ESFAHÂN features eight cross-cultural compositions by Reza Vali. Blending Persian and Western classical traditions, the album is the first commercial recording of these works. Despite eschewing Western approaches to counterpoint and musical form, Vali’s music is polyphonic and highly structured. The result is a compelling marriage of East and West, old and new.
Today, Reza is our featured artist in the “Inside Story,” a blog series exploring the inner workings and personalities of our composers and performers. Read on to learn about the accordion that kickstarted his life in music, and the emotions he hopes to convey through his Navona Records release…
What have been your biggest inspirations on your musical journey?
My most important inspirations have been Iranian folk music and Iranian traditional music.
I have been collecting and researching Iranian folk music for many years. In 1978, I started a series of compositions based on Iranian folk music. I have composed 18 sets of Iranian folk songs, each set containing between four to eight songs.
Since 2000, my music has been based on the Iranian modal system, the Dastgâh/Maqam system. In these works, all of the musical elements such as the melody, rhythm, intervals, and form have been derived from the Iranian Dadtgâh/Maqam system.
What were your first musical experiences?
When I was a kid, my father bought an accordion for my younger brother. But he did not touch the accordion and the instrument was gathering dust in a corner of the house. I was very curious and wanted to play the accordion. But the instrument was too heavy for me to play it upright. I would put the instrument on the floor, open it up, and then play it like a piano. In this way, I started playing the instrument and also started to compose music on it. One of my older brothers noticed my work and he convinced my parents to let me study music at the Tehran Conservatory of Music. This was my first musical experience.
How have your influences changed as you’ve grown as a musician?
My first influence was Russian music, especially Tchaikovsky. I would listen to Swan Lake and Tchaikovsky’s symphonies for hours.
In 1972, I applied for the audition at the Academy of Music in Vienna, Austria. I was accepted and moved to Vienna. While studying at the Academy of Music, my influences changed, especially toward the German composers such as Beethoven, Brahms, and Wagner.
The mid 1970s was the height of European modernism and, as a young composer, I was naturally attracted to and was influenced by the modernist European composers such as Schönberg, Bartók, Messiaen, Stockhausen, Ligeti, Penderecki, etc.
In 1990, I broke away from European modernism and started composing music based on Iranian folk music. Through the research on Iranian folk music, I rediscovered Persian traditional music and its Dastgâh-Maqam system.
In 2000, I broke away from European music in its entirety and started to base my music on the Dastgâh-Maqam system.
What emotions do you hope listeners will experience after hearing your work?
The emotions that I hope to convey in my music based on folk songs are emotions of joy, longing, love, sadness, etc. Because these folk songs convey different emotions, I hope to transfer these emotions to the listener by using these folk songs.
By using the Dastgâh-Maqam system, I strive to convey the complexity of this system to the listener and evoke the emotions that arise by experiencing this highly complex music.
What advice would you give to your younger self if given the chance?
I have spent half of my life studying and teaching European music. If I had to give advice to my younger self, I would advise him to expand his horizons and study music of many cultures, especially the cultures of the Middle East such as the music of Arabic speaking cultures and the music of Turkey, as well as the East Asian music and the music of India and Africa.
Where and when are you at your most creative?
I have a strict day to day schedule. I start the day with memorizing the Persian traditional music repertoire. This is followed by studying Turkish or Arabic music, or studying Iranian folk music. Next is score reading and playing from the scores. Score reading triggers creative activities and creative ideas. I then listen to music, which includes a wide spectrum of music stretching from avant-garde European music to Persian folk songs. I finally set to work on my compositions. These activities repeat every day and I strive to keep this schedule for the day-to-day activities.
Reza Vali was born in Qazvin, Iran, in 1952. He began his music studies at the Conservatory of Music in Tehran. In 1972 he went to Austria and studied music education and composition at the Academy of Music in Vienna. After graduating from the Academy of Music, he moved to the United States and continued his studies at the University of Pittsburgh, receiving his Ph.D. in music theory and composition in 1985. Vali has been a faculty member of the School of Music at Carnegie Mellon University since 1988. Vali’s orchestral compositions have been performed in the United States by the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Baltimore Symphony, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestra 2001.
