Art designed by: Emory Hensley
NEMĀNO GAONA
In the Avestan language of ancient Iran, “Nemāno Gaona” means colors of home. In collaboration with composers of this album, we bring together a collection of works that are each uniquely inspired by my home country, Iran. As a collective these works represent various qualities from Iranian folk, classical, and contemporary music, and display a unique identity, sound, and story. These pieces showcase a musical language and performance practice that explores a mutual exchange between cultures. Despite the differences in background and compositional styles between the composers, these works all examine a unique blend of Iranian music and Western art music characteristics, and in doing so allow a performance practitioner of Western art music to explore a new musical language.
Song and Whispers by Gity Razaz
The opening track, Song and Whispers, was composed by Gity Razaz for Kimia Hesabi in 2019. Razaz explores two main ideas in this piece: a sound world created by pure atmospheric sounds, and an organic and original flavor of Iranian music. In Song and Whispers, Razaz creates an episodic structure in which each episode builds on the previous one. However, Razaz describes the structure as not completely successive, but rather one that has episodes constantly moving back and forth and intertwining. Razaz’s compositions have a sense of trajectory and dramatic flow in how she creates anticipation, climax, and resolution. This quality is reflected through not only the melodic and harmonic ideas but also in the rhythmic energy in her compositions. Song and Whispers comes from the relationship of the two sound worlds created by the melodic components and the atmospheric effects. Razaz envisions the atmospheric effect as “whisper,” with its pitch-less and soft quality, and how it can be intense yet barely noticeable at the same time. On the other hand, she creates melodic components, resembling qualities of a “song”. The alternations between atmospheric sounds and melody create dramatic contrasts that imbue the piece with narrative intensity.
Variant and sonata for viola and piano by Alireza Mashayekhi
Alireza Mashayekhi is a pioneer in the avant-garde music of Iran. He is one of the first composers of his generation to initiate a new movement in the contemporary music of Iran, and to combine elements of Iranian classical music with twentieth and twenty-first century techniques of composition. Mashaykhi’s explorations in a wide spectrum of twentieth century music, accompanied by his deep interest in Iranian culture were the cornerstones of his artistic and stylistic development. The rhythmic structure of this work is created in part by experimenting with the concept of time. These rhythmic experiments in pacing and timing give the piece an improvisatory character which is influenced by Iranian classical music. In Variant, Mashayekhi incorporates flourishes that have an improvisatory character and are stemmed from a simple motif. These motives bring to mind the concept of āvāz, which are the unmetered vocal section of the mode in Iranian music. This piece displays a theme and variation form in which the variations grow in complexity, texture, dynamics, and drama. As these variations progress, more layers of drama unfold until we reach a climax in which we face intertwined and rapid chords. This climax is only the beginning of a set of climaxes that lead us to the end, where rapid passages and chords depict a suspenseful and breathtaking conclusion to this piece.
Tombstone by Bahar Royaee
Bahar Royaee’s Tombstone, explores colors that deviate greatly from idiomatic expectations for viola. Her compositions are a blend of timbral and sound-based atmospheric structures, interspersed with lyrical influences derived from her Iranian background. Tombstone is based on a poem by Iranian poet, Yadollah Royaee who has a collection of poems around the theme of Death. Each poem in this collection is an imagination of a Tombstone for a fictional or real person.
“A Tombstone for Simin: ... and I saw the “death” as a child, running, exhaustedly, away from the death.”
About this piece Bahar writes:
“There are sounds in the horizon; and in the horizon of sound is silenced noise. Tombstone is about Death as a child, who runs away from herself. It tries to deconstruct that noise with the viola‘s ―known-unknown‖ timbres, and reconstruct the horizon with repetition, embracement of the body and deployment of errors. Tombstone is made economical by its materials. In each movement, the piece develops specific timbres through repetition. The repetitions are in gestures. Dear Musician! The primary importance of performing this piece is you transporting the known-unknown sounds to their horizon with your own inner time. You make the space by relating your inner sense of time to the external measurable time. There is no perfection. Embrace the errors in synchronization with ―real‖ time. Let the timbres develop within your own sense of timing. The notation of the piece needs personal realization. It needs deciphering. Spend some time with this child. Try to practice the gestures mentally away from the instrument, then the gestures in isolation, and then string together the phrases. Familiarize your inner time and your viola‘s known-unknown with the death in the poetry. Then they get presented as one continual, durational span that reaches the horizon through a gradual process of metamorphosis.”
