This song is by Marzieh, she was an Iranian singer who was most known for her Persian traditional music. I am continuing my theme of inspiring and strong women. Marzieh was born in Iran in 1924, in the time that she was growing up it was not normal for women to be singers. It actually wasn’t normal for women to school and study a discipline. However, Marzieh was lucky to come from a more forward-thinking family who encouraged her music and going to school. It was this encouragement that lead her to study the classical theory of music under great masters of Persian music. She did this for many years before she even started singing. In 1979 the current Shah (leader) was overthrown and Iran became a theocracy ruled by Ruhollah Khomeini. Under this new leader, Marzieh was banned from performing because of her gender. During the next decade and a half she was told she could perform for female audiences, but Marzieh found this repugnant and refused to sing for anyone except nature. In 1994 she visited Paris, this is when she met the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. She was amazed that the President-elect was a woman, it was this moment that inspired her to start singing again. She started by singing at Camp Ashraf in Iraq to the freedom fighters which included the ranks of 1000 women. For the rest of her life, she continued advocating and fighting for Iranian women’s rights. I chose to showcase one of Marzieh’s pieces because she was so inspiring, she went against gender stereotypes and was extremely successful and she also then used her platform to fight for more women’s rights. 

For the aural analysis, it is a good representation of Iranian music. The most noticeable thing about this piece is that she is singing in a different scale compared to what we are used to hearing. She is also using a lot of vocal ornamentation that is very common to hear in this region. The recording isn’t the clearest but it sounds like there is only one other instrument. It sounds like the Santur because you can hear the brightness of its sound along with what sounds like the hammered quality used to play it. You can also hear that is piece includes the use of quartertones which are a key element to music in this region. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Pe2Cr9L3w8&list=OLAK5uy_lAQwx0dKZcAz3OjvUTalf662wo2h-HXyc