General News: Programme Notes for "New Sounds from Arab Lands"

New Sounds from Arab Lands is presented in collaboration with, and curated by, the Aga Khan Music Initiative, a programme of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.

Kinan Azmeh, clarinet
Basel Rajoub, saxophone
Jasser Haj Youssef, violin, viola d’amore
Feras Charestan, qanun
Khaled Yassine, percussion

Programme
The concert programme is drawn from new works created by members of the New Sounds ensemble. The selection and sequence will be announced from the stage. The brief descriptions that follow below were provided by the composers.

Works by Kinan Azmeh
Rituals
One of the earliest pieces I wrote for Hewar, my Damascus-based ensemble, “Rituals” is in 7/8 time and marks the beginning of my long fascination with odd meters and the subtle complexity they represent.

Wedding
“Wedding” consists of two contrasting sections—the first calm, and the second fast and energetic, in 15/8 meter. The piece tries to capture the mood of a Syrian village wedding party, which is usually held in the public square for everyone to attend. These parties are always exciting and never predictable.

November 22nd
A meditative work that depicts sonic homesickness for the familiar ambient sounds of childhood. I wrote this piece while living abroad, inspired by memory of the sounds of the market that used to exist behind my parents’ apartment in Damascus, and the way the slow and steady rhythm of life keeps moving regardless of one's emotions.

Sketches 5 and 6 from “A Scattered Sketchbook in Six Movements”
These two movements are from “A Scattered Sketchbook in Six Movements,” commissioned by Canadian Clarinetist Romie de Guise-Langlois, and premiered in January 2013. “A Scattered Sketchbook” tries to blur the barrier between the composed and the improvised, taking as its point of departure my belief that the best composed music is that which sounds spontaneous and improvised, and that the best improvisation is that which sounds structured and composed.

Dream
The main theme of an original sound track that I composed for the Filipino-American film "Rigodon," by Keith Sicat and Sari Dalena. The piece takes the shape of a music box in which repetitions are inevitable, yet hopefully enjoyable.

A Sad Morning, Every Morning
A piece for solo clarinet written in March 2012, marking a year into the Syrian revolution. The title of the piece is its program note.

Works by Basel Rajoub:
Asia
Evoking simultaneously the region that has long been a source of inspiration for my work and the first name of my sister, to whom the piece is dedicated, “Asia” expresses my gratitude for the sheer power of support, understanding, and nourishment I receive from both every day.

Turquoise
This piece depicts a traditional Syrian wooden box with mosaic inlay. In traditional Syrian woodworking, every box is decorated with mosaic carefully arranged in different motifs. No two boxes are identical, and each one tells a different story. In a musical analogy, the melody of “Turquoise” serves as a mosaic that is enhanced through the addition of composed and improvised decoration.

Duo for Saxophone and Clarinet
An improvised conversation between the two wind instruments on the theme of contemporary expression of traditional oriental melodies.

My Gypsy Home
This piece explores deeply rooted connections to Roma culture both in the traditional music of Syria and in my own music. Discovering this connection is a journey in itself—a journey expressed musically through sadness, hope, and energy. “My Gypsy Home” is a hidden homeland I return to every day for solace, inspiration, and magic.

Cairo Tune
A piece created to celebrate the first meeting of the lead artists in the New Sounds group when they gathered in Cairo for their initial rehearsal. The piece expresses the spirit of Cairo.

Works by Jasser Haj Youssef:
Friggiya
This composition traces an imaginary traveler’s journey from Turkey to Tunisia via the Middle East in Ottoman times. The various regions through which the traveler passes are represented by music from the historical era of his journey.

Reveria Chorale
Baroque music inflected by jazz and Arab music, adapted for the instruments of the New Sounds group: violin, clarinet, saxophone, qanun.

Saba
Saba refers to an Arab classical maqam wherein I try to illuminate commonalities with African American blues. The rhythms of this composition are traditional Tunisian, and are rarely used today. I focus on their accents, which calls to mind the first funk groups in the United States.

Samai
This composition stems from an assignment given me by my maqam teacher in 1999, who asked me to write something in the Samaï rhythm (a classical Arab rhythmic cycle consisting of 10 beats) in maqâm Nikriz. I didn’t want to do exactly what he asked, and thus added modulations to other Arab maqams, and also used certain phrases drawn from Gypsy music.

Echoes
An improvisation for viola d’amore in Arab classical maqams.

NOTES
Presented for the first time in the United States, this adventurous program brings together five eminent artists from Syria, Lebanon, and Tunisia who create new music inspired by the rich cultural heritage of the Arab lands. Performing on both Middle Eastern and Western instruments, the members of New Sounds exemplify the talent, achievement, and breadth of a rising generation of cosmopolitan Arab musicians who combine jazz, classical music, and the microtonal subtleties and myriad melodic modes of Arabic music. Each musician is at once a consummate performer, skilled improviser, and highly original composer. Together, the ensemble’s music represents a sublime mix of spontaneity and control rooted in a thousand-year-old tradition of improvisation. Such music could only have emerged from artists whose own musical journeys have zigzagged back and forth between the Middle East and the West in unique ways, creating music that is at once seamless and surprising.

