About Davoud Pirnia, the founder of “Golha” radio program

2 February 2023 – 11:45 pm Posted in Articles' List, Iranian Classical Music

Translated by Mahboube Khalvati
Davoud Pirnia, writer and musicologist was the founder of “Golha” (Flowers of Persian Song and Music) programs on Tehran Radio (1956-1966). He received his early education from his father, Hassan Pirnia (Moshir al-Douleh), and several tutors of the time (Taraghi, interview, July 1989) and continued his studies at Saint Louis School in Tehran and then in Switzerland and graduated in law. While studying law, Pirnia got acquainted with European classical music. Upon returning to Iran, he was employed by the Ministry of Justice and founded the Lawyers’ Guild. Then he was transferred to the Ministry of Finance and established the Department of Statistics in this ministry. Later, he became the head of the state inspection office at the Prime Ministry; he was, then, promoted to the position of the Deputy Prime Minister (Navab Safa, interview, August 1999).

In the early 1950s, Pirnia retired from administrative work and devoted himself to studying Persian literature. Simultaneously, he found his way to the radio organization at the time of the development of technical equipment and planning in radio production (Mallah, interview, January 1989). He proposed a plan to produce a program based on mixing Iranian poetry and music, which was accepted. The first program, entitled “Golhay-e Javedan” (Immortal Flowers), was recorded in collaboration with Abolhasan Saba and Morteza Mahjoubi, which included pieces for a solo instrument, accompanied with vocals (without percussion) and various poems declaimed by one or two presenters. In some programs, the poet’s biography and an opinion about the style and context of his poetry were expressed, and in fact, music was a means for introducing Persian classical poetry and great poets of Iran. Pirnia used the best soloists, composers and singers of the time in producing these programs.
Golha program played an important role in the years which marked the decline of the Iranian music’s ingenuity; moreover, it featured a complete period of Iran’s vocal culture by recording hundreds of tapes of instrumental, orchestral and vocal (Avaz) compositions of great artists. Pirnia was present in all the stages of program production, from the selection of poems to the selection of composers, musicians, and singers and recording; he sought opinions from prominent artists, and each of his programs was prepared with great care, obsession, and painstaking efforts (Taraghi, ibid.). Gradually, the Golha program expanded and a large and regular orchestra was established with the budget Pirnia managed to receive from the Plan Organisation, and which often performed under the batons of Ruhollah Khaleghi and Javad Maroufi.
This orchestra continued to function until 1979. The various branches of the Golha program included: Barg-e Sabz (the Green leaf), a program performed with a solo instrument and solo vocalist on religious and mystical poems, with the intention of getting closer to Mola Ali [the first Shia Imam] (peace be upon him); Yek Shakheh Gol (A Flower Branch), a short program containing a short introduction of a poet and some verses of his poems; Golhay-e Sahraee (Desert Flowers), dedicated to the performance of Iranian folk songs, with a change of accent and style and the so-called “urban performance”; Golhay-e Tazeh (New flowers), which was established after 1970, after the death of Pirnia, and performed the works of the young generation of musicians such as Mohammad Reza Lotfi and Mohammad Reza Shajarian; nonetheless, the latest Golha programs never had the prosperity and brilliance of the works of Pirnia (Negahban, interview , February 1992).
Pirnia also founded the first special program for children on the radio with his son Bijan and gifted children who had learned music, and appointed Dr. Moin Afshar, a teacher at Qolhak Jam School, to lead it. Several artists of the next generation started their career after collaborating this program in the years 1952-1957 (Taraghi, ibid.)

Due to some disagreements with the administrative heads at the time, Pirnia left the radio and resigned from Golha program in 1966 retiring himself; he finally died of a heart attack in Tehran in November 1971.

References:
1- Bijan Taraghi, interview, July 1989;
2- Hossein Ali Mallah, interview, January 1989;
3- Toraj Negahban, interview, February 1992:
4- Ismail Navab Safa, interview, , August 1999.

This entry was written by HarmonyTalk
Tagged: Davoud Pirnia, Golha.

