A Threnody For Those Who Remain (2010)

For amplified string quartet and tape

Co-commissioned by
Kronos Quartet and Yerba Buena Center For The Arts

I. Fèrāgh (Separation)

II. Faghān (Wail)

III. Soog (Praying and Mourning)

San Francisco, Sunday, December 20th, 2009, around 8:00 am I received a call from my sister in Iran telling me that my dad has passed away in a car crash on a highway in Tehran on the way home. Shocked and hysterical, I bought a plane ticket for a day after to Frankfurt and then to Tehran. I spent 20 days in Tehran. After I got back while having a coffee with David Harrington from Kronos ,talking about a new project, we both came up with this idea that how strange that our loved ones leave us so promptly and suddenly and with an ocean of sorrow and grief until the end of our lives.

The piece depicts my trip and what I went through during this specific journey. The first movement portraits my childhood memories during the 80's while the country was in war with Iraq right after the Islamic revolution and the overthrow of the Shāh.The movement is based on a game I used to play with my dad while I was a kid which was basically standing on his feet and having him walk me around the house. This seemed to be the most enjoyable thing I could do with my dad at that point. The second movement depicts my trip to Tehran on the plane. In this movement, I gathered my material from a typical ritual lamentation ceremony in the southern regions of Iran which most of its residents are mostly African and from Arab culture. The drums (Damām), cymbals and  the scream-like human voices (called “Kél” in this culture) are essential elements of a common lamentation ceremony in Bandar Abbās and Boushehr. The movement portraits my nightmares during the flight and how everything seemed so surreal to me while dealing with news I had heard. The last movements talks about the days I spent in Tehran, it portraits early mornings in Tehran when you are waken up by the voices of sparrows and then you hear the call of prayer “Azān” for the morning prayer. The call of prayer I have used in the piece is one of the most symbolic and famous forms of of its kindby Rahim Moazzén-zādéh. It is the symbol of Persianized Islam as this is the first time Azān had been sung in Persian modes. Although not a muslim myself the Azān recalls me of my hometown and specifically this time that I was trying to overcome my grief which still seems like a never-ending pain to me exactly similar to the last movement.

The piece ends with the calls of “Allāh-u-akbar” (God is great) that is actually recorded on the rooftops of Tehran after the 2009 presidential election thorough which the people express their protest against the election results then and I used to hear these shouts all the time at nights during my stay in Tehran.

Sahba Aminikia

August 2010