A bit of Iranian culture

5 comments

Posted on 23rd January 2013 by Zarathustra in Economy

I may have posted this before, as a link.  It is well known that Iran is a repressive society where musical expression is repressed.  It is also a very proud and ancient culture where some venues are permitted to express themselves.  This group creates contemporary compositions on an ancient Iranian instrument, the Santoor, which is somewhat like a dulcimer but that three strings per note;  a bitch to tune,  no doubt.

 http://youtu.be/55Cjsbt-eYY

5 Comments

  1. T4C says:

    My sister use to play the dulcimer so sent the link to her. Don’t know if Iran has nukes or not, but they certainly have a culture. Thanks for posting what beautiful things humans CAN do.

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    23rd January 2013 at 12:19 pm

  2. Steve Hogan says:

    You mean Iranians are real flesh and blood human beings too?

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    23rd January 2013 at 2:17 pm

  3. IndenturedServant says:

    Very cool! I’ve never heard if that instrument. When David Gilmour’s On An Island album was released I looked up an instrument he played briefly on that album called a Cumbus. It is a Turkish instrument similar to an American Banjo without frets. Gilmour plays it on a tune called Then I close My eyes. You can see the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iTBu34HtBg Wiki link here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%BCmb%C3%BC%C5%9F

    I’ve “met” a few Iranian amateur astronomers on the internet over the years. Sometimes amateurs coordinate and share the results of viewing and imaging sessions for astronomical events that would benefit from it. Round the clock reports were coordinated when comet Shoemaker/Levy 9 impacted Jupiter years ago.

    The Iranian amateurs lacked money for big (6 inch or larger) scopes but they made up for it with enthusiasm and diligence. There were a few efforts to collect donated equipment and get it shipped to the Iranian amateur astronomy clubs as a gift since most US amateurs have an abundance of spare equipment.

    For several years in a row the November Leonid meteor shower promised to provide a rare meteor storm. Amateurs coordinated observing reports including meteor counts to determine where the anticipated storm would hit. You can imagine a bunch of geeks from countries all around the Earth hoping that no reports came in reporting storm level counts because that improved their own chances of seeing the 3-4 long hour event. I finally saw the storm (3600 per hour) one year in the western US and then the next year, the middle east saw an even better storm. The enthusiasm evident in their messages made everybody happy for them.

    I recall learning about a pastime they eagerly pursue called new moon sighting. It is sort of an astronomical challenge to be the first to spot a new moon with their eyes at the youngest age possible. (the moon’s, not yours) It is not easy to do but you can drink a beer while doing it so it should fit right in here in America. You could probably study this site for years and still not learn all about it. http://moonsighting.com If you have clear NW horizons, you might take it up as a pastime.

    Iranians are just people like us trying to live an unencumbered life but govts and govts masquerading as religion have us both struggling to be unencumbered. People seem to be able to get along just fine. Our fucking govts create all the animosity IMO.

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    23rd January 2013 at 4:09 pm

  4. Novista says:

    Very nice gift, thanks.

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    23rd January 2013 at 9:50 pm

  5. eugend66 says:

    Beautiful clip, Zara. Thank you for posting it! Ohh …. and the bearded guy in the middle looks almost like me. Except some grey hair I brag with. :-)

    Peace.

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    23rd January 2013 at 2:59 am

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