Kamalto by Showan Tavakol
Kamalto has two movements, the first for viola and voice and the second for solo viola. Kamalto is a fine combination of Iranian musical characteristics and contemporary compositional techniques, as Tavakol explains: “I have been experimenting with ideas of bringing my roots into my new works. As a kamancheh player, I can easily perform Iranian melodies, modes, and motives on my instrument, but how can I write a piece that makes this available and accessible to more than just me? Hence the creation of Kamalto; kamancheh and Alto (French for viola)”. Viola in many ways reminds Tavakol of his instrument, the kamancheh. Their similarities, including a somber and deep sound, nasal quality, range of colors from brilliant to dark, and capability of producing rough edges in the sound inspired him to choose viola for this piece. By writing the piece with scordatura tuning (D–A–D–A, a common tuning for kamancheh), he made the two instruments’ registers even closer, while also experimenting with a non-traditional range and color for viola. The text of the first movement comes from the opening verses of the Mathnavi (a poem written in rhyming couplets) by Jalālad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī, more widely known as Rumi. The main theme in the beginning verses of this poetic masterpiece describes the human soul, symbolically referred to as the nay (Iranian wind instrument). The musical sound of the Farsi poetry (transliterated into a Latin alphabet in the score) contributes to the meaning of the piece; according to Tavakol, this poem, its message, and the musical rhythm imbedded in the original Farsi text inspired him greatly in the composition of Kamalto especially in including the female voice in the first movement.
Veiled for viola and electronics by Niloufar Nourbakhsh
Veiled for viola and electronics, composed by Niloufar Nourbakhsh originally for cello (commissioned by Amanda Gookin), was arranged for Kimi Hesabi by the composer for viola. According to Nourbakhsh, Veiled was inspired by two specific subjects: the hijab and the “veiled” presence of women in Iran. “The covered hair is a metaphor in general for women’s presence in the society. I thought about women’s voices, and them not being able to sing freely in Iran due to conservative cleric rules from the government, and other limitations women face in the country. On the other hand, I used the meaning and concept of “veiled” in creating sounds from the instrument that “dissolve” or are “covered” in various ways”. In 2017, a series of protests known as the Girls of Enghelab Street (Revolution Street) movement took place against the compulsory hijab for women in Iran. Nourbakhsh recalls being moved by this event and the tragedy and violence it provoked, and was motivated to center Veiled on it. Veiled includes both live and pre-recorded electronics; the live electronics are created and sent to Max through the contact mic and the pre-recorded electronic track includes sound effects and a female singing voice. In her composition process, Nourbakhsh created a sound world and characters through specific attention to pitch, register, and timbre. The vocal melody performs multiple roles: telling a story about Iranian women, depicting a feeling of being silenced, and trying to
break free. Nourbakhsh explains that she sought a sense of “granulation of the sounds; a quality that can be described as a feeling of suffocation, fighting (or singing) with your last breath.” In addition, it also joins the viola to create what Nourbakhsh describes as a “collective force,” acting as both the arrival point of the first part of the piece, and a beginning for what comes next.
Hani and Sheh Mureed by Mozhgan Chahian
Hani and Sheh Mureed is another commissioned work in this album, composed by Mozhgan Chahian. This piece is in four movements, each depicting characters or tales from the Balochi folklore. This ancient tale dating back to the 15th century, mirrors the life of Balochi heroes, is a symbol of Balochistan’s philosophy and culture, and displays the tragic love story of Hani and Sheh Mureed. According to the story Hani and Sheh Mureed who were engaged to be married, become separated for almost 32 years due to Mir Chaker’s guile, who was the ruler at the time. Each movement in this pieces includes themes for different characters. The opening theme the first movement and the closing theme of the fourth movement for example, are Hani’s theme and connect the different sections of the work. The episodic structure of this piece is created by combining various sections that are independent in nature, but connect and blend to shape the characters within the work. Chahian has been inspired by not only the tale of Hani and Sheh Mureed, but also the Balochi culture and music in creation of this piece. Her interpretation of the Balochi Muqams appears in this piece not through repeating and borrowing from the original material, but through her analysis of these Muqams and creating her unique musical language inspired by them. Chahian’s use of improvisatory motives, rhythms, and melodies, adds to the story-telling qualities of this work.