East Meets West

I first met Tina last summer via email read from a log cabin deep in the hills of the Smokey Mountains. My husband and I were taking our annual hiking vacation in celebration of our wedding anniversary.
As all business owners know -there’s really no such thing as a vacation. So, I was only just hoo humm on responding to leads that week and was somewhat hoping for a delayed response when I sent my reply back to Tina looking for wedding music. I heard back right away and found that Tina had lots of ideas.. and lots of examples. I don’t think I’ve had a bride who had so much to say – and I thought to myself – this looks pretty fun!

What really piqued my interest was Tina sent a full list, including you tube videos of some of her favorite Persian wedding songs. I remembered I played with a violist in college who has made a career as a playing  viola in a band specializing in Middle Eastern music. And I had some familiarity with the broad genre from my work one summer as a (very reluctant) waitress in an Afghan restaurant.
So, when I got back from vacation and finally met with Tina, we had a great chat about the music she was looking for and how her wedding was going to have both a Persian and a Western ceremony. She had so many ideas and creativity that I know I wanted to be a part of this. She was as thinking of a potential Escape Room type game for guests to play before the ceremony (I volunteered on the spot to be a clue.. I also suggested Tina consider a day of planner as it sounded like a lot to have two weddings, an escape room game AND a reception).

So, here I am, seven months later, working on learning some Persian wedding classics and hoping I do them them justice. In addition to what Tina sent, I also pulled out Spotify to just get more exposure. Here’s what I heard at first

• To western ears, I immediately notice the drone like repetition, the different tonality and a much more confined note range.
• Then, what I picked up as I listened more was the sheer emotionality of the music that escapes you on a casual listen – the repeated rhythms and variation on short note patterns give a lot of the music a sense of tension and urgency, all without the rubato’s, ritardando’s and other tempo contrasts that occur in western classical music that I found fascinating.
• The rhythmic patterns of the first piece I worked on threw me at first. I brought out my Celtic experience and thought of playing them more as ornaments than precise rhythms.
• Then I listened more and realized I was completely wrong! It was more of a dotted Sicilian – and it was REALLY tricky. Rhythmic precision really mattered in this style of music.

So, this is my first week of learning – with Mobarak Bad!
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Do you have a certain style of music you’re looking for that may not be heard every day? Contact Kessler Strings and we will explore the world of music with you.