 The programs were exemplars of excellence in the sphere of music and refined examples of literary expression, making use of a repertoire of over 250 classical and modern Persian poets, setting literary and musical standards that are still looked up to with admiration in Iran today and referred to by scholars and musicians* as an encyclopedia of Persian music and Persian poetry.They marked a watershed in Persian culture, following which music and musicians gained respectability.Heretofore, music had been practiced behind closed doors.