Hamid Rahmati's Blog

Electronic Music in Iran; Tradition and Modernity*

2010-09-03T03:54:00.020+04:30

Abstract

This paper aims to offer a general outline of the development of electronic music in Iran and its intertwinement with tradition. After presenting a brief history of electronic music before and after the 1979 Revolution of Iran, I will discuss in more depth the social, political and musical context in which three generations of Iranian composers have developed their musical language. With regard to the phenomenon of multiculturalism evolved in such contexts, the role of universities, the internet, and the use of personal studios will be taken into consideration.

1. Introduction

The particular sociological and political context of Iran, a country whose strong cultural structure does not simply allow for adopting new values, has always been problematic for composers. On one hand, there is increasing tendency toward Western art, science, and technology, on the other hand, the rich values of traditional music remain intact. This ambivalence presents a permanent challenge to composers in search of a suitable language to express their musical ideas. Traditional elements have been used by not only pioneers of Iranian electro-acoustic music, such as Alireza Mashayekhi and Darius Dolatshahi, during the 1960s, but also by younger generations who have the luxury of internet at their disposal. To the majority of young Iranian musicians of electronic music who come from a traditional musical milieu, modern technology has broadened possibilities for expressing new musical ideas within a traditional framework.

2. Historical and social context of music in Iran

Many pioneers in the fields of mathematics, philosophy, medicine, physics, and music have rose from Persian Empire and Iran. According to Owen Wright, “The later half of the thirteenth century constitutes one of the most important periods in the history of Arab and Persian musical theory. It witnessed the emergence of a corpus of theoretical writings that not only demonstrate a considerable degree of originality, but also provide the framework within which all the major theorists of the following two centuries were to operate.” One of the main preoccupations of these scientists was finding an exhaustive pitch system, système des hauteurs, which consist of all pitches available to play. This system, as François Picard says, “is a sin qua non, which culturally and historically stands as a database to musicians, even as an act of nature.” Safi al-Din, al-Kindi (9th century), al-Fârâbi (10th century), and Ibn Sïnâ (10-11th centuries) are the first theorists who formulated and developed such a system based on inherited scientific concepts from the Greek, i.e. the Pythagorean system.

3. Range of music

Hoomân As`adi, researcher and professor of ethnomusicology at Tehran University, divides music in Iran into three main categories :

1-Classical
a) Western classical music b) Persian Radif music
2-Folk
3-Popular
Electronic music, as well as Radif (persian classical music) are sub-divisions of classical music.

4. Shiraz arts festival - the beginning of electronic music

Although first electronic compositions from Iranian composers date back to 1965, the first formal performance of this music was the work of Iannis Xenakis, Polytope de Persépolis, performed at the annual Shiraz Arts Festival in 1971. As described by Robert Gluck, “The upcoming 2,500th anniversary (1971) of the conquest of Babilonia by Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian empire, provided a rationale for an international cultural event at the ruins of Persepolis, the ancient pre-Islamic royal seat.” The first year of the festival took place in 1967 as a showcase for the royal court. Since the late 1960s up until the 1979 Revolution, prominent figures of avant-garde arts, among them Iannis Xenakis, Peter Brook, John Cage, Gordon Mumma, Davis Tudor, Karlheinz Stokhausen, and Merce Cunningham, participated in Shiraz Arts Festival in Iran. According to Sharon Kanach, “The fifth year of Shiraz Arts Festival celebrated the 2500th anniversary of the Persian Empire. That year was announced the year of Cyrus the Great. Xenakis presented his one and only performance of Polytope de Persépolis, a commission of the festival. Polytope de Persépolis, the inaugural work of the festival, was performed at the ruins of Persepolis.” Among participants of the festival’s fifth year were The
Manhattan Project (USA), Peter Brook and The International Center for Theatre Research, Le Grand Cirque Magique (France), The Chamber Orchestra of Moscow, The Cracow’s Philharmonic Orchestra, The Sunda Ballet (Jawa-Indonesia), Lakshimi Shankar & Thumri Singer (India), Joel Chaiken, the Hague Philharmonic Orchestra directed by Bruno Maderna, and The Open Theatre (USA).
Xenakis’s work was among the forefronts of the Shiraz Arts Festival. In 1968 he presented Nuits (1967) for twelve mixed voices a capella. This nine-minute piece is a collection of phonemes and syllables derived from Sumerian, Assyrian, Achaeans, and Persian texts. It is dedicated to political prisoners.
Persephassa (1969) for six percussionists, commissioned by ORTF, was premiered in 1969. James Harley explains, “[Persephassa] held in the picturesque setting of Persepolis, an archeological site in the deserts of Iran. […] Mr. Xenakis, with his own attachment to the ancient civilization of his native Greece, as well as his leadership to the avantgarde, was a good match to the aims of the festival.” The big success of this piece led him to more ambitious projects. Xenakis presented his Polytope de Persépolis on 26 August 1971.
Gruppen, Carre, Stimmung, Gesang des Jünglinge, Telemusik, Prozession, Kontakte, Spiral, Klavierstücke, Hymnen and Mikrophonie I are among the pieces of Stockhausen, performed in 1972 in the festival.
In 1968, Alireza Mashayekhi (b. 1940) completed his first electronic composition Shur. In 1976, this piece was played at the festival. Among the first generation of Iranian electronic composers Daryoush Dolatshahi and Masoud Pourfakhar received scholarships to study electronic music at Columbia-Princeton Music Center. In the last year of the 1977 festival, Dolatshahi got a commission from National Iranian Radio and Television (NIRT) to write a piece for electronic and chamber orchestra.

5. The 1979 revolution and its impact on the musical scene of Iran

After the Arab invasion in the 7th century, due to certain religious considerations, the practice of music vacillated between acceptance and rejection. Strong cultural heritage on one hand and new socio-religious values on the other compelled Iranians to make compromises between their cultural values and religion.
Like astrophysics, mathematics, geometry, politics, philosophy, and logic, music was considered a science in ancient times. The Islamic revolution of 1979 was a turning point at which traditional and religious values countered western modernity. Music or practice of music was not tolerated by many religious authorities. Carrying or possession of any musical instrument, as well as teaching and learning music put people at risk of legal difficulty. After the Iran-Iraq war, the number of people turning to cultural activities considerably increased. Music gradually became one of the most important activities of the youth. Although today learning and playing music is an inseparable part of many people’s lives, the lack of institutions supporting serious music is palpable. Mohamadreza Darvishi, Iranian musicologist and researcher, believes that the equivocal position of religious authorities on music is the first problem to be solved.

6. Department of music of Tehran University

The music Department at Tehran University, the oldest and largest university of Iran, is the first academic musical institution in the county. It was founded in 1965 within the faculty of Fine Arts. After the Islamic Revolution of Iran in 1979 the High Council of Cultural Revolution made changes to the higher educational programs. The music department closed its doors to students for several years. It was only in 1988 and after a gap of 10 years that the music Department of Tehran University re-opened, now emphasizing on theoretical aspects of music. Throughout time, more attention was paid to practice of music. Today, both traditional Persian music and electronic composition are taught in this department. It is the only academic institution in Iran which has been recently equipped with a small and limited studio devoted to composition of electroacoustic music.

