A gilani and a Kurdi folk piece

Few months ago, I've heard a fine performance of a Gilani folk piece by Rastak ensemble which is a group of young Iranian musicians. I really didn't expect such a performance by such a young ensemble. The folk piece was called "Rana" which literally means "beautiful lady" but here, it refers to a girl whose name is Rana (which is a common lady's name in Iran). The lyric is about speaking about and talking to a young lady whose name is Rana.



Today, I heard another performance of these young musicians which I liked as well. I think the piece should be a Kurdi folk piece. I would like to share the music with you.

Iran, o house of hope

Today I was reading this post (which is written in Farsi). It was about a night with one of the most well-known poets of contemporary Persian poem, Hooshang Ebtehaaj. Personally, I like his works and poems more than any other contemporary poets I know.

It is written there that in the night, Ebtehaaj was sad because in the same night, he heard from a person that in 1985, one of their common friends who was a great man, has been executed (by hanging) in the prison. Therefore, Ebtehaj was overwhelmed that night and was remembering his memories in prison. He was telling that in 1983, while he was in Islamic Republic of Iran's prison, he heard this heroic song from the prison's television which was broadcasted by Iran's national TV:
"Iran, O house of hope...".


The sad part of the story was that the poet of the lyrics was "Hooshang Ebtehaaj" himself! A poem which was written for a song that was composed right after the revolution about the victory and the hope.

Mesmerizing sound of wind...

I was listening to this very short improvisation on Duduk by an amazing Armenian Duduk player, Djivan Gasparyan. I have listened to this piece hundreds of times and yet LOVE to hear it.

As many other Iranian traditional music lover, I got to know him after his common work with Hossein Alizadeh, Endless Vision.

For performing endless vision, Gasparyan along with some other Armenian musicians traveled to Iran. During that time, some of his occasional improvisations was recorded and this piece was among them.

ps. This piece along with many other pieces of different musicians, has been recently published in Iran by Hermes recording under the name of Clouds (Abrhaa).

Eternal life

I saw this piece of BBC documentary, The Genius of Omar Khayyam, on youtube and would like to share it.



The singer is Mohammad Reza Shajarian, probably the most influential and famous vocalists of Iranian traditional music who is still alive. There would certainly be a lot of future posts, if they exist, about him and his works.

The well-known collection of Khayyam's poems are his "Roba'i"s which are 4-verses poems or quatrains. The one that Shajarian is singing has been translated in the subtitle of the clip.

ps. I remember the time that I got to know Khayyam and was really enjoying his poems. It was the last days of the last year of the highschool years, and me, Ehsan, and Reza were studying for the Konkoor. I used to read Khayyam on those days. I still have some picture of Khayyam's book beside my bed in my head, taken by my eyes! Usually when I read or hear one of Khayyam's poems, the smell of those days blows in my head.

Lay lay

I would like to open up this weblog's postings by this beautiful Azerbaijani lullaby in memory of my mother.



The translation of the verses is:

Sleep very very sweet my baby
Grow up, become big and clever my baby
One day you'll add your voice to the voice of universe, my baby

Every passing bird, every river
Says lay-lay to you my baby
In our most joyful and beautiful motherland

You are my proud and joy
You are my soul that is within my own soul
Your breath is so clean and innocent
Like the light wind in the field

(copied from comments of the video on youtube)

The singer of the song is: Shovket Elekberova.