Uploaded September 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Music from the historical repertoire of Tang-era music, erhu by Amanda Toh. This is an arrangement of a historical piece of music from the era of Tang-dynasty China using modern Chinese instrumentation, known by the name Cáo Pó. Keep in mind that the melody I selected here is one of the many variations based on reconstructive methods. Described in the poem "Chasing the Past" (追昔遊) by Yuan Zhen (元稹), it was a dance piece. For more information on the melody, I refer you to this video with more exhaustive explanations: youtube.com/watch?v=CfF2PNBzlnE&list=PLm8mLM41EccCqytD8VuwCffd6cj_1NaX2&index=248
Tang-era music demarcates itself from modern Chinese traditional music due to the stronger emphasis on heptatonic modes. Whilst modern Chinese traditional music has a tendency to emphasise pentatonicism relative to earlier eras, said earlier eras like the Tang-dynasty's would feature higher occurrences of heptatonic modes like the one heard here. The instrumentation consists of a modern Chinese ensemble of erhu, sheng, yangqin and pipa.
The Tang dynasty ruled from 618 to 907, and it is seen by most historians as a golden of Chinese culture, some considering it the apex of many Chinese arts such as poetry.
Music from the historical repertoire of Tang-era music, erhu by Amanda Toh. This is an arrangement of a historical piece of music from the era of Tang-dynasty China using modern Chinese instrumentation, known by the name Cáo Pó. Keep in mind that the melody I selected here is one of the many variations based on reconstructive methods. Described in the poem "Chasing the Past" (追昔遊) by Yuan Zhen (元稹), it was a dance piece. For more information on the melody, I refer you to this video with more exhaustive explanations: youtube.com/watch?v=CfF2PNBzlnE&list=PLm8mLM41EccCqytD8VuwCffd6cj_1NaX2&index=248
Tang-era music demarcates itself from modern Chinese traditional music due to the stronger emphasis on heptatonic modes. Whilst modern Chinese traditional music has a tendency to emphasise pentatonicism relative to earlier eras, said earlier eras like the Tang-dynasty's would feature higher occurrences of heptatonic modes like the one heard here. The instrumentation consists of a modern Chinese ensemble of erhu, sheng, yangqin and pipa.
The Tang dynasty ruled from 618 to 907, and it is seen by most historians as a golden of Chinese culture, some considering it the apex of many Chinese arts such as poetry.







![Valerians Doom - Epic Iranian Music
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Ney by @AliFarbodnia, kemencheh by Amir Hossein Eskandari, music by Farya Faraji. The Epic Iranian series is a musical project where the sounds of modern Iranian music are used as a framing device for themes pertaining to the history of Iranian civilisation.
In this case, I fused native, dastgāh system music with the sounds of modern Iranian orchestral music, the idiom that developed in the 20th century with the fusion of Western Classical orchestras and the native modal systems of Iran. The mode of this song is Isfahan, the original variant where the sixth interval is a microtone. This mode is often rendered Western compatible by flattening the microtone into a Western-tuned note, but I decided to keep it as it is in the dastgah system, and added a Western chord progression underneath the song, as is often done nowadays in Iranian music. The modal, melodic structure of the song, entirely written in accordance with Iranian tradition, is therefore accompanied by a tonal progression inherited from Western musical idiom. The instrumentation consist of ney, kamancheh, santour and setar, daf, davul drums, as well as a Western orchestral ensemble.
The text sung is part of the Naqsh-e-Rostam inscriptions by Shapur I, emperor of the Sasanian Empire, who defeated and captured the Roman emperor Valerian during the Battle of Edessa, the first time it ever happened in Roman history, sending shock waves across the Roman world at the time. Interestingly, the text is not the Middle-Persian language, Shapurs native language as an ethnic Persian, but in Parthian, a closely related Iranian language spoken by the Parthians. Due to the fact that the previous imperial polity ruling over Iran for centuries, the Arsacid Empire, had been ruled by an ethnically Parthian elite, the power of the Parthian houses remained very strong in the Sasanian era, and Parthian remained an official language of the Sasanian state, with many proclamations and monuments using three languages, Persian, Parthian, and Aramaic.
Lyrics in Parthian:
Ud būd aδ až Garmāniyā šahr, Rēšiyā šahr, Nīrakos šahr, Dākiyā šahr, Astriyā, Ispaniyā šahr, Afrikiyā, zāwar 70 hazār.
Wālaraniyos Kēsar wuzurg raft bud, Wālaraniyos Kēsar wxad pad wxēbeh dast dastgraβ kerd.
Až Trākiyā šahr, Bitūniyā šahr, Āsāyā šahr, Isawriyā šahr, Likōniyā šahr, Galātīniyā, Lūkiyā, Kīlikiyā, Kappōdakiyā, Frūgāyā, Sūriyā šahr, zāwar 70 hazār.
Wālaraniyos Kēsar wuzurg raft bud, Wālaraniyos Kēsar wxad pad wxēbeh dast dastgraβ kerd.
Rabēsēf, sānatōr ud hēgemōn kē hō zāwar sārār būd, harw dastgraβ kerd, ud bē ō Pārs wāst ahēnd.
Až Fonikāyā šahr, až Yūdāyā šahr, Arabiyā šahr, Mōrān šahr, Garmāniyā šahr, Rōdōs šahr, Maδyānrōdān šahr zāwar 70 hazār.
Wālaraniyos Kēsar wuzurg raft bud, Wālaraniyos Kēsar wxad pad wxēbeh dast dastgraβ kerd.
Rabēsēf, sānatōr ud hēgemōn kē hō zāwar sārār būd, harw dastgraβ kerd, ud bē ō Pārs wāst ahēnd.
English translation:
And there were with [him] from the land of Germany, from the land of Raetia, from the land of Norica, from the land of Dacia, from the land of Pannonia, from the land of Moesia, from the land of Istria [or: Asturia], from the land of Spain, from the land of Africa.
And there was a great battle with Valerian Caesar, and Valerian Caesar was captured by my own hand, and the rest, the praetorian prefects and the senators and the officers who were the leaders of this army, were all captured and led into the province of Pars.
From the land of Thrace, from the land of Bithynia, from the land of Asia, from the land of Pamphylia, from the land of Isauria, from the land of Lyconia, from the land of Galatia, from the land of Lycia, from the land of Cilicia, from the land of Cappadocia, from the land of Phrygia, from the land of Syria.
And there was a great battle with Valerian Caesar, and Valerian Caesar was captured by my own hand, and the rest, the praetorian prefects and the senators and the officers who were the leaders of this army, were all captured and led into the province of Pars.
From the land of Phoenicia, from the land of Judaea, from the land of Arabia, from the land of Mauretania, from the land of Germany, from the land of Rhodes, from the land of Osrhoene, from the land of Mesopotamia an army of 70,000 men.
And there was a great battle with Valerian Caesar, and Valerian Caesar was captured by my own hand, and the rest, the praetorian prefects and the senators and the officers who were the leaders of this army, were all captured and led into the province of Pars.
The text and translation come from the site Parthian Sources Online: https://parthiansources.com/ Please note that the pronunciation does not use reconstructed phonetics but applies modern Iranian phonetic pronunciation onto the text. Valerians Doom - Epic Iranian Music](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xZ7U5x4r5K4/mqdefault.jpg)