7. Electronic music in Iran - Today

The history of electronic music in Iran is an ongoing process of confrontation and reconciliation between modernity and tradition. Shiraz Arts Festival opened new horizons to the artistic and intellectual milieu in Iran, and attracted many composers to the idea of working with synthetic and processed sounds. Inspired by these new influences, most Iranian composers of electronic music from the first generation went abroad to acquire knowledge of this music and gain experience with it. Although composers of post-1979 Iran did not have the advantage of the government’s support for studying abroad, modern technologies and Internet opened new horizons to composers who wish to work with electronics. Iranian musicians have never benefitted from professional studios of electronic music; however, advanced computer hardware and computer programming have enabled composers to create home-studios with modest budgets. Today there are various kinds of open-source software which allow musicians to experiment composition by sampling, editing, synthesizing and processing sounds with no cost. Miller Puckette’s book, The Theory and Technique of the Electronic Music, is one of the most popular texts available to composers with a technical background. Providing some material equipment for a concert of electronic music is much easier than finding instrumentalists to play an instrumental work. Organizing a private concert of electronic music is more realistic than waiting for six months to receive an unguaranteed permit for a public concert.

8. Traditional cultural identity as the most common feature of composers

For composers with multicultural backgrounds, artistic identity has always been a challenge. Western science and culture present a wide horizon on which composers base their artistic identity. On the other hand, composers benefit from having their roots in rich values of traditions. This, however, creates a web of contradictions in which composers may be forced to either compromise or choose a 'third way'. In “The Horizon of Mixed Influences” Darius Shayegan, an Iranian intellectual and scholar, explains, “Doubly open-ended, we are at one and the same time a project directed towards the archaeological past of our knowledge (tradition) and telos of our future. This combinatory art of recording heterogeneous spaces and identities constitutes the ‘third way’”. Most Iranian composers of the younger generation have a completely traditional background. They are musicians with traditional training, good knowledge, and high skills of Iranian classical music. Shahrokh Khajeh-Nouri, composer and Professor at Arts University explains: “While many musicians with western classical training are afraid of any derivation from [their] traditions, these young composers could successfully integrate Persian traditional music into their composition with most modern artistic approach.” For those who want to express new musical ideas, new technologies provide appropriate medium. As I mentioned above, Iran lacks institutions supporting serious music, and the western classical training has not been institutionalized. Although Persian classical music is a cultural heritage, musicians are compelled to find a way out of the confined structure of Iranian traditional music. Thanks to the oral tradition, they develop a musical cognition of this music that trained musicians of western classical music do not develop of Western classical music. Azin Movahed states in an interview, “Comparing with students practicing western classical music, Iranian musicians have a more developed musicianship. The ‘oral tradition’ practice allows them to develop their musical perception. They are therefore not dependent on the bible which is the text, the score. They actually develop their musical mind from very early stage of training.” Kiawasch Saheb-Nasagh, a young composer and a professor of composition at Tehran University believes, “Musicians feel that there should be something else in addition to tradition through which they express themselves and justify their beings [as musicians].” Saheb-Nasagh calls this a necessity of our time. Relying on their knowledge and skills, Iranian musicians go further. They experiment and explore new horizons, beyond the strict rules of tradition. In the past, Persian cultural identity was in interaction with other ethnic, national and religious identities. Today, this interaction does not exist. As Dariush Shayegan observes in “A Tamed Schizophrenia: 21st-Century Talks”, “Today, these exclusive cultural identities are strung between the ‘not yet’ and the ‘no longer’, i.e., not yet modern and no longer traditional.” The traditional young musicians, having developed their musical mentality, need to express themselves in a language capable of transmitting their ideas.

Contrary to composition of western classical music, a composer of electronic music does not need to have strict classical training. Musicians of traditional milieu who have already developed a musical mentality can utilize their skills and knowledge toward a new language which is sound. Let us not forget that techniques of traditional training allow students to be players, composers, and improvisers at the same time.

*Alireza Farhang

Université Paris-Sorbonne Paris-IV
mail@alirezafarhang.com

Lontano

2009-12-26T03:58:00.014+03:30

Gyorgy Ligeti composed Lontano (Italian for “far away”) for large orchestra in 1967. the work commissioned by the Southwest German Radio, Baden-Baden, for the Donaueschingen Music Festival of 1967.

In the course of the 1960s Ligeti grew increasingly fascinated with the possibility of music with a harmonic center and this interest led him in the direction of Lontano.

In this composition, extremely dense canonic counterpoint sustains a sound-mass continuum of fluctuating coloration and density. Maybe condition of his life in youth was efficacious in his penchant of static music.

Michel Follin has created a documentary film about Ligeti, Gyorgy expalins about his early years of life : nothing was going on in the news, the time were immobile and nothing was changing. and he explained about his interest in Johannes Ockeghem : In Ockeghem I found music that's totally static. there's no specific or known point in the rhythm. The voices combine to create polyphony. It's like a continual and electric sensation. and while he was listening to Ockeghem's Kyrie from Missa Prolationum, he said: one has to listen to the entire piece to realize that even as it changes, the totality of the piece is static.

Ligeti has more important works in this area, like Atmosphere, Double Concerto for Flute, Oboe and Orchestra and Lux Aeterna. even when his works is not directly static but his fascination of this kind of music is obvious like second movement of Piano Concerto.
Paul Griffiths, the eminent critic and Ligeti biographer explains of Lontano : This was not a return to conventional tonality — Ligeti preferred chords with no clear diatonic sense (such as a major second superimposed on a minor third) — but, together with the principle of canon, it allowed him access to the continuity of conventional tonal music. Lontano is partly a salute, across a gulf of elapsed time, to the late Romantic symphony. In Lontano Ligeti made his music of long, slow gestures, but there was another basic element in his world, that of rapid mechanical activity.

Ligeti himself spoke of Lontano: The crystallizations of harmonies have several layers: within the harmonies are enclosed interior harmonies, and more interior harmonies within those interior harmonies, and so on. There is not merely one process of harmonic transformation, but rather several simultaneous processes going on at different speeds, which shine through one another, overlain one upon the other, and by means of various refractions and reflections make perceptible an imaginary perspective. This process unfolds itself gradually on the listener, rather like what happens when you step from sharp sunlight into a dark room and gradually begin to notice colors, and outlines become more and more perceptible.

In his book Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century (Oxford, 2000), Arnold Whittall described Ligeti’s Lontano:
Persistently cloud-like textures...dominated...the orchestral Lontano. This begins in 4/4 time at crotchet 64 [i.e., at the tempo of 64 quarter notes per minute], but a rigid sense of pulse is to be avoided, and one does not hear a regular succession of such beats. a pervasive cloudiness is manifest, but too predictable a uniformity is avoided by imaginative instrumentation and skilful handling of the underlying dynamic fluctuations.

