Parviz Meshkatian’s Heart Beat for People (II)

Translated by Mahboube Khalvati

As such, the young Meshkatian reached the position of a great maestro in the Iranian music. Up until 1997, Meshkatian remained prolific and composed many pieces which were characterized by progressiveness while drawing on the music of the past Iranian musicians. In some of Meshkatian’s works, one can trace the influence of maestros such as Faramarz Payvar; however, this influence is so balanced that one can neither say that Meshkatian is a progressive and deconstructionist composer nor does he use cliché forms in his compositions.

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Parviz Meshkatian did not take risks in composing to prevent a situation when his work is no longer under his control. He did not offer repetitious works which would lack novel forms either. In fact, he practiced equilibrium in his composition resulted from his personal attitude, culture and interaction with the elite.

With the appointment of Ataollah Mohajerani as the Minister of Culture in 1997 and the emergence of an era called “the Spring of Concerts” in Iran, Parviz Meshkatian who had become disappointed and depressed distanced himself from the society and retired himself! Probably his family problems worsened his depression and led to his isolation. He no longer went on stage; his works were published on and off with rarely any new compositions added to his oeuvre. Meshkatian’s avoided artistic activities until 2004.

In 2004, Meshkatian’s hard-working friend and colleague, Alireza Javaheri, convinced him that a performance by Aref Ensemble can revive his links with his old audience. Finally in the same year, Aref Ensemble composing of Meshkatian’s fellow musicians who had worked with him for years went on the stage of the Interior Ministry’s Hall. Shahram Nazeri, who had collaborated with Meshkatian in the Chavosh project was the singer. The concert ended but it could not live up to the expectations of its audience. However, after the concert some issues were raised by the ensemble musicians which disheartened Meshkatian and led him to isolate himself for the next three years. There were even rumors spread by the members of Aref Ensemble that Meshkatian intended to dissolve the ensemble. This rumor further disappointed Meshkatian.

After three years Alireza Javaheri came up with an initiative asking music writers who were active on the internet to write criticism on Meshkatian’s works and the necessity of attention to his inactivity. Along with the pieces written about Meshkatian’s oeuvre he was also invited to resume his activities. I also wrote an article entitled “Why Meshkatian?” in which I discussed the reason for choosing Meshkatian and not another musician. With the publication of the above-mentioned articles and their reception by readers, especially their welcoming comments on the writings, once again he decided to break his silence and go on stage.

On 5 January 2006, Parviz Meshkatian performed a few pieces during a ceremony held to commemorate Iraj Bastami (1957- 2003) at Vahdat Hall in Tehran. Having received huge applause from the audience for his performance, Meshkatian promised to hold another concert. The promised concert was held less than a year later at Vahdat Hall with Hamid Reza Nourbakhsh as the vocalist and an ensemble compromising of young and old members of Aref Ensemble. Despite shortcomings, this last concert was also very well-received by the audience but still sideline stories lingered with the ensemble and further isolated Meshkatian.

Before the controversial presidential election in 2009 in Iran, Parviz Meshkatian was believed to intend to give a concert with Mohammad Reza Shajarian; however, the post-election tensions once again disrupted his plans and resulted in his deeper disappointment. His sudden death at the age of 54 made headlines in 2009.

Even though his untimely death was painful, it was not unexpected as people believed that Meshkatian’s heart beat for his people.

Post a Comment

Required fields are marked *
*
*
Your email is never shared.

Leading the Charge in Censorship

Davoud Pirnia, writer and musicologist was the founder of “Golha” (Flowers of Persian Song and Music) programs on Tehran Radio (1956-1966). He received his early education from his father, Hassan Pirnia (Moshir al-Douleh), and several tutors of the time (Taraghi, interview, July 1989) and continued his studies at Saint Louis School in Tehran and then in Switzerland and graduated in law. While studying law, Pirnia got acquainted with European classical music. Upon returning to Iran, he was employed by the Ministry of Justice and founded the Lawyers’ Guild. Then he was transferred to the Ministry of Finance and established the Department of Statistics in this ministry. Later, he became the head of the state inspection office at the Prime Ministry; he was, then, promoted to the position of the Deputy Prime Minister (Navab Safa, interview, August 1999)

The Legacy of Khosrow Jafarzadeh

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the passing of Khosrow Jafarzadeh (Khosrow Djafar-Zadeh), a distinguished architect and pioneering researcher of Iranian music, whose contributions to the magazine “Harmony Talk” have left an indelible mark on the field. The absence of this remarkable individual has significantly impacted the expansion and advancement of his theories, which are heralded as some of the most progressive in the history of Iranian music

From Past Days…

HarmonyTalk Celebrates 11th Anniversary

April 6 marks the anniversary of launching HarmonyTalk.com. Back in 2004, HarmonyTalk was rather a blog dedicated to music. Gradually, however, it found its way to becoming a more sophisticated journal with an intensive but not exclusive concentration on classical music.

