Hello hello hello everyone !! Hope you’re having a great day. We are BACK with Continental Drift, and this week we’ll be doing something a bit different from our typical programming. We’ll be diving into the music of the roughly defined geographic region of Kurdistan and home to roughly 40 million Kurdish people. This region is made up of a broad area, typically defined as large parts of what is now eastern Turkey, norther Iraq, and western Iran, as well as smaller parts of northern Syria and Armenia. Today, we’ll be defining Kurdish music as music performed in the Kurdish and Zaza-Gorani languages.

The first official publications and studies of Kurdish works were made in the early 20th century, when renowned Armenian priest and composer Komitas published his “Chanson kurdes transcrites par le pere Komitas”, which consisted of twelve Kurdish melodies. Kurdish music then began appearing in phonographs in the late 1920s, when music companies in Baghdad marketed the music to the broader Arab world. Kurdish music typically features vocals heavily, but instruments include the tembúr, saz, qernéte, daf, duduk, and different types of kemenche.

Kurdish classical music has roots in the pre-islamic era, and so despite having developed within the general cultural and musical traditions of the Middle East, is distinct from many of its geographical neighbors. Some scholars, such as Robert Redfield, describe it as a synthesis of broader cultural elements known as "great traditions," with local practices among communities, or which they call "little traditions".

One of the greats of Kurdish folk/classical music is Mihemed Şêxo, who we’ll hear now (Spotify playlist).

Another legend from around the same time, is Hasan Zirak (Hesen Zirek), born in western Iran in the early 20th century. After publishing “The Shriek of Kurdistan”, a kurdish-language biography book, Zirak was soon banned from any and all performances on Iranian state radio as part of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s repression of Kurdish culture. After the publication of the book, a warrant was issued for his arrest by the Shah’s notoriously brutal intellegince agency, SAVAK, and Hassan fled to Iraqi Kurdistan to join in the Kurdish revolution.

Ayşe Şan, known as the “queen without a crown” of contemporary Kurdish classical music. She spent her early career in Istanbul, but was soon forced to emigrate to Germany in order to avoid repression and to be able to continue to sing in Kurdish, which was highly controversial at the time. 

Contemporary Kurdish music

As you may have been able to tell already by some of the biographies we gave on these artists, the experience of the Kurdish global population is highly diasporic — especially for successful artists. Many who choose to sing in Kurdish are forced to leave their home country for fear of imprisonment, or may never have stepped foot in Kurdistan because of their parens’ earlier emigration. As such, much of contemporary Kurdish music is defined by the longing to return home, while at the same time proudly reaffirming a shared cultural identity.

One of the most prominent examples of this phenomenon might be Ciwan Haco. Growing up in Syria, Haco found success early, and produced his first album at 14. He was one of the first singers to combine Iranian folk music with popular western styles of blues, rock, and pop. At the same time however, Ciwan’s recordings were banned in Syria, Iraq, Iran and his native Turkey for a quarter century, prompting him, like so many others, to resettle in Sweden for the rest of his career.

The Kamkars — musical family of seven (!) performers from Iran, performed at the nobel ceremony for peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi.

The recording of the episode will be available soon! Until then, enjoy the Spotify Playlist!