DIM

Oh. I have no idea what I am listening to. Except it's playing at 20 kilobytes a second (a bitrate lower than yr homeboy's jeans) and it is fantastic. It is from Persia, and it can be heard again on the stream from Radio Golha. Which is, like, the best thing ever.

I re-stumbled upon this after, um, some pretty generic research on '20th century Iran', for a presentation. Radio Golha's proper title, when it was actually on the radio, i.e. not on the internet everywhere in 2008, translated as "Flowers Program", and ran for 23 years until 1979. It is pretty brilliant in format: the aim was to mix poetry and the traditional music - 'musiqi-e sonnati'.

So you hear orchestral arrangements, recitals, biographies and ensembles. And it achieved a lot:

"First, they popularized Persian classical poetry and made a vogue of it, particularly among the middle class and the affluent social elite. They boosted appreciation of Persian poetry at a popular level to a degree never before achieved. Second, they brought masters of traditional music to public notice and bestowed on them the dignity that they deserved as artists. This should be seen against the background of earlier times, when musical performers were considered mere "entertainers" with a lowly rank in the social hierarchy (they were referred to as motárebs, often with a pejorative connotation). The Golha@ programs not only made most of them household names, but also provided them with a fairly secure basis of income through remuneration or regular appointment."

(link)

That is a whole magical morning that I wouldn't have spent any other way.