music in ghaznavid period

the focus of this article is on music in ghaznavid (977 – 1186 ad) period. in addition to turkish culture, it was influenced by persian and arabic cultures. the aim of this research is to recognize the music of historical dynasty in middle iranian history (after the dominance of islam until modern times). this government is divided into three historical periods; in every period, the geographical area has been reduced. there are two subjects in this article: social and technical aspects of music. the kings' interests for music, use of music in the feast and organization of court music have been studied with respect to the social aspects. with regards to technical aspects, musicologists, modal system and metric - rhythmic system have been studied. the method of this research is descriptive-analytical that not only tries to explain the events but also tries to analyze why and how music has been changed in the course of history. in this paper, two aspects of social and musical expertise constitute the basis of the article. some of the kings of this dynasty were immensely into feasts. music was one of the important elements in their feasts. there is no sign of music sanction on behalf of the kings in the sources. musicians included music players, singers and professional poets. music players sometimes played more than one instrument and singers could also play musical instruments. it is likely that the poets used to play music to make their poems more influential. festivals and ceremonies were of great importance in ghaznavid period. the court's entertainers could earn great money in this way; this issue affected the social welfare and classes significantly. login lowry/loulian's arrival (a tribal chandar/sandal) to the territory of ghaznavid after the sassanid era was the second migration of this group. chndalan has been the sixth social class in india which puts them in the second rank before donban (the seventh class in india) and were among the lowest social classes. this is why they were not considered high class by iranians. some think that this migration paved the way for their gradual dispersion from iran to the west. there have been significant efforts on theoretical writings which ambiguously mirror somewhat the musical system of this period. the beliefs of the time played a significant role in the musical lives of musicians. there have been some different modes in the basic musical structure of this period such as pardeh and shobeh in which nava, sama, râh/ rah, bâng and alhân are made. although these notions have sometimes been overlapped, it seems that the registers of three pardeh râst (mother mode) had an essential role in the formation of other modes, mode combination of mode foundation (perhaps derived from râst) respectively. metric-rhythmic system is another aspect of the theoretical system of this period. according to the sources of this period it can be implied that iqa'at (metric-rhythmic modes) has been prevalent. although atanin was used in their transcription and solfege, there had been some sorts of inconsistency with systematics school.