The Persian Traditional Music Golha Project: Jane Lewisohn

Jane Lewisohn

Jane Lewisohn lived in Iran during the 1970s for six years and is a graduate of Pahalavi University, Shiraz, Iran. She has been involved in the research and promotion of various aspects of Persian Studies for the last three decades. Since 2005 she has been  directing the Golha Project under the auspices of the British Library, London, and the Music Department of SOAS, University of London. She has archived and digitalised the whole archive of the Golha radio programmes broadcast on Iranian Radio from 1956 through 1979. She is now working in collaboration with the IHF to make this Golha Archive and all the related research concerning the Golha Archive available over the internet at  http://www.golha.co.uk. (From SOAS University of London)

The Golha (‘Flowers of Persian Song and Music’) radio programmes were broadcast on Iranian National Radio for 23 years from 1956 through 1979. They comprised approximately 850 hours of programmes made up of literary commentary with the declamation of poetry, which is also sung with musical accompaniment, interspersed with solo musical pieces. The programmes themselves were the brainchild of Davoud Pirnia, a one-time Assistant Prime Minister, who in addition to being a well-known politician and judge, was an enthusiastic patriot and scholar who harboured a deep love for Persian culture and its rich literary and musical traditions. When he retired from political life in 1956, for the next eleven years he devoted himself tirelessly to producing of the Golha programmes. (By Jane Lewisohn)