The Golha radio programmes: Flowers of Persian song & music
Number of items in collection: 1296
Short description:
Recordings in this collection can be played by anyone.
The Golha (‘Flowers of Persian Song and Music’) radio programmes were broadcast on Iranian National Radio between 1956 and 1979.
Long description:
Recordings in this collection can be played by anyone.
The Golha (‘Flowers of Persian Song and Music’) radio programmes were broadcast on Iranian National Radio between 1956 and 1979.
The programmes consist of a mixture of musical pieces, poetry, and literary commentary. They were the brainchild of Davoud Pirnia, a one-time Assistant Prime Minister who harboured a deep love for Persian culture and its rich literary and musical traditions, and who devoted himself to producing the Golha programmes upon his retirement from political life in 1956. The foremost literary, academic and musical talents of his day offered Mr. Pirnia their collaboration and support, and many of the greatest Iranian vocalists of the twentieth century saw their careers launched on these radio programmes.
The Golha Project website provides full programme details, transcripts, and updated programme contributors.
This material was digitised as part of the Endangered Archives Programme project EAP088. Further information about this project can be found in the chapter ‘Conservation of the Iranian Golha radio programmes and the heritage of Persian classical poetry and music’, available for free download, by Jane Lewisohn in From dust to digital: Ten years of the Endangered Archives Programme (Maja Kominko ed., Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2015).