This database can be used as a supplement to my dissertation on Persian meters, my article in Journal of Linguistics, or my Persian book (to appear in 2024). In this database, I present data from performances in the nowhe (literally: "mourning") tradition to demonstrate the intuitions of participants of the Persian metrical tradition.

Nowhe is a religious mourning tradition particularly common in Shia Muslim communities. In the Persian-speaking world, it is common in Iran and Afghanistan. A nowhe performer sings a song praising martyrs or deceased religious figures and members of the audience tap along with the rhythm of the song on their chests or thighs, at times participating in the singing. There are several aspects of the nowhe tradition that make it an ideal choice for obtaining data regarding tapping practices, as explained below.

First, it involves singing but normally does not involve any musical instruments other than the tapping hands of the audience, which makes it easy to detect the tapping positions. Second, the audience (and in many cases the main performer) have no musical training and thus their tapping practices reflect the intuitions of Persian speakers. Third, in most nowhe ceremonies the tapping practices of the audience are spontaneous as they are very to have never heard the song before. Fourth, in comparison to professionally composed musical pieces nowhe songs are simpler and less likely to feature rhythmic innovations that result in deviations from the rhythm naturally required by the meter of the poem.

A few of the recordings listed in this database feature other ceremonies that do not entirely meet the above description. In particular, recording 6 features silent hand gestures instead of tapping, recording 18 is from a celebration ceremony (which involves clapping), and recording 20 is from a professionally composed musical piece.

It must be noted that nowhe performances are not always good indicators of the tapping pattern of a meter. In some cases, performers make systematic changes in the rhythm of a meter by making extra pauses or lengthening syllables, thereby deviating from the rhythm imposed by the meter. For example, since 5-based rhythms are considered less well-formed and hard to tap to, in singing poems that have 5-based meters it is quite common to lengthen the last syllable of each metron and make it one mora longer (e.g. changing ``HLH - HLH'' to ``HLS - HLS''). In the present selection, recording 21 is the only recording which may be an example of this phenomenon.

Some of the recordings use the variety of Persian spoken in Afghanistan (also known as Dari) while others use the variety used in Iran (also known as Farsi). In transcribing the texts, I used characters that reflect the Iranian pronunciation in all cases for the sake of consistency. As mentioned before, pronunciation differences across these varieties of Persian do not result in changes in the metrical values of the syllables.

Poems sung in nowhe ceremonies are usually composed for this specific purpose, and they are almost never created by professional poets. Usually, the poem is never published and the poet is unknown. As a result, providing references to the actual poems in written form is in most cases impossible, and audio and video files of actual performances are the best available resources. All of the recordings are downloaded legally from the websites "aviny.com" and "aparat.com".

Mohsen Mahdavi Mazdeh (click here to see my homepage)