New Sounds is led by versatile clarinetist Kinan Azmeh. Born in Damascus, Kinan graduated from that city’s High Institute of Music and subsequently, from New York’s Juilliard Conservatory. He has appeared worldwide as a classical clarinetist as well as a new music improviser and jazz player. His compositions include works for orchestra, chamber groups, and solo clarinet as well as film scores, dance soundtracks, and electro-acoustic music. Basel Rajoub, born in Aleppo, Syria, graduated from the Damascus High Institute of Music, where he studied European and Middle Eastern classical music as well as jazz. He performs widely as leader of the Basel Rajoub Ensemble. Jasser Haj Youssef, originally from Tunisia, currently lives in Paris, and performs both on violin and on the Baroque viola d’amore, whose resonant sympathetic strings are ideally suited to the modal melodic forms of Arabic music. Jasser is a consummate fusionist, as much at home in jazz as in classical music and Arab maqam. Joining the lead trio of New Sounds are percussionist Khaled Yassine and qanun player Feras Charestan. Khaled, a native of Beirut, plays both Middle Eastern and Western percussion. He co-founded the Lebanese fusion band Fu Jan Shai, tours with innovative oud master Anouar Brahem, and is artistic director and producer of the Beirut-based CD label Edict Records. Feras comes from the city of Al-Hasakeh, in northeast Syria, and studied qanun at the High Institute of Music in Damascus. He performs regularly as a qanun soloist with the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra and the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra as well as in the bands Roubai Toueis and Woujouh.

The common ground among these talented musicians arises from a shared spirit of exploration and a willingness to experiment. These were the qualities that attracted the attention of Fairouz Nishanova, director of the Geneva-based Aga Khan Music Initiative, whose mission is to support the expression and dissemination of exceptional musical talent from Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and parts of South Asia (for a description of the Music Initiative, see below). Growing up in Amman, Jordan, Fairouz knew well the sounds of classical and traditional Arabic music but, as she recently recounted, “I couldn’t help wondering why its best known contemporary expressions were almost always limited to pop music, Western-Andalus fusion, or stereotypical improvisation within the standard form of lead voice and virtuosic strings.” Fairouz imagined a different kind of sound—one without a vocalist in which the lead instruments weren’t even necessarily of Middle Eastern origin. Working on behalf of the Aga Khan Music Initiative, she sought out talented performers from a new generation of cosmopolitan Arab musicians who could become the core of a “New Sounds” ensemble.

“We all hesitated at first,” said saxophonist Basel Rajoub. “I imagined that it would be hard to mix saxophone, clarinet and violin. But we all changed our minds once we heard our own sound. It had something enthralling—a new quality. And for me, it was exciting to attempt to express traditional sounds in a very contemporary way.” Clarinetist Kinan Azmeh added, “The musicians weren’t selected on the basis of the instruments they play, but rather, for the kind of people they are. We’re all performers, composers, and improvisers, and this creates an interesting blurring of boundaries between composition and improvisation. I’ve always believed that the best composed music sounds spontaneous, as if it were improvised, and that the best improvisation sound as if it’s been composed, because it has a structure. What we try to do is merge the two. We’re always somewhere in between.”

Violinist Jasser Haj Youssef noted that each member of the New Sounds ensemble brings to this process his own distinctive musical sensibility. “The Arab lands are so vast,” he said. “They extend from Morocco to Syria and Iraq, and Arab musicians are influenced by many different kinds of sounds. I come from Tunisia, where there are Berber grooves as well as influences from Europe, because we’re not very far from Italy. I love Baroque music, and I started to play the viola d’amore, because I was looking for sonorities that I couldn’t produce on the violin. Going to school in France, where I studied musicology, helped me both to see Arab music from a different perspective, and to find meeting points between my own tradition and European and American music.” Jasser eloquently summed up the artistic challenge of being a young Arab musician today: “We have Internet, we have Facebook; you can compose, record, and travel, and all of this necessarily gives something new. But what’s difficult is grasping how to experiment and be yourself without betraying tradition. I like working with other musicians who are trying to figure it out—people who have worked hard to master a musical tradition and understand it deeply, and at the same time, are aware of the possibilities that lie beyond it.” The creative journey of New Sounds from Arab Lands embodies just such a dual awareness. “I hope it will become a platform for adventurous music makers and audiences alike that cuts through all the misconceptions, stereotypes, and clichés,” said Kinan Azmeh. “For me, it’s a celebration of the continuum between contemporary culture and our incredibly rich history, which in music remains very much alive.”

Aga Khan Music Initiative

The Aga Khan Music Initiative (AKMI), a program of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, is an interregional music and arts education program with worldwide performance, outreach, mentoring, and artistic production activities. The Initiative was launched by His Highness the Aga Khan in 2000 to support talented musicians and music educators working to preserve, transmit, and further develop their musical heritage in contemporary forms. The Music Initiative began its work in Central Asia, subsequently expanding its cultural development activities to include artistic communities and audiences in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. AKMI designs and implements a country-specific set of activities for each country into which it invests and works to promote revitalization of cultural heritage both as a source of livelihood for musicians and as a means to strengthen pluralism in nations where it is challenged by social, political, and economic constraints. Learn more at: www.akdn.org/music

Tour credits:

Aga Khan Music Initiative Director: Fairouz Nishanova
Residency Curator and Program Notes: Theodore Levin
Tour Logistics: Rebecca Guillaume
Tour Publicist: Rock Paper Scissors (www.rockpaperscissors.biz)
Tour Assistant: Louis Wenger
Videography: Carlos Casas