Marzieh, Morteza Mahjubi and Adib Khwansari at Radio Studio, Tehran.

The Golhā (’Flowers of Persian Song and Music’) comprise 1400 radio programs consisting of approximately 886 hours of programs broadcast over a period of 23 years - from 1956 through 1979.1 These programs are made up of literary commentary with the declamation of poetry, which is sung with musical accompaniment, interspersed with solo musical pieces. For the 23 years that these programs were broadcast, all the most eminent literary critics, famous radio announcers, singers, composers and musicians in Iran were invited to participate in them. The programs were not only exemplars of excellence in the sphere of music but highly ornate and refined examples of literary expression, making use of a repertoire of over two hundred classical and modern Persian poets, thus setting literary and musical standards that are still looked up to with admiration in Iran today and referred to as an encyclopedia of Persian music and poetry.
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The ‘Green Leaf’ (Barg-e sabz) programs featured 312 programs each ranging from 20-45 minutes, consisting solely of declamation of mystical poetry from the great classical poets, followed by the formal singing (āvāz) of their poetry, without any popular rhythmical songs or ballads (tasnif / tarāna). In terms of profundity of Persian Sufi themes, erotic and theo-erotic images and ideas, the ‘Green Leaf’ programs comprise a veritable treasury of classical Persian poetry; as a collection, the Barg-e sabz programs form a kind of classical ‘Canon’ of Persian mystical song and verse that have yet to be rivaled in their wide-ranging literary and musical diversity, in arrangement of theosophical and erotic topics, and in tasteful selection of poets and poetry.

Each program opened with the following mystical verses from the famous tarji’band of Hātef Esfahāni (d. 1198/1783-4): “Open your eyes so you may see the epiphany of the Beloved displayed upon each wall and door. When you behold this vision, you will declare: ‘He alone is Lord in all the land’.” (Chesh bogshā keh jilva-e deldār dar tajalli’st az dar u divār. In tamāshā, chu bingari, gu’i: laysa fi’l-dār ghayrahu diyyār).

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Seated (right to left): Ahmad Ebrāhimi, Bizhān Taraqqi, Hosayn Tehrāni, Parviz Yāhaqqi. Second row: Solaymān Amir-Qāsemi, Farhang Sharif, Zabih Malekpur, Mortazā Mahjubi, Ebrāhim Sahbā, Sādeq Sarmad. Above Mortazā Mahjubi: Nabizādeh (Toyuri).

It is my belief that Persian music owes a huge debt to Dāvud Pirniā since at a crucial moment in the history of Iran he effectively rescued our music from perdition. If it wasn’t for his efforts, Arab music, Turkish music, or Western pop music would have all but drowned out and obliterated Persian music. In establishing the Golhā programs, Mr Pirniā created a sanctuary where Persian music could survive and flourish amongst all these conflicting and corrupting influences, so that even today the Golhā programs are still cherished among the populace at large.
—Shajarian

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Collaged from Jane Lewisohn’s SOAS paper Flowers of Persian Song and Music: Davud Pirniā and the Genesis of the Golhā Programs [pdf]

Visit Radio Golha online

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Download (my favourite) Barg-e Sabz CD featuring:

Barge Sabz 28 (tracks 1, 2, 3) (BEST!)
Khanandeh: Farah
Navazandegan: Parviz Yahaghi, Jalil Shahnaz, Salim Farzan, Naser Eftetah, Jahangir Malek
Ashaar: Ataar, Molavi, Eraghi
Dastgah: Segah
Gooyandeh: Roshanak

Barge Sabz 63 (tracks 4, 5, 6)
Khanandeh: Banan
Navazandegan: Habiballah Badiei, Jalil Shahnaz, Naser Eftetah
Ashaar: Ataar, Hafez, Eraghi
Dastgah: Avaze Bayat Esfahan
Gooyandeh: Roshanak

Barge Sabz 19 (tracks 7, 8 )
Khanandeh: Taaj Esfahani
Navazandegan: Jalil Shahnaz, Hasan Kasaei, Naser Eftetah
Ashaar: Ataar, Eraghi, Hafez
Dastgah: Segah

Michael Minn and Ramine Mossadegh (great-grandson)

Mossadegh: A New Rock Opera was performed at the Greenwich Street Theatre as part of the NY Fringe Festival in 2004. You can download the opera in 12 parts here.

Driven by an infectious power-pop score, this 45-minute piece is entirely performed by the members of a four-piece rock band and features a wide variety of characters from this pivotal moment in American foreign policy.

“Rock fans, history buffs, and conspiracy theorists will have to agree that this heavy metal retelling of the 1953 CIA coup that deposed the sitting president of Iran is pretty frickin cool.” —Kyle Ancowitz (NYTheatre.com)

An ongoing research project headed by NGO The Institute for Research on the History of Children’s Literature in Iran (IRHCLI). The project was founded in 1997 and is to be ten volumes upon completion, the first seven of which have already been published. More information at payvand.

Farah Diba greets John Cage and Merce Cunningham at the 1972 festival. (Photo: Cunningham Dance Foundation Archive)

Article Abstract:

Iran in the 1970s was host to an array of electronic music and avant-garde arts. In the decade prior to the Islamic revolution, the Shiraz Arts Festival provided a showcase for composers, performers, dancers and theater directors from Iran and abroad, among them Iannis Xenakis, Peter Brook, John Cage, Gordon Mumma, David Tudor, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Merce Cunningham. A significant arts center, which was to include electronic music and recording studios, was planned as an outgrowth of the festival. While the complex politics of the Shah’s regime and the approaching revolution brought these developments to an end, a younger generation of artists continued the festival’s legacy.

(Gluck, Robert. “The Shiraz Arts Festival: Western Avant-Garde Arts in 1970s Iran”. Leonardo 40.1 (2001) 20-28)

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Download full text journal article (with some great black and white photographs) here.