George School senior Noorjahan Akbar of Afghanistan spoke with the Bucks County Courier Times about the new book she created this past summer to preserve Afghan songs. Entitled Melodies of Badakhshan and Takhar, the book documents approximately forty-five songs from Noorjahan’s native country, including many created by women. The Bucks County Courier Times also interviewed George School vocal music teacher Jackie Coren and Head of School Nancy Starmer about Noorjahan’s project.

Melodies of Badakhshan and Takhar contains music that Noorjahan collected in the two northern Afghan provinces named in the title. Spending two weeks in each region, she visited households and invited people to share their folkloric songs with her. Groups of ten to fifteen women would gather to sing for her, clapping as they combined ancient songs with improvised pairs of rhyming lines, or couplets. Two accompanying CDs contain recordings of the music printed in the book, with a total length of five hours.