Nasser Masoudi: The Voice of Gilan and a Legacy of Iranian Music

In Iranian music, certain singers have become emblematic of their homelands through their distinctive voices. Historical figures such as Eghbal Sultan, who epitomized the grandeur of Azerbaijani music, and Taj Isfahani, who conveyed the authentic essence of Isfahan, serve as notable examples from the Qajar era. Nasser Masoudi occupies a similar position; his voice emerged as a symbol of Gilan while also achieving national acclaim. Before him, Master Ahmad Ashurpur represented Gilan’s musical landscape, but his extended residence outside Iran limited his continuous engagement in the music scene. In contrast, Masoudi’s consistent presence allowed him to introduce the voice of Gilan to audiences across Iran.

Farhad Poupel: The Voice of the Shahnameh in the Orchestras Around the World

In an era when almost no trace of contemporary Iranian music can be heard in international concert halls, except (so-called!) avant-garde works that owe their existence solely to the fashionable slogans of the “pseudo-intellectual” crowd who have seized the already meager resources for performing classical music from the true artists of the field, the numerous performances of Farhad Poupel’s works shine as a ray of hope for lovers of sincere musical art. Without resorting to trendy slogans, he has kept the flame of Iranian classical music alive purely through the power of his artistry.

Latest posts

From Past Days…

Kayvan Mirhadi and O.R.P Qaurtet

Establishing O.R.P. Quartet is Kayvan Mirhadi’s latest activity as a guitarist, composer and conductor of Kamerata Orchestra. Besides working with this Quartet, Mirhadi is busy these days recording and mixing some of his own works as well as some pieces by 20th century composers. O.R.P Quartet performed a concert in Rasht, Gilan Province in late May 2016 and offered a master class.

Ali Rahbari & Recording Iranian Symphonic Compositions

In the few days prior to the New Iranian year (March 2015), the news of the revival of Tehran Symphony Orchestra under Ali (Alexander) Rahbari’s conductorship was announced. Ali Rahbari, who served as assistant to Herbert von Karajan in Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra at a very young age, was also invited to conduct Tehran Symphony Orchestra in 2005; however, the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government put an end to his collaboration with this Orchestra. Recently, it was announced that Rahbari is invited to conduct an orchestra in the U.S.

Polyphony in Iranian Music (I)

Despite the fact that Iranian folk music (regional music of Iran), like the Radif of Iranian traditional music, is monophonic and follows heterophony in principal, we experience polyphonic forms, albeit, majorly unconscious.

Quality Decline in Regional Music Festivals

Regional music festivals are organized to, firstly, introduce the music of different regions and, secondly, to support its performers. Regional music festivals are held in large cities for various reasons, including the availability of financial and executive facilities and the presence of an audience. However, the organization of these festivals has always been one of the challenging issues of ethnomusicology. The reason is that the presence of regional music performers in large cities places them in a context other than the context they would normally perform in their homes; consequently this change in situation leads to changes in the quality of their performance.

The Structure of Kurdistan Daf (IV)

Researcher: Mohammad Tarighat Translator: Fatemeh Alimohammadi Daf Structure The Structure of Daf in different cities of Iran has a great variety in terms of dimensions, components and even appearance; some of which are as follows: – Square Daf, on which the skin was stretched either on one or both sides, with strings installed inside it…
Read More »

Principles of Violin Playing (X)

Creating sound continuity between two notes in the source and destination positions when left hand position changes and “two different finger numbers” are involved is called portamento. Portamento can be performed on single string or two neighboring strings and with hand moving on fingerboard either upward or downward.

Polyphony in Iranian Music (III)

In heterophonic variant, two performers perform a single melody simultaneously and change it. Performing and changing a single melody simultaneously by two performers leads to the coincidence of different voices.

Henry Cowell: “Persian Set”

Persian Set: Four Movements for chamber orchestra: Moderato; Allegretto; Lento; Rondo

Henry Cowell, one of the most innovative American composers of the 20th century, was born in 1897. Cowell and his wife visited Iran in 1956 and stayed there the whole winter, upon the invitation by the Iranian Royal Family, when he composed his album “Persian Set” in four movements for chamber orchestra. His composition is expressive of the characteristic quality of the Persian or the Iranian music.

Polyphony in Iranian Music (IV)

Two choirs alternatively perform Veŝ Tavaré Na avaz (Transcription 5). The second group starts the avaz before the first group finishes it; consequently, two different voices coincide (Transcription 5, staves 2 and 5).

Iranian Fallacies – Composition and Arrangement

In the tradition of classical music, it is generally tried to use the same technical terms related to music in all countries. Even in the cultures in which native terms exist to refer to musical terms, usually the better known universal terms are employed.