Within the historic Iranian language Avestan, “Nemāno Gaona” interprets to “colours of house.” On her debut album of the identical title, Iranian violist Kimia Hesabi performs seven works that uniquely symbolize the disparate and intersecting qualities of up to date classical music and Iranian people traditions. For Hesabi, founding father of the Yasna Ensemble and a present resident of Washington, D.C., these works by composers of the Iranian diaspora signify developments of music in Iran, in addition to Iranian music overseas.
Gity Razaz’s Tune and Whispers primarily explores two totally different sound worlds: melodic “music” traditions in Iranian music and up to date classical “whispers.” At first, the piece appears to juxtapose each concepts with little interplay, however each strategies are welded into a brand new and sudden musical language by the top. In that sense, Tune and Whispers features as an announcement of musical goal: discovering the widespread denominators between historic musical traditions and new ones, and alternatives the place there aren’t any preexisting widespread threads, creating them from scratch.
Hesabi’s program notes for Alireza Mashayekhi‘s Variant op. 139, no. 2 state that the work begins with “an uncomplicated motif, suggesting the kind of thematic improvement utilized in an āvāz,” a modal vocal passage in Persian music. However to an ear unfamiliar with Persian traditions, this sort of thematic improvement additionally resembles strategies utilized in classical music. This isn’t to suggest a direct cultural change, however to emphasise that if the mission of Nemāno Gaona is the wedding of musical traditions, then Variant meets these parameters.
Kimia Hesabi–Photograph by Geoff Sheil
The phrase “kamalto” is a portmanteau of “kamancheh” (an Iranian bowed instrument) and “alto” (French for viola). In Showan Tavakol’s Kamalto, the viola is supposed to symbolize the sound of a kamancheh. The primary motion, sung by Lori Şen, is predicated on a textual content by the traditional Persian poet Rumi. The motion is structurally a name and response, that includes sung stanzas separated by lengthy tones from the viola. When the viola half turns into busier, the vocalist’s return is signaled by lengthy tones. Within the second motion, the solo viola performs the function of each soloist and accompanist, with technically troublesome passages interrupted by sustained tones.
Among the many composers throughout Nemāno Gaona, Bahar Royaee is maybe the least involved with making express musical references. Tombstone is an exploration of timbre that makes for an efficient transition out of Kamalto. The work is predicated on a set of poems by Yadollah Royaee — Bahar’s late uncle. Every poem within the assortment is an creativeness of a tombstone for a fictional or actual individual. Thus the three actions of Tombstone have pretty totally different emotional arcs and musical traits. For a piece that eschews the usage of melody in any conventional sense, Tombstone is without doubt one of the most emotionally putting items on the album.
Veiled, by Niloufar Nourbakhsh, focuses on the 2017 Tehran protests towards the obligatory use of the hijab — a well timed inclusion for Hesabi, as the discharge of Nemāno Gaona (June 17, on New Focus Recordings) predates the present Iranian protests. Nourbakhsh writes that “lined hair is a metaphor usually for ladies’s presence,” and so the digital element of the work masks the viola. This description would possibly counsel that the electronics have a menacing high quality to them, however in execution, they’re fairly putting and nearly catchy in their very own means. The actual dramatic pressure of the work comes from the viola and electronics combating for dominance over the musical foreground.
Niloufar Nourbakhsh–Photograph by Michael Yu
Hani and Sheh Mureed, by Mozhgan Chahian, is predicated on Fifteenth-century Balochi people tales. Chahian explores fewer of the prolonged strategies and atmospheric soundscapes that outline the up to date classical approaches on the album, however the melodic and lyrical passages all through the work aren’t any much less affecting.
The album closes with Mashayekhi’s Sonata for Viola and Piano. It’s putting to finish an album targeted on the mixing of various musical traditions with one thing as typical of Western classical music because the sonata. However Mashayekih’s music is simply indebted to the shape as a lot because it must be and wastes no time in increase vitality with dissonant textures. The sonata works nice as an album nearer, because it appears to sum up the widespread threads of the earlier works: There are many up to date squeals and harmonic scratches, however there are additionally moments of superbly composed lyrical passages that reference Iranian people traditions.
With indeniable craftsmanship, Nemāno Gaona ought to be thought-about an essential a part of the up to date canon. The idea of the gathering — the exploration of Iranian musical traditions inside a recent classical framework, or vice versa — is efficient, fascinating, and very nicely executed. However divorced from that context, these are works which can be intellectually and emotionally efficient completely on their very own.
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