Yadegari sees her poem, "I Pity The Garden (Green Memories)," as an example of the difference between Western and Islamic thought when it comes to our relationship with the environment around us. Whereas ever since the 19th century the West has steered a path that preaches the separation of man and nature, Islamic thought has expressed the interconnection and interweaving of the two.
To that end he, along with his two collaborators, have taken for their inspiration lines such as, "No one thinks of the flowers/No one thinks of the fish/No one wants to believe that the garden is dying/Its heart swollen under the sun..." from Farrokhzad's poem in trying to convey the emotions of desperation and hope expressed in it. Although the poem's original intent was not to describe our current global environmental conditions - it was after all written in the 1950s - the fact that Farrokhzad often used personal images to express universal concerns lends legitimacy to Yadegari, Ali, and Nourai's interpretation.
Classical Persian music is structured such that it gives the musicians a context within which to create individual reactions to an overall theme. It was with this in mind that Yadegari employed his computer program to create a structure based on themes developed by the other two musicians, within which they could then improvise. In this way, while the content may be reflecting specific emotional aspects of the poem, the structure simultaneously reflects the interconnection of humankind with its environment. The result is both beautiful and haunting as layers of sound have been woven together to form an overall ambience while still maintaining their individual characteristics. It's like looking at a tapestry and being able to see both the separate colored threads and the picture they form as two distinct objects and a single entity at the same time.
Save for the last track, "Mantra," where Azam Ali sings the words of the poem in English, each composition is an impressionistic reflection of emotions expressed in the poem. While each piece is a distinct entity, they are all designed to build towards "Matra," preparing us to feel as much of the emotional depth as possible buried beneath the surface of the words. Again, this is not something that you are aware of until you arrive at the ultimate moment when Ali sings on the final track. The progression is so natural and the build so gentle, it's only upon reflection that you understand what the musicians have accomplished. They have successfully created the perfect context for the poem, an environment where it comes alive so that, as listeners, we can appreciate its beauty to the fullest.
Article comments
1 - BiBiJon
Thank you for your blog. A pleasure to read.