🎉 Persian Music Scales App📱

Persian Music Scales

Interactive Exploration of Persian Dastgah, Avaz & Microtonal Music Theory

Theory | Visualization | Education

by Pouya Hosseini

Tap to explore the key signatures of All Persian Scales!

Persian Music Scales

Interactive Exploration of Persian Dastgah, Avaz & Microtonal Music Theory

Persian Music Scales is an interactive educational and research project created by Pouya Hosseini to visualize and explore the modal and microtonal structures of Persian classical music.

The project provides interactive representations of major Persian musical systems, including Shur, Segah, Homayoun, Chahargah, Nava, Mahur / Rast Panjgah, and Esfahan, and allows their interval structures to be compared with the Western diatonic scale.

The visualizations are designed for musicians, students, educators, researchers, composers, and anyone interested in Persian music theory.

Explore the Interactive App

Use the Persian Music Scales interactive application to:

Explore Persian Dastgah and Avaz structures
Visualize musical intervals
Compare Persian scales with the Western diatonic scale
Change the tonic and explore transposition
Examine microtonal relationships visually
Study characteristic interval structures used in Persian music

Interactive Persian Music Scales App:
https://persianmusicscales.github.io/Persian-Music-Scales-App/

Explore Persian Music Scales

Shur — شور

Shur is one of the central Dastgah systems of Persian classical music and forms the basis of several related Avaz traditions.

Explore its interval structure, tonic relationships, and interactive visualization.

Explore Shur:
https://sites.google.com/view/persianmusicscales/shur

Nava — نوا

Nava is one of the principal Dastgah systems of Persian classical music and has close modal relationships with Shur while maintaining its own tonal identity.

Explore its interval structure and interactive visualization.

Explore Nava:
https://sites.google.com/view/persianmusicscales/nava

Segah — سه‌گاه

Segah is characterized by distinctive microtonal interval relationships that contribute strongly to its recognizable modal identity.

Explore Segah interactively and compare its tonal structure with the Western diatonic system.

Explore Segah:
https://sites.google.com/view/persianmusicscales/segah

Mahur / Rast Panjgah — ماهور / راست‌پنجگاه

Mahur and Rast Panjgah are important Dastgah systems in Persian classical music.

Mahur contains several interval relationships that may initially appear familiar to musicians trained in Western major-scale tonality, while its melodic organization and modal behavior remain part of the Persian classical tradition.

Explore Mahur / Rast Panjgah:
https://sites.google.com/view/persianmusicscales/mahur-rast-panjgah

Homayoun — همایون

Homayoun is one of the principal Dastgah systems of Persian classical music.

Its characteristic interval relationships and melodic behavior produce a distinctive modal identity, and several related musical structures are traditionally associated with the Homayoun family.

Explore Homayoun:
https://sites.google.com/view/persianmusicscales/homayoun

Esfahan — اصفهان

Esfahan, also known as Bayat-e Esfahan, is an important Avaz traditionally associated with the Homayoun family.

It has its own characteristic tonal center, melodic behavior, and interval relationships.

Explore Esfahan:
https://sites.google.com/view/persianmusicscales/homayoun/esfahan

Chahargah — چهارگاه

Chahargah is one of the principal Dastgah systems of Persian classical music.

Its distinctive interval structure makes it particularly useful for demonstrating microtonal relationships in Persian music.

Explore Chahargah:
https://sites.google.com/view/persianmusicscales/chahargah

What Is the Dastgah System?

Persian classical music is organized around a modal framework known as the Dastgah system.

A Dastgah should not be understood simply as the Persian equivalent of a Western scale.

A Dastgah includes:

characteristic interval relationships
important tonal centers
melodic tendencies
characteristic motifs
modal development
and a repertory of melodic structures known as Gusheh

The Persian Music Scales project focuses particularly on the intervallic and tonal structures of these systems and provides an interactive way to visualize and compare them.

Dastgah, Avaz and Gusheh

What is a Dastgah?

A Dastgah is a major modal framework within Persian classical music. It organizes characteristic tonal relationships, melodic behaviors, and groups of traditional melodic material.

What is an Avaz?

An Avaz is a related modal system traditionally associated with one of the principal Dastgah families.

What is a Gusheh?

A Gusheh is a characteristic melodic piece or modal section within the traditional Persian Radif.

The Radif contains numerous Gusheh that together preserve and transmit the modal vocabulary of Persian classical music.

Understanding Persian Microtonality

Persian classical music contains intervals that do not always correspond to the twelve equally spaced semitones of modern Western equal temperament.

These intervals are commonly described as microtonal.

Two important accidentals used in modern Persian musical notation are Koron and Sori.

Koron — کُرُن

Koron indicates a microtonal lowering of a pitch.

Sori — سُری

Sori indicates a microtonal raising of a pitch.

Koron and Sori became important symbols in modern Persian musical notation through the work of Ali-Naqi Vaziri.

However, Persian musical intonation should not simply be understood as a rigid system of Western-style quarter-tones.

The precise realization of intervals may depend on:

Dastgah or Avaz
melodic context
Gusheh
performance tradition
instrument
performer
historical interpretation

How the Visualization Works

The Persian Music Scales project uses circular visualization to represent interval relationships.

One octave corresponds to:

1200 cents = 360°

Therefore:

100 cents = 30°
150 cents = 45°
200 cents = 60°
250 cents = 75°

The tonic is positioned at the starting point of the circle, and subsequent scale positions are placed according to their interval distance from that tonic.

This makes it possible to visualize interval patterns geometrically and compare Persian modal structures with the Western diatonic system.

Persian Music and the Western Diatonic Scale

Modern Western equal temperament divides the octave into:

12 equal semitones × 100 cents = 1200 cents

Persian classical music may use pitch relationships that occur between these equal-tempered positions.

The interactive Persian Music Scales visualization highlights both:

similarities between Persian and Western interval structures
characteristic microtonal differences

This makes the system particularly useful for musicians and researchers moving between the two musical traditions.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are Persian music scales?

The term “Persian music scales” can be useful for describing interval structures found within Persian classical music, but Persian Dastgah and Avaz should not be reduced to scales alone.

They are modal systems involving intervals, tonal centers, melodic tendencies, characteristic phrases, and traditional repertory.

Does Persian music use quarter tones?

Persian music uses microtonal intervals, but describing the entire musical system simply as a quarter-tone system is an oversimplification.

Modern theoretical models such as the 24-tone division associated with Ali-Naqi Vaziri are useful analytical frameworks, but performance intonation can be more flexible.

What is a cent?

A cent is a logarithmic unit for measuring musical intervals.

In twelve-tone equal temperament:

1 semitone = 100 cents

and

1 octave = 1200 cents

Using cents makes it possible to describe and compare microtonal intervals with greater precision.

What is the difference between a Dastgah and a Western scale?

A Western scale primarily describes an ordered collection of pitches.

A Persian Dastgah includes pitch relationships but also incorporates:

melodic hierarchy
characteristic motifs
important tonal centers
modulation
modal development
traditional Gusheh

Therefore, a Dastgah is better understood as a modal system rather than simply as a scale.

Read the Full Article

For a detailed discussion of the theoretical background, interval representation, visualization method, and comparison between Persian and Western musical systems, read: