Dawood Pirnia, gardener of Iranian musical flowers

Charso Press: November 11 is the anniversary of the death of Dawood Pirnia, who founded a new path and a great treasure in Iranian music, and perhaps it can be said that he did one of the greatest services to Iranian music, who brought Iranian music to a new and higher standard. He pushed and brought it to the ends of this border through radio programs.

Many people say that Pirnia is one of the great servants of Iranian music and literature in the contemporary period, and the high value of his services is due to the fact that Pirnia was the creator and innovator of a method that no one paid attention to before him. This method is the same A combination of poetry and music And getting help from one to understand and influence the value of another.

Dawood Pirnia received his primary education at home. Then he entered Saint Louis School in Tehran to continue his studies and learn French. Later, he went to Switzerland to continue his studies in law.

During his life in Europe, Pirnia became familiar with classical music and even started learning the piano. But when he returned to Iran, he continued to expand and modernize traditional Iranian music. He realized that if there is a proper connection between poetry and traditional music, brilliant works will emerge.

In the beginning, the flowers program was started under the name of eternal flowers by the initiative of Dawood Pirnia on Radio Tehran. Other programs named colorful flowers, a flower branch, green leaf, desert flowers (based on local songs) were added to this collection after 1334.

The first program, titled “Eternal Flowers”, In partnership with Abul Hasan Saba And Morteza Mahjoubi It was recorded to include pieces for solo instrument, instrumental vocals (no percussion) and various poems recited by one or two speakers.

In some programs, the biography of the poet and an opinion about the style and context of his poetry were expressed, and in fact, music was a vehicle for introducing Persian classical poetry and great poets of Iran. Pirnia used the best soloists, composers and singers of that time in preparing these programs.

Then the program with the sentence “This was also an eternal flower from the incomparable flower garden of Iranian literature – always be happy and always be happy” was ending

Akbar Golpayegani’s performance in the Eternal Flowers program

The broadcast of “Eternal Flowers” on the radio began in 1335, and gradually this thought entered Pirnia’s mind that the “percussive music” of Iran should also have a place in the “Golha” program, especially the songs and ballads that were composed and played on the radio. , was often under the influence of foreign music and lacked enough originality.

On the other hand, forming an orchestra of well-known artists who could perform his opinion required funding, which was beyond the ability of the “General Directorate of Publications and Radio” at that time. With a lot of effort, Pirnia succeeded in getting the opinion of the officials of the “Plan and Budget Organization” about the importance of attracting and credit for this work, and in this way, the “Flowers” orchestra was formed and the program “colorful flowers” It was the result of this effort.

Ali Tajveidi, Professor Saba and Morteza Mahjoubi

The program started with percussion music and a wordless song. Then the speaker sings some poems on this song. At the end, the song was performed by the singer with the orchestra.

At this time “Flowers” Orchestra It became bigger and bigger and came out of the “monophonic” mode. Javad Maarofi wrote the song gradually and to the extent that the Iranian listener was ready in polyphonic form, and the parts were performed under the leadership of Ruhollah Khaleghi. In fact, “Green Leaf”, “Flower Branch” and “Desert Flowers” were other programs that added diversity and attraction to the “Flowers” section.

“green leaf” It was a program with mystical poems performed by a singer on Friday nights. The program was broadcast on Friday nights for about 30 minutes, and the first program was with the voices of Seyyed Javad Zabihi, Ni Kesai and Tar Shahnaz. At the beginning of the program, the speaker reads these two verses:

Open your eyes, it is a charming manifestation / like a manifestation from the door and the wall

This show is like watching / Lis fialdar, etc., dear

Pirnia, who is one of the devotees Mullah Ali (a.s.) At the end of the program, he meant this sentence: “This was also a green leaf, a gift from Darvish, Ali, your guardian.”

“A flower“, was the title of a 15-minute program that introduced a poet and read a few verses of the same poet and then performed one of the songs of colorful flowers. The time of the program was usually about 15 minutes, and the first program was with Mrs. Azar (Hananeh) with Centaur Payor and Velen Saba.

“Desert Flowers” It was also a special program to introduce Iranian folk songs.

During the eleven years of Pirnia’s leadership and supervision over the production of the collection of flowers, 5 categories of programs were prepared in this collection: Eternal flowers (157 programs); Colorful flowers (481 programs / this program starts from number 100 and some programs have numbers A and B); Green leaf (481 programs); A flower branch (465 programs); and desert flowers (64 programs) each of these collections included the selected works of ancient and contemporary poets of the Persian language and recitation of poetry in them was accompanied by music and performance of songs and comprehensive and complete commentary by the masters of the art and famous reciters who are experienced in the art of poetry recitation were present in it.

The flower orchestra was composed of famous composers, singers and musicians of that period and later evolved with the participation of more artists. The primary core of the orchestra is made up of musicians such as Abolhasan Saba, Ali Tajveidi, Mehdi Khalidi, Ahmed Ebadi (three strings), Morteza Mahjoubi (piano), Abdullah Jahanpanah (violin), Lotfollah Majed (strings), Reza Varzandeh (centaur), Abbas Shirkhodai ( Ghareni), Izadi (cello), Mastan (double bass) and Hossein Tehrani (percussion) formed

Later, under the leadership of Ruhollah Khaleghi, other famous people such as Homayoun Khorram, Parviz Yahaghi (violin), Hassan Kasaei (reeds and three strings), Javad Marofi (piano), Jalil Shahnaz, Farhang Sharif (strings), Nasser Osmandhar (tonbak), Ali Asghar Behari (kamancheh), Mansour Sarmi (centaur) and… played in it.

What was the secret of immortality of “flowers”?

This question was always raised, what is the secret of “Flowers” programs that penetrates so deeply into the hearts and souls of people? While other programs by the same artists, poets and songwriters were also made on the radio, they did not have the impact of the “Flowers” programs, nor were they popular with listeners and all classes of people.

Habibullah Nasirifar answered this question in the book “Traditional and modern music men of Iran” He wrote: “The real reason for this is in fact Complete and accurate knowledge It was Pirnia’s love for Iran’s poetry, literature and music, and the other was the strange precision and obsession that he used in choosing music pieces and poems. He would listen to a piece of music many times and select parts of it and delete parts. Then, for the poem on which the piece should be recited, he would study many divans of poems and tazkira.

In recent years, the late “Rahi Moiri” and played the pieces for those who came to see him to test its effect on them, especially knowledgeable people. Sometimes he would listen to a program more than 30 times and for these reasons it was difficult to work with Pirnia and only enthusiastic people could implement his wishes.

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