Reza Vali

Synopsis

At a time when immigrants of many lands were moving into the American melting pot, composers in Europe were celebrating their own diversity, tapping into their native folk music for inspiration and musical themes as their own nation-states struggled for independence. This trend has continued in our own time with composers in the Pacific Rim and Middle East.

Take this music, written for the modern flute and cello, two traditional European instruments, and influenced by the folk-music of Persia. The performers are asked at times to play AND sing simultaneously into their instruments. For the flute, this results in overtones and a timbre similar to the Persian bamboo flute… and the cellist, by sharply plucking some strings, or striking them with the wooden part of his bow, also imitates Persian percussion instruments.

The composer of this Folk Song Suite, based on real and imagines Persian themes, is Reza Vali. He was born in Ghazvin, Iran, on today’s date in 1952, and began his musical studies at the Conservatory of Music in Teheran. In 1972, Reza Vali travelled to Austria to study at the Vienna Academy of Music. From Austria, he came to the United States, earning his doctorate in music theory and composition from the University of Pittsburgh in 1985, and subsequently joined the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University in that city.

Music Played in Today's Program

Reza Vali (b. 1952) Folk Songs Set No. 9 Alberto Almarza, flute; Alvaro Bitran, cello New Albion 077

On This Day

Births

• 1653 - Baptismal date of German composer and organist Johann Pachelbel, in Nuremberg;

• 1854 - German composer Engelbert Humperdinck in Siegburg (near Bonn);

• 1886 - Swiss composer Othmar Schoeck, in Brunnen;

• 1952 - Iranian-born American composer Reza Vali, in Ghazvin, Iran;

Deaths

• 1912 - English composer of African descent, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, age 37, in Croydon;

Premieres

• 1816 - Spohr: opera "Faust" (1st version in German with spoken dialogue), in Prague at the Ständetheater;

• 1934 - Janácek: opera "Osud" (Fate), over Brno radio; the first staged performance of this work took place 24 years later at the Brno National Theater on Oct. 25, 1958;

• 1963 - Britten: "Cantata Misericordium," a Latin dramatization of the parable of the Good Samaritan, by the Suisse Romande Orchestra conducted by Ernest Ansermet, in Geneva, Switzerland, at a concert in celebration of the Red Cross;

• 2000 - Gubaidulina: "St. John's Passion," in Stuttgart (Germany), by the chorus and orchestra of the Kirov Opera Theater and the St. Petersburg Chamber Choir, conducted by Valery Gergiev; This work was one of four passion settings commissioned by the International Bach Academy to honor the 250th anniversary of Bach's death in the year 2000 (see also: Aug. 28 Sept 5 8);

Others

• 1785 - Mozart dedicates the publication of his six new String Quartets (K. 387, 421, 428, 458, 464 465) to Haydn.