Immortals - Epic Iranian Music

You can buy this song and the rest of my music here: An original composition by Farya Faraji, artwork by Joan Francesc Oliveras Palerolls—if you like Iranian history, be sure to check out his artwork; his drawings are the best visual reconstructions of ancient Iranians I’ve ever seen on the net: The piece uses the modal scale of Shur, one of the primary Iranian modal scales, or dastgahs; identical to the Western Aeolian Minor mode, except for the second note of the scale which is microtonal. I used Bakhtyari and Khorasani music as the basis for this piece—the dotar’s rythmic melody is reminiscent of Khorasani customs with their great emphasis on the dotar and tanbur, and the zurna and 2/4 time signature are a reference to Bakhtyari Toshmal music, whom some therorise is derived from the military marches of the Sasanian Empire. I also incorporated elements of Iranian Kurdish tanbur playing styles, which often tends to ornament the playing less with appogiaturas, and will play the notes straighter than Persian music or other Iranian styles. The instrumentation consists of an Iranian tanbur, a zurna and a ney, and the percussions are provided by a davul and a daf. All the instruments used in this piece date back to Iranian Antiquity, and were at least known to be present by late-Parthian era in Iran. Still, do note that this is by no means supposed to have any reproductive pretenses--this is modern folk Iranian music, not by any means a reconstruction of Achaemenid-era music, which we know almost nothing about due to lack of sources. The Immortals were both the elite corps of the Achaemenid army, as well as its Imperial Guard, similar to the functionned fulfilled by the Praetorian Guard in the Roman Empire. The outfit seen here is most likely their ceremonial one used as guards, as it would have been unlikely that the long robes could have been used in battle. The term “immortals“ come to us from Herotodus, and we do not know the nomenclature used by the Iranians themselves at the time. The corps was always kept at 10 000 strong, and whenever one man was seriously wounded or killed, he was instantly replaced, therefore keeping a permanent numerical strength to the fighting force.