Principles of Playing Violin (V)

3/1/2/5: When the first finger lands next to the nut, continuation of first phalange of this finger, on back of the hand, should be in line with continuation of the back of the wrist and the left hand; moreover, it should not pass them and bend at knuckles. Otherwise, an uncommon stretch is created in first finger’s knuckle also reducing the freedom of other fingers (especially the fourth finger) in finger placement.

New Technique for Playing Classical Guitar (II)

When the author was working on the piece “Playing Love” by Ennio Morricone (from the legend of 1900), he realized a failure of the Lip Technique. Needing to play a chord in the 14th position of the guitar and in order to complete the harmony, it is necessary to play a harmonic note on the 7th or 5th position; it was not possible to touch the string to play this harmonic note, because the Lip Technique is used for getting the notes and not to touch the string and producing harmonic notes. Naturally, the only possible way to touch the string was to use the nose at the required position and playing the note with the right hand, and this was the best option the author found to how to play such harmonic notes, and where the Nose Technique was generated.

Lilly Afshar, Iranian Guitar Legend, passed away

The text you are reading is about Hamed Fathi, a guitarist and one of Lilly Afshar’s students, which was previously published on the Persian website HarmonyTalk.com:

The First Saba Student Music Festival Concluded in Tehran

Preparations for Saba Student Music Festival started in the summer of 2016; the Student Music Festival will be held annually by the students of music at Arts University. The first part of the closing ceremony of the Festival was dedicated to the celebration of the life, work and strives by Maestro Hossein Dehlavi to upgrade the level of music as an academic discipline. The name of the award-winning students and ensembles were announced at the second part of the ceremony.

Interview with Farhad Poupel (I)

Born in Isfahan, Iran, and based in the UK, Farhad Poupel’s music has been performed and will be performed in numerous prestigious concert halls and festivals throughout the world including Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Japan; La Roque-d’Anthéron Piano Festival, La Roque-d’Anthéron, France; Biarritz Festival, Biarritz, France; Stoller Hall, Manchester, UK; Janacek academy of music and performing art, Brno, Czech Republic; Karlskrona International Piano Festival, Karlskrona, Sweden; by distinguished artists such as Kotaro Fukuma, Peter Jablonski, Daniel Grimwood, Margaret Fingerhut, Catherine Carby, Kristýna Znamenáčková,Jeffrey Biegel, Jean-Francois Bouvery and orchestras such as Windsor Symphony Orchestra or broadcasted on the NPR Radio 4, Netherland. The following is an interview with him on the ocaasion of the premier of the Legend of Bijan and Manijeh.

Developments in Iranian Music Since Qajar Era (III)

Developments in Composing

Along with developments in the Iranian instruments, composition of the Iranian pieces developed as well. As a matter of fact, the developments of the two, mutually affected each other. In other words, instrumental developments led to developments in composition and vice versa.

Ali Rahbari’s collaboration with Naxos as a Composer

Concertino for Violin and Orchestra entitled Nohe Khan was composed by Ali (Alexander) Rahbari while he was studying music in Vienna in 1972. This piece was composed having in mind the Ashoura events and inspired by the music which is used during the Ashoura ceremonies. The piece was first performed and recorded by Bijan Khadem…
Read More »

Principles of Playing Violin (VI)

B. applying force: the force needed for putting finger on finger board is applied through finger tips and using the rest of hand set especially wrist is not allowed. To practice this, it is possible to hold violin without the bow and throw the fingers on the finger board from 1-2cm distance; apply force only through finger tips.

“The Art of Silence” Project Will be Released

Shaahin Mohajeri, the award-winning Iranian microtonal compose, has contributed to The Art of Silence is an international project which features unpublished pieces by microtonal composers from Iran, Japan, the United States, and other countries.