Persian Symphonic Music

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Persian Symphonic Music generally refers to the pieces by the Persian (Iranian) composers which have been composed for Western ensembles and orchestras, mostly based on the Persian folk and classical melodies.

The first serious pieces of Persian symphonic music were composed by Gholma-Reza Minbashian, Gholam-Hossein Minbashian, Aminollah Hossein, Parviz Mahmoud, Houshang Ostovar, Samin Baghtcheban, Emanuel Melik-Aslanian, Morteza Hannaneh, Fariborz Lachini, Hossein Nassehi, Hossein Dehlavi, Ahmad Pejman, and Mohammad Taghi Massoudieh.

Many symphonic pieces of the Persian composers have not yet been performed or recorded because of financial and political problems.

The first collection of Persian symphonic music titled "Symphonic Poems From Persia" ("Symphonische Dichtungen aus Persien") was performed by the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra under Ali Rahbari in 1980. In late 1990s Manouchehr Sahbai recorded three CDs of Persian symphonic music pieces in Bulgaria and Austria. In the United States, Reza Vali and Behzad Ranjbaran are the only Persian (Iranian) composers who have presented their works with famous orchestras since the late 1980s.

Some critics reject combining Persian music with Western orchestration because of differing intervallic distances between Persian and Western scales but the composers have found several ways to solve such problems.