Valerian's Doom - Epic Iranian Music (Patreon)

A sequel of sorts to my song Shapur the Victorious, where the lyrics use the same inscriptions written in the Parthian language by the Sasanian king Shapur I. These describe the defeat of Roman Emperor Valerian, the only time (then) that a Roman Emperor was taken captive by an enemy force.

This piece is rooted in the orchestral, Westernised style of contemporary Iranian music of the 20th century onwards, which saw wide adoption of the Western orchestral and tonal systems. In this system, traditional modes of Iranian music are often rendered tonal by converting their microtonal notes into the closest Western equivalents. Isfahan, for example, with a microtonal 6th degree, is rendered into a 12TET Western Harmonic Minor. In my case, I wanted to fuse the sounds of traditional Iranian systems with the Western orchestral system, thereby keeping the micro-tones but using them alongside the Western harmonic progression.