Singing an Iranian love song: ‘I didn’t understand the chorus, the melody or the percussion’

Some fifteen students gathered in Langeveld’s Living Room on Thursday, to learn to sing an Iranian love song together. In this workshop, part of the Connecting Cultures Festival, participants were invited to learn to sing Dokhtar-e Boyer Ahmadi, a song about love and admiration.

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Student Behindokht Alipour facilitated the class, an Iranian musician who is also pursuing a master’s degree in Cultural Economics and Entrepreneurship. She not only taught the song, but also played the kamancheh, a traditional Iranian instrument. At first glance, the kamancheh resembles a violin with a longer neck and round body. It is played while sitting down like a cello.

The song Dokhtar-e Boyer Ahmadi is about a young man who is mesmerised by a girl and wishes to be with her. Despite just knowing the girl and not even knowing her name, he already yearns very deeply for her.

Jaime, who follows the same master as Behindokht, came to the workshop wanting to dig deeper into Iranian music. He loves the music, since it connects him to his Iranian family friends. “I’ve never done this before, but I felt I was very comfortable throughout the whole activity”, explained Jamie. Right after the workshop ended, Jaime started singing the song he just learnt and sent it to one of his Iranian friends.

Abhi, a second-year student International Bachelor Economics and Business Economics, initially came into the Living Room to just play some pool billiards, but ended up joining the session. Initially, he found the song to be challenging to learn. “I didn’t understand the chorus, I didn’t understand the melody, I didn’t understand the percussion, nothing. But everyone made it so easy for me to learn.” Ultimately, he gave the workshop a 10 out of 10. “I enjoyed myself a lot. It was just beautiful”

This was Behindokht’s first experience teaching an Iranian song to an audience. “At first, it was even shocking to me that this amount of people wanted to participate. Like, really? You want to learn a song from a language that you don’t know?” She’s curious to discover what other teaching possibilities may lie ahead for her. “I was nervous, I’m not gonna lie, but I think it was fun. So definitely I’m going to do it again if I have the chance.”