Darius the Great - Epic Iranian Music

You can buy this song and the rest of my music here: Music and vocals by Farya Faraji. Please note that this isn’t an attempt at reconstructed music from Ancient Iran, this is modern Iranian music with an ancient Iranian theme. Darius the Great, along with Cyrus the Great, was one of the principal monarchs of the Achaemenid Empire, considered by many to be the first major world empire in history; and under his reign, the empire reached its apex as the greatest empire of its own time--the Achaemenid Empire was, as far as statecraft was concerned, the most advanced civlisation of its time, and would provide a model that would be imitated by countless future empires, such as the Romans. The music uses a custom modal scale I came up with which uses Iranian microtonality; microtonality refers to notes that don’t exist in Western music, and may therefore sound out of tune to unfamiliar ears. The main instrument that carries the song is the santour, which is the Iranian hammered dulcimer. With this piece, I wanted to evoke the utter enormity of Darius’ position as monarch of the Achaemenid Empire. As far as that region of the world was concerned, he was the most powerful man on earth, and would likely have been seen by people of his time as something akin to the lord of the Earth, which I tried evoking here. The lyrics are in Old Persian and are taken from the Naqsh-e-Rostam inscription on Darius I’s tomb. Lyrics in Old Persian: Adam Dārayavauš xšāyaϑiya vazraka Xšāyaϑiya xšāyaϑiyānām Avahyarâ diy vayam Haxâmanishiyâ thahyâmahy hacâ paruviyata âmâtâ ama hy hacâ paruviyata hyâ amâxam taumâ xshâyathiyâ âha English translation: I am Darius the Great King, King of Kings, For this reason we are called Achaemenids. From long ago we have been noble. From long ago our family had been kings.