Concerto for Tar and Orchestra

The great challenge that exists in cross-cultural composition is finding commonalities of intonation, style, formality, and instrumentation. In the case of creating a composition for Persian tar and symphony orchestra, a number of challenges emerge. The goal of this composition is to find compatible musical elements between Persian and western music. The most difficult challenge of composing in this genre is finding compatible musical modes to generate optimum intonation. For this piece, the western pitch of Bb is used to help the intonation and tonal production of the tar. My approach to style involves a sensitive application using elements of classical Persian style and formality known as dãstgãh composition. Generally, Persian music places strong emphasis on improvisation, non-repetitive scalar melodies, variation of melodic and rhythmic material, tasteful ornamentation, and creating an inspiring musical atmosphere. Often music is composed with a story, poem or song in the mind of the performer. Typically, the instrumentation is very small and intimate, consisting of a tar performer, accompanied by a musician playing a daff (a Persian frame drum much like an Irish bodhran). I have composed a work that features many of the above characteristics. The Concerto for Tar and Orchestra encompasses many salient features found in Persian classical music, while also providing symphonic orchestration that adds complimentary western musical elements. Most of the instrumentation of the work adheres to standard orchestral instrumentation. I have included some Persian hand-drums to the orchestration (a tombak and a dohol) to play alongside standard symphonic percussion to add a more cross-cultural quality to the orchestration. The concerto also owes its inspiration to the story “Umar and the Harpist”, which is found in Jellaludin Rumi’s revered, masterful literary work entitled the Masnavi. I used the imagery found in this story to generate much of the dramatic contrast contained in the concerto. In the end, a composition has emerged which brings two distinct classical music traditions together in an effective cross-cultural form of expression.DM