered in many documents and has been named as a remarkably high skilled musician of his
time.[4] He has been credited to have given an organisation of musical system consisting of seven "Royal
modes" named Xosrovani , thirty derivative modes named lahn, and 360 melodies named dastan .

Mohammadreza Shajarian - Shahram Nazeri - Mohammadreza Lotfi are some of the names to look for
when listening to persian traditional music .

Persian Literature + Music

Looking through a theoretic view , two of the key differences between western classical music and
persian traditional music are the use of quarter tones and the melodic structures in songs (rather than
harmonic) .

In this presentation I focused on a piece by Mohammadreza Shajarian titled “Ba man Sanama” as
connecting point from Persian literature to music.

The text is by Rumi and the core of the music lies on persian modes incorporating quarter tones. A music
arrangement is available in the folder of this file for clarity .