Vali: Flute Concerto / Deylaman / Folk Songs

Description

Reza Vali (b. 1952)Concerto for Flute and Orchestra Folk Songs (Set No. 10) Deylam?ónReza Vali was born in Ghazvin, Persia (Iran), in 1952, andbegan his music studies at the Tehran Conservatory of Music. In 1972 he went toAustria and studied music education and composition at the Academy of Music inVienna. After graduating, he moved to the United States and continued hisstudies at the University of Pittsburgh, where he completed his doctorate inmusic theory and composition in 1985. Vali's compositions include pieces forlarge orchestra, string quartet, piano and voice, and chamber ensemble. He hasbeen a faculty member of the School of Music at Carnegie Mellon Universitysince 1988, and has received numerous honours and commissions, including thehonour prize of the Austrian Ministry of Arts and Sciences, two Andrew W.Mellon Fellowships, commissions from the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, thePittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Kronos Quartet, the Seattle Chamber Players, theArizona Friends of Chamber Music, and the Northeastern PennsylvaniaPhilharmonic, as well as grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts andthe Pittsburgh Board of Public Education. In December 1991 he was selected bythe Pittsburgh Cultural Trust as the Outstanding Emerging Artist for which hereceived the Creative Achievement Award. Vali's compositions have beenperformed in the United States, Europe, South America, Mexico, Hong Kong, andAustralia and have been recorded on the New Albion, MMC, Ambassador, and ABCClassics labels.My Concerto for Flute and Orchestra was commissioned by theBoston Modern Orchestra Project and was first performed in Boston on 13thFebruary 1998 by Alberto Almarza, solo flute, and the Boston Modern OrchestraProject conducted by Gil Rose. The two movements of the work have as their maininfluences both Persian classical and folk-music. The first movement is scoredfor flute, strings, percussion, and harp. The flautist uses a techniqueinvolving simultaneous playing and singing which brings out the overtones andalters the timbre of the instrument. This technique is used to imitate thesound of the Persian bamboo flute, the ney. The very fast second movement usesrhythmic cycles which represent cycles called dowr in medieval Persian music.One such cycle contains seventeen beats that are subdivided 5+5+7. Firstintroduced by the darabuk?ó (Middle-Eastern drum), this cycle becomes anostinato as the movement continues. The second movement is based more onPersian folk-music and has a great deal of dance character. In the finalcadenza, the concerto comes full circle as the flautist returns to thetechnique of simultaneous singing and playing. The Concerto for Flute andOrchestra is dedicated to Alberto Almarza and Gil Rose.In 1978, I started writing a series of compositions based onPersian folk-music. These works consist of sets of folk-songs (each setcontaining four to eight songs) written for voice and orchestra, voice andpiano, or instrumental ensembles without voice