In the score of Lontano, Ligeti provides the following advice about certain details of the work’s performance: The bar lines serve only as a means of synchronization; bar lines and beats never mean an accentuation; the music must flow smoothly, and accents (with a very few, precisely indicated exceptions) are foreign to the piece. To avoid any effect of accentuation, it is recommended that all instruments enter with an imperceptible attack, even when this is not specifically prescribed; the softest attack possible is necessary in the oboes, English horn, and brass instruments. When there are sustained tones in the strings, the change of bow should, if possible, not coincide with the bar lines, and should be imperceptible and individually executed; the same applies to all legato passages in the strings.

Forgotten Genius

2009-10-26T02:51:00.025+03:30

One of the most significant and forgotten Russian avant-garde composers is Alexander Mosolov. I wonder why this great composer is so unknow among 20th century composers.
Alexander Mosolov (1900-1973) was born in the lawyer’s family in Kiev. Since 1903 he lived in Moscow. His mother was a singer and his stepfather was a painter. Their house was a place where Moscow artistic people gathered, including Reinhold Gliere.
In 1918 he volunteered to the cavalry regimen of the Red Army. In1921 he was accepted to the Moscow Conservatory to the Gliere’s class of composition, later he was a student in Myaskovsky’s and in 1925 he became a member of the Association of Modern Music. The members of his family, himself, his mother, and his wife, E. Kolobova, a pianist, were famous in Moscow for performing the Russian avant-garde music.
Mosolov's second Piano Sonata is my favourite and I think it's one of the best sonatas for piano in twentieth century. The complete name of the second sonata is " Piano Sonata No.2 in B minor" but we should forget everything we know about B minor tonality, first movement begins in B minor but with very stressful and dissonance intervals, just after one minute music changes from a melancholic mood to brutal and aggressive mood. The Second movement is an Adagio and truly called "Espressivo, sostenuto e severo". there's a constant suspension throughout this movement. The third movement has more motions but as stressful as first movement or even more so. The third movement entitled "Allegro tumultuoso, infernale", really tumultuous and infernal. The other name of this sonata is, From Old Notebooks, and Mosolov composed it when he was student in Moscow Conservatory. Futuristic elements are obvious in this great opus, and although I'm not very interested in futurism this works is an exception.

The German pianist, Herbert Henck has recorded some of Mosolov's work included Piano Sonata No.2 and No.5 and Two Nocturnes. His performance is unique and he also is expert in contemporary music. he has recorded works of famous and important composer like Stockhausen, Conlon Nancarrow, Georgy Antheil, Pierre Boulez, Charles Ives and Morton Feldman. I've listened to his albums of Antheil, Nancarrow and Stockhausen and really appreciate him. he's not very famous in the world but unique.

The Beginning of Mosolov's Second Sonata in B Minor

Pierre Laurent Aimard

2009-05-24T02:21:00.011+04:30

Pierre Laurent Aimard born 9 September of 1954 in Lyon, France, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Yvonne Loriod, and in London with Maria Curcio.

His early career landmarks included winning first prize in the 1973 Messiaen Competition, and being appointed at the age of 19 by Pierre Boulez to become the Ensemble InterContemporain's first solo pianist.

For more than 15 years Aimard collaborated closely with Gyorgy Ligeti, recording his complete works. Ben Finane did an interesting interview with Aimard, here is a question about contermporary music, Ligeti and Aimard that I pasted it :

BF: Ligeti says that you are "the leading performer of contemporary piano music today." Do you consider yourself especially suited for contemporary music?

Aimard : [Laughs.] Well, I perform a tremendous amount of 20th-century music. I've always tried to emphasize it and to be involved in it because this is today's music, so it is the most urgent need, the greatest necessity. Also, I could never understand why so many people were really uninterested in 20th-century music. So my first priority as a performer is to do what most people don't do, because it's necessary — for this music, these composers and the audience as well. But I always try to combine it with traditional repertory to have a balance. So, I'm certainly a specialist, but absolutely not exclusively.

Aimard is very proficient in Twentieth century music however he has performed Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schuman.

But his proficiency is more obvious in contemporary music. For the first time when I heard his unique art on Gyorgy Ligeti's Etudes I couldn't believe a man can play so frenetic. I appreciated him more when I was hearing the same works played by another pianist. Aimard has recently extended his musical activities to conducting, although he characterized his interest and gift for conducting as follows: "To be clear: I am not a conductor, and I will never be one. This is not my way of life, and I have nothing to do with that, and have no talent for that. But if you want me to give a definition to what I do, I wouldn't say I'm a pianist - I'm a musician, and the piano happens to be my instrument. I don't like to have one function, to give me just one perspective on music. I like to make chamber music, to be part of a group, to play song accompaniments, to teach, to speak about music. In other words, to live the phenomenon on different sides."

Through professorships at the Hochschule Koln and Conservatoire de Paris, as well as series of concert lectures and workshops worldwide, he sheds an inspiring and very personal light on music from all periods. In 2009, Aimard will give a series of classes and seminars at the College deFrance.

Pierre-Laurent now records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft; and his first DGG release, Bach's "Art of Fugue", has received the 'Diapason d'Or' award; the prize for the 'Choc duMonde de la Musique'; debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's classical chart ; and has topped the classical album download chart on iTunes US.

Here is some of his important records with various labels :

Bach - The Art of Fugue
Bartok - Concerto for Two Pianos & Percussion - London Symphony Orchestra / Pierre Boulez
Beethoven - Piano Concertos No1 - 5 (Box Set) - Chamber Orchestra of Europe / Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Boulez - Sonata for Piano No.1; Sonatine
Debussy - Etudes; Images
Ives - Piano Sonata No.2 “Concord”; Songs
Ligeti - Piano Concerto - Ensemble Intercontemporain / Pierre Boulez
Ligeti - Etudes; Musica ricercata
Ligeti - Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano "Hommage a Brahms"
Messiaen - Reveil des Oiseaux - Cleveland Orchestra / Pierre Boulez
Ravel - Gaspard de la nuit Carter - Night Fantasies/Two diversions/90+

It's just a part of his huge discography. In 2009, Aimard is scheduled to become the next Artistic Director of the Aldeburgh Festival in Englandfor an initial contract of 3 years. Here we have some of his important programmes for next days.

Date : Friday 19th June 2009

Place : England - Aldeburgh Festival - Snape concert hall

Orchestra : BBC Symphony Orchestra, George Benjamin

Programme : George Benjamin: Duet for piano & orchestra; Ravel, Piano Concerto for the left hand

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Date : Saturday 20th June 2009

Place : England - Aldeburgh Festival - Britten Studio, Snape 11am

Programme : Elliott Carter & Pierre-Laurent Aimard

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Date : Thursday 25th June 2009

Place : England - Aldeburgh Festival - Snape concert hall

Orchestra : Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Susanna Malkki

Programme : Ligeti & Birtwistle

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Date : Saturday 27th June 2009

Place : England - Aldeburgh Festival - Snape concert hall

Orchestra : Chamber Orchestra

Programme : Beethoven : Piano Concerto No. 5 'Emperoer'

Post-Rock In Far East

2009-05-06T03:34:00.006+04:30

Two years ago, I listened to Sigur Ros and Godspeed You Black Emperor for the first time then searched for more post-rock bands as succesful as these two bands but I didn't find any.

