A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org.
Iran’s particular system of traditional Persian art music has been long treated as the product of an ever-evolving, ancient Persian culture. In
Music of a Thousand Years,
Ann E. Lucas argues that this music is a modern phenomenon indelibly tied to changing notions of Iran’s national history. Rather than considering a single Persian music history, Lucas demonstrates cultural dissimilarity and discontinuity over time, bringing to light two different notions of music-making in relation to premodern and modern musical norms. An important corrective to the history of Persian music,
Music of a Thousand Years
is the first work to align understandings of Middle Eastern music history with current understandings of the region’s political history.