Persian Music

Persian Rhythm:

The common rhythms from Persia are Maqsum, which they say is the mother of all the others, Ciftitelli, Andalus, Basmudi, , Baladi, Sayyidii, Sombati, Waaltida, Tsamko, Jaark and Darj. Maqams vary the rhythm of the original melody and improvise new ones.

Persian Melody:

Ragas often have two notes that are emphasized, usually a fifth apart, each appearing in a separate tetrachord. Both Persian and Indian music may have changing tones like the two versions of the melodic minor scale but Indian music never modulates. In Persian music a new tetrachord is substituted for the upper tetrachord and a new scale is constructed. Persian music also has a ground/ drone but it is allowed to modulate.

Persian music has a stop note and a central note that moves through various modulations. It has very infrequent skips and leaps are filled with ornaments. Leaps always occur over a consonant interval and usually at the ends of phrases before going to the next one. Persian music was never just used in the courts. Yes, the courts used the same music as the popular music of the common people.

In Persian music, it's often the case that the scales have tones which are only 1/4 flat instead of real quarter tones/1/2 flat intervals except in Turkey. This does not produce the visual symmetry as I said before. They must be sacrificing the perfect visual symmetry because some other element of the music is affecting it or is more important. I was pondering this when I came to the insight that if there is a B1/2 #, its tone might easily be confused with C or C1/2b. The same with F1/2b and E or E1/2 sharp. Diatonic scales probably favor less flattedness or sharpedness to maintain the distinctions between notes.