There are some good bands but I didn't like them so much, Explosions In The Sky, Mogwai and Red Sparowes aren't bad however I don't like most of their works. And Bands like Tortoise and Battle which I don't like even one song of their works. a few days ago I heard an album from a japanese band that call Mono.

The album was You Are There and released in 2006. at first maybe it seemed like they were heavily influenced by GYBE but when we listen more, we find out that they have their own style, especially in melody, their melodic lines are original and I didn't heard something like that elsewhere.

The album begins with a 13 minutes epic song that call " The Flames Beyond The Cold Mountain ", intro of this song is very dark and introduce album's moods truly. Are You There? and Moonlight are other superb songs of the album however other songs are important too, I didn't hear something superfluous in this album.

I think one of the best trait of Mono's works is their melodic lines which are very nostalgic especially in songs like Are You There. It has a kind of homesickness inside of itself and musical timbre give us a sense of hopelessness.

Overall the album has bright and delicate moments still, for instance in Moonlight, melodic lines are excellent and when the album finishes with this song, it's promising.

Mono was founded in January 2000 by guitarist Takaakira Goto. Working by himself, Goto completed most of Mono's demo tracks. Tamaki Kunishi (Bass), Yoda (Guitar), Yasunori Takada (Drums) are other members of this band from Tokyo.

Now I add Mono to other great japanese artists who I know and admire them, Akira Kurosawa (filmmaker), Toru Takemitsu (Composer), Mitsuko Uchida (Pianist), and Tadao Ando (architect).

It's true that best bands and musicians in rock music history are from UK and USA, but if we search in non-English countries we'll find great bands like Mono.

Sigur Ros (Iceland), Ulver (Norway), Magma (France), Riverside (Poland) are just examples that I know. Most successful bands in non-English countries are bands which get influence from their native music.

Getting influence from folklore can enrich band's products, using microtones, non-western scales and even traditional instruments to make diverse products and satisfy different tastes.

Certainly it's hardest work that a band can do, for example many rock bands in Iran try to make rock music with influence from our traditional music but the result is tragic most of the time.

Clavier-ism

2009-03-15T02:58:00.007+03:30

Keyboard always has been one of the most important instruments in rock bands, specially in progressive rock bands. I remember a voting in Progarchives website, topic of the voting was about most important instrument in progressive rock, Keyboard had most of the votes even more than guitar. it shows that keyboard players have considerable role in bands.

Since 70's years many keyboardists have had significant roles but each of them have their own style, super technical keybordists like Keith Emerson, Jordan Rudess, Rick Wakeman or musicians like Richard Wright, Richard Barbieri (from Porcupine Tree), Kjartan Sveinsson (from Sigur Ros), Ian McDonald (early King Crimson) who are expert in creating unique atmosphere, but something is similar between most of them, they are proficient pianists, it's obvious from Keith Emerson and JordanRudess or even Kevin Moore however he often doesn't play very technical.
Kevin Moore did study classical music, he states that his educational background didn’t only come from the classroom, “I studied, but only for a year, most of my musical education has come from the outside, growing up in high school, practicing classical stuff, and playing in bands." says Moore, now referring to his evolution as a musician, which has involved many stages, “I think in the beginning I was interested more in the technique, trying to get my fingers to play whatever was thrown at them, the whole practicing ordeal, but now I am more focused on the songwriting, well, I actually am focused producing I guess, not that I have spent much time doing that right now, but I do a lot of work getting sounds together and getting to work on my songs."

Kevin moore always has been one of my favorite musicians, he has proved that is really creative in making cinematic atmosphere in his albums, specially in Graveyard Mountain Home.

“I enjoyed the process of writing for film, ” says Moore referring to Okul, for which he started writing the soundtrack for it as soon as he got to Istanbul. Moore also stated : “I thought it would be cool to do the next Chroma Key CD in that way; find an old film I could use, which was really the main inspiration for the record.” And he created Graveyard Mountain Home in a bizzare mood.

Keith Emerson is an idol for many rock musicians but he has created music and play keyborad in a different way, he plays piano technically and acoustic piano is a principal factor of his music. Emerson grew up in the seaside resort of Worthing, West Sussex England. As a child, he learned western classical music, from which he derived a lot of inspiration to create his own style, combining classical music, jazz, and rock themes. Emerson has performed several notable rock arrangements of classical compositions, ranging from J.S.Bach and Modest Mussorgsky to 20th century composers such as Bela Bartok, Aaron Copland, Leos Janacek and Alberto Ginastera.

On first album by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, "The Barbarian" is heavily influenced by Allegro barbaro by Bartok and "Knife Edge" is virtually a note-for-note restatement of "Sinfonietta" by Janacek.

Jordan Rudess is an important keyboardist in progressive rock history indubitable, and he's also one of my favorite too. In last ten years he has altered Dream Theater and proved that he's best one for this superb band, he practiced classical too and if you listen to "An Evening With John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess" you'll find out that he's a skillful pianist and has extreme musical knowledge from classical to jazz. Rudess is interested in technology too, While many keyboard players in progressive rock tend towards bringing numerous keyboards on stage, Rudess took full advantage of the possibilities offered by the Kurzweil K2600xs during his usage from the 1990s to 2004. Often sampling sounds from other keyboards. Rudess switched keyboard endorsements from Kurzweil to Korg's new flagship Korg Oasys workstation (which supports up to 2 GB of sample memory).

However it's not all of story, other music genres use keyboard widely but in a different way. Keyboard is main instrument for musicians in Ambient music, or in styles like progressive electronic, Techno-Tribal and others.

Steve Roach is a composer who creates music mostly with keyboards and synthesizers, his music is atmospheric, somber, ethereal and eerie.

All of these show importance of keyboardists role in different genres and styles, so they should learn music in depth and a good keyboardist insures success of the band.

Mahler The Phrenetic

2009-02-22T01:11:00.015+03:30

I don't know, is it right to entitle him a phrenetic man or not but this is first word that comes to my mind when I listen his works. It's not for his enormous orchestra and choir, there's something overthese inside of his works. Mahler was a mystic, His imagination circled incessantly around these matters, around God and the world, around life and death, around spiritual matters and nature.
Gustav Mahler (7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was born into a German-speaking, Ashkenazic Jewish family in Kaliste (Kalischt), Bohemia, then in the Austrian Empire, today in the Czech Republic. Alma Mahler quotes Gustav as saying "I am thrice homeless, as a native of Bohemia in Austria, as an Austrian among Germans, and as a Jew throughout the world. Everywhere an intruder, never welcomed."
Mahler has great works but his symphonies are the best that one can do. His Symphony No.5 was written in 1901 and 1902 mostly during the summer months at Mahler's cottage at Maiernigg. The musical canvas and emotional scope of the work are huge, Herbert von Karajan said once that "when you hear Mahler's Fifth, you forget that time has passed. A great performance of the Fifth is a transforming experience. The fantastic finale almost forces you to hold your breath."
First movement (Trauermarsch) begins with an amazing funeral trumpet solo in C-sharp minor and then strings create a heavy and dark atmosphere that is really sad, subsequently woodwinds specially clarinets help to make an intrinsic funeral piece, I think this is best part of symphony. The first two movements constitute Part I of the symphony (as designated by Mahler in the score), the long Scherzo constitutes Part II, and the last two movements constitute Part III.

