Skip to main content

Kurdish Folk Music from Western Iran

Various Artists
Kurdish Folk Music from Western Iran The Kurds are an ethnic people primarily living in a contiguous area of the Middle East composed of southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, northwestern Iran, and northeastern Syria. Recorded by ethnomusicologist Dieter Christensen and his wife, this album focuses on the folk songs of Kurds living in western Iran in the early 1960s. Kurdish music is broadly divided into three types, reflecting differences in location, social strata, and the degree of professionalism. As explained in more detail in Christensen’s liner notes, urban popular music is played by professional musicians; rural music by peasants and dervishes with semi-professional status. The broadest category, which does not require that performers have special training, consists of music associated with the daily lives of the people and includes lullabies, children’s play songs, work songs, ceremonial songs, and holiday songs. Examples of all three types of music are included in this recording.

RELATED LESSON PLAN
"A Day in the Life of a Kurdish Kid"


Track Listing

icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
101
Asker Tarzan and Mohemmed Hatemî
03:43
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
102
Asker Tarzan, Mohemmed Hatemî, and Mohemmed Mamely
08:03
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
103
Hadji Hemedereş
05:00
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
104
Şîr Ali
03:05
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
105
Hadji Hemedereş
02:04
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
201
Derwiş Hemebor
04:24
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
202
Hadji Hemedereş
02:21
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
203
Sayid
02:45
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
204
Sayid
00:37
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
205
Kerim Bayiz
03:21
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
206
Sayid and Hasan
03:02
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
207
Aşref Bikasî
00:59
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
208
Mohammed Emin Brja
00:40
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
209
Batul Ziyayî
00:58
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
210
Ziwar Khanum Ziyayî
00:47
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
211
Hasan
02:52