TEHRAN – The Tehran Philharmonic Orchestra has released a video of the memorable Iranian song “Morghe Sahar” (“The Bird of Dawn”) in collaboration with a number of world-renowned musicians such as German violist Tabea Zimmermann and German-Egyptian double bass player Nabil Shehata. 

The idea of recording the video came from conductor Arash Guran nearly three months ago to encourage people in the battle against coronavirus during the home quarantine.

“I felt I should do something, create a piece that speaks of the present time and can help improve the circumstances,” Guran told the Persian service of ILNA on Sunday after the release of the video.

“Morghe Sahar”, composed by Morteza Neydavud based on a poem by Malek ush’Shora Bahar, is a good example of the music created during Iran’s Constitutional Revolution. Bahar composed the poem in prison.

The piece was first sung in 1927 by Iranodolleh Helen or Jalal Tajesfahani. Moluk Zarrabi is also one of the early singers of the piece. The song was then performed and recorded by several other singers, including Nader Golchin, Mohammadreza Shajarian and Hengameh Akhavan.

In the video, the song has been performed by Iranian vocalist Homayun Shajarian, son of Mohammadreza, and Lebanese singer Abeer Nehme.

Imamyar Hasanov, Sioned Williams, Jan Mrácek, David Peralta Alegre, Tobias Feldmann, Roman Kholmatov, Lynn Chang, Paniz Faryousefi, Pedram Faryousefi, Coraline Groen, Muriel Razavi, Rebecca Young, Brannon Cho and Alessio Pianelli are among the overseas musicians collaborating in recording this video directed by Hamid Shavarean.  

“I wanted to have top musicians of the world to record this video,” Guran said and added, “Undoubtedly, members of the orchestra and I felt very honored by working with all these great musicians.”

The project has been carried out under the title of “Beyond the Quarantine” and the orchestra has dedicated it “to all the people of the world whose love goes beyond borders and races.”

Due to the pandemic, the musician recorded their parts separately and Iranian musician Reza Farhadi mixed and mastered all the recordings.

Photo: A photo of the video “Morghe Sahar” recorded by the Tehran Philharmonic Orchestra. 

MMS/YAW