During a concert tour to Finland in November 1907, Mahler told fellow composer and great

symphonist Jean Sibelius, that "the symphony should be like the world; it must embrace

everything". but Sibelius had a different conception of the symphony, as the conflict and harmonious resoution of different musical themes.

Mahler started his work on Tenth Symphony in July 1910, and ended his efforts in September the same year. He never managed to complete the orchestral draft before his premature death at the age of fifty from a streptococcal infection of the blood. The circumstances surrounding the composition of the Tenth were highly unusual. Mahler was at the height of his compositional powers, but his personal life was in complete disarray, most recently compounded by the revelation that his young wife Alma had had an affair with the architect Walter Gropius. Mahler sought counselling from Sigmund Freud, and on the verge of its successful premiere in Munich, dedicated the Eighth Symphony to Alma in a desperate attempt to repair the breach.
Mahler's widow reported that his last word was "Mozart!". He was buried, at his request, beside his daughter, in Grinzing Cemetery outside Vienna. In obedience to his last wishes, he was buried in silence, with the gravestone bearing only the name "Gustav Mahler."
Mahler's good friend Bruno Walter describes the funeral: "On 18 May 1911, he died. Next evening we laid the coffin in the cemetery at Grinzing, a storm broke and such torrents of rain fell that it was almost impossible to proceed. An immense crowd, dead silent, followed the hearse. At the moment when the coffin was lowered, the sun broke through the clouds" (Walter 1957, 73).
Arnold Schoenberg painted a tableau of Mahler's funeral in 1911. (look at below picture)

During the summer months of 1908 to 1910 Mahler stayed at the Trenkerholf in Carbonin Vecchia, where he composed the Ninth Symphony, the incomplete Tenth Symphony and the Song of the Earth.

Mahler’s composing hut in Steinbach. (Photograph courtesy of Alex Ross)

Music and Drug

2009-02-07T01:07:00.008+03:30

Many people think drug is an effective element for artists to be creative. Maybe they're right but there are artists that are not agree. In this post I want write about musicians who use drugs and who are against drugs. It's a topic that rock music fans discuss about it more than others because rock musicians are involved in drugs but I don't believe in it. All of us know rock musicians who were addicted to drugs, like Eric Clapton and David Bowie, and even musicians who died because of overdose like Jimi Hendrix, but it's not all of story.In an interview in 1996 when Mark Blake asked of Richard Wright about taking drug in Pink Floyd he answered : "If you mean Pink Floyd took drugs - you're wrong. There is no way that I could play music and take any kind of drug at the same time."
"Roger Waters Quit LSD After A Bad Trip" It was headline in websites in 2008, Pink Floyd guitarist Roger Waters has vowed never to use drugs again following a near-death experience while using acid. Therefore we conclude that Richard Wright was joking, or maybe he was talking about just himself.

The early years of the The Mars Volta were characterized by chaotic live shows and heavy drug use. But after a tragic event everything changed, The Mars Volta's former member Jeremy Michael Ward was found dead of a drug overdose. It was the event which finally convinced band leaders Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala to quit using opioids. They quit using drug in 2003, and in 2005 they made their masterpiece Frances The Mute, so their creative side doesn't depend on drugs.

Roger Waters and The Mars Volta quited using drugs but Led Zeppelin's guitarist Jimmy Page didn't quit and even don't regret of it, In an interview he gave to Q magazine in 2003, Page responded to a question as to whether he regrets getting so involved in heroin and cocaine: "I don't regret it at all because when I needed to be really focused, I was really focused."

However, there are important rock musician who didn't use drug and don't use still. Some people think Frank Zappa is dubious but no, Zappa strongly opposed recreational drug use. (Barry Miles's book about Frank Zappa)

According to Dweezil (Zappa's son), "There are so many things that are misunderstood or not recognized about my father's music because they've been filtered by people who work for magazines like Rolling Stone. For example, Rolling Stone recently printed a poor, artist-rendering of Frank holding a joint. Frank has always been well known for being anti-drug yet they would rather continue to perpetuate a false image of him, even after death."

In New York's live DVD (Does Humor Belong In Music?), Zappa stated that he doesn't use drugs.

King Crimson is against drug too, Fripp and Giles claim that the band never used psychedelic drugs. In 1979 Fripp described himself as having a very modest lifestyle,"I don't have a string of fast cars or fast women, and I don't take any drugs at all, not even aspirin."The source is Eric Tamm's book about Robert Fripp, Robert Fripp - From Crimson King To Crafty Master.

In Musician magazine No.45, July, 1982, appeared an interview with John McLaughlin, the interviewer was Robert Fripp, it's an attractive dialogue, the subject is Coffee and Chocolates for Two Guitars. In this dialogue Fripp said that he never did drug. This interview is available on the web.

The lyrics of the last album of Porcupine Tree deal with common behaviour tendencies and other issues concerning society in the beginning of the 21st century such as bipolar disorder, drugs, alienation caused by technology and depravation of youth.

Steven Wilson : "My fear is that the current generation of kids who're being born into this information revolution, growing up with the Internet, cell phones, iPods, this download culture, American Idol, reality TV, prescription drugs, PlayStations — all of these things kind of distract people from what's important about life, which is to develop a sense of curiosity about what's out there."

Sigur Ros is in opposition of drugs too, it's an interview with Jonsi Birgisson (guitarist and vocalist) in their official website, he cited that "we will never recommend anybody to take drugs, although many people think that we play or we compose while being drugged."

Bruce Dickinson has hit out at other musicians for their rock'n'roll lifestyle, Speaking to Serbian newspaper Blic, he said: "Most people who join rock and roll bands just want to drink, to screw around, and to try drugs a bit. Those are things that I can't get along with."

Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson proved his zero tolerance to drugs - by scolding a fan for smoking marijuana during one of the band's gigs.

In the end I want write about Stanley Kubrick and his opinion about drug, cinema lovers know that he's not just an artist, he's really a thinker and thoughtful man. I choosed a part of his interview which is related to this topic.

Question : have you ever used LSD or other so-called consciousness-expanding drugs?

Kubrick : "No, I believe that drugs are basically of more use to the audience than to the artist. I think that the illusion of oneness with the universe, and absorption with the significance of every object in your environment, and the pervasive aura of peace and contentment is not the ideal state for an artist. It tranquilizes the creative personality, which thrives on conflict and on the clash and ferment of ideas. The artist's transcendence must be within his own work; he should not impose any artificial barriers between himself and the mainspring of his subconscious. One of the things that's turned me against LSD is that all the people I know who use it have a peculiar inability to distinguish between things that are really interesting and stimulating and things that appear to be so in the state of universal bliss that the drug induces on a "good" trip. They seem to completely lose their critical faculties and disengage themselves from some of the most stimulating areas of life. Perhaps when everything is beautiful, nothing is beautiful."

This interview is available on google book search.

