Payvar Foundation
In the pursuit of finding the treasure he recorded, his wife opened a window to the music of Iran and handed over these golden pages passed through history to us. A group gathered, and we began the work from classification and cataloging to photographing and taking the initial steps to make them accessible to seekers—this is how the two years have passed. And today, the first works are in your hands.
“Payvar Foundation” is a center for researching, organizing, and publishing documents related to Iranian music. Gradually, this center has also acquired manuscripts and documents from others and calls upon those who possess a document tucked away in a drawer for a day —that will never come— to entrust it to “The Payvar Foundation.” So that precisely layer by layer, it could shape an unbroken and continuous past towards the future, without paying heed to the clamor of governmental claims and their affiliated associations, to the changing restrictive and delineating tastes, and to the inherited drowsy forgetfulness, thus saving this unique cultural phenomenon, music, from harm. Hence, the grace of music should not be exchanged for trivialities, indeed, its grace should be offered to their trivialities.
The priority of addressing documents and the work is not on their importance; however, having assessed the criteria, from now on, we will bring the more significant works to you at a faster pace.
Radio Radif Podcast
In recent years, Persian podcasts have experienced remarkable growth in listeners and topics. Iranian classical music has also played a part in this movement, with numerous podcasts exploring various aspects of Iranian classical music.
Radio Radif, focusing on Iranian classical music, addresses the core of this music, namely the radifs of Iranian music, whether they have been published or remain unpublished. Radio Radif examines the radifs from social perspectives, their influence on other styles of Iranian music, the narrators and recorders of various radifs, comparisons among them or different existing versions of each, their phenomenology, and their evolution and transformation.
We aim to hear the opinions of narrators, researchers, and instructors of radif in various segments of Radio Radif. Of course, the role of radif as the alphabet of Iranian music in every musical work is perhaps one of the crucial features of its Iranian identity. We believe that the current understanding and perception of radif determine the path we will take in Iranian music tomorrow. The support and collaboration of researchers, artists, cultural enthusiasts, and lovers of Iranian music can help us to understand and introduce the various aspects of radif.
Special Episode: 35 Years with the Gramophone – Part 3
Duration: 25 minutes In the second half of 2023, at the Payvar Foundation, we hosted 12 sessions of the “Radio Radif Thursdays” series. In these programs, by extensively listening to historical pieces and old recordings, in a serious yet friendly atmosphere with discussions and exchanges of views, we revisited the history of Iranian music from the late Qajar era to the first Pahlavi period.
Special Episode: 35 Years with the Gramophone – Part 2
Duration: 21 Minutes In the second half of 2023, at the Payvar Foundation, we hosted 12 sessions of the “Radio Radif Thursdays” series. In these programs, by extensively listening to historical pieces and old recordings, in a serious yet friendly atmosphere with discussions and exchanges of views, we revisited the history of Iranian music from the late Qajar era to the first Pahlavi period.