Lesson 48

Iranian Music

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Translation

Iranians have always been interested in music and music has been a part of their lives. Even though, in the past century, some of the music and song writing in Iran has been subject to the influence of Western music, traditional Iranian music has remained an inseparable part of the lives and culture of Iranian people. Iranian music demonstrates the moral characteristics, political, social, and cultural events of the Iranian nation.

Iranian music can be divided into different branches:

• Ethnic and regional Iranian music, like Kurdish and Azari music, which is specific to a certain ethnicity and region.
• Religious music, which has been used in religious ceremonies pre- and post-Islam, and which is nowadays mainly used for mourning.
• Traditional or original Iranian music, which includes tunes, songs and specific musical ‘dastgah’s, and is usually emotional and moving.
• Modern Iranian music, which includes pop, jazz, rock and rap music etc. and has mainly been inspired by western music.

Music in Iran stretches back thousands of years. A few years ago, a 3,400 year-old drawing was found in the city of Dezful in Iran, which showed a group of musicians busy playing instruments. The way that they were sitting and playing shows that these musicians were members of one of the world’s first orchestras. In the time of the Achaemenid Empire, music had an important role in the courts and religious ceremonies. The climax of music in Iran was in the time of the Sassanids, which they call the golden era of Iranian music.

Because of religious opposition, Iranian music in the post-Islam era did not have the glory of its previous era, although it did live on. This continuity can be observed in the construction of the Chehelsotun Palace and the music room of the Ali Qapu Palace in the Safavid period.

Since the early years of the twentieth century, original Iranian music has developed due the country’s social and political conditions and the push to celebrate national art. In the 1950s, a radio programme called ‘Golha’ was produced and took original Iranian music as a cultural heritage to every home that had access to a radio. This programme played a large part in the promotion of music amongst Iranians and continued until the final years of the 1970s.

In the 1950s, pop and jazz music also developed in Iran and was quickly noticed in other Persian speaking countries.

In the 1970s, the electric guitar entered pop music, but this period was very brief and short-lived because after the Islamic Revolution in Iran, music was banned. Many pop and jazz singers went from Iran to other countries and continued their musical careers there and only a small number of them stayed in Iran, where they either didn’t work for a while, or they produced the music of the revolution. Of course, pop music in Iran was revived about ten years later. The same thing that happened to pop music also occurred for Iranian rock music, which began in the 1960s.

Even nowadays, classical and modern music is paid attention to in Iran and lots of concerts are held in various cities in Iran. Although these days the voices of female singers are not broadcast in the Iranian media and musical instruments are not shown, nonetheless, modern Iran, as ever, has brilliant female and male musicians, singers and composers, and in recent years we have witnessed the stardom of Iranian artists and musicians inside and outside Iran.

Leçon 48

Musique Iranienne

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Traduction 

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Lección 48

Música Iraní

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Traducción

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Translation of Dialogue

Maryam: Is Iran’s regional music modern?
Bahman: Some of it’s modern and some of it’s traditional.
Maryam: How did Iran’s music change after the revolution?
Bahman: First music was banned. Then a few revolutionary songs were sung.
Maryam: After the start of the war with Iraq there were a few songs made about war, is that right?
Bahman: Yeah, Then gradually other types of music were released.
Maryam: Do they broadcast music on radio and television now?
Bahman: Yeah, But normally they don’t show instruments.

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