There is a reality about Beethoven that I think it can be marvelous.

Did Beethoven ever use drugs?

The first test was conducted by Dr. Werner Baumgartner at Psychemedics Corporation, Los Angeles. The radio-immuno assay involved examination of 20 hairs to see if Beethoven received any opiate painkillers during the last months of his life. A negative result was obtained, indicating that these hairs did not contain any evidence to support ingestion of morphine or other forms of opiates (such as laudanum). Morphine has a long and historic use as a pain-killer, sedative, treatment for fever, and anti-diarrhea medicine in Europe. The Encyclopedia of Medical History notes that "Before 1870, European medicine regarded opium as a virtual panacea."

I think it's marvelous that no traces of morphine or any other pain-killing drug were found in Beethoven's hair samples, in spite of the horrendous pain he endured in his last few months, It has been suggested that he deliberately withheld these drugs from himself because they might have compromised his ability to compose.

Anyway I think art of musicians who don't use drug is pure and unfeigned, like Dream Theater, those who I mentioned and most of classical music composers, and their concerts are in higher level of quality than the others who use drugs.

The Metamorphosis

2009-02-01T00:35:00.007+03:30

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.

The original German is this:

Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheueren Ungeziefer verwandelt.

The Metamorphosis (Die Verwandlung) begin with these words. Kafka wrote this story in last days of november and first days of december of 1912 and first published in 1915.
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was born to a middle class German speaking Jewish family in Prague.
Critics have interpreted Kafka's works in the context of a variety of literary schools, such as modernism, magical realism, and so on.
The apparent hopelessness and absurdity that seem to permeate his works are considered emblematic of existentialism.
The Metamorphosis had written in days that cities were growing and industrial life is pervading in metropolises. Gregor Samsa in this story is representative of a wide range of people in begining of twentieth century and certainly in these years. people who are metamorphosing, but are in depth of ignorance themselves.
Samsa is uneasy because of his job, he's uneasy because of train, he's always in track, from a city to another city, from a firm to another firm. he's in a continous stress and hasn't time to think about his world, dreams and everything superior than routine life.
English translators have often sought to render the word Ungeziefer as "insect", but this is not strictly accurate. In Middle German, Ungeziefer literally means "unclean animal not suitable for sacrifice" and is sometimes used colloquially to mean "bug".
Vladimir Nabokov, who was an entomologist as well as writer and literary critic, insisted that Gregor was not a cockroach, but a beetle with wings under his shell, and capable of flight - if only he had known it.
But is it important?
It's not important that Samsa became a gigantic insect, because it's years that he had changed and he has not time to think about himself. Kafka's stories, such as The Metamorphosis, and novels, including The Trial and The Castle, concern troubled individuals in a nightmarishly impersonal and bureaucratic world.
This is the matter that we have more in these years and ceratinly Gregor Samsas are more than one hundred years before.
Franz Kafka has a museum dedicated to his work in Prague, Czech Republic. The term "Kafkaesque" is widely used to describe concepts, situations, and ideas which are reminiscent of Kafka's works, particularly The Trial and The Metamorphosis.

Kernel and The Shell

2009-01-16T00:32:00.012+03:30

Did you ever think of relation between a music album or a film with its CD/DVD cover?
Notable artists always take care to everything that present their work and one of the most important things is cover.

Some rock bands work with only one or two cover designer, for instance take a look at The Mars Volta, Pink Floyd, Magma and other bands like these.

Eddie (a character of Iron Maiden covers) is present everywhere and absract designing is obvious in Pink Floyd's albums, in albums like Dark Side of the Moon and The Final Cut or obscure real pictures in albums like Meddle and Obscured By Clouds.

Some artists in rock, jazz, pop music are creative in designing covers, but I think Classical albums are in a higher level, specially contemporary albums. for instance, Arnold Schoenberg CDs.

But I don't want write about preferences, I want speak about relation between concept of music or film and CD cover.

one of the greatest covers that I have seen is Gyorgy Ligeti/Per Norgard's Violin Concertoes cover.

CHANDOS (the company) produced a unit album including Ligeti's Violin Concerto and Per Norgard's Viola Sonata and Violin Concerto, in previous post I had written about Norgard's work and I talked about coldness and darkness in this work, this cover (as you can see below) introduce music atmosphere's perfectly.

It's one of the most prosperous covers that I have seen.

Arnold Schoenberg's Piano Concerto is another example (look at below pictures). If we didn't listen to Schoenberg's music, this cover shows what's inside!!! A kind of Expressionism define the work. Alfred Brendel had performed the concerto and Chamber Symphony No 1 & 2 are other works in this Cd.

I guess it's a painting and doesn't belong to this album, but I'm not sure.

Graveyard Mountain Home is an album by Chroma Key that released in 2004, this album is conceptual.

Kevin Moore recorded this album in Istanbul, Turkey. The album written to accompany "a surreal, obscure social film" by Sid Davis from 1955 called Age 13. The photos on the album are taken from the same movie, Below the title on the deluxe edition cover, the text describing the concept of the album,"In his loneliness and out of his longing,an idea occurred to Andrew. If he could fix his mother's radio, perhaps he could bring her back to life."

Gyorgy Ligeti (Violin Concerto) - Per Norgard (Viola Sonata-Violin Concerto)

Arnold Schoenberg - Piano Concero and Chamber Symphonies No 1 & 2

Chroma Key - Graveyard Mountain Home

King Crimson - The Power To Believe

Film's covers for DVD is in a different way, the pictures on the cover usually are taken from the same film but a proficient designer can create an extraordinary cover.

These are covers that come to my mind, did you see anything mentionable?

Dark Tranquility

2009-01-06T03:58:00.025+03:30

Odd Nerdrum (born April 8, 1944 ,Sweden) is a Norwegian Painter. In this post I upload some paintings of Nerdrum, the works are communicative. though, everyone may have a different view, I feel a sense of darkness, blackness and specially distrust in his works. The style and themes in Nerdrum's work are based on anecdote and narration. Nerdrum now lives in Iceland where he is applying for Icelandic citizenship. He divides his time between his home in Iceland and his farm in Norway.

Rembrandt and Caravaggio had heavy influences on Nerdrum and Leonardo de Vinci, Michelangelo, Edvard Munch, Kathe Kollwitz, Caspar David Friedrich are masters that had influences on his works.

Nerdrum had influences on other artists, for instances, a well known horror film, The Cell, contains a scene that was heavily influenced by Nerdrum's painting's Dawn. The scene features three identical figures sitting down, looking upwards with pain, trance-like expressions on their faces (look at below pictures). Director Tarsem Singh stated that the painting was the inspiration for the scene's imagery. Singh had seen the painting while visiting the owner of the painting, David Bowie.Nerdrum also created the cover of the Norwegian progressive rock band, Junipher Greene's LP, Friendship (1971).

