The Achaemenid Empire, a major state of ancient Iran, lasted from 550 BCE to 330 BCE, in which music played a prominent role.

The Achaemenid Empire was a major state of ancient Iran from 550 BCE to 330 BCE. It arose from the conquests of Cyrus the Great, whose familial dynasty, was named for their mythical progenitor-ancestor Achaemenes.^[1] At its height, it was the largest empire by that point in history, spanning from the Balkans to Northern Ancient Egypt and the Indus Valley.^[1] A further source of unification arose from the widespread adoption of Zoroastrianism as set forth by the prophet Zoroaster a few centuries earlier.^[2] The empire fell to the conquests of Alexander the Great, under whose successors formed the Seleucid Empire.^[1]

The earliest music in Persia is difficult to pinpoint, due to a paucity of extant records.^[3] Persian music has existed in Persia since at least c. 3300–3100 BCE of the Elam period, from when the earliest artistic depictions of arched harps are dated; it is possible that these instruments existed long before their visual depictions.^[4] Later surviving instruments include bull lyres from c. 2450, small Oxus trumpets from c. 2200–1750,^[5] and much later, lutes from c. 1300 BCE, which seem to have been popular with the upper class.^[6] Rock reliefs of Kul-e Farah from 1st-century BCE, include sophisticated Persian court ensembles, in which the arched harp is central.^[7]

During the Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BCE), the influence of Persian culture reached across the state.^[8] Like earlier periods, relatively few records of music survive.^[9][10] The ethnomusicologist Hormoz Farhat describes the dire situation: "the Achaemenian dynasty, with all its grandeur and glory, has left us nothing to reveal the nature of its musical culture".^[10] Persian traditional music was first developed by at least this period, later flourishing in the golden age of Sasanian music.^[2] Most knowledge on the Achaemenid musical culture comes from ancient Greek historians.^{[10] [11][12]}

In his Histories, Herodotus noted that Achaemenid priests did not use aulos music in their ceremonies,^[13] while Xenophon reflected on his visit to Persia in the Cyropaedia, mentioning the presence of many female singers at court.^[9] Athenaeus also mentions female singers when noting that 329 of them had been taken from the King of Kings Darius III by Macedonian general Parmenion.^[9][a] These female musicians may have been a precursor to the later Islamic Qiyan tradition.^[9]

Later Persian texts assert that gōsān poet-musician minstrels were prominent and of considerable status in court.^[14]

The influence of Persian musical culture spread as far as Ancient China; the tuning peg from a 2nd Century BCE guqin-Zither is adorned with Achaemenid imagery.^[15][16][17]

Books

• During, Jean (1991). "Historical Survey". In During, Jean; Mirabdolbaghi, Zia (eds.). The Art of Persian Music. Washington D.C.: Mage Publishers. pp. 31–56. ISBN 978-0-934211-22-2.
• Farhat, Hormoz (2004). The Dastgah Concept in Persian Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-54206-7.
• Jacobs, Bruno (2021). "Poetry, Music, and Dance". In Jacobs, Bruno; Rollinger, Robert (eds.). A Companion To The Achaemenid Persian Empire. Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World. Vol. 2. Hoboken: Wiley. pp. 1417–1422. ISBN 978-1-119-07165-5.
• Lawergren, Bo (2000). "Strings". In So, Jenny F. (ed.). Music in the Age of Confucius. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. pp. 65–86. ISBN 978-0-295-97953-3.
• Zonis, Ella (1973). Classical Persian Music: An Introduction. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-13435-5.

Articles

• Blum, Stephen (2001). "Central Asia". Grove Music Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.05284. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
• Boyce, Mary (1957). "The Parthian Gōsān and Iranian Minstrel Tradition". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 89 (1–2). Cambridge University Press: 10–45. doi:10.1017/S0035869X0010735X. JSTOR 25201987. S2CID 161761104.
• Lawergren, Bo; Farhat, Hormoz; Blum, Stephen (2001). "Iran". Grove Music Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.13895. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
  • Lawergren, Bo (2001). "I. Pre-Islamic". In Lawergren, Farhat & Blum (2001).
• Lawergren, Bo (2003). "Western Influences on the Early Chinese Qin-Zither" (PDF). Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities. 75: 79–109.
• Miller, Lloyd (2012). Music and Song in Persia: The Art of Avaz. Abingdon-on-Thames: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-136-81487-7.

• Lawergren, Bo (1997). "To Tune a String: Dichotomies and Diffusions between the Near and Far East". In Magnusson, Börje (ed.). Vltra Terminvm Vagari: studi in onore di Carl Nylander [Beyond Terminum Vagari: A study in honor of Carl Nylander]. Rome: Edizioni Quasar. ISBN 978-88-7140-118-8. OCLC 246052568.