Morteza Mahjubi
Selected Improvisations from Golha, Pt. 1
Death Is Not The End
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2022
LP
26.99/29.99
DEATH048LP
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Tracklist
1Improvisation in Abu-Ata (Golha-ye Rangarang #204)
2Improvisation in Sigah (Golha-ye Javidan #140)
3Improvisation in Shur (Golha-ye Rangarang #182)
4Improvisation in Homayun (Barg-e Sabz #150)
5Improvisation in Bayat-e Zand (Yek Shakheh Gol #169)
6Improvisation in Dashti (Barg-e Sabz #174)
7Improvisation in Abu-Ata (Golha-ye Rangarang #201)
8Improvisation in Bayat-e Turk (Barg-e Sabz #177)
9Improvisation in Afshari (Barg-e Sabz #94)
10Improvisation in Dashti (Golha-ye Rangarang #200B)
11Improvisation in Abu-Ata (Barg-e Sabz #35)
12Improvisation in Sigah (Golha-ye Rangarang #193)
13Improvisation in Bayat-e Turk (Golha-ye Javidan #136)
14Improvisation in Dashti (Golha-ye Rangarang #162B)

A collection of stunning Persian-tuned piano pieces cut from Iranian national radio broadcasts made for the Golha programmes between 1956 & 1965.

Morteza Mahjubi (1900-1965) was a Iranian pianist & composer who developed a unique tuning system for the piano which enabled the instrument to be played in all the different modes and dastgahs of traditional Persian art music. Known as Piano-ye Sonnati, this technique allowed Mahjubi to express the unique ornamental and monophonic nature of Persian classical music on this western instrument - mimicking the tar, setar & santur and extracting sounds from the piano which are still unprecedented to this day.

An active performer and composer from a young age, Mahjubi made his most notable mark as key contributor and soloist for the Golha (Flowers of Persian Song and Poetry) radio programmes. These seminal broadcasts platformed an encyclopaedic wealth of traditional Persian classical music and poetry on Iranian national radio between 1956 until the revolution in 1979.

Presented here is a collection of Morteza Mahjubi's stunningly virtuosic improvised pieces broadcast on Golha between the programme's inception until Mahjubi's death in 1965 - mostly solo, though at times peppered with tombak, violin & some segments of poetry.

The vast collection of Golha radio programmes was put together thanks to the incredible work of Jane Lewisohn & the Golha Project as part of the British Library's Endangered Archives programme, comprising 1,578 radio programs consisting of approximately 847 hours of broadcasts.