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Persian parde names and the koron/sori system

The naming system

Established Persian classical music names its pitches using a solfege-derived system (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si) augmented with two microtonal accidentals:

Practice The koron and sori are the markers that distinguish Persian pitch naming from Western notation. They signal "this pitch is between the piano keys" — but critically, they do not specify a fixed number of cents. A koron-Re in Shur and a koron-Re in a different dastgah may differ by as much as 15-20 cents in practice. The symbol tells the player direction; the dastgah context and the ear determine the exact intonation.

This is a deliberate feature of the system, not an imprecision — Persian theory recognises pitch mutability as a structural element (see The dastgah system on mutable pitches).

The pitch set within an octave

Established The standard Persian pitch vocabulary from Do to Do includes the following named positions:

Practice The cent ranges for koron pitches are approximate and deliberately given as ranges rather than fixed values. These are the pitches whose exact placement depends on dastgah context — the mutable pitches described in the dastgah system article.

Mapping to 53-comma positions

Attested The Turkish 53-comma system (AEU) provides one way to express Persian intervals precisely, even though Persian theory does not itself use comma counting as its primary framework. A rough mapping:

Practice This mapping is useful for cross-referencing Turkish and Persian sources, but it papers over something important: the Persian koron pitches are intentionally variable in a way that the Turkish comma system tries to fix. A comma mapping gives one snapshot of a pitch that, in Persian practice, occupies a zone rather than a point.

Comparison with Turkish perde names

Established The Turkish perde system names every pitch position individually (Rast, Dugah, Segah, Cargah, Neva, etc.) with each name implying a fixed comma position in the AEU framework.

The Persian system takes a different structural approach:

Attested The Turkish system is more rigid and theoretically systematic; the Persian system is more flexible and closer to what performers actually do. Neither is inherently better — they optimise for different things. Turkish AEU theory enables precise notation and theoretical analysis at the cost of occasional mismatches with performance practice (the Ussak problem). Persian koron/sori notation enables context-sensitive intonation at the cost of less precise prescriptive notation.

Mutable vs. fixed pitches in dastgah practice

Established In Persian music theory, pitches fall into two categories:

• Fixed pitches — Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si — these have stable intonation regardless of the dastgah being performed. They correspond to the "natural" notes and are anchored by consonant intervals (octaves, fifths, fourths) that the ear recognises unambiguously.

• Mutable pitches — the koron and sori positions — these shift depending on the dastgah context. A Re-koron in dastgah Shur is lower than a Re-koron in dastgah Segah; a Si-koron descending may be lower than Si-koron ascending within the same dastgah.

Practice On the setar, this distinction has a physical reality: the frets for the fixed pitches stay in place; the frets for the mutable pitches are the ones the player adjusts when changing dastgahs. The number of frets that move is typically 2-4 out of 25-28 total — most of the neck is stable.

This mutable/fixed distinction parallels the Turkish theory-practice gap (see Pitch systems on the Ussak problem) but handles it differently: Turkish theory assigns a fixed value and acknowledges the discrepancy as a problem; Persian theory builds the variability into the system itself.

Sources

• Hormoz Farhat, The Dastgah Concept in Persian Music (Cambridge University Press, 1990) — intervallic analysis including koron/sori placement ranges per dastgah
• Dariush Talai, A New Approach to the Theory of Persian Art Music (Mahoor Institute of Culture and Art, Tehran, 1993) — the most detailed analysis of Persian intervals and their mapping to measured cent values
• Ali-Naqi Vaziri, Dastur-e Tar (Tehran, 1913) — introduced the koron and sori accidentals and the solfege-based naming system
• Bruno Nettl, The Radif of Persian Music: Studies of Structure and Cultural Context (Elephant & Cat, 1987; rev. ed. 1992) — on the relationship between notation and practice in Persian music
• Jean During, Zia Mirabdolbaghi, and Dariush Safvat, The Art of Persian Music (Mage Publishers, Washington, D.C., 1991) — cultural and theoretical context of the Persian pitch system
• Ozan Yarman, "79-Tone Tuning & Theory for Turkish Maqam Music" (PhD dissertation, Istanbul Technical University, 2008) — useful cross-reference for Turkish comma values when mapping between systems