On Tuesday 16 April, the Iranian American composer Gity Razaz’s new song cycle Flowing Down the Widening Rings of Being will be introduced to Seattle. The program, at 7.30 at Meany Center on the University of Washington Campus, is being presented by the Israeli Chamber Project with Lebanese American tenor Karim Sulayman.
Flowing Down the Widening Rings of Being is based on poetry and prose of Rumi and Rainer Maria Rilke and is scored for tenor, violin, viola, cello, clarinet, harp, and piano. Commissioned by the Israeli Chamber Project. Gity Razaz, who was born in Tehran in 1986 and now lives in New York, is deeply influenced by the constantly changing, at times tumultuous, realities of the world, including her identity and personal journey as an immigrant. This process of what Razaz describes as “uprooting and rebuilding” occupies much of her work, resulting in music that is emotionally charged and dramatic, while still maintaining mystery and lyricism. Her compositions are her means of responding to a hyperactive, disconnected world and offering transformation to listeners.
In an interview with I Care If You Listen, Razaz says why she chose to juxtapose the two poets in her new song cycle: “Rumi and Rilke lived about 700 years apart and on nearly opposite sides of the earth, and with completely different religious backgrounds. Yet their philosophical and imaginative perspectives on some of the most existential topics in the history of mankind are eerily similar. In the poems selected for this project, I was attracted to the almost identical poetic imagery they both used in the poems which I ended up selecting for this project: they both use the imagery of ‘widening rings and circles’ to describe life and existence. Rumi calls for embracing uncertainty and living the ‘questions,’ ‘flowing down the always widening rings of being’ while Rilke acknowledges life’s unyielding truth, and moves through it with the confession that ‘I live my life in widening circles.’ . . ”
Program for the concert here.
The complete program is as follows:
SAMUEL BARBER: Knoxville: Summer of 1915
GITY RAZAZ: Flowing Down the Widening Rings of Being*
CLAUDE DEBUSSY: Sacred and Profane Dances for Harp and String Quartet
ZOHAR SHARON: The Ice Palace*
NAJI HAKIM: The Dove
ROBERT SCHUMANN: Three Fantasy Pieces, Op. 73
Filed under: Meany Center for the Performing Arts, music news, new music
MEMETERIA by Thomas May 