Abstract
On 23 May 2012, Price Zal and the Simorgh, an orchestral piece based on a story from the Iranian epic poem, the Shahnameh, was premiered at two Brightsparks schools concerts at London’s Royal Festival Hall. This was the result of a collaboration between the Education and Community Department at the London Philharmonic Orchestra, City, University of London and London Music Masters. The project included a strong educational focus, including workshops, teacher resources and training sessions. The central aim was to introduce British school children to Iran, by way of its music and storytelling, as well as broader aspects of culture and history, and in particular to counter negative associations that children experience via the mainstream media. A follow-on project to create a children’s picture book with music, composed and performed by Iranian musicians and based on the same story, led to The Phoenix of Persia which was published in 2019. Drawing on personal observations, feedback from participants and wider project evaluations, this chapter will explore these projects in light of current debates around cultural diplomacy. To what extent might educational work promoting cultural understanding be understood as a form of cultural diplomacy and what are the challenges to using music and other arts in such an instrumentalised way?
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
For instance, in 2007, the BBC Symphony Orchestra ran a project called ‘Persepolis’, as part of which Iranian musicians from the ensemble Dastan collaborated with members of the orchestra on a specially commissioned piece. Other project events included a concert by the BBSO featuring the work of Iranian composers, some of which was broadcast by BBC Radio 3 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/latejunction/pip/ha7oi/) and public facing workshops involving the City University Middle Eastern Ensemble. The British Council also funded a later project that brought together young musicians from Iran and the UK to work together.
- 3.
There is a long tradition of live storytelling in Iran known as naqqali, including from the Shahnameh, which made the choice of this story feel particularly appropriate.
- 4.
Now renamed as Music Masters, https://musicmasters.org.uk/. The project leads at London Music Masters at the time were Rob Adediran and Anne Findlay.
- 5.
https://www.ashmoleprimaryschool.org.uk/; https://jessop.lambeth.sch.uk/. Workshop dates were as follows: Wednesday 23rd November, Monday November 28th and Wednesday December 7th 2011.
- 6.
- 7.
The UK national research audit mechanism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_Assessment_Exercise. On the topic of ‘impact’ in ethnomusicology, see the special forum in the journal Ethnomusicology Forum (Cottrell 2011), based on the autumn 2010 one-day conference of the British Forum for Ethnomusicology.
- 8.
Making an Impact: Introducing Key Stage 2 Children to Iranian Music (2012, Stephen Wilford and Alex Jeffery). See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK10zcZHXUo.
- 9.
- 10.
Bruce wrote the piece such that it could be performed without necessarily needing Iranian musicians, a daff ensemble or a group of young string players.
- 11.
For a video recording of this performance, see David Bruce’s website: http://www.davidbruce.net/works/prince-zal-simorgh.asp. City University also produced a short film about the Youth Proms performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHMgBgaqKog.
- 12.
The Simorgh is represented by nei, the Mountain of Gems by santur, Zal by qanun, King Sam, Queen Aram and the royal court by tanbur, and the soldiers and wild countryside by daff. https://www.phoenixofpersia.co.uk/storytelling-through-music.
- 13.
I was keen to include Amir, whose music I had previously written about and who I knew to be a wonderful composer and performer, but he is based in Vancouver and I wasn’t sure how the logistics would work. The normalisation of the online environment due to Covid-19 was still two years away and although we had the technology to do so at the time, it wasn’t yet part of normative ways of working. Had the project taken place now, we would certainly have connected online with Amir and involved him virtually in workshop sessions. As it was, Amir collaborated from a distance, composing sections and sending them for feedback.
- 14.
It’s interesting to think here about musicians’ individual agency in cultural diplomacy projects. In this case, a certain amount of diplomacy was needed on the part of myself and the Creative Producer to manage differences of opinion on artistic vision between members of the group and sensitivities over how to credit individual contributions that had been enriched by collective work.
- 15.
There are two versions of the soundfile: (1) The complete story with narration: https://soundcloud.com/user-89102112/the-phoenix-of-persia; and (2) Separate chapters with music only, for teachers to use for creative work such as children writing their own versions of the story: https://soundcloud.com/user-89102112/sets/the-phoenix-of-persia-music-composition.
- 16.
Photographs of the book launch are available here: https://www.phoenixofpersia.co.uk/the-story.
- 17.
- 18.
This included 20 performance and storytelling workshops, reaching over 680 children.
- 19.
The following short film about the project focuses on the book launch and a music workshop at Hugh Myddelton Primary School in Islington, London: Phoenix of Persia Children’s Book and Music Project, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMhfd2Q8XFc.
- 20.
The original plan had been to run family events at the V&A focused around the story and music, but due to Covid-19 this wasn’t possible. For more information on the Shahnameh Box and on the back page spread of the book, showing the instruments, see: https://www.phoenixofpersia.co.uk/shahnameh-box and https://www.phoenixofpersia.co.uk/instruments.
- 21.
For artwork resulting from this session and other art-related work, see https://tinyowl.co.uk/phoenix-art/.
- 22.
- 23.
The majority of feedback collected was via teachers and educational organisations; it was less easy to assess the impact of the book and music within domestic settings in the UK and beyond.
- 24.
Further feedback and social media posts are available on the project website: https://www.phoenixofpersia.co.uk/feedback-from-teachers-and-pupils; https://www.phoenixofpersia.co.uk/reviews-of-the-phoenix-of-persia-bo.
- 25.
See the full blogpost here: https://teacherglitter.wordpress.com/2019/05/17/music-and-storytelling/.
- 26.
Among many examples of teachers posting on social media, see https://twitter.com/LacewingIOE/status/1144617139069997056/photo/1. See also: https://www.phoenixofpersia.co.uk/more-ideas-for-classroom-activities and https://tinyowl.co.uk/phoenix-art/.
- 27.
Judging from the name, the child is likely Turkish Kurdish rather than Iranian, but the same idea applies.
- 28.
See ‘What would you see in Iran?’ https://tinyowl.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Appendix-1.pdf and ‘Iran or UK?’ https://tinyowl.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Appendix-2.pdf.
- 29.
Phoenix of Persia Children’s Book and Music Project, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMhfd2Q8XFc (4:34-4:45).
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Filmography
2019. Phoenix of Persia Children’s Book and Music Project https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMhfd2Q8XFc.
2016. Prince Zal and the Simorgh: Disseminating Iranian music and culture in Britain. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHMgBgaqKog.
Wilford, Stephen, and Alex Jeffery. 2012. Making an impact: Introducing key stage 2 children to Iranian music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK10zcZHXUo.
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Nooshin, L. (2024). Shahnameh in the Classroom: Iranian Music and DIY Cultural Diplomacy in the UK. In: Rijo Lopes da Cunha, M.M., Shannon, J., Møller Sørensen, S., Danielson, V. (eds) Music and Cultural Diplomacy in the Middle East. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36279-8_6
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