Grey Self-portrait

Iron Law

Sommerfugl

Baby

Dawn

The Scence from Singh's The Cell

Surrealism ; Junction of Penderecki , Lynch and Fripp

2008-12-19T00:45:00.006+03:30

When great artists work in a known and definite style, they construe the meaning of the style from their personal viewpoint, for instance, surrealism in Lynch's work isn't similar to Luis Bunuel's surrealism never but it's surralism too. This is a "MUST" for artists. External propinquity is less when media is different. for example imagine Expressionism in Music, Cinema and Painting. maybe in first sight there is no propinquity but what about their nature and fountain?
Surrealism explore in the realm of dreams and unconscious mind through the creation of visual arts, poetry, music and film. I don't want talk about origins of Surrealism but this movement is an offshot of an earlier art movement that called Dada (1914-1918).
Surrealists are heavily influenced by Sigmund Freud the Austrian founder of psychoanalysis. This movement begins with literary and visual arts. Andre Breton (French poet and critic) Salvador Dali (Spanish painter and writer), Rene Magritte (Belgian Painter) and Luis Bunuel (Spanish film direcor) Alberto Giacometti (Swiss sculptor and painter) are major artists of surrealism that have high historical importance in history of art.
This writing is about three great artist of twentieth century, David Lynch is obviously a surrealist film director but Penderecki and Fripp are two music composers that are influenced by surrealism and are not as surrealist as Lynch!!

David Lynch (film director, screenwriter, painter and photographer) born in 20 January 1946 in Montana, USA.
Many of themes in his films are criminal but he doesn't make gangster films, he explores through unconscious mind of man from a criminal view. Most of his films (except films like Straight Story and Elephant Man) are heavily influenced by surrealism and there are frames, plans and sequences that we don't understand unless watch the movie more and more.
I think he has many irrational parts in his movies but those are not absurd, those should be, those help to create atmosphere that Lynch wants. Lynch has expressed his admiration for filmmakers Stanley Kubrick, Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman, writer Franz Kafka (stating "the only artist I felt could be my brother was Kafka") and painter Francis Bacon. He has also cited the Austrian expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka as an inspiration for his works.
And about Penderecki and Fripp and their connections to Lynch and Surrealism.

Krzysztof Penderecki (23 November 1933,Debica,Poland) is one of the most important composer of contemporary music and he achieved world fame in beginning of 60's decade for Threnody for the victims of Hiroshima for 52 strings and he's a prominent conductor too.
David Lynch used of Penderecki's music in his last film, Inland Empire. The works are Dream of Jacob, De Natura Sonoris I and II, all of the works are orchestral and Lynch put the pieces in right places and create extraordinary atmospheres.
He used of Witold Lutoslawsi's works too (both of these composers are polish and the main story in this film is polish and many scences shooted in Poland). I don't mean that use of a specific music in a surrealist films means that music is surrealist, it's important but it's not a good proof. we have heard Jazz music in previous Lynch's films and everybody knows Jazz music isn't surrealist!
Penderecki's music is surreal (in works like Dream of Jacob) because of orchestration and phrases that create music in a particular way. this particular way is very similar to surrealistic atmospheres. one of my evidences is the name of the opus, DREAM of Jacob. we are aware of importance of dream in surrealism and when we listen to the opus, this is like a exploration in dream of Jacob. I think Penderecki is one of the most powerful composers in creation music in these moods but I should mention to Gyorgy Ligeti, second movement of Liget's Piano Concerto is a good example.
Robert Fripp (May 1946, Dorset, England) is rock musician, virtuoso electric and acoustic guitarist, composer and currently music educator. He's influenced by twentieth century music and Bela Bartok is one of composers that Fripp admire. Fripp himself has stated that Bartok's string quartets were very important to him, as we can see it in 70's albums of King Crimson (main band of Fripp). But, where is junction of Fripp and surrealist artists?
His best works are in King Crimson but he has created great albums as a solo guitarist and albums with Brian Eno and projects with Trey Gunn, Pat Mastelotto and Tony Levin (out of King Crimson).
Projects I, II, III and IV are in dark, enigmatic, gloomy and maniac moods and it's very similar to Lynch's films moods. Gates of Paradise is an album by Fripp that he had produced the album with a electric guitar and I think it's climax of surrealism in Fripp's work, this album reminds me Lynch's Lost Highway.
Fripp's surrealism is aggressive and it's where Lynch and Fripp meet each other. Angelo Badalamenti is composer who have composed music for Lynch's films for years, he did his work well in films like Mulholland Drive and Blue Velvet.
I have read articles about surrealism in Penderecki's music but no one mentioned to Fripp's music as surreal and this is my personal opinion about Fripp's music.
In the end I should mention that Lynch is a musician too and was a assistant of Badalamenti in composing for his films.

Composer of the Century

2008-11-05T01:55:00.003+03:30

In 28 May of 1923 in Transylvania, Gyorgy Ligeti was born in a Jewish family. He spent his primary lessons in Budapest during the war and he entered to the Music Academy of Budapest after the war. His initial works is influenced by folk songs and Bela Bartok's music. After his experiments through electronic music in late of 1950's, he began to create music in an unique way. works like Atmosphere's for orchestra, Volumina for Organ and two compositions for solo voice and solo instruments. His works in 1960's is a Requiem, Concerto for Cello, Lux Aeterna for 16 voices, Lontano for Orchestra and String Quartet number 2.
Stanley Kubrick had selected some of Ligeti's compositions for his films, Requiem and Lux Aeterna and Atmospheres in Space Odyssey, Musica ricercata for piano No 2 in Eyes Wide Shut.
His masterworks after 1960's are Clocks and Clouds for Orchestra and Choir, Melodien, Double Concerto for Flute and Oboe, Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto, Chamber Concerto for 13 musicians, Horn Trio in memoriam Johaness Brahms, Grand Macabre and Etudes forPiano. He has a unique style that he entitled it "Micropolyphony".
Ligeti's Etudes for piano are very important in cotemporary music, especially in piano works. Etude No.1 for piano that dedicated to Pierre Boulez is awesome really. This etude is very strange in measure (as you can see in below picture). in first three measures everything is normal but in fourth mesure there are seven eighth-note in G stave and eight eighth-note in F stave. in fifth measure eighth-notes are same but rhythm is unusual yet, because of fourth measure. In eighth measure turbulence is going to be more, seven eighth-notes in G and eight eighth-notes in F stave. Turbulence is growing through the measures and staves and we enjoy it!!!
His other Etudes and Ricercata for piano are superb really and supertechnical pianist Pierre Laurent Aimard have performed these works. He also have performed Ligeti's Piano Concerto. In an interview with BBC, Ligeti stated that Aimard is his favourite pianist.
Gyorgy received too many awards and the most importants are: Berlin Prize (1965) for Requiem, Grawemeyer Award (1986) for Etudes for Piano, Sonning Award (1990), Wolf Prize in Arts (Israel-1996), Polar Music Prize (2004) and many others.
He was the grand-nephew of the great violinist Leopold Auer. His son, Lukas Ligeti, is a composer and percussionist based in New York City.
Ligeti died in Vienna on June 12, 2006. Although it was known that Ligeti had been ill for several years and had used a wheelchair the last three years of his life, his family declined to release the cause of his death.

