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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.
Ann E. Lucas is Assistant Professor of ethnomusicology in the Department of Music at Boston College, where she also teaches in the Islamic Civilizations and Societies Program. She is recognized for her work on music historiography of the Middle East.
“Ann E. Lucas very effectively combines historical analysis, ethnomusicology, and musicology to provide a broad, holistic explanation for complex, nuanced processes of change. The book is very well written and highly original in its approach and is a major contribution to the field. I found answers to many questions I had been pondering for years—not only about technical aspects of the twelve maqam and radif systems, but also about broader historical patterns of change in the music traditions of Iran and the Persianate world.”—Kamran Scot Aghaie, Associate Professor of Iranian History, University of Texas
"Music of a Thousand Years presents an innovative narrative of Persian music history and also provides important new perspectives on how to analyze the meaning of music and culture in historical perspective. Ann E. Lucas’s research and analysis offer a new basis for understanding the significance of Persian music history in relation to the larger contexts that define Persian history."—Mohsen Mohammadi, Lecturer in Ethnomusicology, University of California, Los Angeles
"Lucas turns the standard history of Persian music on its head, proving it is not a story of the survival of an ancient tradition, but rather the story of the invention of tradition. Revisionist in the best sense of the word, this book is a case study of how the present creates the past it needs. An important contribution not only to ethnomusicology, but to the discipline of history and the field of nationalist studies."—James L. Gelvin, author of The Modern Middle East: A History
288 pp.6 x 9Illus: 13 color images, 7 maps, 14 line art illustrations
9780520300804$34.95|£30.00Paper
Dec 2019