Iranians are great music lovers and during the course of their twenty-five centuries of their recorded history, they have developed not only a very distinctive music of their own but also numerous musical instruments, several of which were the first prototypes of the modern musical instruments of today.

 

The first references to musicians in Iran are found in Susa, Elam, in the 27^th century BC. The earliest representation of instruments is on the Elamite relief of Kul-e Fer’awn. An engraved bronze cup from Lurestan at the National Museum of Iran, Tehran, portrays a double nay (reed pipes), chang (harp) and dayereh (tambourine) in a shrine or court processional, as similarly documented in Egypt, Elam, and Babylonia where music involved the utilization of large orchestral ensembles. The Assurbanipal relief’s (626 BC) in the British Museum show Susan musicians. Other relief sculpture and paintings still extant from early periods depict instruments as they are today, except that some, like the harp seen on the Taq-e Bostan relief’s near Kermanshah, have gone out of use.

 

Music continued to play an important role in the lives of the Persians throughout their history, with its continuity well documented in the Safavid frescoes of the Chehel Sutun in Esfahan, dated 1647 AD. A major revival in Persian music has its inception late in the reign of Nasser od-Din Shah (died in 1896 AD), who commanded the establishment of the House of Crafts, a center where all important craftsmen could be gathered for making and marketing their instruments.

 

Wind Instruments

The first musical instrument that was used thousands of years ago in Iran was the reed, a simple tube with several perforations that was played mostly by shepherds. There were several kinds of these reeds: the Nay Labak or the small reed which later developed into the piccolo of today; the Haft Band reed, which was much larger and had seven perforations; and the Nay Anban, a reed which was connected to a wind bag. This looked and sounded much like the bagpipes of Scotland. According to Herodotus such musical instruments were in wide use in the Achaemenian era as many as 2,500 years ago.

 

There are also several other wind instruments in Iran dating back to ancient times. One of these is the Sorna, a woodwind instrument very much like the oboe. Another one is the Karna, a long wooden horn which was used for accompanying the Sorna in what was called Naqareh Khaneh music. Both of these instruments have fallen into disuse and their place has been taken by the modern oboe and clarinet as well as other woodwind instruments.

 

String Instruments

The Kamancheh, an ancient Iranian musical instrument, is probably the first ancestor of the present-day violin, the cello, the viola and the base. This instrument, having the size of a violin is played cello-like in a vertical position and set on the knee of the player who uses an arched bow. Another bowstring instrument is the Ghazhak, which sound-wise resembles the Kamancheh. The instrument, no longer in general use, can still be found in Iranian Baluchistan. The Kamancheh is widely played in Armenia, Georgia, and Azarbaijan republics, and called by its original Persian name. In Tajikistan and Uzbakistan it is called Ghichak. The Kamancheh is also popular in many Middle Eastern countries like Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq. In India and Pakistan the instrument is called Sarengi.

 

In ancient times there was another string instrument in Iran, called Robab, which was played with a bow. This instrument too, is no longer in use in this country. However, it is played in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan where it is still called by its original Persian name. Generally speaking, the violin is rapidly replacing the Kamancheh.

 

An ancient Iranian string instrument was the Barbat, which was very much in vogue prior to the advent of Islam. Iranian minstrels later took the instrument to the Arabian Peninsula and there the Arabs called it Al Ud, giving rise to the English word lute. The lute survived in Iran until the Safavid period, some 500 years ago, when it gradually went into oblivion. However, several years ago efforts were made to revive public interest in the old instrument and today there are several excellent performers in Iran.

 

Iran’s most popular musical instrument is the Tar, which in Persian means the string. This is a string instrument with a pear-shaped body and six strings. Then there is the Seh Tar, a three-stringed instrument of the same general shape, which is plucked by the fingers.

 

Percussion Instruments

Another very ancient instrument is the Santoor. This is a large horizontal sounding box over which are stretched numerous strings. It is played with plectrum and sometimes with fingers. It is much like the zither both in shape and in tonality. There are several percussion instruments of Iranian origin, the biggest and loudest of which is the Dohol, which is played with two heavy sticks. Then there are the Dayereh, the Dayereh Zangi, and the Tonbak.

 

1. Theater and Cinema

The nearest thing to the theater in Iran used to be the religious re-enactment’s of holy stories, known as ta’zieh (comparable to the Christian Passion play); but theater in European style was introduced to Iran only in the second decade of the 20^th century. Initial work was concentrated in Tehran and Rasht. The quick advent of cinema and, later, television in Iran soon after the introduction of theater left little initial opportunity for the latter’s development.

The first cinema hall was constructed in Tehran in the late 1920’s. However, foreign films were the only source for cinemas, and these were shown with sub-titles. Dubbing into the Persian began in 1948, while serious shooting of Iranian films did not begin until 1950.