Creativity of a Man

2008-09-21T23:49:00.002+03:30

In last ten years, John Petrucci has proved that is most creative guitarist, at least he is most creative in Rock world. His guitar solos have been climax point in Dream Theater and Liquid Tension Experiment albums for years.

If we peruse Petrucci's works from a technical view and compare him with other guitarists, we will find out that musicians like Joe Satriani, Steve Morse, Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert are in same level or even are more technical than Petrucci but are they as creative as Petrucci?

We can study Petrucci's work from different views; rhythm, melody, timbre and his knowledge of harmony.

He did his best works in Dream Theater albums, his main band with other high educated musicians. When we listen to Dream Theater's music we are envisaged with songs that are in different moods and status, but all of those are unit. it's numerous moods in a unit construction.

The band have songs like The Answer lies Within, I Walk Beside You, Forsaken, Another Day, Surrounded and others like these.

Maybe this type of songs are most popular songs of Dream Theater, these songs have lovers that are not Dream Theater's fans, and even are not progressive rock fans.

In first sight, these type of songs are very simple and maybe we think that other bands can write songs like these or even better than these but Petrucci's works in songs like Forsaken, Another Day and Surrounded proves that we are wrong. who can write a solo like Forsaken or Another Day?

Certainly Petrucci is not only good guitarist in the world, musicians like Steve Morse have created solos as beauteous as Petrucci's.

when we listen to other guitarists works, it's obvious that they are not in high level most of the times, but Petrucci is growing and his solos become more powerful in a new album, and if he's not growing his way isn't descending too.

That type of songs that have mentioned are most simple works by Dream Theater, we should see Petrucci's creativity in more complicated songs like Metropolis, Erotomania, Home, Fatal Tragedy, The Dance of Eternity, The Great Debate, This Dying Soul, In The Presence of Enemies and many other songs...this is where other super technical musicians join Petrucci to create unforgettable music.

Jordan Rudess on Piano and Keyboards, John Myung on Bass guitar and Chapman Stick, Mike Portnoy on Drums and Percussion and James Labrie as singer.

Their music is something between Progressive Rock, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal and Classical Rock but it's incomparable with other bands in these genres, influnce of contemporary classical music is obvious and I think Jordan Rudess knows classical music very good.

He is educated from Juiliard School of Music in New York and in an interview,he had talked about influnce of composers like Fredric Chopin,Claude Debussy and Sergey Prokofiev on his music.

I have said that influence of contemporary music is obvious in Dream Theater music but I think it's just in rhythms, for instance in songs like Metropolis, in middle instrumental section we hear rhythms that are not dissimilar to Gyorgy Ligeti's Etude No.3 for Piano.(Metropolis composed in 1992 when Kevin Moore was on Keyboards and Piano.)

There are many other examples like Petrucci's soloing in Misunderstood and The Great Debate,modern elements are apparent in rhythms.

Dream Theater's music from harmony view is more powerful than other rock bands too, their knowledge of chords is admirable and modulation in songs like This Dying Soul, In The Presence of Enemies Part I and in all over of Scences From a Memory albums shows their understanding of harmony.

Their counterpoint knowledge is admirable too, instrumental section of Honor Thy Father is a good example where Jordan Rudess and John Myung are shining.

An important part of Petrucci's works are his solos for songs like Spirit Carries On, Repentance, the last solo of Octavrium, Crash, Lines in the Sand and...

I think this is Petrucci's proficiency, just he himself can write solos so full of spirit and passion. I remember when a fan asked him how does he write solos so spiritual?..and Petrucci talked about something that he had entitled as "searching soul". By listening his music we find out what he meant. We can see his search through the notes that he play.

Late Night Beside Per Norgard

2008-09-13T22:35:00.004+04:30

Today, Per Norgard is not just most important composer of Denmark, he's one of the most important composers of the world.

This Danish composer is very creative and expert in create dark, arctic and spectral moods. Julian Anderson considers Danish composer Norgard's Voyage into the Golden Screen for chamber orchestra to be the first "properly instrumental piece of spectral composition."

Per Norgard born 13 July 1932 in Gentofte,Denmark and he studied with Vagn Holmboe at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen and subsequently with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.

To begin with, he was strongly influenced by the Nordic styles of Jean Sibelius, Carl Nielsen and Vagn Holmboe.

His music is really ethereal and specially his Violin Concerto Helle Nacht(Late Night) is in a night mood and we can see darkness and coldness through notes and orchestration. First movement entitled allegro moderato and begin with a rational theme by violin but just after seconds suddenly we face with unusual rhythms and melodies that violin is playing with extraordinary orchestration that is accompaning solo violin.

Violin soloing in this movement is unbelievable and rapturous, Norgard did a great job really.

Second movement begins with spectral noises and violin joins softly in the beginning.

We hear sounds and noises that unaware we think these are electronic sounds.

Orchestration of this concerto is wonderful, acoustic instruments make sounds that is like electronic sounds indeed, it's in all over the concerto.

Fourth movement begins a little agressive but it's still night and silence of night is not broken maybe we have a stressful night, just seconds after the beginning brass instruments rushes, those make sounds like too many crows are groaning. It's very memorable that in all over the concerto, even in climax when dynamic is Fortissimo we can feel the late night mood of the opus.

The performance that I had heard is performed by Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Thomas Dausgaard and violin soloist is Christina Astrand that wonderfully surprised me.

This concerto composed in 1986-87, Norgard's music often features the use of the infinity series for serializing melody, harmony, and rhythm in musical composition. The method takes its name from the endlessly self-similar nature of the resulting musical material, comparable to fractal geometry.

Sonning Award is one of the awards that he had received it in 1996. other composers and musicians that received this award we can mention to : Igor Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein , Dmitri Shostakovich, Olivier Messiaen , Pierre Boulez, Gyorgy Ligeti, Alfred Brendel and Gyorgy Kurtag.

Norgard is also a prolific writer. He has written many articles dealing with music not only from a technical but also a philosophical viewpoint.

Ingmar Bergman's Confession

2008-09-12T22:47:00.001+04:30

The Magic Lantern is an autobiography by Ingmar Bergman(14 July 1918-30 July 2007) that published in 1987 by Hamish Hamilton publication in London.
Narrative is in a nonliner motion,the story begins in childhood but suddenly we read a reminiscence from 1965,when he was 47.

But we can't find Bergman the great here,we are reading about an ordinary man, ordinary man who has many questions,questions about life,death,love,perfidy,God,religion,loneliness.

Bergman is very frank in this book and had talked about topics that we are surprising when reading the book,he talked about an other woman when he had been married and his sense of guilt,he had found himself guilty many times in his life.

Maybe we like him less than before when we read the book but we should not forget that we have been a close friend for him.

Though,this book is highly recommended for Bergman's lovers.

The book is translated in Persian and Hermes have published it in Iran.

Many remarkable filmmakers praised Ingmar Bergman and cited his work as a major influence on their own.filmmakers like:

Woody Allen who have said:"probably the greatest film artist,all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera."

And the others like Atom Egoyan,Krzysztof Kieslowski,Stanley Kubrick,David Lynch,Marjane Satrapi,Paul Schrader,Steve Spielberg,Andrei Tarkovsky.